Thursday, March 09, 2017

Kairi Hojo reportedly signs with the WWE

A few months ago when there was talk of a WWE women's tournament, the WWE made contract offers to Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo. These offers were confirmed by STARDOM owner Rossy Ogawa. But he also said he would try to keep both of them. The proposed women's tournament was pushed back and will likely take place this summer. In case you haven't noticed, the WWE has signed several indie female wrestlers and I expect more to be signed. Now Dave Meltzer reports that Kairi Hojo has signed with the WWE and she will arrive in Orlando and start in April. He is also reporting that Io Shirai will be at Wrestlemania and she could sign at that time. The timing is interesting because because today is Io Shirai's 10th Anniversary show. It seems that both told Ogawa that they would remain in STARDOM. Now it seems they both told him that so he would shut up and leave them alone. Because without these two, the STARDOM talent level takes a deep dip. Some fans try to compare this to the WWE's raid on New Japan. But New Japan has a much deeper talent pool than STARDOM. Most of the wrestlers in STARDOM are very green and not ready for main events. Hojo was brought in to STARDOM through her modelling agency as a replacement for Yuzuki Aikawa. She was terrible and out of shape in her early days. Though she has improved, I'm not as high on Hojo as some of the supposed experts including Meltzer. I think she is too similar to Io, almost like a carbon copy. All these supposed experts rave about Hojo's flying elbow drop. Who do you think taught her that move? Io Shirai of course. I've seen her do that same flying elbow drop though she rarely does it these days. The other big problem with Hojo is she has suffered two concussions over the past couple of years including one in Sept. 2016. What if she comes to the WWE and suffers another concussion? She could fail the physical. The WWE health standard is much higher than in Japan. Let's say for now she'll be fine. I think Hojo fits right in to NXT and the upcoming tournament. The potential signing of Io Shirai is a different story. Like Asuka, she could step right into the main roster and kill it. But with Asuka likely to move up to Smackdown after Wrestlemania, Io could fill the big hole that Asuka's departure from NXT would leave. Imagine a match between Io and Asuka at a Takeover show. That would blow the roof off the joint.

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