In a posting on X that seemed to come out of nowhere, WWE superstar Asuka dunked on Japanese women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and the media yesterday.
Before coming to the U.S. and working for NXT in 2015, Kanako Urai made the rounds in the Japanese indies in 2008 and finally became a regular fixture in NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling. When that promotion folded she signed up with Pro Wrestling Wave. She then went on to Reina Joshi Puroresu, Wrestling New Classic and Smash.
Asuka made this comment out of the blue yesterday:
The former editor-in-chief of Pro Wrestling Weekly has made this point on several occasions.
That is, Stardom is an organization that was created to defeat me. It is an organization that was created to destroy me personally.
But they failed to defeat me.
I don't know what…— ASUKA / 明日華 (@WWEAsuka) August 14, 2023
She then continued her criticism but deleted her comments later:
“Don’t you think it’s funny how wrestlers are put together to please and flatter old industry people and the media? But it feels good for them. I don’t flatter anyone,” she wrote.
She then went on to criticize the Japanese media.
“Even in Japan, the media hated me because I don’t flatter the media. In Japan, everyone was flirting with the media except me. I fought the media alone to take care of my fans. That’s why some of the Japanese media still hate me. That’s why I’ve always been a freelancer. And Everyone in Japan knows I am anti-Joshi Pro. Always,” she said.
Asuka’s comments didn’t stop there. She continued:
“The media could not bring me down when I came to America. They must have really wanted me to fail. I am used to it because I have been fighting my critics alone since my days in Japan. But now that I am here, I have comrades in arms. Charlotte, Becky, HHH and…I’ve walked alone in the wilderness all my life, and here I have an oasis. To the Asuka antis, I say, beat me up on the Internet all you want. I grab everything. When I became champion, one media outlet asked wrestling fans, “Do you think it is good enough to be champion? “Do you think it deserves to be champion? Compare me to other people. Do you think my abilities are inferior? Can you believe that? I was always fighting that media all by myself,” she said.
