WWE announced Kairi Hojo’s new name, and talked up her elbow drop

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Kairi Hojo isn’t just participating in WWE’s Mae Young Classic, though, it was announced on Friday morning that she’s going to be involved in that. No, WWE signed her to become part of their women’s division, too, and to that end, they gave her a new name. The Japanese pirate and former STARDOM competitor is now known as “Kairi Sane,” which should be a pretty simple transition for anyone who knew her before.

Maybe more importantly than a new name is that WWE.com mentioned her elbow drop finisher within the announcement piece:

Though Sane has often carried a spyglass to the ring, it’s her highlight reel-worthy diving elbow drop — thought by many to be the most beautiful in the world — that has navigated her to many milestone victories.

If you’re out of the rumor loop, that might not mean much to you. However, earlier this year, Dave Meltzer mentioned in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE told Kairi to change her finisher because the elbow drop belonged to Bayley. That rumor never seemed right, for a number of reasons: for one, Bayley’s elbow drop is a lot like CM Punk’s was, in that it’s clearly a Randy Savage tribute and a transitional move that doesn’t really “belong” to them. Meanwhile, here’s Kairi’s elbow, which is actually her finisher:

WWE shouldn’t mess with perfection like that, and while their website’s writers are not the same as creative or Vince McMahon or Triple H, you have to imagine word would have gotten out to, I don’t know, never mention the super baller elbow that is better than everyone else’s elbow if you never plan on showing it off on your shows.

This isn’t Hideo Itami coming in to WWE while CM Punk is using Go 2 Sleep and Daniel Bryan is hitting the Running Knee on everyone, so he has to find something else. The elbow was Kairi Hojo’s, and it better be Kairi Sane’s. Sure, she could find something else, but [looks at the above gif again] why would you want her to?

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