As seen during this week’s episode of SmackDown, Kairi Sane is now part of WWE’s main roster. The Japanese sensation had her final NXT match during last night’s show when she lost an NXT Women’s Championship match against Shayna Baszler. WWE uploaded a new video on the YouTube channel for the Performance Center of Sane bidding her NXT peers farewell. Sane won the first-ever Mae Young Classic tournament and the NXT Women’s Championship during her run with the brand. Sane is now part of a tag team with Asuka on SmackDown that will seemingly be managed by Paige. The new video of Kairi Sane saying goodbye to the likes of Xia Li and others has been posted down below:
NXT Takeover: New York from WrestleMania 35 weekend featured some outstanding matches and has been cited as one of the best Takeover shows to date by fans. It appears that some of the producers for the event have just been revealed. In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it was noted that WWE Hall of Famer Michael Hayes produced the main event match between Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano for the vacant NXT Championship. Meanwhile, Performance Center Head Coach produced the match between The Velveteen Dream and Matt Riddle; The War Raiders vs. Aleister Black and Ricochet was produced by Terry Taylor, Johnny Moss produced the NXT UK Championship match between WALTER and Pete Dunne, and Sara Amato produced the Fatal 4-Way match for the NXT Women’s Championship.
SmackDown Superstar Luke Harper informed his fans on Twitter this week that he has asked for his release from WWE. Since his announcement, numerous fans and WWE Superstars alike have come together to praise Harper for his work over the years and wish him luck in the future. One of those competitors is former world champion Randy Orton. Orton talked about Harper’s desire to find himself outside of WWE before thanking the former Intercontinental Champion for introducing him to the music of Kendrick Lamar. Harper said that he still believes that he has a ton of potential to grow as a performer. WWE has not granted Harper his release yet, nor are there any updates on his plans outside of WWE right now.
In honor of @LukeHarperWWE ‘finding himself’ I’d like to take a minute to thank him publicly for introducing me to #kendricklamar several years ago while highly intoxicated in Europe #myleftstrokejustwentviral pic.twitter.com/4u8NXApBMb
— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) April 18, 2019