In a recent interview with Sportiva, former WWE NXT star Sareee (fka Sarray) discussed several topics, including her WWE departure, talks about renewing her contract, her in-ring return and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On talks to renew her WWE contract: “I didn’t fight on the main roster, but I felt that I had learned enough in WWE, I was able to absorb the spirit of entertainment that I had been missing. There was talk of renewing the contract, but I wanted to do wrestling that I believed in, and at 27 years old, I was at my most physically active, so I thought I will regret it if I don’t do the wrestling I have wanted to do for a long time now.”
On adjusting to life in the United States and how helpful Shinsuke Nakamura was: “There were many difficulties. May wrestlers who went to WWE from Japan came to the U.S. with their spouses or families, but I was alone, I had no idea about everyday shopping, or the detailed procedures for renting a house. Naturally, I was surrounded by American wrestlers and it was not always easy to get the same ideas, for example, Japanese athletes are very attentive to isolated foreign wrestlers, eating together with them, etc, but American athletes are ‘people are people and I am me’, it’s not that they are cold, it is just natural, but it was difficult for me to get used to it. The Japanese talent were very helpful to me, the star athletes that I would have never met, or talked to, if I had not gone to the U.S. cared about me, in particular Shinsuke Nakamura and his family, including his wife and children, were very close to me. When I met him for the first time, he said, if you are lonely and alone, come to me any time, there will be food for you. Eventually, I started going out with the children on my days off, even when Nakamura was not around. There were also Asuka, IYO SKY, Akira Tozawa and KUSHIDA. In NXT, which I belonged to, Hideki Suzuki and Ikemen Jiro were with me until about half-way through. At that time, there were quite a few Japanese wrestlers, which was encouraging.”
On the change of her character and if she regrets signing with WWE: “That was a suggestion from the company and I became a character who appeared as a high-school girl and transformed, I felt that they had high expectations for me. I think I have absorbed many things in my own way in WWE, and no matter what anyone says, I have no regrets about going to America. I think that everything I have learned in the past two years has been positive, and I want to show everyone a new, more powerful Sareee.”
On her in-ring return next month and choosing Chihiro Hashimoto as her opponent: “I made the offer, my opponent is Chihiro Hashimoto, it is a Singles Match. After I decided to return to Japan, I thought if I am going to fight, there is no one else but Chihiro Hashimoto. Hashimoto is a pro wrestler, no matter how you look at her, she is the pillar of the organization Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling, and I believe that Hashimoto is the strongest in the women’s pro wrestling world today. I also want to be a pillar of the women’s wrestling world, and I think I should be one, so I can’t lose to Hashimoto. It has been about three years since I fought her in a Singles Match, but I would like to have a ‘conversation’ with her in the ring.”
The full interview is available at this link.
