Janai Kai Elaborates On Her Experiences Working For Women's Wrestling Army And TJPW
While the independent wrestling scene is full of top prospects, someone who has been taking the world by storm lately is Janai Kai. Since making her debut in 2018, "The Kick Demon" has been bringing her intensity and lethal strikes to promotions around the country like Beyond, Warrior Wrestling, Reality of Wrestling, SHIMMER, and GCW. But following her appearances in Ring of Honor and All Elite Wrestling in 2021, Kai has taken her talents to a global audience by traveling to Japan for a tour with Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling in Japan earlier this year.
Now, as she continues to grow as a performer, she reflects on the things she's learned along the way, starting with her time in Women's Wrestling Army. In a recent interview with WrestleZone, she discussed the knowledge acquired from the company's co-founder, Maria Kanellis-Bennett.
"It's been a great experience because Maria really focuses on each and every one of us," Kai said. "It's just great to have a role model and someone like Maria in charge because she's been through a lot and she's gone through basically almost every company. She's just been able to really teach us and guide us in the right direction. She knows what to do creative-wise to basically use each and every one of us. We're all different in our own way, but she already knows what she wants to do with us individually, which is awesome because when you go to other promotions, sometimes you don't know if you fit in or don't know if they really want to have me here again... We always have that in our minds, but Maria has been able to really work with us and make sure that she helps us grow in that sense. She really makes us feel welcome."
Fulfilling a dream
Kai also shared that she has been an enthusiast of Japanese culture for her entire life, so she jumped at the opportunity to travel to Japan and compete for TJPW when it arose. Like her time with Kanellis and WWA (which may be taking some massive steps in the near future as well), she learned a lot about her craft and how the universal language of pro wrestling can change slightly from region to region, including having more shows during the day rather than in the evening.
"It's an overall experience that I just really wish that everyone can go through," she said. "I'm really taking in how it is to be a professional wrestler in a sense where now I'm at another level. I was able to have guidance from other people that were over there too. I was able to meet up with some people and really learn from them how it is wrestling in Japan. I learned a lot from them when it comes to that and how to continue to go back over there because I do want to go back to Japan and continue to wrestle there.
I was asking a lot of questions around that, but also just observing how they do work over there and how things go down. It definitely is different when it comes to organization because they're really on point with certain things when it comes to taking care of the wrestlers and how the whole itinerary is for the whole day."
As she continues on her journey as a wrestler, Kai will have plenty of opportunities to learn from the best, such as previous trainers Cheeseburger and Sumie Sakai. But as fans, it will be awesome for us to see how she puts it all together.