How much is WWE Asuka’s net worth? The Japanese professional female wrestler has an estimated net worth of US$1.2 million. She is performing on the Raw brand of WWE where she has turned Raw Women’s Champion. She set a record of being the first Japanese wrestler to top Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s (PWI) annual PWI Female 100 list in 2017. Noted for her stiff wrestling style, she is recognized for her amazing techniques like kicks and submission holds. She was praised as one of the greatest champions in WWE history by NXT General Manager William Regal. She is also active on her YouTube channel titled ‘KanaChan TV.’
How old is Asuka?
She was born on September 26, 1981, which makes her age be 39 years old now. Asuka’s sun sign is Libra considering her birthday. Her birthplace is in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
What is her real name?
Her birth name is Kanako Urai. Previously, she was popular by her ring name “Kana.’ Her past ring names include Kana-hime, Princess Kana, Ramen Woman, Skull Reaper Kana and Tomoe Gozen.
What is WWE Asuka’s nationality?
She is Japanese by nationality.
What is the meaning of the name “Asuka’?
“Asuka’ is made up of two words “Asu’ and ‘Ka’ meaning ‘to fly’ and ‘bird’ respectively.
Education
She was a student at Osaka University of Arts Junior College from where she obtained her graduation. She used to participate in sports since her early school days and used to play badminton and figure skating.
Ethnicity
Asuka’s ethnicity is Asian.
How tall is the Japanese wrestler?
She stands at an average height of 5 feet and 3 inches (160 cm)
Weight
Her weight is 60 kilograms or 132 lbs. Considering her height and weight, Asuka carries a healthy/ balanced/ normal BMI calculation between 20 to 25.
Distinctive features
She has a short height and appears in bright-colored hair.
Where does she currently live?
She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada because of her WWE career.
YouTube channel ‘KanaChan TV’
On September 1, 2019, she created a YouTube channel titled KanaChan TV where she has garnered nearly 30 million views.
Twitter and Instagram
WWE Super Star Asuka is active on Instagram @wwe_asuka where she is being followed by over 2 million followers. She has managed over a million followers on her Twitter account @WWEAsuka.
Can Asuka actually speak English?
Yes, she can speak English and has no problem in having conversations. However, she is less good at English compared to her native language ‘Japanese’.
Is Asuka married to Shinsuke Nakamura?
No. Both Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura are Japanese professional wrestlers but they have no any nay romantic relation.
Is Asuka Married?
Yes, she is. However, no confirmed information about her current marital status is available. She was praised as ‘working mom’ by WWE Superstar Becky Lynch. Lynch passed her Raw Women’s Championship to Asuka when Lynch found her expecting her first child with fiancé Seth Rollins. The reason behind passing the title to Asuka was that she has proven as a great working mother. The statement made by Lynch put some glimpse into the existence of her married life.
Does WWE Asuka have a twin sister?
Yes, she has a twin sister named Fumie Urai. WWE has hired her sister as well who has frequently appeared as Asuka. It is very difficult to explore if Fumie has replaced her sister in the character.
Is Asuka leaving WWE?
At present, there are no signs indicating Asuka leaving WWE. She has been making regular appearances and her contract has a high possibility to get extended.
Early career
Before entering to the wrestling world, the Japanese wrestler used to work as a graphic designer. She decided to pursue her wrestling career being inspired by wrestlers like Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Keiji Mutoh, Antonio Inoki, Satoru Sayama, Nobuhiko Takada, Akira Maeda, Volk Han, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. She used her ring name “Kana’ making debut on June 16, 2004, for all female promotion AtoZ facing Leo-na.
She retired from wrestling on March 19, 2006, following chronic nephritis. After that, she started focusing on her own graphic design agency. However, she was able to make her comeback on September 22, 2007. She used to work for promotions like JWP Joshi Puroresu, Ice Ribbon, NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Zero1 as a freelancer.
She teamed with Takahashi to face Kyoko Inoue and Hiroyo Matsumoto on October 10, 2009. The match made her won her first wrestling title as NEO Tag Team Championship. On December 31, 2009, she lost the title to Yoshiko Tamura and Ayumi Kurihara.
She attended WWE’s NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn event on August 22, 2015, in New York. She was rumored to be joining WWE which was proven to be true through a press conference on September 8 in Tokyo. This made her recognition as the first Japanese female wrestler since 1994 to sign with WWE. Urai adopted the ring name ‘Asuka’ after joining the NXT, which is a developmental territory of WWE.
In her debut, she was seen having a confrontation with Emma and Dana Brooke which was aired on September 23, 2015. She successfully defeated Dana at NXT TakeOver: Respect on October 7, 2015. She defeated Emma at NXT TakeOver: London which took place on December 16, 2015.
She was eliminated by Eva Marie in a battle royal determining the number one contender for Bayley’s NXT Women’s Championship on the January 13, 2016 episode of NXT. The match was won by Carmella who later lost to Bayley the February 10 episode. After the match, Carmella was attacked by Eva Marie and Nia Jax but Asuka successfully saved her. Asuka faced Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Dallas and defeated her by technical submission which made her become the new NXT Women’s Championship. She became successful in defending her title to Nia Jax at NXT TakeOver: The End.
WWE’s chairman Vince McMahon planned to shift Asuka to the main roster in 2016 but Triple H (NXT Head) dissuaded him stating that NXT would bear a huge loss if they let Asuka go.
Asuka was assigned to the Raw brand which was revealed on September 11, 2017, episode of Raw. The following month, she defeated Emma in her in-ring debut at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on October 22, 2017. She was the sole survivor at Survivor Series on November 19, 2017, where she represented Team Raw against Team SmackDown where she lastly eliminated Tamina and Natalya.
She set a new WWE record where she defeated Dana Brooke for the fastest submission win in a women’s match. She also continued her victory over Alicia Fox and Alexa Bliss (then Raw Women’s Champion).
She made a big breakthrough by being the winner of the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2018. There, she entered at number 25 and eliminated Ember Moon and Nikki Bella at the last. This made her grab an opportunity to earn a women’s championship match at WrestleMania 34. She continued her feud with Nia Jax whom she defeated at Elimination Chamber. She partnered with The Miz to face Sasha Banks and Finn Bálor as well as Carmella and Big E as a part of the Mixed Match Challenge tournament for supporting the charity Rescue Dogs Rock. Asuka and The Miz won the tournament where they got victorious over Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss and finally Bobby Roode and Charlotte Flair.
She challenged Charlotte Flair to face at WrestleMania 34 for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. However Asuka lost the match by submission which made an end to her undefeated streak at 914 days in WWE.
She was drafted to SmackDown on April 17, 2018, where she made her first appearance saving Becky Lynch and Flair from an attack by Peyton Royce, Billie Kay and Carmella. She faced Carmella at Money in the Bank as the match was announced on the May 15 episode of SmackDown Live by Paige (then- Smackdown General Manager). Following the interference from the returning James Ellsworth, she lost the match to Carmella. She also lost in the rematch at Extreme Rules from the distraction made by Ellsworth. She teamed with Naomi in an unsuccessful attempt to win over The IIconics.
When Becky Lynch vacated the Raw Women’s title due to pregnancy she revealed that the ladder match which Asuka won was for the vacated Raw Women’s Championship making Asuka the new champion. On June 14, 2020, she successfully retained her title in a match against Nia Jax at Backlash. At The Horror Show at Extreme Rules which took place on July 19, 2020, she lost her title to Sasha Banks. However, the result was reversed to a no-contest by a decision made by Stephanie McMahon which made her retain the title. However, Auka lost the title in a rematch in the following week.
On August 23, 2020, she wrestled bot against Bayley and Banks for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and the Raw Women’s Championship respectively at Summerslam. She was defeated by Bayley in the first match but was able to get victorious over Banks in the second match. On September 27, 2020, she retained her championship by defeating Zelina Vega.
YouTube channel
Japanese wrestler Urai launched KanaChan TV (a gaming and cooking channel on YouTube) in September 2019 where she put her own bilingual English/Japanese commentary. She has also been frequently featured on Xavier Woods’s YouTube channel titled UpUpDownDown.