Janai Kai On Making Her Dream Of Working In Japan Come Together, Making TJPW Debut

Janai Kai made her first trip to Japan with TJPW and she recently discussed how it came together. Kai spoke with Fightful for a new interview and talked about making her dream to work in Japan happen, and you can check out the highlights below:

On how her dream to work in Japan came together: “On their end, I don’t know how they came up with how they’re gonna bring me in and where they’re gonna put me. That’s one thing. Before I went over there I did have a match with Miyu Yamashita, I was also in a triple threat with her and Billie (Starkz). I was able to get a match with Maki Itoh as well. So right off the bat when I had a match with them, it felt good. I really loved working with them. It really got me thinking, ‘Okay, this could be a foot in the door to really show that I can hang with these girls. Like, I can go and the possibility of me even going to Tokyo, it can happen this year.

“So I took advantage and I was like, ‘This is my dream. This is where I want to be since day one.’ So I saw it. I saw the opportunity and I was like, we’re gonna do this. We’re gonna make it happen. These girls are coming over here and I want to make that impression, like, ‘Hey, I want to go over there. I want to be part of TJPW even.’ So I was able to do that. I was able to have the matches with them, I was able to talk to them a little bit just to get some good tips or advice to see how can I make this happen.

“As far as that went, that was before going and then when they reached out to me, I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ ‘Cause they already had Billie over there, they announced that Trish (Adora) was going over there. So I was like, ‘Now, they’re looking at me to come in.’ That made me really excited because that made me like, ‘Okay, cool. Someone at least has their eyes on me. Someone at least is interested in me and my style.’ Nowadays there’s a lot of things going on. People are being brought into a bunch of different companies and a lot of eyes are everywhere. I was just wondering, where do I fit in? Where am I gonna go? If anything, I wasn’t panicking too much about it. I was just remaining calm. My time will happen when it happens.”

On making her TJPW debut: “But again, Japan was always at the top. So I was always hoping that this would happen sometime if anything. So they hit me up. I didn’t know what my matches were until a little bit closer to date when I was going to be leaving. Once they were announced, they announced the International Princess Championship match first. Then I saw that, when they put it in the caption, that I am going to be debuting in Korakuen Hall, I was like, ‘Hold on a second. Wait.’

“Cause I was looking at the flier for the International Princess Championship match and it said it’s in Nagoya and that my debut was going to be in Korakuen Hall. I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ That’s a whole other thing. My first match ever in Tokyo is going to be there. Then they put the card up and it was a tag match, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. This is going to be fun.’ Because if you’ve seen joshi tag matches, they’re always fun to watch. So automatically I was excited. Then the anticipation was really getting to me. I was like, ‘Oh, my God. I really, really hope I do well.”