Sareee: WWE ‘made me play an anime character in a sailor uniform’
The IWGP Women’s Champion is not pleased with how her WWE run went.
During an interview with Jaguar Yokota recorded last December but recently translated, Sareee spoke about her time in WWE as Sarray, saying that the character she played in the company wasn’t how she wanted to be portrayed.
“When I went to WWE in America, I didn’t want to be a villain so much as a strong wrestler. I wanted to be seen as ‘cool’ and ‘strong,’ but instead they made me play an anime character in a sailor uniform. They told me it suited me, but I felt like, ‘That’s not me! That’s not who I am.’ But I had to do it.”
In early 2022, Sarray’s character began to appear backstage in NXT wearing a school uniform along with a medallion supposedly given to her by her grandmother. She would then walk through a field of light and emerge on the entrance ramp in her wrestling gear.
She left WWE in March 2023 after her contract expired, although she hadn’t wrestled for the company since August 2022.
Sareee became the fifth IWGP Women’s Champion in history at Stardom’s The Conversion on June 21, defeating Syuri to win the belt. She’s currently competing in the promotion’s 5Star Grand Prix, where she is 2-0.
The full interview is below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.