KanaChanTV

Kanako Urai (born: ) is a Japanese YouTuber who posts vlogs and cooking videos, who is better known for performing in WWE under the ring name Asuka in WWE or as Kana in various Japanese wrestling promotions.
==Early Life and career==
Kanako was born in Osaka, and initially pursued a career in graphic design, having graduated from the Osaka University of Arts Junior College. It was while she was working as a graphic designer that she decided to try and branch out into a new career in professional wrestling, making her debut in 2004 for the AtoZ promotion under the ring name Kana. However, in March 2006 she had to retire from wrestling due to a case of chronic nephritis, and in this time she opener her own graphic design agency where among other projects she designed graphics for the Nintendo DS.Gordmans Game Treasure: Interview with Kana
==Return to the Ring==
Returning to the ring in September 2007 as a freelancer, Kanako worked a variety of Japanese promotions such as Ice Ribbon, Pro Wrestling Zero1, Pro Wrestling Wave, Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) and NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling, which became her home promotion until NEO closed their doors in 2010. After NEO closed their doors, Kanako grew to increased prominence in Pro Wrestling Wave and also debuted in the Smash promotion, while she made her United States debut in October 2011 with appearances for Shimmer Women Athletes and Chikara. During this period Kanako produced her first wrestling event, entitled Kana Pro, in April 2010.
In the years that followed Kanako gained considerable success in the joshi puroresu scene, winning singles titles in Smash and JWP Joshi Puroresu, tag team titles in Pro Wrestling Wave, Reina Joshi Puroresu and Smash, and was a five-time Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship holder in DDT, although her five reigns don't compare to the 185 reigns that Shinobu Sugawara has with the title or how a ladder has held the title on three occasions, a sentence which makes perfect sense in the world of DDT.Puroresu System: Ironman Heavymetalweight ChampionshipYouTube: Bunny the cat pins Laura James to win DDT Pro Wrestling Ironman Heavymetalweight (24/7 Rule) Title During this period Kanako also attracted a degree of controversy when writing an in-character article for the Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine where she claimed the entire joshi puroresu community, leading to several wrestlers from JWP Joshi Puroresu confronting her at a Smash event, although this never led to any matches.
==WWE==
Kanako first appeared in WWE in the crowd for NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, introduced on camera as Kanna, and later her signing was confirmed at a press conference in Tokyo where she confirmed she would be competing under the ring name Asuka. Debuting on the NXT brand, Asuka proved to be a dominant competitor, remaining undefeated between her debut on October 7th 2015 at NXT TakeOver: Respect through defeating Bayley to win the NXT Women's Championship at NXT TakeOver: Dallas on April 1st 2016 to when she finally relinquished the title due to breaking her collarbone when defending the title against Ember Moon at NXT takeOver Brooklyn III on August 19th 2017, ending her title reign at 510 days.
Following this, Kanako was moved onto WWE's main roster under the RAW brand and continued showing dominance in the ring, winning the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match in 2018 to earn a championship match at WrestleMania 34, although she was defeated by Charlotte in this match, ending her undefeated streak in WWE at 914 days.
After a considerable period of coming up short against champions, which drew considerable criticism from wrestling fans, Kanako finally won her first main roster WWE championship when she won the SmackDown Women's Championship in the first-ever women's Tables, Ladders and Chairs match in a three-way match with Charlotte and Becky Lynch, holding the title for 100 days before dropping it to Charlotte a few days before WrestleMania 35 - which also drew considerable criticism from wrestling fans. Soon after this Kanako began teaming with compatriot Kairi Sane, who had just been called up from NXT, in a team known as the Kabuki Warriors.
In April 2020, in the wake of the Money in the Bank show, Asuka won the Raw Women's Championship for the first time in her career, being awarded the title after champion Becky Lynch had to step out of the ring after announcing her pregnancy. At Summerslam, Asuka wrestled both WWE wrestler Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship, and, later Sasha Banks for the Raw Women's Championship; she lost the first match, but later defeated Banks to win back the Raw Women's Championship, marking her first time winning any WWE title more than once. At Clash of Champions, Asuka defeated Zelina Vega to retain her championship and answer Bayley's open challenge for the Smackdown Women's Championship, which she won via disqualification. The following night on Raw, Asuka would face Zelina Vega for the Raw Women's title and successfully retained her title. On the October 5 episode of Raw, Asuka teamed with Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose to defeat Zelina Vega, Natalya and Lana. Asuka would then enter a feud with Lana where they fought on the October 19 episode of Raw for the Raw Women's title and Asuka would retain. Asuka would then face Sasha Banks at Survivor Series where she would go on to lose. On the November 23 episode of Raw, Asuka would reward Lana with a Raw Women's title opportunity after Lana's win at Survivor Series. While the match was taking place, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler would interfere and the match would end in disqualification. Following this, Asuka and Lana teamed up and defeated Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax. On the November 30 episode of Raw, Asuka and Lana would team up once again and beat Shayna and Nia with Lana getting the pin and victory for their team.Later she would win the Women's tag team championships with Charlotte flair on TLC.
==Gaming==
Kanako admits to being an avid gamer, claiming in an interview with Gordmans Game Treasure to have over 3000 games in her collection, a number which has likely increased due to the interview taking place during the seventh console generation, coupled with the various games she has played on her channel on more recent consoles.
While she was wrestling in Japan, Kanako wrote for the Japanese edition of Xbox Magazine and also appeared on the Japanese version of Inside Xbox,YouTube: Inside Xbox: Kana beats up Munetatsu and for a period she was sponsored by Microsoft and featured the Xbox 360 logo on her ring gear.
As well as playing and writing about games, in 2006 Kanako provided motion capture of Virtua Fighter 5Twitter: @WWEAsuka by the way, I participated in #VirtuaFighter 5series's Motion actors 💥👊🤛✊🤜🤡💦 and, more recently, recorded voice lines for her own character in WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20.
Since 2018 Kanako has also been a regular guest on UpUpDownDown, the gaming channel run by fellow WWE star Austin Watson, better known as Xavier Woods.YouTube: ASUKA and SHINSUKE NAKAMURA arrive on UUDD!!! - Superstar Savepoint
==Trivia==
* Outside of wrestling and graphic design, Kanako operates her own hair salon, Another Heaven, in Yokohama.Twitter: @WWEAsuka My hair salon " Another Heaven " in YOKOHAMA. Logo designs by Asuka!!
==References==
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:Cooking YouTubers
Category:Gaming YouTubers
Category:Japanese YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2019