The Kabuki Warriors

The Kabuki Warriors are a professional wrestling tag team in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the Smackdown brand comprised of Asuka & Kairi Sane. They are apart of Damage CTRL.
==History==
On the April 16, 2019 episode of SmackDown Live, Paige announced that she would be managing a newly formed women's tag team, consisting of Sane, who as a result was drafted to the main roster, and Asuka. The team of Sane and Asuka, later dubbed as "The Kabuki Warriors", was immediately put in a feud with The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) over the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. After weeks of avoiding them, The IIconics lost to The Kabuki Warriors during WWE's tour in Tokyo, which earned The Kabuki Warriors a title match. The title match took place on the July 16 episode of SmackDown, where The IIconics retained after they got themselves counted-out. In August, The Kabuki Warriors failed to capture the titles from then-champions Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross.
After a short hiatus, The Kabuki Warriors returned in September and defeated Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. On October 6, at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, The Kabuki Warriors finally won the Women's Tag Team Championship from Bliss and Cross, after Asuka used the green mist on Cross. The next night on Raw, The Kabuki Warriors completed their transition into heels, as they cut a promo on both Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair and went onto defeat them in a non-title match, once again using green mist as leverage. As part of the 2019 Draft in mid-October, Asuka and Sane were both drafted to the Raw brand. On the October 28, 2019 episode of Raw, The Kabuki Warriors turned on Paige and used the green mist on her. That same night, Sane went one-on-one with Becky Lynch, which she lost by submission. On the October 30th episode of NXT, The Kabuki Warriors faced Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles - making it the first time the titles were defended on NXT - which they retained. On the November 4 episode of Raw, The Kabuki Warriors lost to Flair and Natalya when Asuka submitted to Natalya. The following week, Sane and Asuka retained their titles against Lynch and Flair following an interference from Shayna Baszler and Bayley.
Sane represented Team Raw at Survivor Series in a 5-on-5-on-5 elimination tag team match, being eliminated by Sasha Banks. On December 1 at WWE Starrcade, The Kabuki Warriors successfully retained the tag team titles against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross and Bayley and Sasha Banks when Asuka submitted Cross. On the December 2 episode of Raw, Sane and Asuka defeated Charlotte Flair when Sane pinned Flair. The following week on Raw, Sane and Asuka lost to Becky Lynch by disqualification when Asuka attacked Becky with a chair, and Sane performed an Insane Elbow on Lynch through a table. Sane and Asuka subsequently challenged Lynch and Flair to a match at TLC, to which they accepted. At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, The Kabuki Warriors retained their titles against Lynch and Flair, during the match, Sane suffered a concussion, which caused the remainder of the match to be changed on the fly. Following TLC, Sane would accompany Asuka on the entrance stage during a segment between Asuka and Lynch, but didn’t go to ringside with Asuka during her matches. Sane made her TV return on the January 20 episode of Raw, losing to Lynch by submission. The Kabuki Warriors reunited 3 years later after Auska joined Damage CTRL on the November 10th episode of Smackdown.
== Championships and accomplishments ==
*Pro Wrestling Illustrated
**The team was ranked #9 in the 2020 PWI Top 50 Tag Teams
*World Wrestling Entertainment
**WWE Women's Tag Team Championship (2 times)
==See also==
*Asuka
*Kairi Sane
*Paige
==External links==
* Profile
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables
Category:Female teams and stables
Category:2019 debuts
Category:WWE Women's Tag Team Champions