Asuka

Kanako Urai (浦井 佳奈子) is a Japanese professional wrestler.

She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Asuka (アスカ or 明日華), as a member of Damage CTRL.

She is one-half of the current WWE Women's Tag Team Champions with Kairi Sane in their second reign as a team and Asuka's record-setting fourth reign individually.

Previously known as Kana (華名), she started her professional wrestling career in 2004 in the AtoZ promotion, where she remained until retiring in 2006.

Trained by Yuki Ishikawa, Urai adopted the ring name Kana and made her professional wrestling debut for all female promotion AtoZ on June 16, 2004, in a match against Leo-na.

She spent the first part of her career with AtoZ, before suddenly retiring due to chronic nephritis on March 19, 2006.

During her time away from the ring, Urai opened her own graphic design agency.

She returned to the ring in 2007, starting to work as a freelancer for promotions such as JWP Joshi Puroresu, NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Wave, Reina Joshi Puroresu, Smash, and Wrestling New Classic.

Her achievements include winning the JWP Openweight Championship, Smash Diva Championship, and Wave Tag Team Championship.

After spending a year and a half away from professional wrestling, Urai made a comeback on September 22, 2007, and worked as a freelancer for promotion such as Ice Ribbon, JWP Joshi Puroresu, NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Wave and Pro Wrestling Zero1 while also forming the Passion Red stable with Nanae Takahashi, Natsuki Taiyo, Ray and Yumiko Hotta in NEO, which became her new home promotion.

Kana had made some appearances for Pro Wrestling Wave in 2008, but did not start working regularly for the promotion until the end of 2010, when NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling folded.

On October 10, 2009, Kana teamed with Takahashi to defeat Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kyoko Inoue for the NEO Tag Team Championship, Kana's first professional wrestling title.

They held the title for two months before losing it to Ayumi Kurihara and Yoshiko Tamura on December 31, 2009.

On January 24, 2010, Kana quit Passion Red.

On April 29, 2010, Kana held her first self-produced event, titled Kana Pro, which saw her lose to Meiko Satomura in the main event of the evening.

On July 24, 2011, Kana defeated Aysumi Kurihara in the finals to win the 2011 Catch the Wave tournament.

On October 30, Kana and Kurihara defeated Ran Yu-Yu and Toshie Uematsu to win the Dual Shock Wave 2011 tournament and become the first ever Wave Tag Team Champions.

On February 17, Kana, as the 2011 Catch the Wave winner, was granted entrance into the Wave Single Championship tournament, defeating Mio Shirai in her semi-final match.

On March 17, Kana was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Yumi Ohka.

On April 21, Kana and Mio Shirai defeated Misaki Ohata and Tsukasa Fujimoto to win the Wave Tag Team Championship, bringing Triple Tails.S its first title.

They made their first successful defense on July 7 against Fujimoto and Kyusei Sakura Hirota.

On July 12, the White Tails stable produced their final event before the group's dissolution, during which Kana wrestled the soon-to-retire Ayumi Kurihara to a ten-minute time limit draw.

Three days later, Kana and Shirai lost the Wave Tag Team Championship to Shidarezakura (Hikaru Shida and Yumi Ohka) in their second defense.

While a tag team champion with Kurihara, Kana also regularly teamed with Mio Shirai as Triple Tails.S and on February 1, 2012, Kurihara, Mika Iida and Shuu Shibutani were made official members of Triple Tails.

Four days later, Kana and Kurihara lost the Wave Tag Team Championship to Ran Yu-Yu and Toshie Uematsu.

On March 6, the new incarnation of Triple Tails was named White Tails, in reference to Wave's top villainous alliance, Black Dahlia.

On November 27, Kana defeated Yumi Ohka in a singles match, after which she declared herself the new "ace" of Wave.

From September 1 to October 6, Kana took part in the 2013 Dual Shock Wave tournament, where she teamed with Yumi Ohka.

The team made it all the way to the finals of the tournament, before losing to Las Aventureras (Ayako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata) in a three-way match, which also included Muscle Venus (Hikaru Shida and Tsukasa Fujimoto).

In 2015, Urai signed a developmental deal with WWE, making her the first Japanese female wrestler signed with the company in over 20 years.

In July 2015, Kana made it to the semi-finals of the 2015 Catch the Wave tournament, but was defeated there by eventual tournament winner Yumi Ohka.

She won the NXT Women's Championship in 2016 (with her reign of 510 days being the longest in that title's history), and was moved to WWE's main roster in 2017.

In 2018, she was the inaugural winner of the Women's Royal Rumble match.

Since 2019, she has her own YouTube channel KanaChanTV focused on gaming and lifestyle content.

Urai, working originally as a graphic designer, decided to find a new career in professional wrestling after becoming a fan of the likes of Keiji Mutoh, Satoru Sayama, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Antonio Inoki, Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Masakatsu Funaki, Volk Han and Minoru Suzuki.

She is also a former one-time SmackDown Women's Champion, a record four-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion (with Kairi Sane twice, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss; the only woman to win this title with three different partners), and the 2020 Women's Money in the Bank ladder match winner.

Following her first Raw Women's Championship win, Asuka became the third Women's Triple Crown Champion and the second Women's Grand Slam Champion.

She would go on to win the title for another two more times to become a three-time WWE Women's Champion.

After her Elimination Chamber match win in 2023, she became the only woman in WWE to win the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank, and Elimination Chamber matches.

Urai has also worked as a freelance graphic designer and video game journalist and through her work with Microsoft she has been sponsored by the company, wearing an Xbox 360 logo on her gear.