Kairi Sane has not severed her ties with WWE yet.
Brian Alvarez reports that within WWE, there is belief that Sane could appear this Saturday at Backlash in Tampa, Florida to provide some resolution to her ongoing storyline with IYO SKY and Asuka, despite being exempt from the company's WrestleMania 42 roster cuts. Whether such an appearance would be a one-off or signal something else has not been made clear.
"Within WWE, it is felt that there is a greater than 50% chance that Kairi will appear at Backlash to at least finish that storyline," Alvarez wrote to his subscribers on X.
A singles match between Sky and Asuka is scheduled for Saturday's Backlash PLE at Amalie Arena in Tampa. Before her release, Sane was at the center of the storyline of that match, torn between the two as Asuka attempted to intimidate her into proving her loyalty to SKY.
Her absence from that program's resolution was one of the more puzzling aspects of her release, and the internal belief that she might still appear in Backlash shows just how incomplete the creative thread is.
Sane was among the 25 talents released by WWE on April 24 during the roster cuts following WrestleMania 42, and given both her level of talent and her active role in the ongoing program, her release was considered one of the more surprising decisions in that wave.
Fan reaction was swift and vocal, with the hashtag VivantCarry flooding social media in the days following the announcement. AJ Styles was among those who publicly stated that he was shocked by the news.
This was Cena's second stint with WWE. Following her departure in 2021, she spent time in Japan working primarily for Stardom and NJPW before returning to WWE in 2023, winning the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships with Asuka as the Kabuki Warriors during that second run.
