Kairi Sane Sustained a Horrific Eye Injury During 'Monday Night Raw' — Is She OK?

Japanese professional wrestler Kairi Sane left fans on the edge of their seats after sustaining a severe eye injury during Monday Night Raw on Sept. 2, 2024. Despite the shocking incident, she took to social media to reassure fans that she's okay, though she did require medical attention to address the significant bleeding around her eye.

Within hours of her severe eye injury photos going viral, Kairi took to X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to provide an update. Under a photo of her injury, former WWE wrestler Asuka commented, "I'm glad you're okay. Nice damage control," to which Kairi responded, "I did the damage control myself! I miss you so much." So, what exactly happened to Kairi, and how did she sustain such a serious injury?

During the Sept. 2, 2024, episode of Monday Night Raw, Kairi Sane suffered a severe eye injury while targeting Isla Dawn. A dive outside the ring led to a collision with Blair and the edge of a nearby table, according to Wrestle Zone, per Yahoo. Kairi later posted a photo of her injured eye to Instagram to reassure fans that she is okay. A follow-up post was shared on X by @PuroresuFlow showing the "Pirate Princess" with stitches above her left eye.

Kairi humorously captioned the photo, "I need an eye patch, haha." While we’re certainly glad that Kairi was able to make light of the situation, the injury must have been quite painful.

In a RAW contest that took place between the two superstars on June 1, 2020, Kairi and Nia Jax took the action outside of the ring, as is par for the course when things start to heat up between competitors. A constantly "weaponized" fixture of these out-of-ring pugilistic excursions is steel chairs. We've seen it countless times before: one wrestler will take their opponent and toss them into the stairs.

However, even the most "routine" of staged attacks can go awry at any given moment, and Kairi unfortunately experienced this firsthand when the botched maneuver sent her head crashing into the steel steps at the wrong angle, causing a nasty gash on her head.

This caused an uproar from fans, who began labeling the then-6-foot, 272-pound Nia as careless and dangerous to work with, but is this really the case? It's no secret that the WWE is "sports entertainment," with matches having a fixed outcome. I personally like to refer to professional wrestling as a combat soap opera, with some performers fulfilling their mic duties better than their in-ring obligations.

Is Nia Jax a bad in-ring performance fighter, however? According to Kairi, however, the blame was entirely on her. This isn't a surprising take from the wrestler as she's known for being exceedingly humble and hard-working, taking the onus of match decisions entirely on her shoulders.

According to Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz on their Dropkick Discussions podcast, the steel stairs "incident" was nothing more than an accident.

Tom said, "Last I heard, the WWE aren't viewing this as anything but an accident. There are some people upset in the locker room; however, the WWE management are still quite [sic] even here. Kairi Sane accepted culpability, but to be honest, she has a history of accepting blame, whether it's her fault or not. She is very humble. To my knowledge, there were discussions backstage where Kairi Sane did say, 'No, it was me.' However, what happens next? We'll have to see."

It also didn't help matters for Nia that she has (or at least had) a reputation of being a "dangerous worker." Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio has said he received a text message from an anonymous WWE Superstar that Nia needs to be fired, stating the injury against Kairi was "1000% Nia's fault" and that Nia is "dangerous" and must be let go before she "cripples or kill somebody."

Kairi debuted the news of her departure on Twitter in 2020, gushing about her time with the WWE and all of the people she had the privilege of working with.

"I was able to accomplish so much in the last three years, but it wasn't because of my ability or my strength."

She reportedly left the WWE because her contract expired.

Fortunately, Kairi returned to the ring in 2023 and has been taking down opponents ever since! While her recent eye injury is a setback, we’re confident she’ll be back in action in no time.