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Since all of this is not on YouTube.
On this episode of SmackDown the Tokyo tour dates are recapped, complete with footage of the Kabuki Warriors winning against the IIconics in Tokyo.
A backstage segment (linked here) follows where Paige and the Kabuki Warriors confront the IIconics for the title shot they were promised. The IIconics delay the title match. The segment ends with face manager Paige slapping Billie Kay.
Feb 27, 2024
Related Recs
A few weeks pass until the Kabuki Warriors are seen again on TV in this promo segment. Up until this point the Kabuki Warriors have been working house shows and dark matches, including a dark match before a 205 Live taping. The IIconics first bump into the Authors of Pain, who were talking to Baron Corbin earlier, and then into Paige and the Kabuki Warriors. Paige leads the IIconics on before revealing the IIconics have a match on one of the two shows WWE put on in Tokyo for a short Japanese tour. If the Kabuki Warriors win (spoiler: they do), they get a shot at the tag titles.
Feb 27, 2024
Forgot to share this before the fatal four-way on Raw. A match between the IIconics and Fire & Desire was canceled on SmackDown, leading to a confrontation between the IIconics, Fire & Desire, and the Kabuki Warriors (with Paige) over a tag title shot in a parking garage.
Mar 1, 2024
I really am retyping this in the Drafts app after I accidentally lost what I was working on freehand in the PI.FYI app. (It's too buggy at the moment for my taste.) 😑
WWE doesn't have the exactly moment on YouTube. So here's a description of what happened. I'll save the videos for later I had linked here and make them separate recs.
On the May 14, 2019 edition of SmackDown held in London at the O2 (later the venue for Money in the Bank 2023), Paige, Kairi, and Asuka step into the ring before their match with Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. Paige introduces Kairi and Asuka as the Kabuki Warriors and says they are the future of the division. The IIconics, sitting ringside, cringe at the name.
Mandy and Sonya come out. They compare the above to the reveal of Prince Archie of Sussex (born a few days earlier). They talk about Money in the Bank, where only one of them can enter the women's ladder match. They say the future is not the Kabuki Warriors or the IIconics but themselves.
So in summary unless the writers were trying to time this whole segment around Prince Archie I don't know why this had to be a thing in London. Here's an official WWE photo for your trouble.
Feb 25, 2024
Top Recs from @roseplantqueen
Writers questioned Asuka's poison mist gimmick after it appeared in WWE at Hell in a Cell. A writer from Wrestleview called the gimmick "stereotypical." The Ringer blamed the mist gimmick on...Paul Heyman. But here is a video from a WrestleMania weekend where Asuka talks about her admiration for The Great Muta and her desire to do a poison mist gimmick in WWE about a year and a half before she started doing it.
Mar 2, 2024
IIconics (champions) vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Kabuki Warriors.
* Mandy Rose rolls up Billie Kay for a pin, eliminating the IIconics.
* Asuka submits Rose with the Asuka Lock, eliminating Rose and Deville.
* Nikki pushes Kairi off the turnbuckle, leaving her susceptible to a punch (forearm?) by Bliss as Paige watches. Bliss hits Twisted Bliss, win titles.
Feb 28, 2024
A few weeks pass until the Kabuki Warriors are seen again on TV in this promo segment. Up until this point the Kabuki Warriors have been working house shows and dark matches, including a dark match before a 205 Live taping. The IIconics first bump into the Authors of Pain, who were talking to Baron Corbin earlier, and then into Paige and the Kabuki Warriors. Paige leads the IIconics on before revealing the IIconics have a match on one of the two shows WWE put on in Tokyo for a short Japanese tour. If the Kabuki Warriors win (spoiler: they do), they get a shot at the tag titles.
Feb 27, 2024