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Janai Kai is thankful to have Salina de la Renta on her side.
WrestleZone recently spoke with former MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion Janai Kai, who is currently a member of the Contra Unit. When she first joined MLW, Kai was aligned with the Promociones Dorado stable led by Salina de la Renta, now also the Creative Director of the MLW Women’s Division.
“It’s been really great, working with her. When I first came in, she was more like my manager. That’s made me actually feel comfortable coming in, so I didn’t really feel alone. So, I appreciated her just being there throughout that time. And then obviously, she had a baby and everything. She got pregnant, she just had her baby, but she still keeps an eye on us,” Kai explained.
Kai said she’s benefitted a great deal from working with de la Renta both on-air and behind the scenes. Specifically, Kai said she appreciates de la Renta being a strong female authority figure who also helped her with many wrestling-adjacent aspects of her career.
“In women’s wrestling, we don’t really get a lot of that, a female figure to really watch over us in the business or for a lot of shows in general. So, I’ve really appreciated her with that,” Kai added. “She is very educated and knowledgable of not only the business, but a lot of other things alongside with it — social Media, PR, and all of that. So, there are certain things that she would mention that were very helpful for me when it came to the marketing and stuff, really showcasing more of that character side.”
Janai Kai on Contra Unit
CONTRA Unit has been one of MLW‘s longest-running stables. The group made its debut at SuperFight 2019 and now boasts Kai, Minoru Suzuki and Mads ‘Krule’ Krugger as some of the members. Kai agreed that the group felt like it was inspired by supervillains and highlighted that each member still has a distinct personality that they want to continue to highlight.
“I do have the same vision as you said, we are kind of like a comic book-villain type of group. And yeah, some of us do have that Martial Arts background. So, incorporating that, plus our attitude. How gritty we can be? We are pretty badass overall. And then just like establishing who we are as individuals is a big thing for us as well.
“Mads Krugger, he is the main, the leader. But us as individuals, we have something going on for ourselves as well,” Janai Kai. “And we are continuing to establish that and become stronger, possibly become bigger as a group. So, that’s our goal really as Contra Unit.”
