Sareee Reflects On Schoolgirl Character She Portrayed In WWE, Says It Caused Her To Stress Eat

Sareee speaks about her WWE run.

There have been several occasions when Sareee has opened up about the time she spent in WWE. She signed with the company a month before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

She did not debut in WWE until a year later. In 2022, Sareee, then going by Sarray, debuted a new character in NXT 2.0, where she wore pigtails and a schoolgirl uniform.

In a new interview with Tokyo Sports, Sareee looked back on that period of her career and said her intentions of being at WWE were vastly different from what was expected of her. The time as the schoolgirl character led her to stress eat. She added that in hindsight, the experience made her stronger, and she does not view it as time wasted.

“That was the most difficult period of my pro-wrestling career. With so many people on the WWE roster, it was hard enough just to get picked for matches, and on top of that, it coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, so I couldn’t compete as much as I wanted to. In the midst of that, I was assigned a high school girl character. I went with the intention of bringing strong women’s professional wrestling from Japan, but it was painful because what was required in reality was different. I became so stressed that I loved sweets, and after lunch, I ate an American-sized parfait and then flattened a big Häagen-Dazs and my face was covered in acne. Still, I did my best in my heart. Looking back now, it’s all become experience that has nourished me, so not a single moment was wasted.”

After opting to leave WWE, Sareee questioned if it would be okay for her to go back to Japan because she felt she had accomplished nothing in the USA.

“Honestly, I did wonder if it was okay to return to Japan without having achieved anything in the U.S. But when I thought about what I really wanted to do, I realized I should be doing the kind of pro-wrestling I believe in to the fullest within the limited time I have. I’ve been striving to become the strongest in the Japanese women’s pro-wrestling scene, which is where it all began for me.”

Sareee is celebrating 15 years since her in-ring debut, and that is being commemorated with her Sareee-ISM show on March 22nd. The full lineup for that event can be viewed here.