WWE legend's daughter says Asuka's transformation was "really inspiring" for her [Exclusive]
Over the last few years, Asuka has been one of the key players in the WWE women's division. Before joining Vince McMahon's company in 2015, she wrestled for several Japanese and American pro wrestling promotions under the name — Kana.
Her transformation as a competitor has lasted more than two decades at this point. This is exactly why Asuka's long journey to WWE inspires several wrestlers who want to be successful in this business, including Santino Marella's daughter, Bianca Carelli.
Carelli recently spoke to Sportskeeda Wrestling's Riju Dasgupta about various topics. Be sure to check out their interesting conversation about WWE and other promotions below:
Bianca Carelli's passion for pro wrestling has grown with time. She told Sportskeeda Wrestling that watching Asuka's old matches inspired her to a great extent.
Bianca Carelli has a common link with WWE Superstar Asuka
Santino Marella runs the Battle Arts Academy in Ontario, which is named after the original Battlearts in Japan. The latter promotion was founded by pro wrestling veteran Yuki Ishikawa (real name - Toyohiko Ishikawa), who also trained Asuka many years ago.
During Bianca Carelli's early days in training, Ishikawa sent her videos of women's wrestling in Japan. As a result, she became increasingly aware of Asuka's pre-WWE work and how far the former RAW Women's Champion had come since then.
"It [Japanese women's strong style] looked so vicious and so ferocious. I remember he [Yuki Ishikawa] said to me in the message, 'Asuka is in this [video] at the end.' She was wrestling under a different name. But seeing where she started, and seeing, you know, 'Oh, here she wasn't Asuka yet. Here she was training with somebody I know. And look now where she is.' That was really inspiring for me to see - where she started out, where she is. That style of fighting, how ferocious it is, and that really made me feel like, 'Wow. Women's wrestling is so powerful, and it has so much potential for me to grow, seeing how she grew like that.' So that for me was inspiring," said Bianca Carelli.
In 2016, Asuka even took to Twitter to publicly thank Yuki Ishikawa for his advice, which shows just how much impact he has had on her career:
Interestingly, Santino Marella also trained and wrestled at the original Battlearts promotion during his early days in pro wrestling.
If Bianca Carelli does end up in WWE one day, a showdown between her and Asuka would be quite intriguing to see.
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