WWE: You Don’t Want Asuka To Be The ‘Next Goldberg’

If WWE starts booking Asuka as Goldberg, they’ll be doing a Asuka a disservice.

I would like to advise you, gentle reader, that the Internet Wrestling Community has been banging its head against the wall for the past week. It’s been giving itself a collective bruise to the forehead because of Asuka’s first two WWE main roster matches, which have apparently not reached the lofty standards of our expectations.

Part of this is out of love. In a previous Asuka-related article, I mentioned that her winning streak is one of wrestling fandom’s most unironically cherished concepts. Asuka is expected to be amazing because we love her for it. When it doesn’t quite happen the way we want (or when Michael Cole tells us that she “loves to entertain…”), then yeah, we start to question why this is happening at all.

However, when wrestling pundits begin demanding that Asuka be treated like Goldberg at the apex of his undefeated streak, it scares the chlorine out of my pool water. Outside of the winning streak, Goldberg and Asuka are two entirely different people. They’re polar opposites when it comes to wrestling, and require very different booking. Knowing this, you can trust me, gentle reader, when I tell you with aplomb: You do not want Asuka to be the next Goldberg.

Goldberg’s Streak Wasn’t Loved By All

I don’t know if any of you whippersnappers were around back when WCW Nitro was eating Monday Night Raw alive in the ratings, but I was. I remember, that Goldberg guy was the talk of the town. He was crushing jabronis right and left, using his arsenal of punches, clotheslines and kicks to set-up his opponents for a spear and his finishing Jackhammer move in quick matches. He was so good at doing what he did, he was booked into a celebrated undefeated streak.

Even today, people still talk about his 173-0 streak. When they do, they usually do so with reverence. But back when it was ongoing, Goldberg’s booking had quite a bit of contention in the wrestling community.

See, Goldberg’s run is essentially composed of squash matches. That was his M.O. He’d take a couple of hits and get in some short offense until he’d win, usually within 3-4 minutes. The matches were short to cover up the fact that Goldberg wasn’t particularly talented in the ring, a fact which would become apparent when he’d be involved in longer matches (such as the infamous February 9, 1998 Nitro where Goldberg was exposed by William “Lord Steven” Regal).

The smart community knew Goldberg didn’t have the talent nor the workrate to be put in such a high-profile position. Especially when so many other, more deserving talents were being relegated to the mid card. Discussions were heated, tufts of hair were yanked out of scalp and time machines were being furiously developed in a hope to go back and keep this from happening. We may look back fondly at the streak today, but it was really and truly controversial and probably ended up doing more harm than good.

Asuka Works Because She Works

Asuka was never booked like Goldberg in NXT. She was never established as a monster powerhouse who devours the opposition in super short matches with very little offense. “Asuka beats her opponents without breaking a sweat” is something I’ve come across in a couple of articles. It’s absolutely the most unrepresentative and untrue comment you could make.

We seem to correlate the concept of domination to overwhelming offense. After all, the word “dominating” is part of the basic marketing packages for guys like Undertaker, Kane and Braun Strowman. These are wrestlers who have had a history at one point or another of running through adversaries by impressive shows of strength.

Asuka has technical, grounded, brutal (or any combination of those) fights. She’s dominant because she out-wrestles and out-thinks her opponents. Her NXT streak was booked perfectly because it felt genuine.

Next: Who Is The Greatest Superstar To Never Be World Champion?

Being the talent that she is, Asuka can enter the ring and work spectacularly well with her opponents so they both look good. Asuka’s gimmick isn’t crushing her competition to get the win. Her gimmick is working a competitive match to get the win.