Asuka’s undefeated streak and run as a the NXT Women’s Champion has likely immortalized her as one of the greatest wrestlers in WWE history, but her legacy will truly be defined by her run on the main roster.
When Asuka faced Emma in her main roster debut match at TLC, many wondered just how competitive that match would be. Emma hadn’t exactly been booked as a threat of any sort to that point, so conventional wisdom stated that Asuka would squash her. Instead, the two put on a solid, competitive match. Asuka was solid, but she didn’t come off as either a monster or an exceptionally proficient wrestler. She is obviously both of those things, yet the WWE opted for a decent, but flavorless, debut.
While her debut match was a waste of an opportunity to make a statement, the result wasn’t a major issue. No, the problem was the fact that the commentary team told the fans that Asuka “likes to have fun”. This has absolutely nothing to do with her character, and it contradicts her status as an unbeatable competitor who uses stiff strikes, impeccable technical wrestling, and chilling mind games to bring every single one of her opponents to their knees.
Based on the events of her first match in WWE, Asuka won’t be booked like Goldberg, which makes sense given that Asuka can actually wrestle. When Asuka defeated Emma in NXT or Ember Moon in her final title defense at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, she had to work for those victories and didn’t simply squash her opponents.
So even if Asuka doesn’t simply plow through her opponents with victories that occur at a breathtaking pace, the WWE will likely feed her wins. As they no doubt noticed when WCW made this mistake with Goldberg, giving an unstoppable, undefeated force a loss out of nowhere is a sure-fire way to ruin the mystique behind a money-maker.
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However, the WWE Universe is already solidly behind the female stars on the main roster. Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch, just to name two, have extremely vocal fan bases.
These fans get tattoos of, draw pictures of, cosplay as, and tweet constantly to their favorite female superstars. This interest elevates the status of these women on the card, because it forces the WWE to take notice of just how popular women’s wrestling is.
Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Sasha Banks don’t have much momentum on their side right now, but Alexa Bliss is the Raw Women’s Champion.
Having just defeated Mickie James in the main event of Raw with a slap, shortly after a successful title defense at TLC, Bliss is riding high again. She’s already survived challenges from Bayley and Sasha Banks, who briefly won the title, so there isn’t much left for her to do.
This has led to speculation that Bliss’s momentum will be used to put Asuka over, and followers of “Little Miss Bliss” aren’t exactly excited about this prospect. The same goes for fans of Nia Jax, who could be the one to take the title off of Bliss if the WWE finally decides to pull the trigger on previously-teased ending of their alliance.
I can see why fans would be worried about a wrestler coming in and continuing and undefeated streak, since the spotlight on said wrestler would inevitably come at the expense of others on the roster. The problem with his line of thinking is that it underestimates just how powerful Asuka can be at elevating everyone else. All of Asuka’s matches in NXT felt like a big deal, and they all delivered. From her promos to her in-ring work, Asuka made every program she was involved in feel special, and that’s one of the issues with WWE’s women’s division; some programs just feel like filler, even those involving champions Alexa Bliss and Natalya.
I’ve seen fans wonder if Asuka could be a Brock Lesnar figure in the women’s division, and the comparisons are apt to a point. Whenever Lesnar beats someone, the other person doesn’t end up looking any worse. Furthermore, the builds to those matches are usually incredible, and you only have to look at his feuds with Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman to see examples of this.
Lesnar’s matches with Joe and Strowman, however, were boring and fell flat. They featured the same moves and very little action on the part of Lesnar. With Asuka, that won’t be the case. Asuka is younger, fresher, better, and more entertaining than Lesnar at this stage of their careers.
More importantly, Vince McMahon and the WWE aren’t hell-bent on having Asuka mow over everyone. If they were willing to let Emma, who was released just days later, have competitive matches with Asuka in losses, then they will make sure to showcase wrestlers like Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Bayley (the company has something invested in all of these former champions) in matches against Asuka.
The notion that Asuka will “bury” other talent is ridiculous and fails to appropriately acknowledge that losses to acclaimed wrestlers on undefeated streaks who can actually wrestle and make opponents look good aren’t a bad thing. As long as Vince doesn’t go rogue on the people who understand how to build Asuka and use her appropriately, having “The Empress of Tomorrow” continue her streak with the same classic matches she produced in NXT can only help the other women on the roster.
Asuka is somebody fans can buy into and take seriously. She doesn’t look bored when she cuts promos, and she doesn’t mail in matches. So for those of you comparing her to Shinsuke Nakamura, stop it. Because the comparisons don’t make sense on any level that actually pertains to wrestling.
All of the women on the WWE main roster have taken losses that mean far less than a loss to Asuka would.
Remember when Charlotte Flair’s undefeated pay per view streak was wasted away on a random match at Fastlane in which Bayley basically cheated to win with help from Sasha Banks? Or how about when Sasha tapped out with one second left at Roadblock to lose an Ironwoman match to Charlotte? Did we forget Bayley’s loss to Alexa Bliss at Extreme Rules in which she was too scared to use a Kendo Stick? How about all of Becky Lynch’s random losses on SmackDown Live? The back-and-forth title switch between Bliss and Banks at around SummerSlam was quite a welcome sight, wasn’t it? Nia Jax’s clean losses at random points have been tremendous for her character, huh?
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The truth is, the women on the WWE main roster have dealt with a litany of dreadful booking decisions, and they’ve survived it all. Losing to a well-built presence at the top of the roster in Asuka won’t hurt anyone, especially if these matches are contested, crafted beautifully, and mean something. And I have every hope in the world that they will be. So if you are worried about Asuka going on a run that hurts the other women on the roster, you should be more worried about Vince McMahon’s whimsical booking and unwillingness to fully buy into women’s wrestling.