WWE WrestleMania 34: Charlotte Flair, Asuka Should Main Event
By John Brown
At Fastlane, Asuka called her shot and named Charlotte Flair as her opponent at WrestleMania. The pedigree of both competitors and the momentum generated this past year makes this match-up the best option for the main event at this year’s “Showcase of the Immortals”.
“Immortal” is quite the hefty description to place upon any figure in any realm. The term implies that your accomplishments transcend the normal process of simply keeping the needle moving to becoming worthy of mention years after they take place. WrestleMania has certainly held moments worthy of dubbing the event the “Showcase of the Immortals”. With the continuance of the women’s revolution in professional wrestling, the Charlotte Flair/Asuka match is the one match on the card with the strongest chance of being “immortal” and is deserving of the main event spot.
With the relatively limited time remaining, the ball is in WWE’s court to promote this match with the pomp it deserves. There has never been a Women’s Championship match that has contained two competitors more deserving of wearing gold than Asuka and Charlotte Flair. Asuka comes into the match as the undefeated “Empress of Tomorrow”, with her streak dating back to her debut match on October 7, 2016 at NXT TakeOver: Respect where she defeated Dana Brooke. She would go on to win the NXT Women’s Championship and run roughshod through all competitors, being forced to finally relinquish the title due to being promoted to the main roster.
Take a moment to put that in perspective. Asuka was NXT Women’s Champion, in a division every bit as competitive as the divisions on Raw and Smackdown, and was forced to drop the belt due to a promotion to the main roster. Not only will the future holders of that title be deemed second fiddle to Asuka (at least for a while), but the main roster was immediately given an immediate contender for the Women’s Championship of her choice. That choice was made at Fastlane, and she chose the most formidable opponent available.
There is not a professional wrestler alive today who looks better wearing a title belt than Charlotte Flair. Charisma proves itself to be hereditary, as her entrance, complete with glittering robes like her father, has her exuding a sense of belonging as if Ric knew wrestling would always need him, inspiring him to breath life into his second coming.
She struts to the entrance ramp, turning in a way that reminds the crowd that every inch of her was meant to be a champion, and always proceeds to have a match that cements that notion. Her genetic superiority in the wrestling industry is not only a reminder of how excellent she is, but how Charlotte is the perfect embodiment of the women’s revolution in professional wrestling. The revolution simply does not happen with Charlotte Flair’s permission.
And it does not continue without Asuka’s refusal to ask for it.
Charlotte and Asuka represent both the ignition and the continuance of the women’s revolution, the single-most important development is today’s professional wrestling landscape. Sure, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles are going to continue a rivalry some members of the WWE audience has witnessed through watching NJPW.
Sure, Roman Reigns is most likely going to take his place as the face of the WWE. Sure, Ronda Rousey is going to wrestle for the first time alongside Kurt Angle. However, none of these matches carry the weight nor the importance of the match between Asuka and Charlotte Flair. Therefore, the WrestleMania main event should be theirs.
The three aforementioned matches are going to be great, but none of them represent a complete culture shift in professional wrestling. The women’s revolution has opened new doors for professional wrestling, and has shown that female professional wrestlers can be every bit as captivating as the men (Bayley and Sasha Banks’s budding feud could even be the co-main event).
This truth is one that has been cultivating for the last two years in WWE, but this cultivation does not begin nor continue without Charlotte and Asuka. They are the female rocks that the remainder of the women’s divisions are going to break themselves against in order to become even better than they currently are.
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The WrestleMania main event should provide the standard they should always be striving for, and Charlotte and Asuka are primed to deliver that standard. For all these two women represent, they deserve to compete in main event at WrestleMania.