WWE: Asuka Is The Empress Who Needs To Forcefully Seize Her Crown

Asuka was once the most dominant wrestler in WWE, racking up an undefeated streak that made even Bill Goldberg choke on smoke and the rest of the women eager to knock her off her pedestal. That moment came at WrestleMania 34 against Charlotte Flair, and The Empress of Tomorrow hasn’t truly recovered since.

At Money in the Bank and Extreme Rules, Asuka suffered back-to-back Pay Per View losses to SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella, who is now proudly boasting that she’s defeated both Charlotte Flair and Asuka twice. Watching those two matches, it would be hard for a new fan to believe that this was the same woman who put together absolute barn-burners with Sasha Banks, Ember Moon, and Nikki Cross (among many, many others) in her WWE career.

No, Asuka isn’t “ruined”, which is a word that we should probably save for only the most extreme of cases. Because in wrestling, what seems damaged or unsalvageable can be readily “repaired” without too much hassle.

But while Asuka isn’t “ruined”, she is an elite competitor who is struggling through something much more forceful than a “slump”.

Think about it. Asuka came into WrestleMania 34 against Charlotte Flair with all the chips on the table, and she lost in what was termed as a dream match. She tapped out to Charlotte, in spite of the fact that Flair wasn’t even able to fully engage the Figure Eight’s bridge.

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During her feud with Carmella, the Princess of Staten Island played video package and harped on the fact that Asuka was “damaged goods” mentally as an athlete after that loss. By getting psyched out by James Ellsworth, Asuka did nothing to dispel the notion that she can’t win on the big stage on the WWE main roster.

For any athlete, this is demoralizing. There’s nothing worse than losing a title match to the same opponent twice. Well, what makes this even worse in Asuka’s case is that she repeatedly got the better of Carmella…when it didn’t actually count.

Asuka won the first Women’s Royal Rumble and has taken down some of the most decorated women in this business. Her undefeated streak has immortalized her in WWE canon, regardless of what is to come for her in the future.

Despite all of these accomplishments, Asuka is an Empress without a crown. The simple fact is that she’s failed to capture the SmackDown Women’s Championship at three separate Pay Per Views, and while she could get another chance at SummerSlam, both Becky Lynch and old nemesis Charlotte Flair skipped past her in the pecking order after her second loss to Carmella.

This absolutely has to eat at Asuka inside. This is a woman who qualifies as a living legend, with accolades spanning WWE and various promotions in Japan. She’s went to war with Nikki Cross in a Last Woman Standing match, outlasted so many talented women at the Royal Rumble, and put her body on the line against wrestlers like Nia Jax and Sasha. But here she is, her own worst enemy after heart-breaking losses to Charlotte and Carmella (x2).

Asuka is a fierce wrestler who can kick your head off, break your arm clean into two, or essentially end your life with the Asuka Lock. Oh, and her Hip Attack is quite lethal, too. There are so many ways she can inflict pain onto other wrestlers, but she’s become an under-achiever on SmackDown Live by losing to opponents she’s capable of defeating.

It makes me wonder when Asuka will decide to take matters into her own hands, because at some point, she has to snap. She’s out here playing beneath the competition, when she could easily surpass the likes of Carmella. None of these other women can hang with her in the ring, in her eyes, and the confidence that has always boiled underneath Asuka seems to have dissipated into complacency. Disappointing losses tend to do that to some athletes, until the fire within is restored in a much stronger, more urgent manner.

In wrestling, that often spells “heel turn”, and there’s a psychotic Asuka we haven’t quite seen in WWE yet. NXT tried to turn her heel, but Asuka was so unbelievably good in the ring that the fans simply cheered her anyway. That’s saying something, because her dance partner was Ember Moon, who is quite easy to get behind as a babyface (her selling is flawless).

On the main roster, Asuka has been undeniably popular, but these losses have cooled her momentum. To say otherwise would be disingenuous. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a superstar going on a cold snap if there’s a reason behind it or a future storyline that allows the superstar to change based on these events. This is especially true when a cold snap happens to someone like Asuka, who previously went 267-0 in WWE.

That’s an unprecedented run of brilliance, which means that Asuka’s subsequent furious rage through the SmackDown Women’s Division needs to be just as unprecedented. WWE has had plenty of “psycho” women’s wrestlers, but they could do something different with Asuka, in the sense that they’d have a remorseless heel who deals pain but doesn’t feel it. Asuka wouldn’t be “crazy” for the sake of being crazy, but rather an elite competitor who reached her breaking point and wants everyone who crosses her path to pay dearly solely for believing that they can even step to her inside the ring.

These title losses must mean something, and it’s truly be special to watch Asuka begin a rampage to claim the crown she’s been unable to secure for months.