WrestleMania 35 Wish List: A Focus On The Future (For The Most Part)
By John Brown
4. Asuka Winning the Women’s Battle Royal by a Landslide
If you would have asked me one year ago who would be main-eventing WrestleMania 35 with Ronda Rousey, Asuka would have been my automatic answer.
The Asuka we had in NXT was a killer. She was, at the time, the only female member of the women’s roster who could have realistically match Ronda Rousey’s ability to technically dissect a human body. My next wish is for THAT Asuka to return in the Women’s Battle Royal.
In the time since, she has been humanized to the point of being a temporary dancing partner to Naomi. To say her time on the main roster has been humbling would be quite the understatement.
Last year’s loss to Charlotte began her downward spiral of a year, a year that ended with a SmackDown Women’s Championship run that seems clearly set up for Charlotte to take the belt into this Sunday’s main event.
If there is a killer still in Asuka, it needs to be reawakened in the Women’s Battle Royal (does it have a namesake like Andre yet?).
The scene of her worst loss needs to be the scene of the reemergence of the Asuka that nobody could touch just over a year ago.
Whomever ends up winning the main event on Sunday can’t simply work with the other two forever. She will need a challenger who tells us whether the title reign is one worthy of the main event, or is one being set up for a bloodthirsty Asuka to take it just like the title was taken from her last week.
Nobody in the remaining field in the Women’s Battle Royal is going to be a threat to either of the Women’s Championships (since there doesn’t seem to be any plans for the still-game Mickie James), and should be set up for Asuka to mow through them with vengeance.
This Sunday needs to be the time for Asuka to remind us just who she is.