WWE: Asuka Deserves A Major Post-WrestleMania Push

Coming out of a disappointing WrestleMania run, Asuka is one of the top superstars WWE needs to ensure is on the receiving end of a major push.

A few short weeks ago, Asuka was the WWE SmackDown Live Women’s Champion. She looked to be in line for a title defense at WrestleMania, one which would hopefully come with an increased prevalence on WWE TV.

Instead, she lost her title to Charlotte Flair, which was subsequently lost to Becky Lynch I might add, before being thrown into the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal.

Many suspected, including myself, that Asuka would at least come out on top of the battle royal. She was arguably the most high-profile name in the match after all, especially considering her recent title run.

Instead, Sarah Logan almost won the battle royal until Carmella threw her over the top rope to pick up the victory.

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with losing a title, especially if it could eventually involve a larger unification storyline, or even playing second fiddle to severely underrated stars like Logan, but the combination of both in the span of mere weeks feels questionable at best.

Asuka is one of the best in-ring competitors on the roster, male or female. She’s developed a connection with fans, is able to carry great rivalries, and has tremendous ring presence. She’s everything WWE would want in a star, yet it seems like she’s now being treated like a generic mid-carder.

Of course, we know WWE did have her best Goldberg’s vaunted undefeated streak, while also giving her several runs with various titles. That’s besides the point.

Her past accomplishments don’t make up for the fact that, in recent months, Asuka has been severely misused on the main roster. There’s no questioning or doubting it.

In fact, you could argue that those past accomplishments are even more of a reason for Asuka to maintain a place in the main event picture. She’s proven before, multiple times over, that she can excel at a high level when given that kind of opportunity.

Now, that doesn’t mean the solution to this situation is that she immediately become the number 1 contender next week. The current feud between Lacey Evans and Becky Lynch is a necessity at this point, and it seems unlikely that WWE would want to throw another superstar into the mix.

Instead, WWE should use this time to rebuild Asuka’s character.

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Perhaps the only benefit to such a string of major losses is that WWE is provided an easy excuse to make some critical changes to a superstar’s persona. Right now would be the best time to bring back the more intense Asuka we got to see in NXT, or better yet, even turn her heel.

Asuka’s heel work in her feud with Ember Moon on NXT was on an entirely other level from the rest of the brand’s women’s division at the time. Bringing that version of Asuka back could lead to one of the best rivalries of the year, if she were to eventually challenge Becky Lynch after a short program with a talented mid-card face like Naomi or Natalya.

Long story short, while there’s no questioning that WWE has mistreated Asuka lately, there’s still some reason to hope the company is able to turn that negative into a positive.

That’s because either as face or heel, Asuka is clearly too great of a superstar to be ignored for too long. Hopefully, that means it won’t be long before WWE sets Asuka on a clear path to make up for her lackluster WrestleMania run.