WWE snubbed Asuka from their top 5 matches list

Asuka was the most dominant champion in WWE history during her time in NXT, yet the company didn’t feature any of her matches in their top five list.

Known as the Empress of Tomorrow, Asuka helped build NXT into the brand it is today. In 2019, the Black and Gold brand started airing weekly episodes on the USA Network and won Survivor Series to become established, in canon (but not in terms of paychecks, sadly), as on equal footing with Raw and SmackDown.

The NXT Women’s Championship has always been one of the most prestigious titles in all of wrestling, and Asuka is very much a part of the title’s history. She elevated the championship during her record-breaking undefeated streak, never losing the title before relinquishing it to make way for the main roster before Survivor Series 2017.

Yet in a recent ranking of the top five matches in the history of the NXT Women’s Championship, WWE left the title’s greatest champion entirely off the list.

Their picks were, for the most part, solid. The Four Horsewomen Fatal Four-Way was a great choice for the top five, and Sasha Banks vs. Bayley was a no-brainer at No. 1. It was no surprise to see the Four Horsewomen of WWE dominating the list, but it was a surprise to see Shayna Baszler feature twice at Asuka’s expense.

Whereas Asuka had the longest single title reign in the title’s history, Baszler, who is now on Raw as Becky Lynch’s championship feud for WrestleMania 36, left NXT with the most combined days holding the title. She is also the only two-time champion.

Even so, it was a surprise to see Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley, which was her final match as champion and took place in December, rank as high as second. Baszler’s match with Kairi Sane at Evolution ranked fourth, and it was indeed a classic.

Asuka’s match with Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III should have made it on the list. It was one of NXT’s best matches of the entire decade, and while Moon came up short, she pulled out all the stops in a career performance. This match was legendary and should have set the stage for Ember to end Asuka’s streak in the future on the main roster, but it should have at least made this list.

Additionally, Asuka vs. Bayley was another strong candidate to bounce one of Baszler’s matches – or even Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya at No. 5 – off the list. Asuka and Bayley were NXT’s two biggest stars at the time, locked in an incredible rivalry that set the stage for The Empress of Tomorrow to become the brand’s most dominant star – and for Bayley to move to Raw in 2016.

All five matches featured were excellent, but Asuka, as the brand’s greatest champion next to Sasha Banks, should have had a place on the list. It’s easy to neglect how high the quality of her matches were in NXT in spite of her sheer dominance, but hopefully her match against Moon is a reminder to those who forgot.