WWE Raw: Shayna Baszler should be the one to dethrone Asuka

Asuka has been a dominant WWE Raw Women’s Champion, defeating the likes of Nia Jax and Charlotte Flair thus far. Although Sasha Banks is Asuka’s current challenger for WWE Extreme Rules 2020 in July, the following will explain why Shayna Baszler is the ideal challenger to dethrone Asuka this summer.

‘Opera non verba.’ This Latin phrase translates to ‘deeds, not words.’ This was the exact phrase Shayna Baszler declaimed during the hype for the Women’s MITB Ladder Match alongside Nia Jax and the current WWE Raw Women’s Champion, Asuka. Unfortunately, Baszler has not been booked to perform any deeds whatsoever in the past month and a half for two reasons.

The first reason is inspired by the rampant reports and rumors of Vince McMahon giving up or not being high on Baszler. This has been a theme ever since Baszler was an integral part of Survivor Series as NXT Women’s Champion. Indeed, Baszler won a main event triple threat match at that PPV against then-Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley, but Vince McMahon was reportedly not happy with the match.

It’s fair to say that Vince McMahon’s doubts continued into Royal Rumble season and the road to WrestleMania. It was reported that Shayna Baszler was originally planned to win the Rumble, but the booking decision was changed for Charlotte Flair to win it.

Although she dominated the Elimination Chamber to earn a Raw Women’s Championship opportunity against then-Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, she still failed to capture the Raw Women’s Title at WrestleMania 36 in a match that many wrestling fans thought she was a lock to win.

Coincidentally, Baszler was also originally planned to win the MITB Briefcase, but the booking decision was changed for Asuka to win it due to Becky Lynch’s unanticipated pregnancy, which warranted the passing of the torch to a fellow babyface.

Although the latter booking decision change was circumstantially justifiable, there have still been two-three key scenarios in which booking decisions have changed in disfavor of Baszler’s aspirations to becoming the top champion on the main roster.

The second reason Baszler has not been booked to perform any deeds whatsoever in the past month and a half is because she would be stealing the spotlight from Asuka, if she was still on the show.

As the Raw Women’s Champion, Asuka needs to be the most dominant superstar in the Raw Women’s Division, which is impossible to do with the highly protected Baszler around. If Baszler was still on television dominating superstars each week, Asuka would look like a transitional champion, which would be bad for the legacy of the Raw Women’s Championship.

Imagine Becky Lynch bestowing a championship to someone who happens to become a transitional champion? That would be intolerable booking, to say the least.

Thankfully, despite the premature presumptions when she first won the title, Asuka is not a transitional champion because she has been legitimatizing that bestowment by retaining against game competition, especially against Charlotte Flair, whom she had never defeated in a high stake title match.

Now that Asuka has solidified her title reign and is on the verge of retaining the championship against Sasha Banks at WWE Extreme Rules 2020, she will have to eventually face her fate at WWE SummerSlam 2020 against the one superstar on the Raw roster whom she has never battled one-on-one, Shayna Baszler.

In fact, Asuka should be booked to independently select Baszler as her SummerSlam opponent because Baszler does not have to earn a title match that should be owed to her, especially after all of those aforementioned booking changes.

Besides, Baszler decimated the entire women’s division (including Asuka) in the Elimination Chamber. Baszler already has Asuka’s number, and all Asuka has to do is call. When Asuka defeats Sasha Banks at WWE Extreme Rules 2020 and is booked to announce her SummerSlam opponent the next night on Raw, Baszler will be ready to lock in that Kirifuda Clutch because she will have Asuka on speed dial.

WWE SummerSlam 2020 will be the PPV where Baszler goes from undesirable to undeniable one way or the other. Her absence from live television might seem ill-advised in the short term but it will assuredly be very rewarding in the long term. There was a reason WWE called off the match between Baszler and Asuka on the March 2, 2020 episode of Raw. There was a reason Asuka was Baszler’s final opposition inside the Elimination Chamber within that same month.

The reason is: anticipation. This booking strategy assured that the WWE Universe will wait for Baszler vs. Asuka to happen on a big stage like SummerSlam, where Baszler will be the one to dethrone Asuka and win her first women’s championship on the main roster. No last-minute booking changes, fluky finishes, or inconclusive results are necessary.

The rest is academic because nobody is ready for Asuka…… except Shayna Baszler.