WWE is wrong for putting Asuka vs. Zelina Vega on the pre-show

Asuka will defend her RAW Women’s Championship against Zelina Vega on the kickoff show at Clash of Champions: Gold Rush

This Sunday is Clash of Champions: Gold Rush. Right there in the title, it has “champion” and “gold”. Yet, they’re putting an important title match on the pre-show. It’s flat out wrong.

Many wrestling fans were rightfully pissed off that AEW initially put an important women’s match on the pre-show of their last pay-per-view. Fans need to have the same energy in this instance.

Unlike AEW’s pre-show, WWE‘s pre-show is not used to encourage people to buy the pay-per-view. In order to even watch the pre-show, you have to be a subscriber. You also have to be a subscriber to watch the main show.

WWE’s pre-show is just filler and doesn’t usually amount to much. It’s used to recap feuds to remind fans how we got to the matches for that pay-per-view. There’s usually a match thrown in for good measure. For months, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was relegated to the pre-show (it isn’t even being defended on this show, by the way). The matches that WWE see as unimportant are typically booked for the pre-show.

Asuka has been one of WWE’s best wrestlers this year

Asuka has been one of the MVPs of the No Fans Shows era. She consistently put on great matches and had entertaining backstage segments. Asuka was chosen by Becky Lynch to be her predecessor when she had to step away to “go be a mother”. She briefly lost the title to Sasha Banks but regained it recently.

Asuka has done everything that WWE has asked of her and then some. She deserves to defend her title on the main card.

Zelina Vega is getting her very first shot at any title, so this title match is already important for her. The WWE Universe has only seen a fraction of what Vega can do in the ring since she’s spent the majority of her time as a manager. In a post match interview, Vega said that she wanted to show that she isn’t “just a manager.” For these reasons, this match should be on the main card.

WWE has a history of making fans think that they care about the women’s division, when in reality they don’t really. The same women are pushed over and over. Women are called up and then not used. Their actual tag teams are broken up in favor of putting the Women’s Tag Team titles on a forced tag team.

By putting the RAW’s Women Championship match on the pre-show, it once again shows what WWE will put the women on the back burner.