The Empress Of Tomorrow Asuka is set to walk into WrestleMania for the second time in a row in a SmackDown Women’s Championship match. The only difference is that last year, she was walking in as the challenger, whereas this year, she’s walking in as SmackDown Women’s champion.
It took quite a while for Asuka to get to the position that she’s in now, but even then, it’s been anything but a smooth road for her. She was on a tear after making her main roster debut, extending her undefeated streak and surpassing Goldberg‘s legendary streak (something she achieved towards the end of her NXT run).
She would defeat whoever was there to beat in the RAW Women’s Division, and right around then, the first Women’s Royal Rumble came around. It was a big night for Asuka, and not many would have expected that she would win it, especially since WWE wouldn’t count that as a defeat. However, she would enter at #25 and wrestle for a moderate period of time before last going up against record-setting Divas Champion Nikki Bella.
It was tense, and there was a scary moment with Asuka tugging on Nikki’s fragile neck in a spider-lock position. Regardless, The Empress Of Tomorrow eliminated her and wound up winning the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble – a piece of history that none can take away from her.
She would have a dream match against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34, one that saw The Queen submit Asuka with a Figure-8 lock to end her historic undefeated streak. There was a moment of respect, but many believed that it was a bad decision on WWE’s end to end the undefeated streak so abruptly (because the storyline itself was nothing noteworthy per se).
What made it worse was that two nights later on SmackDown, Charlotte would immediately lose the Women’s Championship to Carmella in a Money in the Bank cash-in. Did it get a good reaction at the time? Sure. But did it also make the rub Charlotte got unnecessary? Also yes. The issue was that Charlotte worked injured for the next couple of months and briefly went out after a minor surgery.
In the meantime, Asuka would become Carmella‘s next championship contender. Carmella, who had already beaten Charlotte clean at Backlash, ended up becoming the first to pin Asuka after a weird James Ellsworth interference. She would lose the next attempt as well, and she was in creative limbo for a while. She did nothing significant on TV, all until December.
She suddenly found herself in a feud against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, in what would be only the third women’s PPV main event in WWE history. It would also mark the first-ever Women’s TLC match. And it delivered far beyond people’s expectations. After Ronda Rousey‘s interference, Asuka would take advantage and climb the ladder, becoming SmackDown Women’s Champion.
Becky Lynch was the hottest thing going at the time, and despite her being a fan-favorite champion, fans had no issue with Asuka, feeling she more than deserved it. The following month, Asuka would beat eventual-Royal Rumble 2019 winner Becky Lynch, opening the grand PPV and submitting her clean as a whistle.
With Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair going to RAW to challenge for the RAW Women’s Championship, the question begs – who is Asuka facing at WrestleMania 35?
For one, she didn’t even get a match at Elimination Chamber. At the time, there were rumors floating about that Lacey Evans would end up getting the title shot against Asuka, with WWE reportedly wanting to push her big time. However, it’s a little hard to believe that granted all she does is just walk out so she can walk back in again.
With Asuka defeating Mandy Rose at Fastlane after Sonya Deville‘s error, WWE began to tease dissent between Rose and DeVille. Two nights later, an “error” from Rose would cost her as well. From the look of things right now, we could be headed for a triple threat match at WrestleMania between Asuka and a broken-up Fire & Desire.
With that said, WWE could very well add Lacey Evans or another superstar to the mix. It is WrestleMania, after all, and WWE loves to get multi-person matches on the card, simply for the purpose of putting everyone possible on the card in some form or the other.
Either way, it’s going to be really interesting to see what WWE has in store for Asuka. Her reign hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, and we may more than likely see a big title change take place.
