4 reasons why Asuka will defeat Becky Lynch at the 2019 Royal Rumble
The WWE's annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view takes place this Sunday. Traditionally, the Royal Rumble has been the start of the 'Road to WrestleMania'. Everything goes into higher gear, as the company prepares for its biggest event of the year.
The 2019 Royal Rumble will set the stage for what happens at WrestleMania 35. The ramifications of the SmackDown Women's Championship match are especially important.
The challenger, Becky Lynch, is a two-time SmackDown Live Women's Champion. She was the first ever SmackDown Live Women's Champion, as well as the first female draft pick for SmackDown Live.
She won the first ever WWE main roster Last Woman Standing match, and main evented WWE TLC in the first ever women's Tables Ladders and Chairs match. She is arguably the hottest babyface in the entire company.
The champion, Asuka, is in her first reign as SmackDown Live Women's Champion. Indeed, she failed to capture the SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 34. That match marked her first WWE singles loss, and ended her more than 500 day undefeated streak.
Asuka won the first ever woman's Royal Rumble match, was sole survivor in her Survivor Series elimination match debut, and won the first ever women's Tables Ladder and Chairs match. She is extremely popular with the fans as well.
The question is, which of these two women will leave the Royal Rumble as SmackDown Women's Champion?
The answer is - the Empress of Tomorrow, Asuka.
Lets find out why.
#1 Asuka just won the championship
Asuka is in her first reign as SmackDown Women's Champion. She just won the championship, and will have held it for only 42 days at the time of the Royal Rumble.
She may have defeated both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch to win the championship, but the win was in a TLC match; she did not pin or submit either one of them. Moreover, she won after Ronda Rousey interfered, and attacked both Flair and Lynch.
It was an impressive performance until that point, and the crowd reacted well to her victory, but it was absolutely not a convincing championship victory.
Asuka failed to defeat Charlotte Flair for the championship under the bright lights of WrestleMania 34, and she failed to win the championship multiple times against Carmella.
Admittedly, Flair is the most dominant woman in recent WWE history, and Carmella won due to outside interference. However, she still failed in crunch moments, something a WWE babyface cannot keep doing.
Defeating Becky Lynch will legitimize her as a champion.
However, losing will make her look like a choker.
The WWE clearly sees Asuka as a star, and stars win.