5 alterations WWE has made due to Charlotte Flair defeating Asuka
Multiple storylines have had shocking twists in the build-up to WrestleMania 35, notably involving Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston, and we can now add another name to the list of Superstars who have been robbed in WWE storylines ahead of this year’s event: Asuka.
On the March 26 episode of SmackDown Live, “The Empress of Tomorrow” was supposed to find out who she would face in a one-on-one match on April 7 after WWE announced that there would be a Fatal 4-Way between Carmella, Naomi, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville to determine her opponent.
However, the 4-Way match was scrapped from the show entirely and Asuka was instead forced to defend the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair, who was already scheduled to have a title match at WrestleMania 35 against Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch in the main event for the Raw Women’s Championship.
Flair went on to win the match against the woman she previously defeated at WrestleMania 34, and the surprising outcome presumably means that both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships will now be defended in the Triple Threat main event at MetLife Stadium.
In this article, let’s take a look at five alterations that WWE has made in order for Flair to go into WrestleMania 35 with the SmackDown Women's Championship.
#5 Fatal 4-Way #1 contender match cancelled
As we already alluded to, the advertised match between Carmella, Naomi, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville did not take place on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live.
WWE regularly announces matches in advance and cancels them at the last minute (Johnny Gargano vs. Cesaro and Dana Brooke vs Natalya being two recent examples), but few pre-advertised cancellations have had such extreme consequences as somebody missing out on having a one-on-one match at WrestleMania.
In all likelihood, Deville probably would have won the Fatal 4-Way match and gone on to challenge for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in her home state of New Jersey. Instead, her best chance of featuring at WrestleMania now is if she competes in the as-yet-unconfirmed Women’s Battle Royal.