5 times WWE fans were told that Asuka is not a priority
Asuka established herself as one of the greatest Superstars in NXT history during her two years with WWE’s developmental brand. The longest-reigning NXT Women’s champion of all time, she held the title for 522 days and joined the main roster in October 2017 having gone through the NXT system without losing via pinfall or submission.
“The Empress of Tomorrow” has since had some huge career-defining moments as part of the Raw and SmackDown Live rosters, notably when she won the first women’s Royal Rumble in January 2018, while she also had a featured match at WrestleMania 34 against Charlotte Flair.
This week, however, the WWE Universe has started a #JusticeForAsuka hashtag on social media after she lost the SmackDown Women’s Championship in an impromptu match against Flair on SmackDown Live, and many fans are calling for WWE to give her more of a spotlight on television.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five storyline examples where the Japanese star has clearly not been treated as a priority by WWE.
#5 TLC 2017 debut
Even though TLC 2017 only took place 17 months ago, the WWE landscape, specifically the pay-per-view model, was very different then to what we see today.
The Raw-exclusive event is best remembered for the illnesses of Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns, which forced WWE to bring in AJ Styles and Kurt Angle at the last minute, but it is also notable because the show began with Asuka making her main-roster debut against Emma.
At the time, the former NXT Women’s champion had been undefeated in almost two years, while Emma frequently lost matches in under five minutes on Raw and she was often overshadowed by the likes of Sasha Banks, Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. Essentially, even though fans could see how talented Emma was, there was no way her character stood a chance against the mighty Asuka.
That is why it was so surprising when the Aussie managed to last 9 minutes and 25 seconds in the match at TLC, far longer than she had lasted against the rest of the women’s division in previous months. If WWE wanted “The Empress of Tomorrow” to make a huge statement on her debut, showing exactly why she had been such an unstoppable force in NXT, this was the wrong way to go about it. Instantly, she felt like just another woman on the roster.