Is Raw ready for Asuka?
The Empress of Tomorrow; holder of the NXT record-breaking title reign at 523 days. Undefeated. Never pinned or submitted inside a WWE ring.
That's a lot of momentum to keep going and with the talent in Raw's Women's Division, it will be interesting to see how they continue to book Asuka and keep her streak going. It will also be interesting to see how they keep the other women's division talent relevant.
There's only a short time that they can book Asuka against local talent, before she starts feuding with the top of the women's division and eventually competing for the Raw Women's Championship. How long will they keep her streak going?
What does that mean for Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax, Dana Brooke, Mickie James, Alicia Fox and the returning soon Paige? Will they book Asuka like they do with Nia Jax, where she remains dominant, but does not have a women's title match for a long time?
When she does have a title match, will they have the champion remain the champion via disqualification or some other creative outcome? Multiple opponent matches so Asuka doesn't directly lose? What happens when Asuka becomes Raw Women's Champion? Should the rest of the women's division pack their bags and head to Smackdown? As you can see, there are a lot of questions and I personally don't think Raw is ready for Asuka.
Alternatively, they could book her to be defeated and claim that the competition on Raw is much stronger than NXT, but what would that say about the yellow brand? I'm sure Triple H wouldn't be too happy about that!
A continued, lengthy feud with Emma, would have been best to get her started on Raw, but after Emma's release, that's obviously not going to work. Maybe Dana Brooke can take Emma's place to get Asuka going with main roster talent after she is done dominating the local talent they feed her. Dana could approach Asuka about defeating her friend Emma in her TLC Raw debut and "ending her WWE career".
Dana could "defend her friend's honor" in a feud with Asuka. Dana has been a recent afterthought, an enhancement talent and this could make her relevant before her potential future release. If her first two main roster feuds end up released by the WWE, it could build an even stronger reputation for Asuka.
Most of the Raw women's division has already faced Asuka in NXT. Moving on from a dominant feud with Dana Brooke, the best bookings would be with ring veterans, Mickie James and Alicia Fox. They both have established careers, (Mickie more than Foxy) and could afford a high profile feud with Asuka where they look strong but ultimately enhance Asuka's streak. Asuka and Mickie James put on a great championship match in NXT when Mickie returned to WWE and this would be a great way to reintroduce the feud.
In my opinion, they should keep Asuka away from championship matches for as long as they can. If they were to push her towards the Women's title too soon, it would make the rest of the division look weak and overmatched. If there was a plethora of enhancement talent or veterans, that would be different, but most of the Raw women's talent are young and rising superstars.
Do you think Raw is ready for Asuka? Have some ideas on how they should book Asuka? Comment below with your thoughts.