Opinion: Why Asuka Should Leave WWE Soon
Asuka is WWE superstar who is currently part of the SmackDown roster. When she originally signed the NXT contract in September 2015, she was the talk of the wrestling community and many wrestling experts even went as far as predicting that she would be the next big thing in the world of WWE.
She was on the right track during her initial stages of the developmental brand where she had amazing matches with all the female Superstars of the NXT roster including Baley, Nia Jax, and Nikki Cross. She held the NXT Women's Championship title for a whopping 510 days.
In 2016, when Mr. McMahon wanted Asuka to move to the main roster, Triple H deterred him and went as far as saying that Asuka is"the one person NXT could not afford to lose" and she is the brand's "anchor". This shows the amount of work she has put in to make NXT what it is today. She was also voted as NXT's Female Competitor of the Year in the years 2016 and 2017.
But unfortunately, Asuka's dream run was reserved only till the developmental brand. Her story has been completely different on Raw and SmackDown. She did dominate the Raw's roster during the latter half of 2017 with incredible matches against the likes of Shasha Banks, Emma, and Alexa Bliss.
The Empress even won the Women's first Royal Rumble in January 2018. It seemed like the only thing missing from this fantasy run was the main-roster Championship Title. The WWE Universe believed that she would win the title at WrestleMania 34, but WWE had other plans.
Asuka suffered her first loss in WWE at the hands of Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34 and lost her opportunity to become the SmackDown Women's Champion. With her undefeated streak of 914 wins, she also lost all her momentum and push.
Since then, she has been easily defeated by Carmella, a coward heel twice and she even lost the tag-team match against The IIconics at Super Show-Down recently. She is not even a regular feature on SmackDown Live now and makes occasional appearances in filler matches.
According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Asuka is not going to get another push any time soon due to her distress of English speaking skills. But, we have seen great title holders in WWE earlier who did not speak English very well or who did not cut good promos.
The prime example is The Great Khali, who could not speak or understand English very well, and even then was given a big push and a title run with the World Heavyweight Championship. He was in the title picture several times in 2007 and 2008.
Brock Lesnar, who is the biggest Superstar of WWE never cut a single promo during his run with the Universal Championship as Heyman was always there to talk for him and yet he held that belt for a year and a half. So, if these wrestlers can get someone else to talk for them, then why not Asuka? She can then just concentrate on her in-ring work, which is her biggest USP.
If Asuka is continued to be ignored, she should seriously think about leaving WWE as and when her contract expires. She should go to other promotions, which will treat her the way she deserves.
She was the biggest name when she was competing in the different promotions in Japan as she was running those places single-handedly. She has had won numerous championships and tournaments there and should probably think about going there.
She is 37 already and if she will continue to play a mid-carder in WWE, then she is just wasting her rare talent, which is not only unfair to her, but to the entire industry and the fans.