10 Booking Steps To End Asuka’s Undefeated Streak In WWE
The Empress must not fall tomorrow.
It has to happen at some point.
The undefeated streak storyline is as problematic to conclude as it is a proven platform on which to create a star. Goldberg infamously lost to Kevin Nash at StarrCade 1998. Scott Hall stuck Goldberg with a stun-gun, which WCW did pay off, and pay off well. WCW even paid off Bam Bam Bigelow's interference, when Bill smashed through him at SuperBrawl - but by then, the bloom was off the rose. That match yielded tedium more than it did catharsis, and by the time Goldberg pinned Nash, at Spring Stampede, the preceding Finger Poke of Doom angle had removed both men from the World Title picture. Restoring the parity of a win/loss record is easy. Restoring an aura is altogether more difficult.
In wrestling, best laid plans are often laid to rest through petty ego and, in the case of Ryback, the unavoidable pratfalls of an industry in which long-term planning is subject to unforeseeable factors. But, if remotely possible, Asuka must be protected. Asuka is so powerful in the fiction of WWE that Carmella sold that premise as well as any writer could; confronted with the Empress during the Royal Rumble match, she squealed when escaping one of her stiff, sadistic kicks. A star that terrifying, it bears repeating, must be protected.
To fell a star, another must rise...
10. An Emphatic Declaration
The thinned roster prohibits anything special for the Empress at Elimination Chamber - but that is the point.
Ahead of the WrestleMania RAW Women's Title Match, WWE must maintain the status quo. It's simple - unimaginative, even - but the f*ck-witted forks in the road to WrestleMania 33 should compel WWE to not swerve off course. Alexa Bliss is set to defend that title against five as-yet-undetermined competitors in the eponymous match - which Asuka, obviously, is unable to provide guest commentary for (though she can't really do any more anonymous a job than Stephanie managed at the Rumble).
An emphatic squash match victory is the sensible thing to do - but against whom?
Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose surely won't participate in the Chamber match; they are goose-sh*t green on the main roster stage, taken with the seriousness of an Atsushi Onita retirement pledge, and are nowhere near equipped for a match of such brutal concentration. They exist to enhance the actual stars - and enhancing Asuka in tandem casts a shred of uncertainty over a certain outcome, at least nominally.
Moreover, the audience is provided with a visual of pure dominance by way of the Empress annihilating both women with stereo Buzzsaw kicks.