10 Booking Steps For Asuka On WWE's Main Roster

7. Unwelcome

The Welcoming Committee
WWE.com

Carmella's arrogance is ultimately her undoing. Mistakenly believing her cash-in would lead to an easy retention over the newcomer, she is outmatched and embarrassed in Asuka's main roster debut.

Harking back to the brief times they shared on NXT, 'The Princess Of Staten Island' begs for forgiveness and contrition but is mercilessly destroyed with a raft of kicks and strikes that end her title reign almost as quickly as it started.

Dominant, decisive and dangerous, the new SmackDown Women's Champion sets her stall out with the victory, and opens the post-Survivor Series edition of the show with a hard-fought title match victory over Natalya.

The pair shake hands after the match, but are both decked by an enraged Carmella and James Ellsworth, as well as Tamina and Lana. Carmella announces the formation of a new and improved Welcoming Committee, advising the downed former and current champion that she is the only set to reclaim the prize.

Undeterred, Asuka returns the following week with a victory over Lana, and works through all the members of the group despite numerical disadvantage en route to again soundly defeating the former 'Ms. Money In The Bank' at the December pay-per-view.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett