10 Booking Steps To End Asuka’s Undefeated Streak In WWE
8. Boss Fight
The events of Elimination Chamber set in stone the RAW Women's Championship Match at WrestleMania 34: 'The Boss' Sasha Banks Vs. Asuka.
Asuka, luxuriating in the confidence her aura affords her, is delighted at the prospect of a worthy challenger. The Boss is a match for both that confidence and Asuka's peerless in-ring acumen, having recalibrated the vicious focus with which she owned 2015. The peacocking body language in this thing alone elevates it to the realm of awesome - and Sasha's superb heel work layers the drama with palpable anxiety. She can't end this streak, not this way, is the agonising premise.
She doesn't: Asuka captures the gold after 15 minutes of brilliance, and after Sasha's newfound hubris consumes her. Asuka doesn't so much win as Banks loses. Sasha is pivotal to events going forward, and even a force like Asuka must exhibit some weakness; resentment is always a risk, and her eventual demise must be coherent - else suspension of disbelief is rendered impossible. It already is, to an degree - which is why Asuka Vs. Alexa Bliss is an apathetic proposition. Banks need not win; the stakes of the revived Bayley programme do not require a title. We need only remind ourselves of the brilliance that was 2015 to invest in even a straight retread.
Bayley, despite all that has happened, remains a paragon of virtue. She emerges onto the Grandest Stage, from which she is excluded, to console the woman she still considers a friend. Banks in response deposits Bayley with a callous slap to the face. Their programme is set.