5 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct 16)

3. A Quiet Build To Tomorrow

Oftentimes, the anticipation for something is greater than the event itself. That certainly could be applied to Asuka’s impending debut on the Raw brand at TLC.

WWE has been airing vignettes that convincingly show the Empress of Tomorrow demolishing her opponents in NXT during an epic, 500-plus-day reign as women’s champion. It’s a very simple tactic that gives casual fans a brief introduction to her without oversaturating them.

In some cases, the hype machine can backfire when a wrestler doesn’t live up to expectations, but as any NXT fan knows, Asuka is worth the hype. That, of course, comes with the caveat that the powers that be don’t find a way to screw her up by doing something dumb.

So for now, we’ll give a little credit in the lead-up to Asuka’s Raw debut against Emma.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.