7 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Raw (June 22)

3. Asuka Gets Monkey Off Her Back

Asuka Charlotte
WWE.com

For years, Asuka has been unable to defeat Charlotte Flair, having her undefeated streak ended by the Queen and losing numerous high-profile matches to her as well.

So with Asuka now holding the Raw Women’s Championship, it was only a matter of time before Flair tried to parlay that rivalry dominance into another title reign. But this time, the Empress was ready and finally overcame Charlotte.

Charlotte was fighting an uphill battle with an injured left arm courtesy of Nia Jax, but Asuka was just better, turning a deadlift powerbomb into the Asuka Lock for the tap-out win. Now, you could make the case that this should have been a PPV match, but in this strange era, does it really matter?

At the end of the day, WWE is clearly trying to put Asuka over strong as a dominant champ following a dominant champ in Becky Lynch, and this was one great way to do it.

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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 fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.