Having been pulled from WWE's Queen of the Ring tournament this month due to injury, there's now an update on Asuka's status.
During her latest YouTube video, as picked up on by WrestlingHeadlines, the Empress of Tomorrow revealed that she's taking some time off to "receive treatment" for a knee injury. Neither the severity of this injury nor the recovery period has been revealed as of this writing.
Asuka had an injury scare in the lead to WrestleMania XL, tweaking her knee in a freak accident as she simply went from the ring apron to the ringside floor during a Bayley vs. Dakota Kai SmackDown match. Despite that, the star was able to compete at 'Mania, where she, Dakota, and Kairi Sane lost to Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, and Naomi.
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In the time since this year's Showcase of the Immortals, Asuka worked WWE's traditional post-'Mania European Tour and was last in action at Backlash earlier this month, where she and Kairi dropped the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles to Bianca and Jade.
Following Backlash, Asuka was initially advertised to face Lyra Valkyria in the opening round of the Queen of the Ring tournament. Instead, the five-time WWE Women's Champion was replaced in that contest by Kai, who would end up losing to the recently-called-up Lyra.
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All the best from us here at WhatCulture Wrestling to Asuka on her road to recovery.
Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics.
As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.
