Why WWE Have Already Killed Asuka
Everybody's got a degree in hindsight, no matter how stupid WWE considers its own audience based on the ever-shrinking sense of logic, continuity or simple common sense from one week to the next. With the company still unable to drag itself out of the longest ever post-WrestleMania slump, a number of concerns emerging from the 'Show of Shows' have been established as hard inconvenient truths. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura were never destined to have a WWE match that equalled their Wrestle Kingdom classic no matter where in the world they took it. Vince McMahon's 2017 flirtation with tag team wrestling was an aberration the existing performers find themselves punished for today. Roman Reigns still both is and isn't the guy despite having more meandering directions than the Spaghetti Junction.
And yet, despite all of this, Asuka's collapse has been the bitterest to observe.
It's now apparent that the character was dead the moment she tapped out to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34. Ignore token victories in meaningless midcard matches during SmackDown Live! broadcasts attracting pitiful figures or back-to-back title opportunities afforded to her due to the profound lack of other opponents for a heel champion. Everything that's happened to her has been a case of kicking the corpse as hard as she used to boot terrified NXT challengers. Blind optimists at the time - and yes they are still out there - were excited to see how she would fare in a brave new world as a beaten woman, but browbeaten fans knew better even when they didn't particularly want to.
The submission loss set her off on a fast track to rank mediocrity amongst the rank-and-file, as it would virtually any other babyface in 2018. An undefeated streak is a cliff-edge upon which a talent waits to be pushed figuratively instead of literally. Ironically, losing is one of the only ways talents can pull themselves pack up the steep face. Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas rebounded from demeaning duties in The Miztourage to label themselves 'The B-Team' and win the Raw Tag Team Championships. Their credibility hasn't remotely shot up but their stock has, in almost direct contrast to Asuka's trajectory during a period she was allegedly being presented as a genuine threat. 'The Empress Of Tomorrow' might earn herself another title shot or six if she dedicates everything to becoming a punchline, but she's spent most waking moments since May doing that and that joke isn't funny anymore.
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