In case you have not been paying attention to Raw lately, they have been hyping the arrival of Asuka to the main roster after a very successful run at NXT. She will be facing Emma at the TLC Pay-Per View in what should be nothing more than a glorified squash match. Now that Asuka is on the main roster, it is important that creative keeps up the momentum that she has. Not only is it important to keep this up for her current fans, but it is also important for the fans who will be getting introduced to her for the first time!
Now I know what some of you reading this are thinking; Introduced to her for the first time? Yes, I say that because not everyone who watches Raw follows NXT. They did do a nice vignette on Raw introducing her to the audience, but there are tons of people watching who said “Who is she, and why should I care about her?” We have seen performers in the past get called up from NXT only to go to the main roster with zero direction and a creative team who has zero idea what to do with them. A lot of this is because these NXT guys aren’t correctly introduced to the fans who only watch Raw and SmackDown. Sure, you were excited about Tye Dillinger showing up during the Royal Rumble last year, but then there were also those people who heard his music, saw his face, and then said “Who is Tye Dillinger and why is the number 10 so important to him?”
If you are going to bring someone in with “the longest undefeated streak in WWE history” (you know, WWE revisionist history), you have to continue to book her as a bad ass! The awesome theme music, the Kabuki Mask (if these aren’t already being sold on WWE shop, it would be a travesty), all of it has to be there with her! If you are going to say that her winning streak was greater than Bill Goldberg’s, then she has to be booked as such. She has to constantly win and win convincingly. If the idea that she wins and never loses is presented, then they need to keep it up. Put her in some squash matches for a while, and that doesn’t mean having her beat Emma and Alicia Fox week after week on rotation. I mean get some actual girls from the indie scene to come in and do jobs to her while she works her way through the mid-card women until she gets to whomever is champion by the time she is ready to take the title. That is how you build someone. She doesn’t need to be in any silly story-lines or unfunny backstage skits. We have seen how Nia Jax is booked as a monster, but then also booked like she is supposed to have feelings. Maybe that is why she took a personal leave!
Back to Asuka, can I be honest for a moment? I really don’t care about the winning streak that she has. In an era where fans are told wins and losses don’t matter, if that is how WWE feels, why should it matter to the fans? Hypocritical much, WWE? Plus, even now, more people know who Bill Goldberg is than Asuka. Did you know that the longest winning streak in professional baseball belongs to the 1987 Salt Lake Trappers? Probably not! Most people couldn’t care less because it wasn’t the New York Yankees; it was some minor league baseball team that doesn’t have a single memorable player on its team! I treat this is the same situation because I am looking at it from the eyes of those fans who do not follow NXT which is way more than WWE wants you to believe. Give these fans a reason to care about her. I am sure WWE will probably beat her winning streak over our heads and have their commentators mention it every 30 seconds during her match with Emma, but will that make us care? If you bring her in there, and she loses within three months, then she simply becomes just another person on the roster and nothing more. She would end up lost in the shuffle of 50/50 booking and fast-food wrestling. I don’t want this to happen to her. It is up to WWE and their creative team to do it right. They have a good thing here; I really hope it isn’t ruined. Whether or not it ruined is another story that will inevitably being in another column.
Give me your thoughts! How do you feel Asuka should be booked? As always, you can hit me up on Twitter @whosantcox or you can reach me on Instagram under the name Ultragoldenant. I respond to everyone whether you agree with me or not. Thank you for reading!
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