Farewell to Asuka's Career

[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by Simple Fan Never was that into Asuka. I believe NXT overhypes alot of these women.

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan It's more the botching of the character that they built up than the botching of Asuka herself that is ridiculous. I don't find Asuka the performer to be miles ahead of everyone else. But they did a good job of building her up as unstoppable. And then just shat it all away in a manner where it almost takes a special talent to botch a push that badly. It's not the fact that she lost a match (though that's the easy WWE apologist strawman). It's the fact that she went from an unstoppable beast to a joke of a jobber in an instant.

Originally Posted by Damian Rey 2.0 I've watched one Asuka match since her call up, which was the match with Charlotte at Mania. I watched a number of her matches in nxt, mostly the Takeover stuff. The way she was presented was night and day. Nxt Asuka was an unstoppable monster, like a villain in a horror film. Doesn't matter what you throw at her, she keeps getting up and eventually you are destroyed. WrestleMania Asuka looked like she was the equal to Charlotte. It didn't seem like Charlotte had to nearly kill herself to beat Asuka. They wrestled like they were peers. To me, that's the death knell. Whatever made Asuka special on nxt was lost simply by how they booked her matches. If and when she loses, it should be because the other person essentially had to try and kill her. They don't seem to be doing that. Hence she fails.

Sadly, it is a systemic thing not limited to Asuka, or women's wrestling in general. It is a NXT to WWE issue.

It isn't a matter of "overhype", it is a matter of diminishing what the big deal was. Bray Wyatt had his two heavies, but he was dangerous in and of himself. Main roster Bray Wyatt was a jobber who rambled crazy promos. NXT Sami Zayn was the scrappy, fight from underneath competitor who could hang with - if not beat - anyone on any night. WWE Sami Zayn cuts annoying promos and hides behind Kevin Steen. NXT Tyler Breeze was top tier talent who warranted bringing in Jushin Thunder fucking Liger for ample competition. WWE Tyler Breeze has to record stupid backstage segments that don't even air on the show - that you have to seek out online - to get something to do. NXT Ascension was an unstoppable force. WWE Ascension are a pair of nobodies.

NXT Asuka was an ass kicker. A feared striker. She beat 2 or even 3 girls at once because nobody was ready. Main roster Asuka had trouble beating Emma, a who was already established as a delusional jobber. They even tried to keep the hype surrounding her as momentum going into that RAW where she debuted... but the actual presentation msde her look like anything but. They killed the momentum themselves, and probably had the nerve to say that it was her fault for any bad reaction. It would be like if on the main roster re-emergence of Drew McIntyre, he has a 20 min match with James Ellsworth that he barely wins. Would we be buying him as "the Scottish psychopath" after being shit on like that?

I'm actually currently watching NXT TakeOver Brooklyn 4 as I write this on my phone. Saw Velveteen Dream's tights: "Call Me Up Vince". For his sake, I hope Vince doesn't take him up on it. Not because Dream hasn't come a long way or isn't deserving: he is the perfect mix of Rick Rude and the first iteration of Golddust, but because I know he will be "just another guy" inside of six months.