*Looks at the HoF qualifications Alexa Bliss
has already racked up at the age of 26*
Yeah...it only takes a half way decent push
to rack up those kind of qualifications...especially
for the ladies.
I'd rather see Asuka wrestle long, grueling
high quality matches against high quality
opponents.
I mean the odd squash match is fine...but I
don't think the women's division can handle
squash matches like the Asuka vs. Alicia/Dana.
It opens up to much of a gap between the
top & bottom of the card.
I'm hoping Charlotte vs. Asuka at Wrestlemania
gets at least 20 minutes...even if Asuka picking to
challenge Charlotte instead of Alexa makes no
logical fucking sense at this point.
Admittedly, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte, and a few others have already racked up several HoF qualifications so to speak, that's mostly a symptom of the times, the very fact that WWE is in the middle of a Women's revolution by nature makes several women have a far easier chance of making an impressionable history. First Champions for the individual brand titles, winning/participating in the first gimmick match of it's type (HIAC, Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, etc.), Alexa being the first to hold both championships, main eventing, competing in Abu Dhabi, there's just a lot more opportunity for them to rack these up. But what's special about Asuka's is that, outside of the Rumble, her achievements aren't relative to the women's division but WWE as a whole. Her undefeated streak isn't just impressive in context of the women, it's historic in WWE altogether. Her NXT Women's Championship reign wasn't just the longest title reign in forever in the Women's, it's the longest title reign in forever in all of WWE. Her victory over Dana Brooke here wasn't the quickest submission victory in women matches, it was in all of WWE. The fact that this is all outside the context that the rest of the division's accomplishments are tied to, is what makes them all the more meaningful. To me at least, I can totally understand someone finding like the first PPV main event as a bigger deal but personally, the fact that Asuka's feats are above most of the male roster, is the entire end-goal of the Women's Revolution.
And while I agree that Asuka having high caliber competitive matches are preferable to squashes, there's a time and a place, and the opponent needs to be right. Needless to say Dana Brooke is not right. They would've need to built up her (and Alicia Fox) up a lot in order for her standing a chance against Asuka to not be a knock on Asuka's aura because Brooke, has essentially been a jobber on TV, whenever they even bothered to give her time. I mean, just look at what happened at TLC, Emma had a semi-competitive and while I actually thought that was fine, the general fan reaction online was that they already messed up Asuka. If Dana Brooke had a competitive match with Asuka out of the blue, the fan perception, at least on the internet, would likely be similar, with a bunch of people worried over Asuka. And they kinda had to do these matches. Because Asuka had already done weeks of defeating the local talent, continuing on with that for much longer would've been redundant (and to clarify, I'm not saying that the series of matches Asuka had with Fox & Brooke in a row weren't redundant, though I will state this quick submission victory not only signaled the end of this portion of Asuka's booking iirc but also definitely broke up the redundancy), she had to progress forward. At this time pretty much every woman was involved with Absolution, outside of like Nia Jax but let's not remember what they were doing with here, as far as I can think the only on-roster wrestlers not tied into this were Fox & Brooke. I'm glad that rather than just giving as Asuka matches for the sake of giving us Asuka matches, that opted to create a moment that only further cements her legacy, and also maintains her aura. The submission squash doesn't help Brooke, but I really don't think it does to hurt her. Her career at that point could at the most be called floundering in shallow waters, the conversation at least from what I've seen from twitter was all on Asuka. Which is what it was always going to be about a regular squash match wouldn't generate much discussion outside of just "Yeah, Asuka's gonna Asuka, I guess", an unexpectedly quick finisher lock in tap out blink of an eye and you missed it squash match, that generates attention and conversation around Asuka because it's something that just does not tend to happen. Especially considering how clean it was. Like, how many on the list in here featured some kind of distraction or surprise to it, Daniel Bryan with his kiss to AJ or Kane with his behind appearance on Chavo (that felt gross to write).
I don't even think it's a problem to have too much of a gap between the top tier and the bottom tier, I actually think it's a bigger problem not to have a sizeable gap, not only does that leave less room for potential growth but when everyone's near the same level, nobody feel special. But for this specifically, it's kinda Asuka's gimmick and aura. She's above everybody, there are very few people that she even treats like threats and that's integral to her character. A big part of the reason why I thought the Sasha Banks match was AJ Styles is because of how she was treated. Both in the way that Asuka treated her seriously (notice how she didn't follow her roll through dodge with the dance like she normal does, or how her she only really taunted during moments of control). This match wouldn't have worked nearly as well without Asuka's constant portrayal as this undefeated Empress, and I'll gladly take those squash matches to reinforce that aura, if it's going to lead to matches this, or the one against Ember. And WWE's credit, they've moved on from doing, that haven't brought Asuka back to squashing Fox & Brooke, they served their purpose and now Brooke has a more involved role with Titus Worldwide (which I think is a better fit for her? I don't really know) and Fox is injured so that didn't work out for her, regardless Asuka has avoided squash matches, it was just a way to constantly reinforce her presence and keep her a constant presence to the audience while the rest were busy, and they decided to bring one genuine highlight out of it, and I think it's awesome that they didn't just a series of squash matches.
Actually, it could wind up making perfect logical sense for Asuka and Charlotte to square off at WrestleMania depending on what happens this Monday when Asuka takes on Nia Jax. If Asuka manages to defeat Nia Jax more conclusively than Elimination Chamber, along with perhaps battling off Alexa Bliss, and avoids any post-game trouble (like post-match maybe Bliss attempts to attack Asuka but Asuka fends her off, maybe the two try double-ganging her and a miscue leads to them hitting each-other, which could set-up the Bliss/Jax match I read that wanted awhile back [and have been ostensibly building towards for most of Alexa's reign though WWE has done a terrible job since Nia once turned her back on Alexa and then randomly was her bestie again (they pulled this same crap with Mickie last Monday, and I'm 100% convinced it was only because they didn't want Alexa or Nia to take the fall in the six woman match (and with Fox injured, Mickie's the only woman Raw has that isn't already spoken for); I'm still bitter about this, Mickie deserves better]]). Point being, they set-up a perfect opportunity to not only set-up for Jax/Bliss but to resolve Asuka's involvement with them. If she choose Charlotte after Elimination Chamber, it'd look like she was running from them. If she chooses Charlotte after beating Nia, and Alexa, then no, she's choosing Charlotte because she already proved they aren't ready for her (I mean, she has already beaten Alexa clean as whistle). I do feel that if this doesn't happen we're are probably doomed to Asuka vs. Bliss, and I feel the only reason WWE will be doing that is because somebody finally remembered Carmella has the briefcase, and they plan on having her cash in at Mania but don't want to end the Streak that way. But yes, I absolutely hope that Charlotte vs. Asuka gets a lot of time at WrestleMania, if it happens it will easily be my most anticipated match on the card.
And for everyone who doesn't want to read a novel, too bad, I'm not doing a
too long;didn't read. If I was capable of condensing my points to a reasonable length, I wouldn't be writing novels. Okay, but seriously I can be concise: Asuka's achievements are more impressive than the rest of the division since hers are impressive outside of the women's division; the squash matches were going to happen anyway due to the nature of progressive building & the limited roster size, so it's awesome that rather than just bland squash matches, they decided to make a historic moment for it; the nature of matches like these help re-affirm Asuka's aura and make matches like the one with Sasha even more delectable; Charlotte at Mania is still very much a logical possibility depending on how they handle the Nia match this Monday.
If that was too long for you, the submission squash was awesome, Asuka's awesome, I type too much, and Charlotte vs. Asuka better Seth freakin' Rollins happen.
4:
HOF qualifications for WWE... Just stay on good terms with WWE and you'll get in the HOF one day.
lol yeah, I know. It's just how my brain thought to phrase "impressive/historic feats/stats", probably cause that's a more wrestling based context writing of it.
