Does WWE Have Any Plans For Asuka?

If you only started watching WWE in the last couple of weeks, you’d be forgiven for not realising there is another Women’s Champion somewhere on the big ol’ roster. You see, Becky Lynch’s Royal Rumble victory has sparked a huge interest in The Man’s hunt for Ronda Rousey’s Raw Women’s Title, but just what are WWE doing by leaving the SmackDown Women’s Champion in the middle of Purgatory? It really makes you wonder if plans are even in place for Asuka.

Let’s take this week’s Raw and SmackDown as examples. The opening to both shows revolved around Becky Lynch gunning for Rousey, despite having a bad leg and the McMahons in her face. Meanwhile, Asuka was nowhere to be seen (save for a video package on SmackDown). Let’s not forget The Empress of Tomorrow made Lynch tap out at the Royal Rumble, and there is so much potential there for her to brag about it. Remember the whole “No one is ready for Asuka” line she liked to band about back in the day? Well, now would be a very good time to start saying it again. Asuka seems very happy to take a back seat to Lynch and Rousey, which completely goes against everything we know about the Japanese superstar.

To some degree, you can forgive WWE for wanting to push Becky/Ronda to the absolute forefront. However, it’s much harder to forgive WWE for trying to ram Charlotte Flair into the mix. Keeping the focus on Asuka, we have to wonder why Vince McMahon & Co. seem set on taking the most viable opponent for Asuka at WrestleMania and putting her in a match that really doesn’t need an extra element to it. At last year’s WrestleMania, Asuka’s incredible undefeated streak came to an end at the hands of Charlotte Flair. Now Asuka has some leverage of Flair in the form of the SmackDown Women’s Championship, wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to offer Charlotte Flair for a rematch? The EoT gets a chance to right a wrong, Flair gets a title shot, and the Ronda Rousey/Becky Lynch match carries on as before; everyone wins.

Of course, there has been a bit of a buzz surrounding new championships that has also pushed Asuka and the SmackDown Women’s Title to the back of everyone’s mind: the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. It seems like every woman across Raw and SmackDown has more interest in the new straps as opposed to the main title Asuka holds. Am I really meant to believe former champs, such as Naomi and Carmella, would rather form a mish-mash tag team than challenge Asuka on the Road to WrestleMania? Not only does it not make sense, it deprives Asuka of any other potential challengers.

So what is The Empress of Tomorrow actually going to be doing come WrestleMania? She could very well take on a loser from the Tag Title Tournament, but that seems a bit unlikely as Naomi is all wrapped up with Mandy Rose, and Carmella will probably be reduced to dancing with R-Truth or something. Will a new call up answer the challenge? Will Ruby Riott jump to SmackDown? Or will Asuka just sit in the back and enjoy some free catering? As of now, your guess is as good as mine.