It’s still early in 2018, but WWE has dedicated most of the year to establishing Ronda Rousey and Asuka as the biggest players in women’s wrestling. But by 2019, they may be at the forefront of the entire company.
Before we go any further, here’s one more spoiler disclaimer.
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According to WrestlingNews.co, the current plans are for Asuka to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship from Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania. While the belt is a welcome trophy, Asuka’s victory is more about preserving her near 2-year undefeated streak.
However, Asuka’s streak is being built only for the sake of being harvested.
Per the report, Rousey will be the one end Asuka dominant run atop WWE. This could happen at SummerSlam 2018, but it’s more likely to occur at next year’s WrestleMania 35.
The path to this could go a number of ways, but the proverbial ball has already been set in motion.
At the end of 2017, Asuka started using the armbar to cinch her matches. However, the added weapon was no coincidence as WWE will use it as ammo to fire up a story with Rousey. For those that will remember, Rousey used the armbar to earn 9 of her 12 MMA victories.
If Rousey does indeed inhale Asuka’s win streak, the reception will be polarizing, to say the least. Asuka graduated from NXT with an abundance of well-justified hype. Her fans are some of WWE’s staunchest and see her as the future of the company. Keeping her undefeated streak intact is crucial to the potency of her character, and if Rousey ends it within Asuka’s first-year on the main roster, well, that would make Rousey an easy adversary for many WWE fans.
This would give Rousey Roman Reigns level heat, but that may be exactly what WWE is going for. There are already rumors that Rousey is set to be pair with Paul Heyman in the early going and that would guarantee her working as a heel. And if it didn’t, her extinguishing Asuka’s streak most certainly would.
WWE is going to book Rousey to the moon. So consider no accomplishment, no matter how big, to be out of her reach.