The Asuka Arguments

Asuka debuted at WWE TLC this past weekend and boy do people have opinions. Some believe that going 9-minutes with Emma was fine. Others thought it should have been a quick squash. Most are arguing for the sake of arguing.Who is right? Who is wrong? There are two sides to this story and I’m here to find the verdict.

*The Main Roster Is Tougher Than NXT: This is a flawed argument. The main roster is not tougher than the NXT roster. Bobby Roode lost to Drew McIntyre and Roderick Strong in NXT. Between those two matches, he defeated Aiden English on SmackDown Live. The majority of people who leave NXT, lose their last few matches. When they debut on the main roster, they win their first few matches. If anything, the NXT roster has tougher competition.

And you cannot say that “guys just doing business on the way out of NXT” and apply it to the “main roster is stronger” argument. They are two different principles. This is a sports vs. entertainment argument. Those saying “the main roster is tougher” are arguing sports. And their argument is wrong.

*It Was A Good Match: A sound argument. Wrestling matches should be good and Emma vs. Asuka was a perfectly average match. The work was smooth, they got the crowd invested, and both women looked like equals. If you just want your wrestling to be good and you’re not worried about anything else, this is a good argument to make.

There’s really no argument against this. Although many would have preferred a squash, few of those people will admit that the match was bad.

*A Squash Makes Emma Look Weak: If you’re fine with presenting everyone as equals, here is your argument. A squash would have done Emma no favors, but having her look competitive protects her to an extent.

The argument against this is that, who cares if Emma looks weak? She was barely on television for a year and the goal was to make Asuka look like a threat, not make Emma look like her equal.

*Asuka Looks Like A Threat If It’s A Squash: By coming in a beating Emma in 30-seconds, Asuka immediately becomes the most feared woman on the roster. She lives up to words spouted by Michael Cole and Corey Graves every week, touting her as someone who will destroy you with no conscious.

If you want to present everyone as equal, this argument likely bothers you.

*The Announcers Lied: Yes, I’ve seen this argument both ways. Some think that the announcers lost credibility because they built Asuka up to beat a killer and it took her 9-minutes to beat Emma. Others say that we should know Asuka is a killer because the announcers tell us and it makes Emma staying with her more impressive, not Asuka look weaker.

Don’t listen to either side of this argument. The announcers never had credibility and nothing they say matters.

*Give It Time: Ah, the ol “wait and see” argument. This is a non-argument that basically says, “I’m tired of this. If you can remember it in six months, let’s talk about it then.” You can argue against this by saying they have a proven track record of not being able to recover (Shinsuke Nakamura, Sasha Banks, Bayley, pretty much every NXT call-up), but the other person doesn’t want to hear that. They want to move on, that’s why they’re using this argument. Just move on.

*Squash Matches Worked In NXT: As my friends at Voices of Wrestling pointed out, 11 of Asuka’s 25 NXT matches went under five minutes. The result was Asuka becoming the second biggest female star in NXT history behind Bayley. She had competitive matches when the time was right to have competitive matches, but she ran through everyone on television early in her run.

Those against this argument will say that it took her 5:25 to defeat Dana Brooke in her NXT debut and that her squashes only occurred on television. This typically leads into the “Give It Time” argument.

*The Crowd Doesn’t Care: Yeah, even a deaf person heard the reaction Asuka got on Monday. The reaction for her at TLC wasn’t anything special despite the hype, the match was good enough to win the crowd back, and the victory pop was decent. But no one cared on Monday.

You can’t really argue with a fact. So “wait and see” usually wins out for the other side.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how Asuka is presented. She’s just having fun.

And I’m having fun on Twitter @jeremylambert88