This has been expected since Asuka and Mickie James’ paths crossed a couple of weeks back on WWE Raw, and it should be a good one.
With the Raw women’s division seemingly lacking anyone the powers that be want to push for the Raw Women’s Championship, the time for a James and Asuka rivalry is perfect.
They’ll give the older fans a fun contest between the two generations, and since both women are still among the best wrestlers around, we expect a good to great match.
The come back
Since missing a year due to an injury, James came back and immediately set her sights on the top prize, the Raw Women’s Championship.
Having her first opponents being Lana and Natalya made sense, even if they’re both little more than jobbers at this point.
We’re trying to forget how the WWE botched her first return match by focusing on Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe exchanging words at the announcing table.
Since then, James has shown she hasn’t lost anything and is still capable of putting a good match together.
Unfortunately, we don’t think it’s going to be that kind of night.
As we’ve stated in other previews, it feels like the WWE will continue with the predictable game plan of having distractions and roll ups determine matches instead of letting the wrestlers do their thing.
Nothing goes smoothly
While they’ll put on a good show, we think this rivalry will culminate with a real championship match at Clash of Champions.
So, with that being said, we’d be surprised is Lana and Natalya don’t interfere in some way.
We expect James to have the upper hand and be ready to finish Asuka for the title when her recent adversaries come out and distract her.
This will give Asuka the chance to collect herself and lock in her Asuka Lock or roll James up for the pin.
Another option is Lana and Natalya simply attack James outside the ring, resulting in a disqualification and keeping their feud alive along with James and Asuka’s.
This is the typical WWE tactics to prolong the feud, and for whatever reason, most of the promised matches feel ripe for these type of things.
It’s recent history, and if Vince McMahon thinks it works, why change it?
Honestly, we’d love to see this one go off without any problem, and we’re crossing our fingers it’s the case on WWE Raw.
However it works out, Asuka is honorable, so she’ll be open to a rematch. She’s a fighting champion and won’t ever turn someone down, so it’s as good as etched in stone.
There’s also the possibility that James wins and takes the championship.
That’d be an unexpected surprise as titles generally only change hands on pay-per-view, but it’d be a fun twist to keep us engaged.
It’d also give James a chance to return the favor and accept Asuka’s challenge for Clash of Champions.
No matter how it goes, we expect these two to meet at the pay-per-view for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship.
How do you think things will work out tonight? Let us know in the comments below.
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