This is a pretty good point. But as someone who isn't very familiar with NXT and Asuka's time there, she didn't seem to be all that dominant on the main shows. It felt weird that they built her up to win the Royal Rumble just for her to lose her streak. And her streak hasn't been built up much for casual fans to care. Just felt like a weird thing to do.
Also I think Ronda had the best match, which doesn't shock me since HHH probably produced and booked the match and we've already seen what we get from HHH in terms of booking quality in NXT; it's far better than the main roster. IC title threeway and Charlotte/Asuka round out the top 3 matches for me. The first half of Mania was legitimately great and I thought it was the first time in several years (probably since 31) that Mania has really felt like WRESTLEMANIA. Seth's moment felt really huge and I think the IC belt gains a lot of legitimacy going forward. Would've liked to see more from AJ and Nakamura. Main event was terrible and it's very obvious that Roman is just beyond rehabbing his image at this point. He will never be the guy they want him to be, point blank period.
This is my case for Asuka losing as a strong booking decision: Charlotte is their champion, she's clearly the top woman on the roster. She had a dominant and lengthy run as the champion on Raw but isn't yet similarly entrenched on Smackdown. What's the purpose of an undefeated streak? It's so that somebody can beat it. Having Charlotte end the streak and hold off Asuka from winning her first title accomplishes several things. It establishes Charlotte as a dominant champion, which she wasn't yet on Smackdown. It gives Asuka's character legitimate conflict that I think she's been missing up to this point. And most of all, it sets up for an Asuka/Charlotte 2 angle where Asuka can learn to rely on more than just her past dominance to take down WWE's most fearsome female champion. I liked that decision a lot.
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