Asuka returned from hiatus last month at the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble, debuting a much more sinister persona to WWE. The match saw her revive her demonic clown look from her days as Kana in Japan, much to the delight of long-time fans of the Grand Slam Champion. She made it to the final three in Rumble, but then punched her ticket to WrestleMania 39 by winning a Women’s Elimination Chamber for a match with Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. And while interviews from the “Empress of Tomorrow” are incredibly rare, she actually addressed her character change in a recent Cameo video.ย
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“Most people are scared of clowns, but not me,” Asuka said while responding to a fan. “I missed my character in Japan and I’m happy to go back to it.”
Will WWE Unify the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships?
With WWE having unified both the WWE & Universal Championships and the Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championships in 2022, there’s been some speculation that the company might do the same with the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships. While Belair has Charlotte Flair listed as a WrestleMania dream opponent, Flair (the current SmackDown Women’s Champ) wants nothing to do with a unification match.
“I don’t recommend a unification program because I feel that would mean less opportunities for the women. It was cool for one of the girls to have both titles at one time, but it takes a lot of spots away,”ย Flair recently told theย Daytona Beach News-Journal.
“I mean, everybody always asks me, what’s your dream like Wrestlemania match? I say, Belair versus Flair. I think that’s another main event Wrestlemania match. You know, Charlotte Flair is one of the first women that I looked up to when I got to NXT; I saw myself in her. Ric Flair is her father, but a lot of people tend to forget she had zeAro experience coming in as well,” Belair said on Out of Character last year regarding a match withย Flair. “She was also a collegiate athlete like me, and so when I got into NXT, and I saw her on RAW and SmackDown, and being champion, I’m like, she was in the position that I’m in right now. And so that’s where I was like, that’s where I want to be when I finally get to be on the same stage as her. It lets me know I’ve done something right. I’ve made it, and so now I’m here, and so now she’s like the last Four Horsewoman that I haven’t defeated, and she’s the most decorated woman in women’s wrestling. So I think it’s really cool how she’s the last one that I’m chasing. And I would love for that to be a WrestleMania match. I think it’d be like one of the biggest women’s matches in history, and to be able to conquer her one day, and she’s like, at that mountain top list. It lets me know that I’m there. I did it. Because the Four Horsewomen, they’ve done so much for this women’s division. So to have my name in that conversation would be everything.”
