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What a strange year Asuka has had. Starting off on a torrid pace, she quickly fell into an abyss it appeared she would never get out of. Then, suddenly, her star was born again at the end the year, almost from its own ashes.
It was good that she was reborn. Asuka is a world class talent that was criminally misused despite showing a lot of promise at the start of the year. Thankfully, it appears Vince McMahon has finally realized just that.
In an interview with Tokyo Sports, aside from revealing McMahon's reaction backstage after her TLC match (which I have as the sixth best of the year), Asuka said that she came to WWE for one reason - to raise the bar of women's wrestling.
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Since arriving in WWE at the seminal first NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn event, it's hard to argue that she hasn't done just that. More importantly, her long list of accomplishments opened the door for other international talent, showing them that they could make it in the world of the McMahons, under the brightest lights in the industry.
Here are some of the milestones in Asuka's career, some of which are records that won't be broken.
#1 Longest undefeated streak in WWE history
Goldberg racked up an impressive, if ultimately, inflated streak of 173-0 during the height of professional wrestling's popularity in the 1990s, right in the middle of the Monday Night Wars. In the spring of 2017, Asuka surpassed that record, ending it with approximately 250 straight wins over 914 days where she was never pinned or submitted.
Ronda Rousey may be undefeated for now, but she would need to remain so until October of 2020, and at a similar number of matches, to surpass Asuka's record.
Even with someone like Rousey, this is very unlikely to happen, nor is it likely to happen again.
#2 Unpinned or submitted on television
Though she's no longer undefeated, Asuka has yet to be pinned or submitted on television. This ensures that her pay per view losses feel bigger and more important, even if some of them have been astoundingly stupid. You know which ones those are.
Those pay per view losses were what dented Asuka's aura, her television strength ensured that she never looked too weak for too long. Her biggest problem was the perception that there was a glass ceiling she couldn't find a way to break through.
Though Asuka wasn't in a good spot until late in the year, it's worth remembering that the white hot Becky Lynch was in an even worse spot until her summer renaissance. In that regard, Asuka's TV strength ensured she could be built back up again credibly and smoothly. It's paid off as 2018 rapidly comes to a close.
#3 The first Japanese women's champion on the main roster in 24 years
In November of 1994, Bull Nakano won the then WWF Women's Championship. She dropped it to Alundra Blayze the following April. Until Asuka climbed the ladder at TLC, that was the last time a Japanese wrestler held a main roster women's championship.
What makes the breaking of this quarter-century gap even more significant is the prominence women's wrestling now has compared to Bull Nakano's time. Asuka's success came in the main event - a true sign that women's wrestling has much more attention now than it did in 1994. Arguably, Asuka is the first Japanese wrestler to hold a main event title in WWE, period.
This was yet another important signal to international female wrestlers who want to pursue their dreams of making it in the big time. Kairi Sane and Io Shirai, two of the brightest female prospects in NXT, were watching their compatriot very closely, and after congratulating her, had an interesting discussion about how different (and more difficult) it is to succeed in WWE compared to their homeland.
Sane and Shirai are two world class talents in their own right, and it must be a welcome sign to them to watch Asuka succeed, which is a thing that will open many new doors for them when they eventually move to the main roster. They'll be more motivated to know that there probably won't be another quarter-century gap between Asuka and the next Japanese women's champion in WWE.
#4 First-ever women's TLC winner
As much as I hate the words "historic" or "first ever" in a WWE context, because it usually comes in the form of pandering, it nevertheless needs to be pointed out that Asuka won the inaugural women's TLC match. In a big stipulation such as that, and in the main event to boot, such a victory is a sign of confidence. It's one most people wouldn't be able to see coming during Asuka's horrible summer.
Winning such a dramatic match is an accomplishment that Asuka will be able to boast of when she looks back on her career. She can also take comfort that it set an incredibly high bar for the women in the company, helping her to achieve the objective she set when she first came into the WWE in 2015, when a "women's revolution" looked promising, but was far from assured.
#5 First woman to win a SmackDown pay per view main event
The decision to headline the TLC pay per view with the triple threat match between Asuka, Becky, and Charlotte was the proper one. It was still surprising nevertheless, because WWE is notorious about letting Raw matches main event over SmackDown ones on a dual pay per view. See Backlash for the most infamous example, where a random Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe match headlined over the WWE Championship.
Sure, the Ronda Rousey intrigue that came with this match was probably important in its consideration on the card, but even without her, it would be hard to justify any other main event.
Asuka's victory to close the show was therefore a historic achievement of another kind, bringing some prestige to the blue brand. It also meant that Vince McMahon trusted that Asuka would be well received in her victory, which she was.
#6 First to win a last woman standing match
Much respect to Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, whose last woman standing match is my fifth best WWE match of 2018, and the best main roster match. Still, while it did exceed its predecessor, it wasn't the first.
In June of last year, Asuka and Nikki Cross put on a war as they battled to see who would be the last woman standing. It was the first match of its kind and showed the way forward that Charlotte and Becky would ultimately follow a year later.
With Nikki Cross now main roster-bound, and probably to SmackDown, the thoughts of many a fan are no doubt turning toward this match, and hoping that we'll see a repeat now that Asuka is carrying the gold on Tuesday nights.
Will Nikki Cross try to get the job done that she couldn't last time? It's a good reason to tune in.
#7 Longest reigning NXT Women's Champion
On the yellow brand, no one was ready for Asuka. She carried the NXT Women's Championship for a record 510 days (523 according to WWE, when her relinquishing was aired after a tape delay), reigning from April of 2016 to September of 2017. Though Pete Dunne has surpassed her then modern day record with his current United Kingdom Championship reign, her record with the NXT Women's Championship is unlikely to be broken by any of her successors.
For reference, the current NXT Women's Champion, Shayna Baszler, has reigned for a combined 186 days over two reigns. She's arguably been the second most dominant champion in the title's history in terms of her booking.
She would need to reign until late November of next year to surpass Asuka's total of combined days as champion, and would need to reign until roughly March of 2020 to surpass Asuka's reign as a single, undivided run with the title. Neither scenario is likely.
#8 First ever women's Royal Rumble winner
There can be only one first, and so when the inaugural women's Royal Rumble was announced a year ago, everyone wondered which woman would get the honor to be the first to awkwardly point at the Wrestlemania sign. Then in the midst of her undefeated streak, Asuka was the choice of many, though with the reliable rumors of Ronda Rousey's arrival, enough people were in doubt to be intrigued.
Rousey did indeed appear, but it was only after Asuka's victory. She had been left to cement her place in the history books.
Despite the victory not panning out at WrestleMania, it remains a tremendous honor. The Royal Rumble is WWE's most anticipated match every year, and to be chosen the winner in such a high profile place will remain something that no one can take away.
#9 First ever women's Sole Survivor and Royal Rumble winner
Though overshadowed by her Rumble win two months later, Asuka emerged as the sole survivor at Survivor Series 2017, securing the victory for Raw's women's team that night. Being the sole survivor at a Survivor Series signals some good things about a competitor's Rumble prospects, and they did indeed with Asuka. While there have been other female Sole Survivors, none went on to win a Rumble, and won't in the coming year.
By combining both feats, Asuka joined the ranks of a truly elite pantheon in WWE history:
Hulk Hogan (1990 Survivor Series, 1990 and 1991 Royal Rumbles)
Ric Flair (1991 Survivor Series, 1992 Royal Rumble)
Lex Luger (1993 Survivor Series, 1994 Royal Rumble)
The Rock (1996 and 2001 Survivor Series, 2000 Royal Rumble)
Randy Orton (2003, 2004, and 2005 Survivor Series, 2009, and 2017 Royal Rumbles)
Roman Reigns (2013 Survivor Series, 2015 Royal Rumble)
Asuka (2017 Survivor Series, 2018 Royal Rumble)
Other women may go on to repeat this feat, but there can be only one first.
#10 First to defeat all four of WWE's horsewomen on the main roster
The four horsewomen of NXT changed the game. Though they were and still are, often stymied on the main roster, nothing would ever be the same again after their work in the company. It was somewhat poetic that Asuka was in the audience that night to witness this in person, because she would go on to be the first woman to defeat them all on the big stages.
Asuka defeated Sasha Banks in January in one of the underrated best women's matches this year. She would beat Bayley soon thereafter, following up her previous two victories over Bayley in NXT, where she won the women's championship in the process.
Though Asuka doesn't have pinfall or submission victories over Charlotte Flair or Becky Lynch, her victory last weekend cemented her as the first woman to have victories over them all in WWE's annals. Alexa Bliss came close, but couldn't put Charlotte away at last year's Survivor Series. Asuka completed the job, even though it probably won't be mentioned in WWE's attempts to build a four horsewomen feud with Ronda Rousey and friends that has few upsides right now.
