Even five years later, many in the WWE Universe are still upset about Asuka's undefeated streak ending at WrestleMania 34.
The Empress of Tomorrow went into WrestleMania 34 with a lot of steam, carrying an undefeated streak with her from NXT and a Women's Royal Rumble win to challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship.
To the shock of many, Flair defeated Asuka via submission, and her push in the company was never the same again.
On a recent episode of the Oh... You Didn't Know? Podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg spoke about the decision to end The Empress of Tomorrow's undefeated streak against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34:
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"Either you’re gonna put Asuka over, and she maintains that thing, or you’re gonna put Charlotte over, and holy mackerel, she’s broken the streak, and the streak only goes for so long," Road Dogg said. "You can’t be undefeated forever, you know what I mean? As much as everybody hated it with The Undertaker’s streak being broken, I guess he could’ve just retired with his streak unbroken, but they were thinking about the future and who do we give this (to)? Same thing here. If you’re gonna beat Asuka, who you gonna give that carrot to? Because she’s undefeated and so somebody who beats her, you better be looking to do something with, and of course, we were looking to do something with Charlotte always."
Road Dogg goes in-depth on the decision behind Charlotte Flair defeating Asuka at WrestleMania 34
Road Dogg went on to say there's always a back-and-forth discussion with attached scenarios when making such a big decision as Asuka's streak being ended.
The WWE Hall of Famer admitted that when it comes to a match at WrestleMania, a lot of meetings take place behind closed doors, and people will negotiate who should over in such an important match:
"So that goes back and forth, and you’ll hear ideas for each to go over, and the bottom line is you look at the roster and go, 'hey, on the other side of this, who’s better as a champion? Who has more people to work with?' There’s a lot of stuff people don’t think about (that) goes into all this and so there’s a lot of thinking down to the wire all the time," Road Dogg continued. "It’s just a little different when it’s Mania. But a lot of meeting behind closed doors goes on there too, and people negotiate. People go in and have an idea, and maybe it wins the day, and something changes. That happens." [H/T: POST Wrestling]
What do you make of Road Dogg's comments? Do you think WWE made the wrong call with The Empress of Tomorrow at WrestleMania 34? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.