WWE News: Original plans for Asuka's opponent at TLC

What's the story?

Things are always changing in WWE and no matter how sure something is, a story can go through any number of alterations leading to any big moment. Asuka's debut at TLC is going to be a pretty important deal for WWE because "The Empress Of Tomorrow" needs to make a good first impression.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports there were some last minute changes going into Raw concerning how WWE would determine Asuka's first opponent on the Raw brand.

In case you didn't know...

Asuka ran roughshod over the entire NXT Women's Division and held her title without ever being defeated. There's a reason why some call her the "Female Goldberg" because her undefeated streak is unprecedented.

Kurt Angle set up a fatal five-way elimination match on Raw to determine who would get to face Asuka. For some reason, the women on Raw were getting in line to feel Asuka's wrath which was awfully brave of them.

The heart of the matter

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the initial plan was to simply have a triple threat match with Emma, Sasha Banks, and Nia Jax, where the winner would get to face Asuka at TLC.

Then the match was changed to a six-woman tag match with Emma, Nia Jax, and Alicia Fox vs Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Dana Brooke. However, these plans needed to be altered once more as the match was ultimately changed to a fatal five-way elimination match.

Nia Jax was taken out of the picture because she just lost to Mickie James (by DQ) and WWE doesn't want Jax losing any more heat because the major program is still Alexa Bliss vs Nia Jax in WWE's eyes.

The plan all along was to have Emma face Asuka at TLC. After all, Emma and Asuka have a history together from NXT and they have proved to work well in the past before.

What's next?

Asuka's debut will mean a big change on Raw. Hopefully, she'll be used correctly and her undefeated streak will live on.

But we've seen our fair share of questionable booking in the past, so we'll have to hold our breath.

Author's take

It makes sense to set Asuka against Emma in the former NXT Women's Champion's debut match. But after she's finished with Emma, then Asuka is going to move on to the rest of the roster, in what might turn out to be a sea of carnage and stiff kicks for a long time to come.

I just hope WWE doesn't plan on letting Emma score a cheap win over Asuka to kill The Empress Of Tomorrow's undefeated streak and give WWE's first female Australian Superstar something else to brag about.