Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Asuka vs Sasha Banks

Here's the match video of Asuka vs Sasha Banks from last night's episode of RAW. Following up on Sunday's Royal Rumble, the "legends" were in the match because the WWE is making a women's wrestling documentary. And The Bella Twins still in the match at the end because they were shooting an angle for Total Bellas. Add to that the Ronda Rousey post match stuff and Asuka got shortchanged. So she was brought out at the start of last night's show. Then Sasha Banks came out to challenge Asuka. Last week, Sasha called out Asuka on TRL. Asuka didn't like that. So she was ready to shut Sasha up. And of course Sasha wanted to end the streak. The match was very similar to many of Asuka's NXT matches. I'm sure Asuka laid out the match herself. It got off to a slow start and the fans weren't into it. The slow build is done in Japan. Asuka likes that because when it picks up later it has more impact. There was a spot where Asuka went out to the floor and Sasha botched a suicide dive to the floor. Asuka was supposed to kick her but it never got that far as Sasha's feet got caught up in the ropes and she landed badly. The ref checked on Sasha and then Asuka checked on her. Fortunately she was OK but that could have been bad. Maybe Asuka needs to talk to Sasha about those kind of moves because Asuka doesn't do them. They are flashy but risky and unnecessary. There are other ways to do things. The match was back and forth and Michael Cole did a good job of selling near falls. Sasha tried to apply her finisher The Banks Statement three times. The third time she tried it Asuka brilliantly transitioned into the Asuka Lock and that was it. Sasha needs to go back to the drawing board. It was probably the best match on last night's show. It just shows that if you give Asuka time and let her do her thing, she will deliver a great match each and every time. It's the best match Sasha has ever had on RAW. Asuka was holding her right shoulder afterwards. I hope she was just selling but that's where she suffered the broken collarbone. Check out the video for yourself. The entire match is on the video but the guy who uploaded it ran the ending twice.