With Asuka moving up to RAW in a couple of weeks, the WWE has posted all her NXT matches on the WWE Network. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at her overall NXT run and see how she has evolved in the last two years. Most of Asuka's improvement has been in her overall presentation. Her ring work and her ability to have quality matches with anyone was already there. She was already doing that in Japan and HHH spoke to her before her debut to be sure that she would wrestle her style and not change anything. After he was wowed by her debut vs Dana Brooke, she approached him backstage and said "Was that OK?". She got a good match out of a greenhorn and wants to know if it's OK. And that's why she will be on RAW. Her ability to elevate her opponent is unparalleled. Asuka's look is the same as it has been since 2010 based on the main character in the joshi puroresu video game Rumble Roses. Asuka was recently profiled by Eurogamer as a worldwide video game expert and she has also designed games. So it's not surprising that she is inspired by games. You'll notice that for most of her NXT run she wears all new gear at each Takeover show and she changes her hair color frequently. She just wants to keep her look fresh. I guess she was told she can't wrestle barefoot so she wears sneakers. She has not worn wrestling boots since 2009. You'll notice in her early matches she doesn't scream. Apparently Sara Amato noticed this and asked why Asuka wasn't screaming in the ring. She didn't know they wanted her to do that stuff. So now she does a lot of screaming and great facial expressions. And that's the one major improvement. From what I could tell, dancing to the ring during her entrance started at the 2016 Brooklyn show when she came to the ring with a sheet. I don't know the significance of the sheet but I guess someone backstage liked her dancing and asked her to keep doing it. I think it enhances her presentation tremendously. Of course there is the streak which was Goldberg's idea. That just adds an aura to Asuka and it protects her from the WWE's dreaded 50/50 booking. The majority of Asuka's matches are entertaining, even the squashes. The only dud was the match vs Eva Marie. Asuka sells Eva's offense too much and Eva shouldn't have been anywhere near a ring in the first place. Eva was inexperienced and inept. The best match was the Last Woman Standing match vs Nikki Cross. I would have liked to see that feud continue as they have great chemistry. And who knows what they would have done at Brooklyn. I'm sure Asuka would want to top the first match. But instead they went with Ember Moon who is saddled with a blah character. But Asuka made the best of it and they had a good match. We'll see what happens when Asuka shows up on RAW.
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