After being on the sidelines, Asuka made her return to in-ring action on Monday Night Raw.
The Raw Women’s Champion did so by taking on Shayna Baszler in a non-title match on the show. The match saw Asuka score the pinfall victory as the champion reversed the Kirifuda Clutch into a roll-up. Following the match, Asuka shoved Baszler’s face into the turnbuckle with a kick.
Asuka had been out of action since the February 22nd episode of Raw when she worked a tag team bout alongside Charlotte Flair against Baszler and Nia Jax. This is where she was kicked in the mouth and lost a tooth.
There was speculation that she suffered a concussion when this happened, but since WWE doesn’t confirm this type of injury it wasn’t known until Dave Meltzer reported it last week.
Before WWE had announced Asuka was back, the uncertainty about her WrestleMania 37 status was brought up as the problem with a concussion is that someone could be fine in a short amount of time while in other instances it will keep a wrestler out of action for a long period of time. Thus, her match at Mania was in jeopardy of not happening, but that’s no longer the case.
Asuka is currently penciled in to defend the Raw Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 37.
