As seen at WrestleMania 34 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana on the WWE Network, Charlotte Flair successfully retained her SmackDown Women’s Title against Asuka.
This marks the first time that Asuka has lost a match since signing her WWE contract a few years ago.
Original plans called for Asuka to defeat Flair at the biggest event of the year for the title. The idea behind this was that WWE would eventually build up to Asuka vs. Ronda Rousey. Thus, the reason that fans saw Asuka use the armbar as her finisher for weeks on WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW.
Dave Meltzer shed some light on the plans for this match during the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer noted that originally, Asuka vs. Flair called for multiple armbar attempts and that WWE officials told Asuka months ago when Rousey first signed with the company to start doing the submission hold in her matches. However, she was later told to stop doing them.
This is a perfect example of how plans change in the WWE. Now, it appears that the company is going away from Asuka vs. Rousey and now has their focus on Flair vs. Rousey down in the line.
