Classic Match: Asuka vs. Emma, TLC 2017

Kimberly Schueler
Asuka, Emma (source: WWE)

RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.


This week’s classic match shows how current SmackDown Women’s Champion Asuka got her start on the WWE’s main roster. Already loved (and a little feared) by the NXT Universe, Asuka’s impending arrival to Monday Night RAW in 2017 was announced with a vignette that made the former NXT Women’s Champion look like something from right out of a horror movie:

When they were informed that Asuka’s first main roster match would be at the TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs pay-per-view, several women on the RAW roster stepped up, wanting to be her first opponent. As a result, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, and Emma wrestled a Fatal 5-Way match for the opportunity to face the woman with, at this point, the longest undefeated streak in WWE in 25 years. Emma won the match cleverly and unexpectedly, rolling up “The Boss” for a pinfall (while Banks had Fox locked in the Banks Statement).

Emma hadn’t achieved much success on the main roster, and this would be her first singles match on a WWE pay-per-view. But she and Asuka had a history in NXT. Emma and Dana Brooke had tried to intimidate Asuka on her first day on the job; Asuka defeated Emma at NXT TakeOver: London; she also defeated Emma in Emma’s last televised NXT match. Now, the frustrated Australian said she was sick of hearing about Asuka’s accomplishments and would use their match to prove she started WWE’s Women’s Evolution (in which she definitely played a significant role with her feud against Paige).

Meanwhile, more video packages showed highlights of Asuka suplexing, kicking, and submitting the women of NXT, and declared the catchphrase that would put the women of RAW on notice until WrestleMania 34: “No one is ready for Asuka.”

This match opened TLC 2017. Emma enters the match first, all business, and is almost immediately overshadowed by Asuka’s mystique and star power even then. The commentary team goes over the joshi legend’s striking ability, mastery of submissions, winning streak, and uniqueness as a performer as Asuka enters the arena. A short “Asuka’s gonna kill you” chant goes on as the women circle each other in the ring, before they even touched.

Emma looks competitive against Asuka as they go hold-to-hold. But with a hip attack followed up by an ankle lock, it looks like “The Empress of Tomorrow” could end the match quickly… until Emma manages to grab the ropes and dump her opponent out of the ring. Emma takes the match outside, kicking Asuka against the barricade, talking trash, and pulling her hair. She continues to fight dirty back in the ring and manages to control the match, but not score a victory.

But as the crowd chants “Let’s go, Asuka!” and Emma slaps her in the face, Asuka fires up and starts an offensive comeback. She weakens her opponent with a knee strike and a series of kicks. Emma is back on top for a moment after she kicks Asuka in the head, but Asuka takes her down and applies the ankle lock again. This time she’s able to counter Emma’s counter, and the hold looks much more brutal.

Emma is able to make it to her feet only for Asuka to wipe her out so hard with a German suplex that she decides to powder out of the ring to recover. She uses the environment to her advantage, throwing Asuka out of the ring by her hair and rolling her back in. But Emma’s moment of dominance doesn’t last long, and Asuka knocks her down with a spinning kick. When the Asuka Lock is applied, Emma quickly taps out.

With Asuka’s first main roster match won by submission, the RAW women’s locker room was officially put on notice. Before the rest of them stepped up to try and end the streak, Emma tried to take back the spotlight once more. She lost to Asuka the next night on RAW in what would be her last match for WWE. Asuka, on the hand, remained undefeated for months and is still one of WWE’s most dominant competitors, though now on the blue brand.


You can go back and revisit this match (and the entirety of TLC 2017) on the WWE Network.

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