You would not like Asuka if she is angry

Friendship!

When you get down to it, you wrestle, in so many ways, over friendship.

Sure, wrestling friendships are often disposable – we love a good haircut, only – but those that last, those that matter, those that cross barriers of voting and promotion? Those are magic.

And indeed, Bayley and Sasha Banks, even outspoken role models, have that kind of friendship. All manner of strife has threatened to drive a wedge between them, but time and time again they patch things up and come right back to help each other. It’s a model that kids could actually stand to learn a thing or two from!

The part where they are willing to do anything to get what they want? Not so much for the kiddos.

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Which brings us to Sasha Banks and her quest for a singles title.

Not content to let Bayley Dos Straps have all the fun, the Boss wedged themselves into the Raw Women’s Championship scene and got themselves a match against Asuka at Extreme rules. A match that immediately ended in chaos and chicanery even by WWE standards when Bayley took the literal shirt off a referee’s back and called for the finish.

That led Stephanie McMahon to step in, and instead of just turning the result around, she ordered a rematch on Raw with one stipulation – there had to be no advantage to a champion, and if the winner won by counting or disqualification, well , so be it, we must have a champion.

And so the role models set out on an evil plan; in the middle of the rematch, Bayley began a brutal backstage beatdown on Asuka’s tag partner in Kabuki Warriors, Kairi Sane. Considering the choice between regaining her title and rescuing her friend, Asuka made the only reasonable decision – she ran out of the match and to Sane’s rescue.

That was the end (for now, at least) of Kairi Sane’s WWE career, but it sparked a whole new fire for revenge in Asuka’s heart. IN SummerSlam rematch was almost memorable considering the WWE works, but now?

Now it’s personal.

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Okay, that’s the construction. Let’s go to the record, as is my custom, and see what we can divulge, shall we?

Asuka and Sasha have met only three times so far in television singles games – the match on Raw where the boss won the title by counting, the Extreme rules match that was thrown because of Bayley shenanigans, and a match on Raw back in 2018 that Asuka won in a clean and decisive way with the Asuka Lock.

That the evidence on the ground makes it pretty convincing for my money: this is Asuka’s match to lose. Hold-for-hold, head-to-head, Sasha just can’t keep up against the Empress and her hard-hitting, subject-oriented style. Of course, Ms. Banks has a bag full of potential tricks, ranging from subtle cheats all the way to blatant interference from her role model partner in crime, that can even scale, so only time will tell.

Can Sasha Banks remain a double champion or will tomorrow’s Empress win the Raw Women’s Championship again?