This Week in Wrestling 2017 week 34

Craig Wilson and Brian Damage

It’s Saturday so time for the latest instalment of ’This Week in Wrestling’. Today, in part 34, Craig talks about the end of Asuka’s reign as NXT women’s champion while Brian discusses the future of Jason Jordan and shares all the best viral content he’s stumbled upon this week.

Sad End to a Remarkable Reign but Better Still to Come?
Craig

Following last weekend’s excellent ‘NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III’, the WWE announced that Kanako Urai, better known to WWE fans as Asuka, had broken her collarbone and would be missing from action for between six and eight weeks.

It left many wondering how the company would respond. Would they pad things out for two months allowing her to come back as champion or would they remove the title from around her waist? At NXT tapings recorded this week, and subsequently acknowledged on the WWE’s website and social website, Asuka relinquished the title she had held for over 500 days. The length of her reign will be determined when the taping airs. At the same time, it was also announced that as well as her title reign, her time in NXT has also come to an end.

Ultimately, it is, in my opinion, a sad way for her historic reign to end. Yes, she has dominated the NXT women’s division. But in the coming weeks, the Mae Young Classic will crown a winner and what a way to add value to that competition than by having the eventually crowned winner defeat Asuka. And what a way for that superstar to make an entrance to NXT.

In the end, the match at NXT Brooklyn III, arguably one of the finest, if not the finest, match of her title run, was also the end of that run. But heading to the main roster, to either Raw or Smackdown, means that the future could indeed be very bright for Urai.

In 2015, when Urai signed a developmental deal with WWE, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer stated that he believed Urai “may be the best worker in WWE, man or woman”. In the two years since then, she has done everything in her power to prove that.

For me, she is the best female athlete I have had the pleasure of seeing in my lifetime of watching professional wrestling. A hugely entertaining and charismatic competitor with an incredible looking offence, Urai has everything needed to succeed on the main roster.

There is no reason that when she has returned to full health, that Urai cannot be as big a star on Raw or Smackdown as she has been on NXT. If booked properly – seeing strongly and not as a joke or a stereotype – she can have enormous amounts of success in the WWE.

Is the future bright for her? It absolutely should be. Time will tell how she is booked and if she can recapture the success she had in NXT.

Why Jason Jordan will be a big star in the WWE
Brian

I know it is probably unfathomable right now to think that Jason Jordan will one day soon become a huge star for the WWE. Ever since they split up the Jordan and Chad Gable team of ‘American Alpha’ and revealed Jordan to be Kurt Angle’s illegitimate son, he hasn’t exactly garnered any cheers. In fact, it has been quite the opposite for him.

Either it has been groans, boos or just plain indifference, fans have not embraced Jason Jordan as the heir apparent to Kurt Angle. To be honest, that is the perfect scenario. I realize that when WWE creative envisioned this storyline, they expected Jordan to skyrocket to the top as a big babyface. Maybe, just maybe they planned something else.

I see Jason Jordan going down the same path as the Rocky Maivia gimmick. After being shoved down people’s throats as a top babyface, fans turned on Rocky and he slowly transformed himself into ‘The Rock.’ Now I am not saying that Jordan will be the second coming of the Rock, but he certainly can have a big career as heel much sooner than later. Dwayne Johnson had that natural charisma that nobody could have ever predicted.

Jordan, on the surface, doesn’t seem to have that same charisma but you never know once they let him be arrogant and cocky. Even if Jordan isn’t as charismatic on the microphone, his natural in ring ability and built in storyline could propel him to really big things. Imagine Jordan turning on Kurt Angle and revealing the truth that he was never Angle’s son. He admits that he just used Angle to help propel his career and have the two battle it out at Wrestlemania.

The fans want a reason to boo Jordan and that just might do it. Push him as a wrestling machine and have him beat other top stars on the roster. Jason Jordan may not have panned out the way the WWE wanted him to be but his future is still as bright as ever.

Photo Gallery
Brian

A Macho King Randy Savage tattoo