Though Asuka is a huge fan of her current professional wrestling employer, WWE, she's much more critical of the promotions back in Japan, where she worked the first 12 years of her career largely under the Kana moniker.
Taking to Twitter to voice her concerns with how Japanese media has taken shorts at her expense, the former WWE Women's Champion fired off a series of tweets to let her opinions be known on Joshi Pro and Stardom.
“I don't flatter anyone. Even in Japan, the media hated me because I don't flatter the media. In Japan, everyone was flirting with the media except me. I fought the media alone to take care of my fans. That's why some of the Japanese media still hate me. That's why I've always been a freelancer. And everyone in Japan knows I am anti-Joshi Pro. Always,” Asuka wrote on Twitter.
“The former editor-in-chief of Pro Wrestling Weekly has made this point on several occasions. That is, Stardom is an organization that was created to defeat me. It is an organization that was created to destroy me personally. But they failed to defeat me. I don't know what happened to them after that because I came to America.
“The media could not bring me down when I came to America. They must have really wanted me to fail. I am used to it because I have been fighting my critics alone since my days in Japan. But now that I am here, I have comrades in arms. Charlotte, Becky, HHH, and… I've walked alone in the wilderness all my life, and here I have an oasis. To the Asuka antis, I say, beat me up on the Internet all you want. I grab everything.
“When I became champion, one media outlet asked wrestling fans, ‘Do you think it is good enough to be champion? ‘Do you think it deserves to be champion?' Compare me to other people. Do you think my abilities are inferior? Can you believe that? I was always fighting that media all by myself.
“What I just said is in the past. It was before I came to America. Now the organization has changed, and there are few players I know. So, I don't know anything about it, and good luck to everyone who's trying their best. I'm especially concerned about Syuri and Shirakawa, that's all.”
While Asuka may not be a fan of how things are shaking out outside the WWE Universe, where they receive less-than-ideal coverage from the media in her home country, she at least has support from her friends like Lynch, Flair, and Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who believed enough in her efforts give her the strap in a pivotal time in the promotion's history.
What I just said is in the past.
It was before I came to America.
Now the organization has changed and there are few players I know.
So, I don't know anything about it, and good luck to everyone who's trying their best.
I'm especially concerned about Syuri and Shirakawa, that's… pic.twitter.com/Vb5U2b2x41— ASUKA / 明日華 (@WWEAsuka) August 14, 2023
Eric Bischoff wasn't a fan of Asuka's match at SummerSlam.
Speaking of Asuka's over-too-soon title reign with the WWE Women's Championship, Eric Bischoff reviewed the three-way strap match at SummerSlam and how, despite enjoying IYO SKY's finish, he felt the bout just didn't come together.
“I love the finish, because I just did not expect anything like that. It caught me by surprise so much. The match itself, I didn’t enjoy. I don’t know if it was the best match, worst match – definitely wasn’t the best match. But you know, my criticism of the match would be more from a technical perspective or a producer’s point of view. Way too many spots for the sake of spots. Okay, we get it, these are great athletes. But you don’t need to keep trying to press that and force that down our throats. It was a spotfest for the sake of spots for so much of the match that it — I unplugged from it, I disconnected from it until the finish. I didn’t like it. But let me say this: that’s my point of view. There’s a certain style of wrestling that I enjoy. There’s a certain style of wrestling that a lot of other people enjoy that I just don’t, and nobody’s right, and nobody’s wrong here. It’s just, it is what it is.”
Now, to the match's credit, calling it a “spotfest” is sort of misleading, as there was an attempted story being told of Bianca Belair overcoming a knee injury to win the strap, only to lose it a few minutes later, but in the end, few fans are going to remember the beats of the match but instead the implications of the finish. After hinting at a feud between Asuka and SKY for weeks now, it looks like that's going to happen very soon as a result of their match at SummerSlam, just with a different performer with a (C) next to their name.
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