At Night of Champions, WWE decided to run back one of the better matches from WrestleMania 39 weekend and have Bianca Belair defend her RAW Women's Championship once more against “The Empress of Tomorrow,” Asuka.

On paper, the set-up was sound; Asuka interrupted Belair's championship celebration in her hometown of Knoxville, Tenessee on RAW by hitting “The EST of WWE” with a brand new chili pepper mist and left her long-time foe screaming in the middle of the ring with tears running down her cheeks.

After a multi-week build, the duo took the ring in the middle match of Night of Champions, and, for the most part at least, the match was about what a savvy WWE fan expected; Bianca scored offense with her signature power game, Asuka tried to lock in submission holds and win with her cunning, but in the end, as these things so often go, the outcome came down to the KOD versus the Muta mist. Asuka, to her credit, didn't let a failed mist attempt dissuade her, as, with her head outside of the referee's sightline, she misted into her own hand and rubbed it in Belair's face on a KOD attempt before securing the pin and ending the longest RAW Womens Championship reign of all time.

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Was this the right call? Debatable; Asuka is very well established, and having a young gun take the title off of her in a few months won't be nearly as impactful as having someone like Zelina Vega or Roxanne Perez – or whoever – take the belt from Belair. Still, a win's a win, and at Night of Champions, Asuka joined those ranks for the eighth time.