Asuka’s impressive record-breaking run as NXT Women’s Champion is officially over. WWE.com announced that during the most recent set of television tapings for NXT over at Full Sail University, the undefeated Asuka made her way down to the ring and made the shocking announcement that she would be relinquishing her championship due to the orders of General Manager William Regal. Asuka suffered an injury during her match with Ember Moon at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III that is going to require her to be out of action for quite some time. She received a broken right collarbone during the match, but she still finished the match and won in the end.
Interestingly enough, her injury was not cited as the primary reason for her giving up the title, but rather because it is “due to negotiations with both Raw and Smackdown.” It appears that she will be making her debut on the main roster soon and WWE is going to use this excuse to keep her looking strong. Despite surrendering the title tonight, she is still undefeated in her WWE career and she was never beaten for the NXT Women’s Championship either. Being promoted to the main roster makes sense because Asuka has defeated every woman on the NXT roster on more than one occasion. “The Empress of Tomorrow” could be showing up on Raw or Smackdown very soon.
Unfortunately, she is going to be waiting at least six to eight weeks for her injury to heal up before she can join either show. The NXT Women’s Championship could be up for grabs in the Mae Young Classic or, more likely, will end up being crowned on another woman in NXT after a series of matches to earn the title. Despite the disappointing injury causing her to vacate the title, Asuka currently holds the longest title reign in modern WWE history with a record of 509 days. WWE has since announced that her title reign will remain ongoing until the episode of NXT wherein she does vacates the belt airs on the WWE Network.
The #NXTUniverse cheers for @WWEAsuka moments after relinquishing the #NXTWomensTitle to GM @RealKingRegal. #ThankYouAsuka #WeAreNXT pic.twitter.com/2CjDsDKQXU
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) August 25, 2017