WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg has heaped praise on Asuka – calling her “incredible” and “The Roman Reigns of women’s wrestling”.
Asuka has been presented as a star in the WWE ever since she was signed to NXT in 2015. She was already regarded as one of the best in the world at that time, but was unknown to fans of exclusively WWE wrestling. She was the first female Japanese wrestler to sign for the company since Bull Nakano in 1994 and had huge hype behind her prior to her debut.
She soon showed her incredible ability with a series of matches in NXT. Her feuds with Bayley and Ember Moon in particular provided the promotion with some of the best matches they’ve ever seen, with her becoming a fan favourite for him fantastic work inside the ring.
She also impressed when called up to the main roster. keeping an undefeated streak that lasted over 2 and half years, rivalling other great streaks in wrestling like Goldberg’s famous undefeated run in WCW. This also included her winning the first ever ever Women’s Royal Rumble, although that landed her the first loss of her WWE career when she lost to Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania 34.
She has remained one of the biggest stars in the division ever since, something that WWE legend Road Dogg seems to agree with. The former tag team champion took to his podcast “Oh…You Didn’t Know,” to heap praise on the former women’s champion.
“I think as far as presentation, in ring skills, dare I say promo skills just because I love what she does and how she represents herself via her verbal skills. I just love it and I think everybody else does too. I think she should probably be the Roman Reigns of women’s wrestling right now. It’s just my opinion. I know the big argument is, well, she can’t cut a promo domestically. I think we’re past that as a culture, as a society. I think it’s totally okay if she spoke in her native tongue and we subtitled it. I think it would be totally fine how we do it now where she just goes off and you don’t know what she’s saying but you know she’s saying something that ain’t nice to you. You know what I mean? I think her work and her grasp mentally of just putting together a match and keeping her character strong in the match yet being selfless and selling for everybody, is probably the best female wrestler in the world. I know people will doubt that. I always say Zoey Stark is one of the best female wrestlers I’ve ever seen and I firmly believe that, but I believe it’s more from an athletic standpoint and her in-ring work supersedes who she is, and I think Asuka’s in-ring work matches who she is so it just makes her a magnanimous star. She’s incredible. Asuka is incredible.”