With her recent loss at Backlash to Iyo Sky, it now seems that one of professional wrestling’s brightest female stars, Asaka, “The Empress of Tomorrow”, is winding down her career.

Inspired by the 6 foot 2” Great Muta, the 5 foot 3” Asuka’s stellar career in her native Japan broke barriers for Asian women in sports at a time when Japanese women’s wrestling scene was stagnant. Her success in Japan was just a warm-up to what she would do in World Wrestling Entertainment. She became the first Japanese woman wrestler to sign with the WWE in twenty years. A muti-time champion, she held every title under the sun and left some great matches along the way.

Of course, who can forget that whenever she entered the ring, the chants of ‘Asuka’s gonna kill you!’ roaring around the arena. And when her deadly ‘Asuka lock’ choke hold was applied, the match was usually over.  

There was her unique look too. She wore a face-mask to the ring with a muti-colored robe and strutted toward her opponent ready to attack. Her ring attire was also brightly colored and added to that was her muti-colored hair, usually matching her colorful outfit, that made her look faster and quicker than she already was. Her quick moves around the ring zeroing in on her opponent, making her powerful likes pounding, her kicks lethal, and her holds inescapable Asuka was an awesome wrestler, and the respect she commands with fans and peers is undeniable.

 Asuka will be missed, as a solo wrestler or a tag-team partner she could excel at both. She had four world title reigns in WWE, and a five-time tag-team champion with three different partners. She also was a Money in the Bank winner and a women’s Royal Rumble winner. She had a long winning streak in NXT as was one of its longest reigning champions. And she even won a Mixed-Match challenge.     Asuka will go down as one of the best wrestlers of all time. Her legacy is intact. She is not just ‘The Empress of Tomorrow’, she is Wrestling’s true Empress