Asuka has turned heel on WWE SmackDown.
Friday’s SmackDown featured a hometown Championship Celebration for Bianca Belair’s record-breaking RAW Women’s Title reign. Asuka interrupted early on and went to congratulate Belair and shake her hand, but instead she blinded the champ with her black mist. Asuka then made her exit while Belair rolled around the ring throwing a fit, while covered in the black mist. Belair was later shown in the trainer’s room, screaming for help.
Asuka tweeted earlier, on Thursday and Friday, to show how she was eating a pack of Nissin’s Hot & Spicy Firewok ramen noodles. She often makes Nissin-related posts, and has appeared in official Cup Noodles promos when WWE had sponsorship deals going with Nissin. Regarding SmackDown, Asuka later claimed, at least in the storylines, that she put “hot chili” in the mist used on Belair, which explains why Belair sold the way she did.
“That’s true! The idea came to me while I was eating Nissin Hot and Spicy ramen yesterday,” she wrote to a fan who said they hope this is true.
Asuka then tweeted a clip of Belair selling the attack, and wrote, “Experimental Results. The hot pepper in mist was very effective [lab coat emoji] [test tube emoji] [hot pepper emoji] [sign of the horns emoji] [rotfl emoji]”
Asuka actually received heat from some fans online for the storyline mist attack. She addressed the criticism, writing, “Very few people are angry with me. But a lot of people praise me. Look at Twitter. People are happy. I’ve done a lot of good for a lot of people. In other words, people should thank me.”
Belair, who had friends and family in the front row, tweeted after the show and wrote, “In front of my friends?! IMA [clapping hand emoji] GET [clapping hand emoji] MY [clapping hand emoji] LICK [clapping hand emoji] BACK [clapping hand emoji]”
Asuka responded, “How did you like the taste of the chili pepper mist? [red pepper emoji] ٩(^‿^)۶ [red pepper emoji] I hope you like it. [heart emoji]”
This was Asuka’s first TV appearance since losing to Belair on Night 2 of WrestleMania 39 in early April. The Asuka heel turn has been rumored for a while now.
It was reported earlier on Friday that a heel turn for Asuka had been pitched, and that Asuka vs. Belair was suggested for WWE Night of Champions. WWE has not announced the match as of this writing
Below is footage from the segment on SmackDown, along with the aforementioned tweets:
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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