5 ways to address Asuka's injury and NXT Women's Championship

On August 21, 2017, WWE announced that Asuka had suffered an injury at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III in her match with Ember Moon.

At this time, the information is quite basic: she broke her collarbone; she isn't cleared to compete, and no official timetable is set for her return but an estimation is roughly 6-8 weeks from now.

All we know for sure is that injuries are never a welcome problem, and WWE is going to have to figure out the best course of action for how to address the situation going forward.

Will a new champion be crowned? Will Asuka somehow still keep the title despite taking time off?

The way I see it, there are five possible ways WWE could go about handling Asuka's injury and all five of them have their merits.

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#1 Play the waiting game

This belt is Asuka's, whether the roster likes it or not.

The simplest, easiest thing to do is absolutely nothing, but that depends on having the right amount of luck to be able to even entertain that option.

If Asuka is only going to miss 6-8 weeks as expected, that puts her on the shelf for a while, but not so long that she can get in the way of their plans.

It's doubtful WWE was going to have her wrestle much over the course of the next few episodes of NXT now that she's become such a featured commodity, as those wrestlers are typically kept aside for special event appearances.

Thankfully, WWE just hit the reset button and will start a new set of tapings soon, so there are a few days to plot out a course that gives her enough time to rest without drawing too much attention to it.

In the meantime, the focus can be put on building up her challenger, as whoever faces Asuka next needs to have as much momentum going in their direction to make them seem worthy of fighting the undefeated Empress of Tomorrow.

With a few weeks left to spare before NXT TakeOver: Houston, Asuka can heal up and be ready to go at that event as if nothing was giving her a problem, to begin with.

#2 Set up an interim championship

Imagine the intensity if Ember Moon had a duplicate of the same title on her shoulder here.

Generally speaking, WWE has a mindset that the champion should defend his or her title every 30 days, but since this is entertainment and not a regulated sports league, that rule gets ignored from time to time.

More often than not, when someone is injured or their name is Brock Lesnar, WWE just doesn't bring attention to the missing days without a champion.

Sometimes, though, they've enacted a sort of "interim championship" philosophy, such as the Intercontinental Championship feud between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon that culminated in the first-ever ladder match at WrestleMania X.

If Asuka is going to be taking longer to heal than NXT TakeOver: Houston, there could be some kind of tournament, battle royal or anything else to determine an interim champion who can lead the division until she's ready to return.

Then, whether it be on a regular episode of NXT or preferably at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia in January, Asuka can demand a match with the interim champion to put both belts on the line to determine who is the undisputed real champion.

Ideally, this other person would be Ember Moon, who is not only the woman responsible for the injury in the first place but the best suited to take Asuka down.

However, it can be anybody who is significantly built up enough in the meantime as the current champion while Asuka is away healing.

#3 Relinquish the title and move to the main roster

Sooner or later, this is going to happen. It might as well happen sooner.

Asuka was ready to graduate to the main roster months ago, so at any given moment, if she made an appearance on Raw or SmackDown, it's doubtful anybody would bat an eye in confusion.

For that matter, Asuka has developed such a streak of credibility that she could win the championship on her first night by beating anybody in the women's division and it would seem like it makes sense, even if her opponent is Charlotte Flair or Nia Jax.

If Asuka is going to be away from NXT long enough that a new champion needs to be crowned, instead of doing the interim champion method, the developmental brand can simply move on without Asuka.

The Empress of Tomorrow can be forced to relinquish the title due to her injury so she saves face as still never having lost it, as her undefeated record is intact, allowing NXT to declare a new champion without factoring her into the mix.

Then, to avoid having to lose to the new champion in NXT, Asuka can heal up at her own pace and when she's ready to return to in-ring action, she can simply be drafted to Raw or SmackDown and start anew on either of those shows.

This gives Asuka the transition to the next level of her career that she deserves while also removing any hindrances of NXT's show and the talented women who can still hold that division down and make it a huge success even without their dominant champion.

#4 Relinquish the title but stay in NXT

Asuka having her hand raised in victory could still continue in NXT with a second title win.

Perhaps WWE doesn't wish to see Asuka on the main roster by the time she's able to return, or possibly ever — although the latter is highly unlikely.

In either scenario, whether Asuka is going to be out of action for a considerable amount of time or just a few weeks, there might be a way to get around having her give up the title but not actually transition to the main roster in doing so.

Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe are both two-time NXT champions as well as The Revival for the NXT Tag Team Championship. So far, no woman has held this title more than once.

Asuka could be the first to do that by having her vacate the title only to win it back either from the next champion or from the vacated spot if WWE is able to stretch it out long enough.

She could continue her undefeated streak and also create another record for herself by being the only champion in WWE history (possibly wrestling history itself) to be undefeated, lose a title and then win that same belt for the second time without still ever losing.

Her dominance over NXT could continue for however long it takes until WWE has figured out the person they want to position as her successor, whether she loses the title to that woman or moves up to the main roster by being stripped of it like in the previous option.

#5 A broken collarbone leads to a broken Asuka

This could be a recurring theme, seeing Asuka laid out while her opponent celebrates.

The last and arguably worst option as far as her character is concerned is to turn into the skid by making this a change in Asuka's unbreakable force.

Shawn Michaels lost his smile and had to give up the WWE Championship very soon after winning it back from Sid in 1997. Daniel Bryan worked his way back from his injuries to win the Intercontinental Championship, only to vacate it soon after.

Perhaps this could be the turning point where Ember Moon injured Asuka so badly that she takes a long while to get back in the swing of things.

What if she relinquishes the title either immediately or over the course of the next few weeks, declaring that she'll return to reclaim her throne, but when she comes back, she loses?

What if this injury plays out as being a combination of a psychological and physical weakness for her, where her opponents know to target that area and after she suffers her first loss, she no longer has the same confidence and keeps losing?

Once you prove that a monster can be defeated, they're no longer as intimidating.

It would upset a lot of people who are fans of Asuka, but it could certainly be an interesting turn of events to see someone so dominant and powerful get injured and then turn into a much weaker version of herself.

Of course, she would have to eventually work her way back to being the nigh-unstoppable force, but she'll have already suffered some losses, which could strengthen her character's resolve for having overcome a different challenge.

We don't know what the future has in store for Asuka, but given these five options being on the table, we shouldn't be worried, as even this final option seems like despair, but it could result in an interesting storyline going forward.

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