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What's the story?
The RAW brand is currently in the process of restructuring the entire women's division, in order to welcome it's newest addition and centre piece: the record breaking former NXT Women's Champion, Asuka.
In case you didn't know...
Asuka relinquished the NXT Women's Championship after sustaining an injury during her match with Ember Moon at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III. William Regal also announced on the latest episode of NXT that Asuka is main roster bound. As reported by myself via dirtysheets.net, Asuka is set to debut on the RAW brand.
The heart of the matter
Last week, Dave Meltzer reported that Emma was solely added to the Raw Championship match to take the pinfall in the Fatal 4 Way match at No Mercy, in order to protect the other three women.
However, our sources have revealed that this is definitely not the case, as all the women involved have traded multiple wins and losses to each other and the WWE don't put a heavy emphasis on any of their win/loss records.
The real reason Emma was added to the match and has gained pinfalls over Mickie James and Sasha Banks in recent weeks, has been to build more credible competition for Asuka to beat on route to securing the RAW Women's Championship.
Prior to Bayley being injured, Bayley and Sasha Banks were the only viable contenders to Alexa Bliss. With Nia's recent change of direction, Emma's mini-push and with Sasha still being owed a one on one rematch, the WWE have laid the foundation for several months of TV and the impending Asuka debut.
What's next?
The Fatal 4 Way for the RAW Women's Championship will take place at No Mercy in two weeks, emanating from the Staples Center in LA.
Author's take
It's very hard to build a credible division with just 5 or 6 women. When WWE committed to brand split, I was an advocate of putting all the women on one brand. I also would have done the same with the tag teams and the cruiserweights.
If you had all the women on one brand and all the tag teams on another, it would've added much more depth and competition to divisions that are currently unquestionably stale. It would've also encouraged fans to watch both shows and would have significantly differentiated the RAW and SmackDown Live brands.
Be sure to check out my work on DirtySheets.Net, for the latest and most accurate EXCLUSIVE breaking news. Also, check out our Dirty Sheets YouTube channel and podcasts (available for free on iTunes).
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