WWE announced that NXT Women’s Champion Asuka suffered a broken collarbone at the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III event on Saturday. The WWE.com story notes that she is not medically cleared to compete and no timeline has been established for her return.
Powell’s POV: A big blow for the NXT brand. The story noted that recovery time is typically six to eight weeks. It will be interesting to see if they keep the NXT Women’s Championship on her or if they opt to play the 30-day card and crown a new champion. It’s worth noting that this is one way the company could take the title off her without ending her unbeaten streak.
Is this confirmed to be legit and not just a kayfabe injury?
An injury angle to get the title off Asuka without losing her streak is just so convenient for the company in many ways.
She looked quite animated while relinquishing the NXT title. Immobility is key to a collarbone injury healing. It is likely that they used this to allow her to pass the title on without suffering a loss that would have compromised the strength they have built her character on. This way she can enter the main roster STILL UNDEFEATED. Also the healing time for such an injury would see her able to return to action right around the time of Survivor Series. A good PPV to make her Main Roster debut, that platform would also allow multiple samplings of what we can expect her matches against some of the existing main roster members to look like as it will likely be a team setting.