Plans for a WWE star to turn heel were changed ahead of last night’s August 11 episode of Raw in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
One of the big matches announced a week in advance for the show was Naomi defending the Women’s World Championship against IYO SKY.
However, three hours before the show began, it was announced that Naomi wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle and the match was canceled.
During Raw, an impromptu match was made between SKY and Roxanne Perez instead.
Before that match, SKY met up with her former Damage CTRL teammates the Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane), with Asuka offering for them to accompany SKY at ringside since Perez was going to have Raquel Rodriguez with her.
SKY rejected the offer, but when Rodriguez did attempt to get involved in the match, Asuka and Sane ran out, but ended up being more of a hindrance than a help to SKY.
SKY got distracted by them coming out and accidentally knocked them off the apron, which resulted in Perez rolling SKY up and pinning her for the win.
Backstage afterwards, Asuka and SKY got into a shouting match, with SKY pointing out that she told them to stay backstage and they ignored her request.
The altercation ended with Asuka physically shoving SKY and storming off, with Sane standing by looking conflicted.
This appeared to be the start of a heel turn for Asuka with the idea of it leading to a match between her and SKY at some point.
PWInsider Elite is now reporting that there have in fact been plans to turn Asuka heel, but the changes to last night’s WWE Raw due to Naomi being absent caused some changes.
According to the report, the Asuka heel turn was originally planned for a slower burn over the course of a few weeks, but due to the changes to the show, the decision was made to escalate it faster.
The report also stated that instead of SKY vs Perez, there was a pitch at one point for SKY & Rhea Ripley vs Perez & Rodriguez in a tag match for last night’s Raw after the Naomi news, but the decision was ultimately made to go with the SKY vs Perez singles match instead.
No further details have emerged on Naomi’s absence at this point besides WWE’s announcement that she wasn’t medically cleared.
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