Why did Asuka and Nakamura win WWE Royal Rumble?

Bengaluru, February 9: This year’s edition of Royal Rumble was historic by all means. For the first time ever, the women’s Rumble match was hosted from Philadelphia. A bunch of legendary names from the past resurfaced for this one-off night making it worth a watch for all the WWE fans. If that was not all then Ronda Rousey made her debut on the night hinting that she is gunning for a Wrestlemania match.

Plus, a unique thing happened at the bygone event where both the winners belong to the same country. For the very first time, a superstar from Japan won the original Royal Rumble match whereas the same happened for the women’s division match, too. Shinsuke Nakamura was the one from the first instance and Asuka was the history-maker from the female division.

Both of them were the favorite one heading into the Royal Rumble match and there was no shocker reserved in the outcome, too. Now, there are some strong reasons as to why the creative team decided to crown two Japanese superstars with the win and a big matchup at Wrestlemania 34.

A report from Wrestling Observer Newsletter suggested that while planning the women’s Royal Rumble match, the officials had two choices for the winner’s name who were Nia Jax and Asuka. But, the latter mentioned one was selected with Ronda Rousey’s arrival who is set to have a big match, at some point, perhaps at the biggest stage of them all.

On the other hand, letting Nakamura win and insert into the main event of Wrestlemania 34 was a conscious decision to let Japan viewers’ interest into the WWE product. In general, they are not fond of this since Japanese stars do not make it big around the United States. But, the tradition might be changed with the Artist.

Check out the updates from the source, here,

"It does change the perception in Japan. While many wrestlers from Japan would have an interest in WWE, most of the major male stars haven’t. Shinsuke Nakamura and Hideo Itami were really the first, and Itami hasn’t panned out. Nakamura was looking flat after a bad program with Jinder Mahal but will come out of the Rumble strong. He’ll probably have his best match so far in WWE with Styles.”

Now that, these two winners are all set to perform in big matches at Wrestlemania, it is evident that the fans from Japan will be dragged into the programming, for sure. The contests for them will be confirmed in the near future.