WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has defended one star from criticism from fans.

That star was former NXT Women’s Champion Asuka, who began her professional wrestling career back in 2004 before beginning to do work for Pro Wrestling Wave in 2008.

She also did work for promotions such as Smash, Wrestling New Classic, Reina Joshi Puroresu, and many other promotions.

Asuka finally signed with WWE in 2015 and was sent to developmental in NXT. In April of last year at NXT TakeOver: Dallas Asuka defeated Bayley to win the NXT Women's Championship.

She continued to dominate her opponents in NXT and extended her vicious undefeated streak to over 500 days. She recently successfully defended her strap against Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver III: Brooklyn, however, she suffered an injury during the match which forced her to relinquish her title.

This is when the sports entertainment company made the decision to call her up to the main event roster and place her on the flagship show of the company, Monday Night Raw.

She made her main roster debut at the WWE TLC pay-per-view event at the Target Center in Minnesota, Minneapolis on the WWE Network by beating Emma in a singles match. She has since been moved over to SmackDown Live.

Ross spoke about various topics During a recent edition of his podcast (transcript via wrestlinginc.com) including the way that WWE has booked Asuka in her recent feud with SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella most recently at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event.

“On the surface, Carmella beating Asuka surprised me and raised the ire of some, no doubt. I’m going to finish, but I’m kind of confident that when all the smoke clears and settles, that ‘The Empress’ will be whole once again. She’s too damn good to not be. Asuka has got amazing athleticism. She’s physical. She’s intense. She’s mysterious. There’s just something exotic about her that’s going to keep her coming back and back to your memory or the front of my awareness. And by the way, her win-loss record isn’t that bad quite frankly.

You can say, ‘oh, she lost at a pay-per-view.’ Well, quite frankly, there are more people that see her win or lose on USA Network than they do on the WWE Network if you’re counting pennies. I don’t think a tainted loss, if it’s sold right by the announcers, hurts you at all. The babyface, Asuka in this case, has got an out.”

“[Asuka’s booking] has been controversial, no doubt about that. I don’t believe that a fluke loss sets anybody back to a place they can’t recover from whatsoever. And I think that the fact that one of the things that might have hurt Asuka is that if she had lost to someone that the fans believe to have more credibility in the ring from bell-to-bell than Carmella is perceived to have, whether that be right or wrong, there would be less of this pissing outside of the tent thing.” Ross said, “but I think that Asuka is a gem.

She’s exotic. She’s a battler. She’s a real keeper. And I think the cream will rise to the top. I’m really optimistic about a lot of things in life, but I really think Asuka is going to be in fine shape over the long haul. Please be patient and if you can’t be patient, change the goddamn channel.”

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