Asuka is reportedly semi-retired following her loss to IYO SKY at WWE Backlash. After dropping the match, Asuka embraced her former mentee in the ring, capping off the months-long feud between the two.
On the post-Backlash edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that backstage colleagues were saying their goodbyes to Asuka, though specifics of what semi-retired means in her case have not been confirmed.
“So, the story I heard is that she is semi-retired. I haven’t really gotten an exact meaning of what semi-retired means, but I guess people were wishing her goodbye and things like that backstage. So I don’t know if that means she’s going to Japan and still wrestle. I don’t know if that means she’s going to still do stuff here and there, but I was told semi-retired.”
“That sucks, I’m going to miss Asuka,” Bryan Alvarez said.
The conversation later turned to whether Asuka could have been part of the recent WWE roster cuts.
“I wonder if she was with other people that was cut. I mean, I don’t know,” Meltzer said.
“I can’t fathom that but I guess it’s possible. But I mean, Kairi was cut and she didn’t even get used to the end of this thing, so,” Alvarez responded.
The 44-year-old Asuka has been with WWE since the summer of 2015. During her run, she has been a four-time main roster women’s champion, a one-time NXT Champion, and a five-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion — three reigns alongside Kairi Sane and one each with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. She also won the Women’s Money in the Bank in 2020 and the Women’s Royal Rumble in 2018.