Dave Meltzer believes IYO SKY will not have a match at WrestleMania 42 this weekend and that her highly anticipated bout with Asuka has likely been pushed to Backlash.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez, Meltzer laid out two specific indicators that led him to that conclusion. The first was IYO SKY posting a public challenge to Asuka on social media a few days ago and then quietly deleting it.
“A couple days ago, she put up something on social media, which is basically a challenge, Asuka, I challenge you for WrestleMania. So at that point, when she put that up, it’s like, okay, they’re gonna do the match, and they’re gonna announce the match on Monday. She put up the challenge. You would never do that unless you were told to do it, right? So today she took it down. So that tells me, when I thought that it was, no one has told me it’s dead. The last I heard was that it could happen, but it would probably is going to be moved to Backlash. But it’s not like it’s for sure going to be at Backlash,” Meltzer said.
The second indicator was IYO SKY’s clean loss to Jade Cargill on Friday’s SmackDown.
“When I saw her do that job for Jade on Friday, the way she did it, and it was clean and everything, I thought they’ve made their decision. She’s not going to be on the show. Because if she was going to be on the show, they would have done a different finish, in a different way. She was there to just be fodder. To be a nice win for Jade Cargill. If she was going to have a big match at WrestleMania against Asuka, I don’t think they would do that, because they’ve got other women they could do that with.”
Meltzer noted that WWE did still build to a confrontation between IYO SKY and Asuka on the April 14 episode of Monday Night Raw, but pointed out that no match was announced.
“They did do stuff tonight with IYO and Asuka, but they sure didn’t announce the match. But when I was in San Jose seeing the thing with Jade, and the way that match went, they’ve probably changed their mind.”
Meltzer added that despite the apparent decision, IYO SKY has one of the strongest cases on the roster for being on the card based on her work over the past year.
“Last year’s mania, the two days she was the best, she had the best match for sure, and she was the best person in that match for sure. And you could make a very good case that she’s the best wrestler in the company, and she’s over. She’s not over like Ripley, but people like her, she gets her match, gets over. If you’re going, who, based on their work over the last year and everything, and getting over in the ring, who deserves it? It’s like she deserves it. Plus, they’ve been building this Asuka thing up for months.”
WrestleMania 42 takes place Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
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