On SmackDown Live Tuesday night, Charlotte Flair defeated Asuka to become the new SmackDown women’s champion.
The change was described to POST Wrestling as a “last minute curveball” that adds the SmackDown women’s title to the main event of WrestleMania with Raw women’s champion Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch.
Asuka had been scheduled to defend the title at WrestleMania against the winner of a previously announced fatal four-way match between Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Naomi, and Carmella. The fatal four-way was scrapped from SmackDown.
They promoted Charlotte Flair as an “eight-time women’s champion”, which included her reigns as Raw, SmackDown and Diva’s champion since 2015.
