Was Sasha Banks ready for Asuka? Yes. But she wasn’t ready enough.

Looking to make some history of her own after falling short in the Women's Royal Rumble Match, The Boss put up a hellacious fight against The Empress of Tomorrow with the goal of snapping Asuka’s storied two-and-a-half-year undefeated streak. She looked like she might be up to the task, too, thanks to a deceptively canny strategy where she goaded Asuka into a fearsome rally, only to trap her in a pair of modified Bank Statements.

Asuka answered with some truly remarkable brutality — a kick to an airborne Banks dropped The Boss like a stone mid-suicide dive — and The Boss still hung tight, ramming her illustrious foe with a flying knee to the face and dodging a hip attack that sent Asuka tumbling to the outside. She even locked in the full-force Bank Statement, but Asuka slithered out of the hold and constricted Banks in the Asuka Lock to force a tapout and bring the match to a close. History eludes Banks again as Asuka marches to WrestleMania, but perhaps The Boss will settle for an instant classic.