To truly cement her heel turn in 2019, Asuka began using the green mist as part of her arsenal. The use of mist has been around for years, but not use regularly in WWE since the days of Tajiri.
And the idea came from furloughed WWE producer Shane Helms.
"I came up with Asuka using the mist," Helms revealed on Chris Jericho's Saturday Night Special. "They were the Kabuki Warriors, I don't know how no one thought of that before me. It's their first night they're heels and they wanted me to come up with something heelish for them to do. I thought about it and I had this weird moment -- you know how PC everything is nowadays -- I thought, 'is it wrong that I think they can do the mist just because they're Japanese?' I didn't want to offend them. I had to ask them. I go to Asuka and go, 'You ever done the mist?' She said yes. Now I have to pitch it to Vince. I tell him, 'I have a way the referee won't see it. The cameraman will catch it, but the ref won't.' Later on, that would be a problem because they would keep doing it and [the ref] could see it. In the meeting I would say, 'Why are you not covering that up? If I see someone drenched in blood and someone holding a knife, I can figure out what happened.' That's a reason I would get in trouble."
Asuka did use the mist prior to joining WWE as Kana.
Previously, Helms revealed that he came up with the WrestleMania 35 Winner Take All main event between Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Ronda Rousey.
Helms was part of the April 15 WWE cuts and furloughs. He's said that the door remains open for him to return.
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