Cracks Are Forming In The Four Horsewomen’s Bond In WWE # 16

The Women’s Evolution continues as the bond between the Four Horsewomen fractures! And in part three of the Asuka backup story, The Empress of Tomorrow makes a decision regarding her future.

In WWE #16, Bayley’s at the top of the food chain in NXT, but now she feels like the strap just isn’t cutting it. Three of the Horsewomen were called up to the main roster, and she was left behind to carry the women’s division in WWE’s development territory. She feels like she has to work every night, out of fear that she’ll never get her promotion if she doesn’t work her ass off and answer a never ending string of challengers. The victories (and bruises) are accumulating with no end in sight.

Dennis Hopeless is really selling the underdog angle with this Bayley arc. No matter how hard Bayley works and how many 3-counts she adds to her resume, she’s continually underrated and underappreciated, and the cracks in her confidence are starting to show. Hopeless deftly weaves between WWE television storylines and Bayley’s real backstory, relationships, and personality.

Kendall Goode filled in for Serg Acuna on the first sequence, and the difference shows. There’s nothing wrong with Goode’s pages. I’m just so used to Acuna absolutely killing the likenesses and the ring work that it was immediately noticeable.

The backup story deals with Asuka’s voluntary relinquishing the same NXT women’s strap that Bayley is wearing in her storyline, nearly two years after Asuka lifted the belt off her. Interestingly, the reason given for her dropping the title isn’t the same as what was on NXT programming. Either that, or the creative team condensed the story so much that they didn’t find a broken collarbone noteworthy.

WWE #16, published by Boom! Studios, releases on 18 April 2018. Written by Dennis Hopeless, illustrated by Serg Acuna and Kendall Goode (pages 1-7), lettered by Jim Campbell. Covers available by Lucas Wernick, Adam Riches, Dan Mora, and Brent Schoonover. Backup story “Though she be but little- She be fierce!” by Tini Howard, illustrated by Hyeonjin Kim.