History has shown that faces getting beaten fair and square again and again before winning their big one just does not work well. Jeff Hardy had genuine potential to become a big draw, but he was beaten multiple times and was never the same. In his case, it was probably a good decision because of his outside-the-ring issues, but that's not booking that turns out good.
I am not saying that isn't the plan, but I don't think it's a good plan. The execution was certainly not good. It also puts an asterisk next to Shirai's win, cuz you can argue she stole that win.