WWE Mae Young Classic: Road to the Final & the Final

Santana Garrett, Sarah Logan & Marti Belle vs Kay Lee Ray, Jazzy Gabert & Tessa Blanchard

Just a fun trios match, albeit one with the face/heel dynamic skewed. KLR and Blanchard are both heeling it up here, but Gabert is insanely over, with the crowd popping every time she gets in the ring. Belle gets the chance to atone for her wretched first round match and, though she hits a shitty flying headscissors on KLR, she generally looks better here than the Evers bout. She’s face-in-peril, so mainly has to sell, and she seems to be fine at that. Gabert is dangerous as soon as she enters the ring, plastering Belle with two backfists and a torture rack. Garrett finds herself in an odd position as the hot tag, hitting nice looking babyface offence whilst the audience only want Gabert to tear her apart. Really liked her forward rolling into a Last Chancery on Gabert. However, she gets caught on a crossbody on Gabert, before Jazzy muscles her into position and hits a dominator to win. Fun stuff, with everyone getting to look decent.

Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler

Both women do a great job of getting their characters across early, which is important in front of a large audience who may not know who you are. Baszler puts in a great performance here, both on offence and selling. Loved her early big boot to the head that sends Sane to the floor then perfectly  timing a second boot from the apron. She also works over the elbow of Sane in an attempt to prevent the big elbow drop. The big change in the match comes when Sane hits a big pounce, injuring the ribs of Baszler. Baszler sells this injury perfectly, and Sane uses this as a focal point for her attack. Unfortunately, this is the same time that Sane seemingly stops selling her arm injury. It’s most evident when she locks a body scissors on Shayna, using her bad arm to support her body weight to add more leverage. Liked Baszler countering the top rope diving forearm into the rear naked choke, which is successfully broken by Sane driving her elbows into Baszler’s ribs. Sane giving up on the arm selling is disappointing, but the finishing run is still fun. Loved Sane’s running elbow into the corner – Baszler instinctively covers her face, but Sane goes right into the injured ribs. The big elbow gets the three count for Sane. A good end to a really fun tournament.