Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Rachel Evers
Evers was one half of the worst match at last year’s Mae
Young Classic, but thankfully this was a much better bout. The opening was fun,
establishing this as a meeting of two powerhouses, as they jostle on a tie up
and exchange clotheslines that don’t knock the other over. Matsumoto is
terrific throughout, slipping quickly through the ropes to hit a necksnap and
nailing a big, thudding missile dropkick. Her corner charge and Vader Bomb
kneedrop looked absolutely vicious. Evers sold effectively, but some of her
offence still looked bad. Her powerbomb had minimal height, an overly complex
spinning legdrop from the corner was ill-advised and you only really notice how
good Randy Orton makes the RKO look when you see someone else perform the same
move badly. Her senton did look great, so that’s a plus. In the end though,
Matsumoto powers her up with a deadlift powerbomb, before the Rock Drop gives
her the victory. Good hard-hitting stuff.
Jessie Elaban vs Taynara Conti
Elaban’s gimmick seems pretty terrible, the latest wrestler
who “just want to have fun”. It’s going to be interesting to see her on the
main roster where, like on an episode of EastEnders, they like nothing more
than putting happy-go-lucky character through demoralising hardships. Elaban
nails Conti with a vicious looking back elbow, and is clearly a solid athlete,
but this is very much Conti’s match. Her armwork looked plain nasty, wrenching
a wristlock at a nasty angle. Conti scraping the ring rope between Elaban’s
fingers looked horrible, just a cruel move to hit. Jessie gets a few low
elevation dropkicks to comeback, but Conti hits a judo throw into a sideslam to
win.
Isla Dawn vs Nicole Matthews
This was ok, though not without issues. Matthews made the
mistake of debuting new gear here, which by her own Twitter admission wasn’t a
good idea. She ends up spending a fair bit of time hitching up her trousers,
which is distracting. Both hit some nice moves, though the match felt clunkily
put together. Dawn hits a nice double stomp, Matthews viciously kicks Dawn as
she’s stuck in the ropes and I dug her catching a boot and spinning her
opponent into a back elbow. The end sees Matthews hit a big clotheslines to the
gut, and a Liontamer gets the tap. Hopefully Matthews will shine more in round
two.
Io Shirai vs Xia Brookside
Really well put together match, which let Brookside look
good despite losing in less than four minutes. Xia takes the match to Shirai
early, but Io lands on her feet on a flying headscissors and catching a
Brookside forearm into a crossface. Just smoothly done, makes Xia look spirited
but Shirai just that much better. Brookside eats running knees in the corner
nicely, before a Shirai moonsault, with Io’s legs crashing into Brookside’s
stomach, gets the three. A nice taster of what Shirai has to offer.
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