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.

WWE Mae Young Classic Episode 1

Kay Lee Ray vs Princesa Sugehit

Pretty fun match to kick off the tournament. Liked Sugehit laying in some nice kicks early, bringing the fight to KLR. Kay Lee has some nice early touches too, loved her spinning Sugehit around on the apron to swing her into a nice looking forearm. A sliding flatliner by KLR looks a bit off, but this is the only glaring moment. Sugehit rolls KLR around the ring with a cradle, and it nicely leaves Kay Lee dizzy for some big kicks to the head. A Gory Bomb gets two for Ray, but she misses a Swanton and Sugehit locks in an armbar for the tap.

Serena Deeb vs Vanessa Borne

Interestingly worked, as even though Deeb is the veteran, Borne has a slight size and power advantage that allows her to control the match for the most part. Liked her nasty headbutt that rocks Deeb. It allows Deeb to gain sympathy and she’s really good at working from underneath. Deeb makes a comeback, but hurls herself into the corner in a nice missed move. It leads to a Borne swinging neckbreaker that feels like the ending, but only gets two. Samoan Drop also gets two and Borne starts getting frustrated. This leads to a missed splash, a missed clothesline and Deeb nailing a spear for three. Decent story, nicely told.

Shayna Baszler vs Zeda

This only goes two minutes, but is pretty fun for it’s runtime. They work a nice little grappling sequence before Baszler goes to the strikes. Liked Baszler blocking a suplex, so Zeda instead locks in a standing choke from the same position. Unfortunately for her, Shayna powers her into a suplex, transitioning straight into a rear choke for the tap. Zeda looked pretty competitive considering the length, it’s just that Baszler got a sudden death move for the win.

Abbey Laith vs Jazzy Gabert

They start this really nicely, as Laith tries repeated blows on Gabert only to get thrown away time and again. The audience reacts really well to this. Gabert looks great dominating early, hitting some blows to the neck of Laith and hooking in a neck crank. Loved the flurry of brutal punches Gabert hits in the corner. Laith has some nice comebacks, including an Octopus Stretch in the ropes. Her kicks look pretty weak in comparison to some of Gabert’s strikes. Gabert’s lariat looks terrific. Jazzy seems to be in control, but Laith escapes a Gory Bomb with a cradle for three. Really good match, Laith looks great in surviving and Gabert looked like a monster in control.