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 2

Mercedes Martinez vs Xia Li

Li has a massive disadvantage in terms of experience, as this is played up as her first ever match. In contrast, Martinez is the veteran, and obviously someone the WWE trust to work with their green talent. With that said, Li looked terrific here. She’s got a unique look that makes her stand out, but her offence was really on point here. Loved her range of kicks and her movement to slide into a crucifix behind Martinez. Her running punch to a kneeling Martinez was really great before she gets caught in a lovely looking spinebuster. Mercedes gets the win by locking in a surfboard into a Dragon sleeper. Bit of a Li showcase, but an effective one, with Martinez moving on to get more chances to shine later.

Marti Belle vs Rachel Evers

Considering how good Li looked in her match, the fact that these two put on such a stinker is more telling. On the positive side, Belle does some nice character work as a condescending heel, but the rest…terrible. There’s an early tell as Evers barely gets over on a suplex. Evers and Belle exchange some woeful looking punches, though Evers does hit a nice looking senton. An Evers spinebuster looks sloppy, and she then takes an odd looking bump from a Belle Stroke. They just don’t look to be on the same page, so it’s a relief when Evers gets the win with a roll up. The worst match of the tournament so far.

Rhea Ripley vs Miranda Salinas

Another match with some impressive rookie performances. Ripley in particular had some great looking dropkicks, a lovely running boot in the corner and a diving dropkick into the corner. Salinas does some nice work in getting over as a heel despite being substantially shorter and her heel control was perfectly fine. Ripley gets the win with a full nelson slam, and both girls looked promising here.

Mia Yim vs Sarah Logan

You can really tell the fact that these two are more advanced than a lot of the competitors, as this is a really good match. They cut a much faster pace, working fluid looking sequences. Loved the sudden dropkick Logan hits to a kneeling Yim, and Yim fires back with some stiff kicks. They also exchange some nasty blows on the mat. A German suplex to Logan looks a little off as Logan has to roll into place to have her shoulders down after initially landing out of the pin. Logan misses a leaping kneedrop and Yim hits Eat Defeat for the victory. Really good stuff.