Mae Young Classic 2018 - Round 2 #2

Zeuxis vs Io Shirai

This was a better showing for Zeuxis than her first round match, she looked nicely aggressive and the equal of Shirai here. Neat fast rope running exchange ends with Zeuxis baseball dropkicking Io off the apron with full force into her shoulder. I liked this, Shirai had steamrolled her way through her first round match, this was she started the match with a disadvantage. Shirai hits a nice handstand knees to the face and a nice suicide dive, but her crossface is easily broken by Zeuxis thanks to the bad wing. Zeuxis misses a moonsault with a nice thud, and her Spanish Fly is reversed to a top rope rana. Overshot moonsault gets the win for Io, and this was nice stuff.

Xia Li vs Deonna Purrazzo

Xia Li is legit, guys. Considering her experience levels, she looks tremendous here. Her first round match had seen her work in some neat kung fu, but here she bumped like a boss, faceplanting on a drop toehold, and nailed some lovely looking moves. Some neat strikes, good legdrops and a really great elbow drop. She also hit a great kick from the second rope. Purrazzo wisely focuses her attack on the arm to set up the armbar, she hits a great divorce court. Li escapes an armbar by rolling though to a cradle for two, but her aggressiveness proves to be her downfall. She kicks Purrazzo from the corner, but dives off the top into an armbar and Purrazzo locks in a Rings of Saturn to get the tap. Really loved this.

Tegan Nox vs Nicole Matthews

The shortest match of the show, and Matthews suffered from wardrobe issues again (despite it being a different outfit, hard not to feel sorry for her). Nox dives right into a forearm from the floor in the opening stages, made it look like she wasn’t expecting it. Matthews hits nasty kicks on the apron, as well as a big clothesline and a neat Northern Lights suplex. Nox hits a vicious headbutt (complete with woozy sell) and a great Wild Boar style cannonball, before the shiniest wizard gets the win. Good little sprint.

Kaitlyn vs Mia Yim

Hey, Mia Yim’s phantom hand injury returns. Despite suffering no ill-effects from chopping the post during her first round match, they’ve seemingly decided to run with it as a story point here. Kaitlyn looked great here, loved her sliding clothesline and her bodyscissors, due to the muscularity of her legs, made it look deadly. Yim starts working Kaitlyn’s leg after a missed baseball slide, and you can see the bruising on the thigh after a bunch of nasty kicks. Yim hits some punches with the “bad hand”, but when she punches the mat, Kaitlyn really goes to work on it, wrenching it backwards in a manner not previously seen on this apparently devastating injury. It looked nasty from Kaitlyn, and actually made it feel like a real disadvantage. Yim hits a shaky Eat Defeat for two, and a great looking Kaitlyn spear also only gets two. Kaitlyn misses a stomp on the hand, and Yim takes her down, locking on a kneebar for the submission. Thought Kaitlyn looked great here, hope it’s not just a brief return.

WWE Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode #2

Deonna Purrazzo vs Priscilla Kelly

This is the best match of the episode, thought it put over Deonna well whilst still letting Kelly stand out. Purrazzo bamboozles Kelly early on, throwing in a few WoS spots to confuse her, before Kelly takes over with a big boot. Really liked Kelly’s Dragon Sleeper, she really worked the hold to make it look like an attempt at a submission. There’s a slightly shaky bump for a phantom hiptoss, but this is good stuff on the whole. Loved the ending, as Purrazzo snaps her down with a quick Side Russian Legsweep and quickly chains to a Fujiwara armbar for the tap.

Zeuxis vs Aerial Monroe

This felt like the two weren’t really on the same page. The opening seems especially awkward, with nothing looking like it was really connecting. I liked Zeuxis really heeling it up by responding to Monroe’s angry “Don’t touch the hair” by almost exclusively doing hair-based offence. Hair throws across the ring, an abdominal stretch where she grabs the hair, just hilariously dickish. She also locks in a Camel Clutch where she just rips at Monroe’s face. A Zeuxis roll up looks really ungraceful before Monroe comes back with a sliding flatliner and some nice strikes in the corner, but Zeuxis hurls her to the top rope on a corner charge and hits a Spanish Fly for the win. Zeuxis’ heeling was the best thing about this match, a lot of sloppy offence.

Reina Gonzalez vs Kacy Catanzaro

Really big size difference here, with Gonzalez being billed as 1 foot and 100lbs bigger. Thought some of Gonzalez’s power offence was really good here, loved her spinning Catanzaro round in a front facelock and she hit a few big slams along the way. Also loved her really flattening Catanzaro with a big elbow. Catanzaro is obviously a tremendous athlete and showed a lot of potential, but she was also very green in places. Her kicks looked a bit milky and her offence looked unconvincing at times. Needed to lay it in a bit more, but the potential is obvious. Great visual with Gonzalez bending Catanzaro over her knee with a backbreaker, made Gonzalez look like a monster. Kacy gets the win after a neat springboard dropkick (going from the apron to the second rope inside the ring in one move) and a victory roll.

Ashley Rayne vs Mercedes Martinez

This was the biggest disappointment to me as I like both women, and thought this had the potential to be a good bout, but it was pretty underwhelming. They work it pretty evenly until Martinez absolutely plants Rayne with a cradle driver in what should absolutely have been the match finish. Rayne is back on offence not long after that, which really undersells the move. Martinez reverses a Rayne tornado DDT to a long delayed vertical suplex, but she tries another straight away and Rayne casually slips out, so I guess it didn’t hurt too much. Rayne’s offence didn’t look particularly convincing at first, but she starts to sink it in more as the match progresses. Martinez’s offence on the other hand looks good throughout, and she just plants Rayne with a spinebuster. We get a few more clunky looking moves and reversals before Martinez finally hits a Fisherman Buster for the win.

CMLL 23/08/2015

Still not going to pretend I fully "get" lucha, but I enjoyed some of the CMLL I watched last year, and wanted to try to keep on top of my lucha knowledge.

Dragon Rojo Jr vs Rey Escorpion

I liked elements of this match, but it did feel a bit brief, not helped by some clipping. The first two falls are rushed through, Escorpion winning the first after some brief matwork, rolling through a roll-up to lock in Rings of Saturn for the submission. Rojo equalised with a victory roll, before the third fall sees both guys rushing through a bunch of stuff. Lovely flip dive by Escopion, great running stage-dive dropkick from Rojo and a really nice finish with Rojo blocking a rana and turning it instead into a slingshot powerbomb, but it all felt a bit hollow. Momentum seemed to shift too easily, and the end saw both guys on their feet in the ring, seemingly shaking off the previous damage. I liked the move execution, less enamoured with the match layout.

Goya Kong, Marcela & Princess Sujei vs Amapola, La Seductoria & Zeuxis

This was a pretty fun deal following on from Sujei and Marcela claiming the mask of Seductoria in a tag match the previous week. Really enjoyed Zeuxis in this, she blasted Kong with some vicious knees in the corner and hit a lovely moonsault to the floor onto Kong. Actually, all the rudos looked good, with Seductoria hitting a nasty looking seated senton to Kong and Amapola planting Sujei with Angels Wings. This earned a pinfall and Seductoria tied up Marcela for the submission to complete the first caida. The rudos maintained control and I dug them using the size of Kong as a weapon against her partners by using her to sandwich them in the corner. However, Kong was strong enough to plow through the rudos with a corner clothesline and nail Amapola with a guillotine drop for the equalising fall. The rudos still controlled the third fall until Amapola hit the post on a corner charge and Kong followed up with a big apron dive, which looked great. The remaining technicos pick up the win, Marcela hitting a top rope stomp and Sujei hitting a Michinoku Driver for the falls.

Negro Casas, Shocker & Ultimo Guerrero vs Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara

This is a follow-up to Rush low-blowing Casas en route to winning a hair vs hair match the previous week. Casas actually jumps Rush during the entrances, but this is a poor decision as he gets outnumbered quickly. His partner try to help, but are at a disadvantage, and this puts them on the back foot throughout. With Casas eliminated, Rush hits a top rope senton to pin Shocker and a corner dropkick on Guerrero to earn the primera caida. Both falls go to Rush too, making him look great. The second fall sees the captains Rush and Casas face off and end up brawling all over the floor. With this going on, Guerrero gets knees up on a Sombra moonsault and Shocker hits an odd-looking pump-handle slam on Mascara to even the ties. While that felt a bit underwhelming, the third fall is actually pretty fun. Rush and Casas kick off, and it really shows off how good Casas still looks, with his strikes and kicks looking on point. He’s really fluid. As they brawl outside, we get a good bit of ring time from Shocker who, even if he’s bigger and less mobile than 10 years previously, still has some nice moments. Loved him dropping a hefty elbow drop on a drop down. Sombra hits a massive dive to the floor, sending him flying into the railings. The end sees Casas get retribution as he rolls up Rush with La Majistral, only for the ref to get pulled out of the ring by Rush’s teammates. However, this distraction lets Casas hit a low blow on Rush for the winning fall and a bit of karmic revenge. Didn’t really get going until the last fall, but this was ok.