The Mae Young Classic is an ongoing special event, promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion, WWE. It will be constituted by a 32 competitor tournament exclusively for women from both NXT and the independent circuit. The tournament took place on July 13, and 14, 2017 and the final match will take place on September 12, 2017.
WWE announced that a women’s tournament would be taking place in the summer of 2017 at a press conference during WrestleMania 33 weekend. There will be a total of 32 wrestlers competing. The name of the event is in honor of the late WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young. It was announced on their official website that the first four wrestlers to be competing would be Sarah Logan, Lacey Evans, Princesa Sugehit, and Toni Storm. The second set of names announced were Tessa Blanchard, Abbey Laith, Taynara Conti, Jazzy Gabert, and Kavita Devi. On June 26, 2017, Lita and Jim Ross were announced as the commentators for the tournament. The third set of names announced were Kairi Sane, Dakota Kai, Piper Niven, and Bianca Belair. The fourth set of names announced were Rhea Ripley and Sage Beckett. The fifth set of names announced were Kay Lee Ray and Ayesha Raymond. Later in the day, Vanessa Borne qualified to the classic. On July 13, 2017, WWE held the Mae Young Classic: Parade of Champions, a pre-tournament event streamed live on YouTube and Facebook and revealed the remaining tournament participants. The Mae Young Classic also featured WWE's first full-time female referee, Jessika Carr.
The first four episodes of this tournament were made available on the WWE Network on August 28, 2017.
Right off the bat, I have to ask this question... Why the fuck is the arena so dark? I’m guessing they didn’t fill up Full Sail University for this show. Otherwise, it's in bad taste to darken the arena like it's a low budget indie show that couldn't fill up all of the seats for every match.
JR should’ve called this solo or with Renee Young. Lita we love you, but commentary is not her cup of tea. Lita adds next to NOTHING to this as his broadcast partner, even more so to say that they re-recorded some lines. I know that Renee Young wasn't too crazy about doing commentary from her NXT days, but I firmly believe that she couldn't have been any worse than Lita here.
I love that freaking theme song for this tournament - I need a copy of that on YouTube or something.
Take a listen for yourself if you haven't had a chance to check out this tournament yet.
I vaguely remember Sugehit from old ChickFight DVDs. Didn’t know she was so “thick” and “juicy” though. Is this a first for a wrestler in WWE wrestling with braces? I know Vince wouldn't have let that fly if he saw her beforehand. I was surprised that let KLR beat on Sugehit so long, even hitting most of her signatures/big moves before the finish
I can easily see WWE hiring Kay Lee Ray at some point if they haven't signed her already. There was some solid ring work from bell to bell from both ladies and this served as a great opening bout to kickstart this tournament. Sugehit was a little sloppy in a few spots but that’s to be expected for international talent making the shift to getting used to WWE style.
Serena’s had her implants removed since the last time we've seen her in a WWE ring as she's looking obviously flat as a board. I know that's bad that was the first thing I noticed, but she's still gorgeous nonetheless. Same goes for Vanessa Borne - isn’t she related to The Rock or part of the Samoan family tree? Looks like her and Nia Jax could be sisters.
I couldn't help but notice that Vanessa Borne had that huge distracting scar on her shoulder. I would've designed my ring gear to cover that up or wear tape or something. I swear WWE needs to have a special aesthetics department with quality control on informing their roster on what's going to look good or bad in HD.
I thought it was cool that they switched to a female referee for this match. I’m guessing they went with male for the previous match since Sugehit only speaks Spanish?
This match wasn't bad, but I was not too crazy about this match. Even Lita said it - they kept it very basic.
Seriously, why does EVERY Samoan wrestler has to use a damn Samoan Drop? That’s as stereotypical as every foreigner (especially Muslims/Arabics/Indians) wrestler using the Camel Clutch.
I was surprised that Deeb went with a Spear as her finish, but I guess that's she's been using on the indies lately right? I could have sworn she used to do something else for her finish, but oh well.
Major props go out to SHIMMER for sharing match footage for Shayna’s in-ring history, along with other women in this tournament. I wonder how much WWE could have had to pay for that "favor" along with getting Allison Danger to call this event with Jim Ross instead of Lita?
I hate to say it, but Butterface has to be Shayna’s middle name with a capital B. I thought Zeda had a pretty good backstory for an underdog babyface that would have sold that she was winning in this first round against anyone else, but nope. Even Ray Charles could see that Zeda’s losing here.
First mention of Ronda Rousey and the other Horsewomen at ringside, Izzy’s on the row BEHIND them. Dafuq? Who is that kid's parents blowing to get front row tickets to almost EVERY live event?
Pretty cool intro theme for Zeda, very anime-esque and I'm loving her ring gear. I hope we see more of that girl after this tournament since she's already down at the Performance Center training.
I had one huge issue with this match and it's with the message that WWE is conveying here. Zeda's backstory is that she has endured bullies all of her life to come here in WWE and to compete in the Mae Young Classic. WWE promotes the "Be a Star" campaign and all of that shit by WWE, but they have the story here have Zeda get bullied by Shayna the ENTIRE match and get nothing off and LOSE? Talk about inspiring women... That's just epic fail on WWE's behalf. The whole thing here came off like they were circle-jerking about having Rousey's group there instead of telling the story with Zeda standing up against this bully. It just disgust me that WWE put off the message that literally said, "Cool we made Shayna look strong at the expense of killing off the girl with a good backstory that could’ve made a great narrative versus someone else. Meh, fuck it. She's already down at the Performance Center so we can do it later..."
I get it, they want to make a huge deal that they got one of MMA's Four Horsewomen into a WWE ring, but they didn't have to chop out Zeda's legs out from underneath her without even giving her a chance to prove herself.
For those who aren't hip to these ladies, it's Kimber Lee vs. Alpha Female. Kimber Lee was trained by 205 Live's own Drew Gulak and renown for her work in SHINE, Shimmer Women's Athletes, and Chikara. Most people may remember Alpha Female as the towering female enforcer Chris Sabin "hired" to deal with Velvet Sky after their break-up on Impact Wrestling during one of their tours to the UK. She has made several tours of Japan and currently works for the all-women's promotion, Pro Wrestling: EVE, when she's not working on her budding MMA career.
This match served as the main event for Episode 1 and the best match to this point. It was appropriately well-placed as a main event bout, with this match serving as a hard-hitting affair with Jazzy running a clinic on how to be a female powerhouse/wrecking machine. Hey Nia Jax, take notes please.
Jazzy with those mounted punches towards the end that would make AKI Man proud. I wonder how many people will get that reference...
Abbey pulled off the upset win of the tournament so far with Abbey getting the win off a roll-up into the Alligator Clutch (tribute to Mae Young) after Jazzy dominated 90% of this match. To be honest, I'm not too crazy about that finish, but whatever, the roll-up is the most devastating finisher in WWE after all...
I wasn’t crazy about Jazzy breaking character and hugging Abbey post-match either, but truth be told, there ends up being a LOT of that as this tournament goes on.
On paper, this seems pretty stupid to have a rookie having their FIRST match versus a multi-year veteran and title holder in a first-round match in this tournament.
This was not a bad first showing for Xia Li, but her snapmares/hip tosses definitely need work. I thought she was going to break Mercedes’ neck at least twice there from how she was carelessly tossing her around the ring. Her striking game is superb but other than that this has been the most lackluster 1st round bout to this point. Xia Lia is kick away from a wardrobe malfunction with that short skirt and that thong-like panties
Boy, times have changed when WWE wouldn't have dared let Mercedes in a WWE ring looking like she does (covered in tattoos and piercings). Fast forward a decade later, we have her here in the flesh. I'm glad to see her finally get some mainstream exposure for once, that's for sure.
Give or take a few months but this match could’ve taken place back in TNA/GFW if Belle, Evers, and Yim stuck around after Anthem buyout.
Marti Belle is still kinda sloppy at spots in this at several points of this match. Correction.... hell BOTH of them are sloppy. With the addition of Marti Belle, there’s TONS of bootilicious girls in this tournament, good Lord that's getting distracting at this point.
Sloppy match, sloppy finish - moving on… Seriously, if you're pressed for time, do yourself a favor and skip this one. I can totally see why Triple switched the finish on this match halfway into this.
The height difference here is crazy. Miranda looks like she’s shorter than AJ Lee AND Alexa Bliss
At this point, they’ve made a lot of these matches a bit TOO predictable in terms of vets versus rookies. Miranda had little chance here, despite being one of Booker T’s students. It felt like she didn't have a chance at all here, despite her video package that kinda sold me onto her character/personality.
Up next, we have the woman formerly known as Crazy Mary Dobson versus the former TNA Knockouts Champion, Jade.
Logan looks like she’s wearing Nikki Cross’ top. According to a friend who is a native to that area, WWE might want to change Logan’s hometown if they want to sell people on her country girl/redneck gimmick
No joke, but I never heard Sarah Logan speak before seeing her video package. I've seen some her bouts on YouTube and Dailymotion here and there, but never heard her do an interview. That being said, I'm completely sold on that gimmick after actually hearing her speak. She's got the Southern accent down to the tee.
This wasn't a bad match at all, definitely better the rest of the matches on this episode. A solid Ep. 2 main event for a pretty meh series of matches on this episode. I enjoyed Mia's shout out/tribute to Gail Kim by finishing Sarah Logan off with the Eat Defeat. Thank god she didn't botch it like Enzo Amore did on RAW last week...
Lord, forgive me, but that facepaint wasn't doing Ayesha Raymond any favors at all in the looks department.
Thanks to Toni Storm's lovely rear end, there was so much booty meat in this tournament that even Naomi tweeted about it.
On top of that, I loved every second of Toni Storm's ass-based offense. I swear there was a point where I didn't know what that girl's upper body looked like for the bulk of this match. As much as I loved Toni's ass along with the bulk of this match, that finish was ass though.
I wouldn’t be bragging about Great Khali trained me about shit if I was Kavota Devi. That dude is fucking horrible. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised and VERY impressed with KD’s offense. She should go back to India and start training Khali on how to be an impressive powerhouse. Hell, give Nia some pointers too while she's at it.
I haven't seen Evie/Dakota Kai wrestle in what feels like forever from the old Shimmer DVDs. I remember having her on my old Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (PlayStation 2) saves with the rest of the Shimmer roster at the time. I'm glad she got her chance to shine as part of this tournament. Kai busts out a sweet Running Kenta Kick into the corner and finishes Devi off with a Diving Foot Stomp for the win. I wouldn't mind seeing more Devi if they want to bring her up to NXT down the road.
If WWE ends up signing Dakota Kai (if she's not already signed), I wonder if they are going to keep her with her Bayley-like gimmick here?
I'mn not really feeling this “shaman” gimmick for Sage but I guess they are practicing for her NXT debut as a regular in the coming months. In my opinion, Sage's weight loss story would have been more inspirational. For those who don't know, she was formerly Rosie Lottalove in TNA before she lost 130+ lbs. She's also credited as the same wrestler who sidelined Daffney with the injury that forced her to retire from in-ring competition.
From what I have seen here, Bianca Belair isn’t as good as people online have been hyping her up to be from house show events. I’m not impressed at all. Is that supposed to be a big fucking deal that she whips people with that long piece of weave? That weave looks more like a liability long haul if someone trips up or chokes on that damn thing from being wrapped around their neck from the ring work.
Belair picks up the win after being the second person to have a Spear finisher. I'm wondering if the road agents did NOT go over finishes before this tournament? Gotta be honest here, but I wasn't too crazy about this match as a whole as it seemed like they didn't have good chemistry with each other.
Santana, girl we love you, but you need to lay off the spray tanning. She was looking like that Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair orange here in HD.
This was the best match out of these three episodes so far. Do yourself a favor and watch this one for sure. Piper can really move for a big girl. I have only seen her wrestle a few times out of the few times that I have checked out matches from the STARDOM promotion, but I'm glad to see Piper (known as Viper on the indies) get a chance in this tournament to show off her skills. It was cool to see Santana bust out the 2nd Eat Defeat in this tournament a as tribute and shout out to Gail Kim in this tournament.
Even though I read the spoilers (much like most people) beforehand, I was still shocked to see Santana take the L here, but I'm happy that Piper got to advance.
To the folks on social media giving Piper a hard time about her weight need to lay off. That girl is doing amazing things for someone with her size. If you're bitter that WWE let her beat the living Wonder Woman, Santana Garrett, I wouldn't be surprised that both of these ladies end up getting signed in the near future. They would be crazy not to.
I’ve seen a few of Renee’s matches prior to this and she doesn’t come off nowhere as green as she does here. I'm just in awe on how sloppy this match is. It's nowhere as bad as that Rachel Evers/Marti Belle match on Episode 2, but it's hard to ignore here.
You could even tell from Candice's facial expressions that she is even pissed off by the end of this match from Renee’s inexperience. She was struggling to keep this moving along to say she’s the veteran here. They managed to pull it together at the end with the sweet series that lead to the finish though.
Sorry folks, I gotta cheer my fellow SC native in this one in Evans. We went to the same college too.
I couldn't help but laugh at Evans’ classy hairdo coming undone over the course of this match. What is up with Conti’s resting bitch face? She’s got that going better than Bliss does. Conti’s got some natural talent as striker given her background. I'm hoping we see more of her on NXT TV soon since they signed her already at the Performance Center. She just needs some polish to her work. Let it be known that Lacey Evans was the wrong person to be carrying another rookie through a match too.
I was pleasantly shocked that Evans actually won a match for once instead of jobbing as usual. I kinda got used to seeing her on the losing end of things on NXT over the last few months.
I have to wonder if Reina had Bell’s Palsy since she was wearing the half-face mask. Sarah Stock/Sarita did the same thing when she had paralysis on a side of her face at one point when she was wrestling for TNA Wrestling.
There was not much to write home about here outside of Savoy controlling the pace from bell to bell. Savoy ends up being the last member of the Trifecta (stable between Baszler, Martinez, and Savoy in Shimmer and SHINE) to advance.
I could see WWE signing Savoy easily at some point, but Reina needs some polish if she’s already at the Performance Center. She's just another choice in this opening round where I felt like "yeah, she's just here to lose in the first round..."
Tessa, you're a beautiful woman, but please lay off the spray tan. Much like Santana in the main event of Episode 3, she looks like an Oompa Loompa here in HD.
Kairi Sane is going to have to kick it up a notch if she’s to be as much of a “rockstar” as Nakamura and Asuka on NXT. Her entrance needs and deserves something MUCH better for a star of her caliber in this thing. I keep saying it on social media, but she needs to make her entrance a tribute or parody of Gokaiger (Super Sentai) or something. She already looks like Luka (Gokai Yellow) from that series, so I don't know... Maybe she could do something like that? Have Nakamura be Captain Marvelous for fun at some point. He's already got the look down.
Sane's Diving Elbow Drop is amazing but goddamn that scares me how she lands. She’s just begging for lower back and hip problems when she’s older.
This is easily the best match out of these first four episodes and they definitely made sure to save the best for last. From how well Tessa worked with Sane here, I'm sad to see her get eliminated this quick in this tournament. To say that her and Sane have dodged each other from their various tours of Japan, it was great to see them finally get a chance to test their skills against each other in a WWE ring no less.
Episode 1
Right off the bat, I have to ask this question... Why the fuck is the arena so dark? I’m guessing they didn’t fill up Full Sail University for this show. Otherwise, it's in bad taste to darken the arena like it's a low budget indie show that couldn't fill up all of the seats for every match.
JR should’ve called this solo or with Renee Young. Lita we love you, but commentary is not her cup of tea. Lita adds next to NOTHING to this as his broadcast partner, even more so to say that they re-recorded some lines. I know that Renee Young wasn't too crazy about doing commentary from her NXT days, but I firmly believe that she couldn't have been any worse than Lita here.
I love that freaking theme song for this tournament - I need a copy of that on YouTube or something.
Take a listen for yourself if you haven't had a chance to check out this tournament yet.
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Princesa Sugehit def. Kay Lee Ray |
I can easily see WWE hiring Kay Lee Ray at some point if they haven't signed her already. There was some solid ring work from bell to bell from both ladies and this served as a great opening bout to kickstart this tournament. Sugehit was a little sloppy in a few spots but that’s to be expected for international talent making the shift to getting used to WWE style.
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Serena Deeb def. Vanessa Borne |
I couldn't help but notice that Vanessa Borne had that huge distracting scar on her shoulder. I would've designed my ring gear to cover that up or wear tape or something. I swear WWE needs to have a special aesthetics department with quality control on informing their roster on what's going to look good or bad in HD.
I thought it was cool that they switched to a female referee for this match. I’m guessing they went with male for the previous match since Sugehit only speaks Spanish?
This match wasn't bad, but I was not too crazy about this match. Even Lita said it - they kept it very basic.
Seriously, why does EVERY Samoan wrestler has to use a damn Samoan Drop? That’s as stereotypical as every foreigner (especially Muslims/Arabics/Indians) wrestler using the Camel Clutch.
I was surprised that Deeb went with a Spear as her finish, but I guess that's she's been using on the indies lately right? I could have sworn she used to do something else for her finish, but oh well.
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Shayna Baszler def. Zeda |
I hate to say it, but Butterface has to be Shayna’s middle name with a capital B. I thought Zeda had a pretty good backstory for an underdog babyface that would have sold that she was winning in this first round against anyone else, but nope. Even Ray Charles could see that Zeda’s losing here.
First mention of Ronda Rousey and the other Horsewomen at ringside, Izzy’s on the row BEHIND them. Dafuq? Who is that kid's parents blowing to get front row tickets to almost EVERY live event?
Pretty cool intro theme for Zeda, very anime-esque and I'm loving her ring gear. I hope we see more of that girl after this tournament since she's already down at the Performance Center training.
I had one huge issue with this match and it's with the message that WWE is conveying here. Zeda's backstory is that she has endured bullies all of her life to come here in WWE and to compete in the Mae Young Classic. WWE promotes the "Be a Star" campaign and all of that shit by WWE, but they have the story here have Zeda get bullied by Shayna the ENTIRE match and get nothing off and LOSE? Talk about inspiring women... That's just epic fail on WWE's behalf. The whole thing here came off like they were circle-jerking about having Rousey's group there instead of telling the story with Zeda standing up against this bully. It just disgust me that WWE put off the message that literally said, "Cool we made Shayna look strong at the expense of killing off the girl with a good backstory that could’ve made a great narrative versus someone else. Meh, fuck it. She's already down at the Performance Center so we can do it later..."
I get it, they want to make a huge deal that they got one of MMA's Four Horsewomen into a WWE ring, but they didn't have to chop out Zeda's legs out from underneath her without even giving her a chance to prove herself.
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Abbey Laith def. Jazzy Gabert |
This match served as the main event for Episode 1 and the best match to this point. It was appropriately well-placed as a main event bout, with this match serving as a hard-hitting affair with Jazzy running a clinic on how to be a female powerhouse/wrecking machine. Hey Nia Jax, take notes please.
Jazzy with those mounted punches towards the end that would make AKI Man proud. I wonder how many people will get that reference...
Abbey pulled off the upset win of the tournament so far with Abbey getting the win off a roll-up into the Alligator Clutch (tribute to Mae Young) after Jazzy dominated 90% of this match. To be honest, I'm not too crazy about that finish, but whatever, the roll-up is the most devastating finisher in WWE after all...
I wasn’t crazy about Jazzy breaking character and hugging Abbey post-match either, but truth be told, there ends up being a LOT of that as this tournament goes on.
Episode 2
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Mercedes Martinez def. Xia Li |
This was not a bad first showing for Xia Li, but her snapmares/hip tosses definitely need work. I thought she was going to break Mercedes’ neck at least twice there from how she was carelessly tossing her around the ring. Her striking game is superb but other than that this has been the most lackluster 1st round bout to this point. Xia Lia is kick away from a wardrobe malfunction with that short skirt and that thong-like panties
Boy, times have changed when WWE wouldn't have dared let Mercedes in a WWE ring looking like she does (covered in tattoos and piercings). Fast forward a decade later, we have her here in the flesh. I'm glad to see her finally get some mainstream exposure for once, that's for sure.
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Rachel Evers def. Marti Belle |
Marti Belle is still kinda sloppy at spots in this at several points of this match. Correction.... hell BOTH of them are sloppy. With the addition of Marti Belle, there’s TONS of bootilicious girls in this tournament, good Lord that's getting distracting at this point.
Sloppy match, sloppy finish - moving on… Seriously, if you're pressed for time, do yourself a favor and skip this one. I can totally see why Triple switched the finish on this match halfway into this.
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Rhea Ripley def. Miranda Salinas |
At this point, they’ve made a lot of these matches a bit TOO predictable in terms of vets versus rookies. Miranda had little chance here, despite being one of Booker T’s students. It felt like she didn't have a chance at all here, despite her video package that kinda sold me onto her character/personality.
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Mia Yim def. Sarah Logan |
Logan looks like she’s wearing Nikki Cross’ top. According to a friend who is a native to that area, WWE might want to change Logan’s hometown if they want to sell people on her country girl/redneck gimmick
No joke, but I never heard Sarah Logan speak before seeing her video package. I've seen some her bouts on YouTube and Dailymotion here and there, but never heard her do an interview. That being said, I'm completely sold on that gimmick after actually hearing her speak. She's got the Southern accent down to the tee.
This wasn't a bad match at all, definitely better the rest of the matches on this episode. A solid Ep. 2 main event for a pretty meh series of matches on this episode. I enjoyed Mia's shout out/tribute to Gail Kim by finishing Sarah Logan off with the Eat Defeat. Thank god she didn't botch it like Enzo Amore did on RAW last week...
Episode 3
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Toni Storm def. Ayesha Raymond |
Thanks to Toni Storm's lovely rear end, there was so much booty meat in this tournament that even Naomi tweeted about it.
Yesssss embrace the #bootymeat🤗 https://t.co/i805pEWYQf— Trinity Fatu (@NaomiWWE) August 28, 2017
On top of that, I loved every second of Toni Storm's ass-based offense. I swear there was a point where I didn't know what that girl's upper body looked like for the bulk of this match. As much as I loved Toni's ass along with the bulk of this match, that finish was ass though.
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Dakota Kai def. Kavita Devi |
I haven't seen Evie/Dakota Kai wrestle in what feels like forever from the old Shimmer DVDs. I remember having her on my old Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (PlayStation 2) saves with the rest of the Shimmer roster at the time. I'm glad she got her chance to shine as part of this tournament. Kai busts out a sweet Running Kenta Kick into the corner and finishes Devi off with a Diving Foot Stomp for the win. I wouldn't mind seeing more Devi if they want to bring her up to NXT down the road.
If WWE ends up signing Dakota Kai (if she's not already signed), I wonder if they are going to keep her with her Bayley-like gimmick here?
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Bianca Belair def. Sage Beckett |
From what I have seen here, Bianca Belair isn’t as good as people online have been hyping her up to be from house show events. I’m not impressed at all. Is that supposed to be a big fucking deal that she whips people with that long piece of weave? That weave looks more like a liability long haul if someone trips up or chokes on that damn thing from being wrapped around their neck from the ring work.
Belair picks up the win after being the second person to have a Spear finisher. I'm wondering if the road agents did NOT go over finishes before this tournament? Gotta be honest here, but I wasn't too crazy about this match as a whole as it seemed like they didn't have good chemistry with each other.
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Santana Garrett def. Piper Niven |
This was the best match out of these three episodes so far. Do yourself a favor and watch this one for sure. Piper can really move for a big girl. I have only seen her wrestle a few times out of the few times that I have checked out matches from the STARDOM promotion, but I'm glad to see Piper (known as Viper on the indies) get a chance in this tournament to show off her skills. It was cool to see Santana bust out the 2nd Eat Defeat in this tournament a as tribute and shout out to Gail Kim in this tournament.
Even though I read the spoilers (much like most people) beforehand, I was still shocked to see Santana take the L here, but I'm happy that Piper got to advance.
To the folks on social media giving Piper a hard time about her weight need to lay off. That girl is doing amazing things for someone with her size. If you're bitter that WWE let her beat the living Wonder Woman, Santana Garrett, I wouldn't be surprised that both of these ladies end up getting signed in the near future. They would be crazy not to.
Episode 4
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Candice LaRae def. Renee Michelle |
You could even tell from Candice's facial expressions that she is even pissed off by the end of this match from Renee’s inexperience. She was struggling to keep this moving along to say she’s the veteran here. They managed to pull it together at the end with the sweet series that lead to the finish though.
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Lacey Evans def. Taynara Conti |
I couldn't help but laugh at Evans’ classy hairdo coming undone over the course of this match. What is up with Conti’s resting bitch face? She’s got that going better than Bliss does. Conti’s got some natural talent as striker given her background. I'm hoping we see more of her on NXT TV soon since they signed her already at the Performance Center. She just needs some polish to her work. Let it be known that Lacey Evans was the wrong person to be carrying another rookie through a match too.
I was pleasantly shocked that Evans actually won a match for once instead of jobbing as usual. I kinda got used to seeing her on the losing end of things on NXT over the last few months.
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Nicole Savoy def. Reina Gonzales |
There was not much to write home about here outside of Savoy controlling the pace from bell to bell. Savoy ends up being the last member of the Trifecta (stable between Baszler, Martinez, and Savoy in Shimmer and SHINE) to advance.
I could see WWE signing Savoy easily at some point, but Reina needs some polish if she’s already at the Performance Center. She's just another choice in this opening round where I felt like "yeah, she's just here to lose in the first round..."
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Kairi Sane def. Tessa Blanchard |
Kairi Sane is going to have to kick it up a notch if she’s to be as much of a “rockstar” as Nakamura and Asuka on NXT. Her entrance needs and deserves something MUCH better for a star of her caliber in this thing. I keep saying it on social media, but she needs to make her entrance a tribute or parody of Gokaiger (Super Sentai) or something. She already looks like Luka (Gokai Yellow) from that series, so I don't know... Maybe she could do something like that? Have Nakamura be Captain Marvelous for fun at some point. He's already got the look down.
Sane's Diving Elbow Drop is amazing but goddamn that scares me how she lands. She’s just begging for lower back and hip problems when she’s older.
This is easily the best match out of these first four episodes and they definitely made sure to save the best for last. From how well Tessa worked with Sane here, I'm sad to see her get eliminated this quick in this tournament. To say that her and Sane have dodged each other from their various tours of Japan, it was great to see them finally get a chance to test their skills against each other in a WWE ring no less.
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