Mae Young Classic Episode 8

1. Shayna Baszler vs. Mercedes Martinez

PAS: This was a nasty little scrap. Martinez had a Tenryu vibe about her as she was lighting up Bayzler with hard forearms and chops, including some that would rise up the throat area. This match really made Bayzler look tough as she took a physical pounding and was still able to pull out the win. Loved how the knee bar took the toll, and made it a little harder for Mercedes to lift Bayzler for the second fisherman's buster, great bit of subtle selling by Martinez. That finishing choke was brutal looking, Samoa Joe should really study Bayzler if he want's to get his finisher over more. The booking was a little weird though, they had done a great job getting Shayna over as a heel, and this was a pretty babyface performance, including a post match emotional hug. The match itself I enjoyed a bunch.

ER: This was awesome. I had said I thought Martinez had underperformed so far, well, she sure showed me. She was an absolute machine in this, dictating the pace from go. I liked how Baszler threw out a slow leg kick to test distance and Martinez just rushed her during the follow through, sending Baszler scrambling for much of the match. I thought Mercedes' chops, elbows and downward strike punches looked killer. Baszler looked completely dumbstruck during the attacks and it made Martinez look great. The knee bar was great and I loved how Martinez handled it, using the killshot fisherman buster instead to give her space. All of the suplexes looked concussive, the Saito suplexes just ragdolled Baszler, and that german was aces. I agree with Phil about Martinez' subtle knee selling, quickly going for the buster but not being as quick with it, allowing Shayna to plant that knee to the gut, leading to her dropping Martinez into the choke. The choke was death, that forearm looked fully wedged into Martinez' windpipe, the tap inevitable. I agree that the face/heel dynamics were totally against the rest of the tournament, and even within the match they were weird: Martinez' selling during that choke was a huge babyface moment, going from monster one moment to a mouse getting squeezed by a snake the next moment. But the match was gold, best of the tourney so far. Also, Joe's choke is insanely over. Lesnar is a guy who gets a deep red face just from brushing his teeth, but Joe choked him until he looked like roided up Grimace.

2. Kairi Sane vs. Toni Storm

PAS: This was worked in epic 2017 style, and had many of the pluses and negatives of that style. There were some big moments, the dive to the floor by Sane was pretty great, and the bruising on her face added to the violence of the match, I also really liked Storm's armbar she really cranked it and made it look vicious. It did feel a bit like a forced epic though, that puro forearm exchange was stinko, and there was a lot of anguish face near falls. I think it served its purpose, but I am never going to like this kind of match as much as I am going to like something like Devi v. Kai.

ER: This really didn't move me at all. It had cool individual moments, but the build felt completely disjointed and there always seemed to be a reset moment in between big moments. And the resets were all just ugly mouth screams. I think that bridged armbar from Storm was arguably the nastiest moment of the tournament, and also one of the biggest failures of the tournament. It was locked on for far too long, way too far from the ropes, and Sane spent so much time in it that I just couldn't believe in any more of their work. It looked far too strong, and seeing her just last through it for so long just got silly. Although I weirdly would have liked it had she won after reversing into a crucifix pin. It reminded me of that Dynamite Kid/Bret Hart match from 1985 where Dynamite drops an absolutely insane knee drop from the middle rope, 2/3 the way across the ring, right onto the back of Bret's head. And the match ended a minute later with a Bret roll up. The most brutal spot of 1980s WWF was barely a 2 count. Here we have an armbar that looks like the submission of the year, and it didn't even convince Kairi to try using a different arm. It made her scream some more, but she had already spent the entire match screaming, so who cares. They got their "This is wrestling" chant, but the emotions felt forced throughout.

Read more!