Mae Young Classic Final

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

ER: A very good match and a match that felt like the finals, but I was obviously rooting for Baszler. Also, after seeing Sane in five tournament wins and at this point I can safely say that she's not very good at projecting the possibility of a loss the later a match gets. Once it gets time for her big comeback she clearly looks like she's just thinking of the all the stuff she still needs to hit, any work done to her earlier in the match floats out the window. It's not just her body part selling, but she starts getting so excited for her upcoming win that she just starts rushing through her lines to finish the play. I really liked most of this though. Shayna as the cocky bully was really fun, and I bought into Kairi's more pro wrestling based reversals, rolling an armbar into a pin, flipping back on a choke for another pin, and it was all fun until Shayna kicks her in the head. From there Shayna went after the arm, stomping on the elbow in a spot that made my arm hair stand up, yanking it from a seated position, even running into that arm full speed with a knee. I loved Baszler suckering her into missing her corner elbow/crossbody, and I was really excited for how they were going to plausibly fit in Sane's comeback. Problem is, I didn't think her comeback was very plausible. It could have been, and they wouldn't have had to do many things differently. Shayna was selling her guts out for Kairi - and it should be noted that Shayna's selling was really great - but Kairi mostly didn't justify the selling. She was just too excited for her win and her moves.

PAS: Very good match, worthy of a finals, but very clearly the wrong lady went over. Not only are there way more interesting things that can be done with Shayna as a tournament champ, but she was obviously the superior performer. Most of the cool things in this match were provided by Baszler, all the early cockiness, the little kicks to the head, the absorbing of the spear, the nasty armwork. Then later in the match she did a masterful job of selling the broken rib to make herself look vulnerable, and set up the big finish. I really wish Sane’s spear looked better, a selling job that good deserved a better looking instigating move. I did love Sane’s backfist, which she hits with such force, and the diving elbow to the ribs was super nasty (Baszler covering her head only to get wasted in the body was awesome). Also total waste not to have some post match gaga. If you are going to have Shayna lose, at least have her jump Kairi post bell and have some sort of pull apart with the Horsewomen and the WWE wrestlers, any business they want to do there lost a lot of its luster. It really felt like they just wanted the photo op with horseface Ivanka and roid Kushner post match.

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