Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 4
Rachel Evers vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto
ER: I thought this was cool. It got a lot of time for a 1st round match and was worked differently than all the other matches we've seen so far. For a crowd who was completely in the bag for Kairi Sane last year, and were clearly well aware of who Meiko was this year, Matsumoto didn't really get much of a reaction in this one. Evers was over huge with the local crowd, and it just made them really silent for Matsumoto, which was really surprising. I thought both looked good, liked Evers with an early shot to the shins and a nice low dropkick to the face; Matsumoto was pretty mean, dropped double knees to the stomach, both threw some hard shots and I especially liked their standing flat footed lariats, and the fans stayed really into Evers. Evers hit a nice senton and a cool twisting legdrop off the ropes. I wasn't expecting Evers to get the loss, but Matsumoto really did launch her with some big throws, a nice German, big powerbomb, and a vicious Saito suplex. This was good, probably best non-Meiko match of the 1st round.
Jessie Elaban vs. Taynara Conti
ER: Oh jeez, this is the first I'm seeing of Jessie Elaban and after that promo package I am one gigantic NOPE on her. Nobody at all needs that "I'm SUCH a NERRRRD!" try hard nonsense. "I'm such a klutz and nerd, I have these comically large glasses that I wear and I've seen THREE Star Wars movies! I'm attainable, and sometimes I just lie on my tummy and kick my legs in the air as if I was on my bed talking on the phone about boys I like!" I want Conti to snap her in half. And NO just in case anybody is thinking it, I have not ever had my heart broken by someone who would ever be considered "adorkable". This girl just immediately rubbed me the wrong way, like when Chili's tried to hip up their "baby back ribs" song. This woman has all the charm of a Kars 4 Kids jingle. But I liked the match. Elaban predictably didn't work at all like she described, but she had a cool high kick and a nice senton. Conti was real vicious in this, going after the arm in a few cool ways, bending it over the ring ropes, bending Elaban's wrist at rough angles, and slicing Elaban's finger webbing (finger crotch?) over the ropes. The arm stuff didn't really go anywhere, and Elaban didn't really acknowledge it much, but I liked the journey. Conti was pretty new last year, and she's made some nice strides. Aside from the arm work she had a couple of great judo throws, and a cool moment where she sidestepped Elaban and kind of hotshotted her, looked cool.
Nicole Matthews vs. Isla Dawn
ER: This had some good moments, but was also fairly messy. Some of the messiness worked, some of it made things look like a mess. I like Matthews as a kind of lesser Tessa Blanchard bully, though there were moments where set-up was clunky. Possibly Dawn's fault, not sure. Matthews has personality though, beyond "I'm going to win this tournament!" and that's important. Kicking at Dawn's back while talking trash gives her a little something the others don't have. I liked Dawn kicking Matthews' arm in the ropes, her Saito suplex looked good, Angle slam looked sloppy but effective, but this thing was all sorts of disjointed. The match ending Lion Tamer by Matthews looked good, but again, several things here looked good. There just wasn't really any kind of flow.
Xia Brookside vs. Io Shirai
ER: How the heck did I not do the math on who Brookside's dad was when I saw her last name? And this is somehow the first time he's seen her wrestle? That's...weird. Did they really say that? That makes no sense. This was an Io showcase but Brookside got a lot: Her forearms to start looked good, rattling hard into Shirai's collarbones, her chinbreaker looked good, she had no problem leaning into Shirai's strikes. Shirai came off like a star, but really a lot of her offense here was made by Brookside having no problem getting kicked or taking knees to the face. Even Shirai's match finishing moonsault came up a bit short, meaning Brookside took knees right to the gut. Shirai is good, and has a good chance of delivering in subsequent rounds, but Brookside has a ton of potential going forward and will no doubt be in NXT any day now.
ER: Second round starts next week, and I'm optimistic it will deliver some quality. After the Meiko match, most of the rest of the first round saw some good individual performances without there being many actual good matches. Evers/Matsumoto was a bright 1st rounder from tonight, probably the best non-Meiko match so far.
Labels: Hiroyo Matsumoto, Io Shirai, Isla Dawn, Jessie Elaban, Mae Young Classic, Nicole Matthews, Rachel Evers, Taynara Conti, Xia Brookside
posted by EricR @ 10:00 PM
3 Comments:
I'm assuming they meant it's the first time Brookside has seen Xia wrestle in person. She didn't debut in ring until 2015, by which point he was already living in America, so I can believe that. If they mean he's never watched a match of hers ever... Yeah, I'd find that hard to believe.
Very possible I misheard, but either way it seems odd. Even if he has been living in the states for several years, that's several years of chances to see your daughter compete in the business he's been involved in for 30+ years. It would be really strange if some guy played in MLB and then coached in the minors for 30 years, but didn't see his son playing baseball until he made his major league debut.
Looks like a mix of returness and newbies and though the promo has me fearing it is G.L.O.W. night between Elban and Brookside but at this point just judging a book bu its cover.
Evers vs Matsumoto
Evers based on last year Bracketology wasmy fave going in last year. Then when got to see her she had that unprofessional participant that made her look so bad. Hope she gets off to better start this time around win or lose.
Loving the initional build up playing off the power of each one after the Godzilla comments really worked into the story.
IN the end all elements came together really well with the power versus power, Straightforward with back and forth. The fans and the announcers gelled with it.
Great start to this show and both ladies were winners to me.
Conti vs Elaban
Conti last I had seen was poised to be a female member of Undisputed Era and this promo is making Elaban very G.L.O.W. but the last one I thought was really G.L.O.W. is the current W.O.W. champ, Santana Garrett. So Elaban may have a career if WWE doesn't work out.
I am hoping these two have been working together in the Performance Center because Conti sudden disappearance from NXT makes me think she had more to work on then promo's since Undisputed Era has a mouth piece.
Not sure if low expectations helped or like I hoped they been working on this match for who knows how long. Paled in comparison to the first match but was decent for what it was.
Matthews vs Dawn
Not familiar with either girl so we will see where this goes.
One having a big background in acting/witchcraft isn't getting me excited. She needs to be as tall as the Undertaker for that work for me.
Unfortunately neither the build up promo, announcers, or audience got me to care for the either competitor. Neither did anything to stand out for me.
Brookside vs Shirai
Okay the G.L.O.W. worries quickly put aside but we definitely not getting the Bates story with Shirai being her opponent but accomplishment to be chosen as shirai first WWE opponent.
Good back and forth start thank you booker for not having Shirai run this from start to finish but unfortunately this turns ut to be a quick match which was abit surprising since the final match of each show had a bit of time.
First round other than episode 2 has been pretty positive. Wish I had kept up with this going to be a lot of wrestling for me these next two days.
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