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.

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Mae Young Classic Episode 5

1. Rachel Evers vs. Abbey Laith

PAS: This wasn't the mess that Evers first round match was, and has gotten a lot of praise in other places, but this didn't do it for me. It felt very 2017ish, full of forearm exchanges, your turn my turn wrestling, and agonized 2.9 near falls. This tourney has had a lot of different kind of styles, and this was their Seth Rollins v. Kevin Owens match, which for me is a hard pass. Top rope powerslam is a cool move in a vacumn, but if the very next move has the person taking the powerslam winning the match, what is the point.

ER: Yeah this really did nothing for me. It didn't even feel like your turn/my turn, it felt like they let Evers do tons of offense before Laith wins a powerbomb, with both doing tons of Godspell curtain call heavy breathing in between moves. Evers clearly looked better than that 1st round match, and I liked several parts of her offense, but that top rope powerslam should be a killshot. This just felt like it had no build, no flow. Both looked fine without actually accomplishing much.

2. Piper Niven vs. Serena Deeb

PAS: Great performance by Piper, as Serena really didn't bring a ton to the table. Really impressive job of crafting a fun monster v. underdog match in a tourney with a ton of those already and where the underdog really doesn't have a ton of impressive offense or bumping. I liked the simple wrestling story of Deeb trying to bodyslam Niven and failing until she succeeds, and since whoever the agent for this tourney has already run a half a dozen "big girl misses a top rope move and gets rolled up" finishes, I really bought that Deeb was going to win when she missed her big splash.

ER: Fully agree on Piper's performance. Not only did her own stuff look great, but she helped out Deeb tremendously on things that didn't really deserve to look good. You watch Piper violently snap herself back on a neckbreaker, and you see Serena not doing anything to cause that snap, and you just can tell Piper is pushing this thing. Piper gave her a lot and some of it really didn't look great, but it was crafted nicely and the build to Serena hitting the slam was good. I loved all of Piper's splashes and crossbodies and that Vader bomb, she really gets great full force and extension on them, reminds me of Big E. I'm totally with Phil on that finish, it seemed like every bigger gal that lost in the 1st round after taking for ever to do and then miss a top rope move. I saw Piper going back up and I'm going Nooooooooo, already pissed that they were letting Deeb advance, already writing angrily that they were trying to inorganically recreate the Brian Kendrick CWC run and it wasn't working...and then it wasn't the finish. Really happy Piper advanced, really great showing.

3. Princesa Sugehit vs. Mercedes Martinez

PAS: There are a lot of promising rookies in this tourney, but this was a match of professional veterans.  This match took a minute to get going, but I really liked the finishing run. Sugehit really wrenched the Fujiwara arm bar, and I loved all of the way Martinez countered out of it. The big Fisherman's buster was a significantly nasty finish that I bought it ending the match. Martinez has such a badass look, she really looks like the kind of lady who could kick most guys asses.

ER: A bunch of really good stuff here, and yeah this was two pros working a professional match. Rachel brought a lot insight into how Sugehit wears a lot of French high cut over the hip bottoms, and how most gals typically work in more of a boy cut short. Both were generous with the other, with Mercedes leaning way into some Sugehit kicks and both mapping out some nice counter sequences. The Fujiwara armbar was nasty and I thought for sure it was the finish. Watching her yank on that arm got one of the loudest reactions of the tournament from me so far, just kept naturally shouting OH! OH! with every pull. But I liked the counter out of it and agree that the fisherman buster works as a finish (you know, like that top rope powerslam in the first match, but whatever...). Martinez looks like Cris Cyborg decided to go into pro wrestling, though I would like more intensity from her. I hope WWE has some interest in Sugehit as it would be cool to see an actual luchadora there. I know they have Dark Angel under contract, but I think it's as a trainer.

4. Kairi Sane vs. Bianca Belair

PAS: This is the second Sane match in a row I have really liked, but ended up being more impressed with her opponent. That is actually a pretty good sign that Kairi is a great wrestler. Man what a star making performance by Belair though, she comes off like such a athletic marvel, she reminded me of early Goldberg or Dr. Death. The weave as Shoo Baby is such a creative idea and while it came off as more of a comedy spot in the first match, here she really tore her up with whips. The squat suplexes were awesome as was her throws and 450, I can just imagine her debuting on RAW and blowing the doors off the place. Sane was great eating all of Belair's stuff, and also had some real highlight moments of her own, I commented on her last match that Sane was more of a Manami Toyota style worker, and I was an Aja guy, she proves me wrong by unloading with an Aja level back fist, and then does her watch out below elbow. The fact that she doesn't always know where she is going to land adds to the coolness of the move.

ER: Instead of Goldberg or Dr. Death, maybe more Doug Furnas? That surprising flying mixed with legit power. There were a couple times where she looked like she was lifting and switching Kairi's weight without Kairi actually doing anything. The hair whip spot sounds cool on paper, yet the execution somehow FAR EXCEEDS however cool it sounds on paper. No Lucha Underground sound sweetening here, she just blasts Sane with shots. Both women have great charisma, loved Belair's slow turn entrance, loved Sane stomping on a kiss before flying in with an attack. The 450 was just completely unexpected. She had a real great "fuck it" face before attempting it, like she had been keeping it secret and practicing it after hours, and here she reaches deep and brings it out as a last chance move. Sane really works nicely as an underdog and as an...overdog? I'm saying she works well from behind and from ahead, takes offense really well, and once she gets a lead you can see her facially selling the momentum. That backfist was awesome (not quite Aja Kong breaking Chapparita Asari's face on Raw to Vince MacMahon's horror) and that "elbow" is nuts. I'd hate to be underneath it, but agree that not knowing where the hell she's landing is part of the charm, like a less dangerous version of Kidman's shooting star.

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Mae Young Classic Episode 2

1. Mercedes Martinez vs. Xia Li

ER: If this was actually Li's first legit wrestling match, it's not really fair to be that critical, but there wouldn't be much need to as she looked far better than most anybody else I've seen having their first match. Her opening headlock and wrestling looked good, and the spin kicks to Martinez's hip were neat (the spin kick to a kneeling Martinez was awesome), and her running snapmare was really cool. What's surprising is just how much Martinez let her have. I fully get letting Li get some shine since she was obviously not advancing, but Martinez handled it kind of weird, lying down and just sitting on the mat for an awkwardly long amount of time. I'm not sure if Li was supposed to hit that superman punch earlier or what, but it didn't seem like it. It really just seemed like Martinez was overselling the kicks. It felt odd.

PAS: I thought this was worked pretty perfectly for this type of match. I loved Martinez taunting Li and the beginning of the match, tooling her on the mat early, only to get caught with big shots. I had no problem with her selling, as it came off like she was just stunned by stiff kick. I also liked how when Mercedes took over, she just planted her and submitted her. Li got in some stuff, she really didn't need a bunch of your turn, my turn or a bunch of near falls.

2. Marti Belle vs. Rachel Evers

ER: OOF this was some ugly business right here. These two were not only on different pages, they were in different libraries. I think each of them may have been out of position for 80% of the things done in this match. I don't think you can blame nerves, as Belle was still doing solid trash talk throughout, and if someone freezes up in a match they tend to freeze up in every way. These two just did not work together. Evers hit a flush senton. That might have been the only thing that landed correctly. Kicks were completely whiffed, moves were taken as if they had no idea what move was being performed. I mean there were some clumsy landings in this. I had seen Belle several times in TNA and don't remember her looking this bad. I had high hopes for her as I like her look and personality but...man something went majorly wrong here.

PAS: Yeah this was a mess, they probably should have just video packaged this, like when a not great singer advances on the Voice "Also advancing to the second round Rachel Evers." It is always hard to tell when something goes this bad, but it really looked like Rachel didn't know how to bump or apply her own moves, that fisherman's buster thing.. ooof. There was also a terrible Evers pantomime when she got hung up on the ropes, it looked like a 14 year old girl scout miming choking so her friend could demonstrate the Heimlich for a merit badge.

3. Rhea Ripley vs. Miranda Salinas

ER: Ripley seemed fine, but they let the wrong giant woman advance. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking Jazzy should be in round 2 instead. I liked Salinas although I'm not sure I'm buying the 5' billed height. MAYBE in heels. But I liked Salinas' personality, thought she looked awesome baiting Ripley with a hair pull and a slap and then catching her with a snapmare as she charged out. Ripley had a nice corner dropkick and a decent full nelson slam and Salinas landed with a big thud. Perfectly fine stuff here.

PAS: I think Ripley and Jazzy play really different roles, and we could have had both of them advance pretty easily. This was basic stuff, the kind of thing you would see from two black trunks NJ rookies. Ripley had a couple of nice dropkicks and is clearly a good athlete. She will be good in a couple of years, but probably should be off TV until then.

4. Sarah Logan vs. Mia Yim

ER: We saw Sarah Logan at an NXT house show earlier this month and I thought she was the least impressive woman on the show, but that was before I knew she had to wake up early to catch that evening's dinner. But this was pretty easily the best match of episode 2. Logan looked much better here than at the NXT show, mixing up strikes nicely (liked her chop/jab combo and running knee). Yim is a professional, but I don't like how she gets kind of stuck in pre-determined kick combos, and I still don't think there's been anyone who can plausibly pull off the tarantula. But I liked her suplexes, liked Logan's knees, we got a couple good nearfalls, etc. Good match.

PAS: I really liked Logan here, I remember enjoying a Crazy Mary Dobson match or two but she felt at another level here. Her offense felt more violent and sudden then Yim who felt a little mechanical. Loved Logan's head but to the shoulder blades and her finishing off the slap exchange with those nasty thrust kicks to the mouth. Yim v. Bayzler will be fine, but I think we missed out on a special bit of violence by not getting Logan v. Shayna

ER: So, an obvious step back from episode 1, with a match that honestly shouldn't have been allowed to air. I don't think I'm exaggerating with that statement. But Xia Li was a nice surprise and I hope she sticks around, and Ripley/Salinas each showed promise.

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