Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 2

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Priscilla Kelly

ER: Is there anyone other than original World of Sport guys who can make those "crawling on knees through legs" spots look good? So far I don't think I've seen it look anything but dumb. Early parts of this had stuff I didn't like, the WoS cosplay, and Kelly weirdly looking like she was barely running during spots that required running, but I thought the last couple minutes delivered. Once Kelly locked in a nasty dragon sleeper I was into it, and only got more into it when Purrazzo cracked her with a great back elbow. Finish was cool with Purrazzo rolling into a nasty Fujiwara armbar that really looked like she was ripping Kelly's arm off. They kept it short and relatively timely, and did enough things that I dug.

Zeuxis vs. Aerial Monroe

ER: Zeuxis is easily one of my favorite ladies in CMLL, and her shiny hair makes her look like she's in a lucha Pantene Pro-v commercial. The secret is conditioner y'all. There was some awkwardness here, possibly due to language barrier, the first couple rope running and strike exchange spots didn't look good. Zeuxis can be pretty vicious in CMLL and appeared to be holding back a bit here, and it was a weird spot to be in as she was up against the clear local babyface (and also awkward that the local babyface also really wanted to trash talk during the match), and should have worked more overtly ruda. The best parts were when that ruda side was at the forefront, like when she was fishhooking Monroe or tossed her crotch first on the top rope and immediately smacking her, and I really liked her bridging pin. Monroe has good in-ring confidence, but got a little too cute with some of her offense. It wasn't bad, but I was expecting more.

Kacy Catanzaro vs. Reina Gonzalez

ER: Catanzaro is really tiny, which only makes Reina look bigger, and I'm glad Reina's back this year. I really liked her opposite Nicole Savoy in last year's tournament, and that armbar finish was one of the best finishes of 2017. And I liked her here and am really bummed she didn't advance. Catanzaro is clearly an impressive athlete but I can't get too excited for another CrossFit wrestler with tiny offense that couldn't crack an egg. The structure of this was problematic too, as Reina slammed her around the ring for a few minutes, but Catanzaro was springing around for the finish. I liked all of Reina's offense here, and working against someone who is barely 100 lb. is only going to help that. She had nice stuff aside from throwing around a Lilliputian, had nice stomps and a good elbow drop. I'm fine with Catanzaro winning with a roll up I guess, but didn't think any of her offense looked very plausible with the size difference. The "three cheers for Kacy!" post bell stuff, lifting her up like she was Rudy after sacking a QB, only made me dislike it more.

Ashley Rayne vs. Mercedes Martinez

ER: Not sure why we get the Madison Rayne name change, has she actually signed with WWE? I guess it doesn't matter; Rayne has been around for ages now and she's never really impressed me, and that didn't change here. She gets up for and takes offense fine, but never leaves a lasting impression on me. I've literally been seeing her in matches for over a decade now and barely remember a thing. Martinez looked good, like the delayed vertical suplex (odd that we don't see that often anymore, a vertical suplex somehow seems special now), a knee into a fisherman's buster is a good finish, although maybe not in a match that also saw her doing a nasty cradle driver. This whole thing was worked fairly even, which is problematic as I didn't think Rayne's offense looked even with Martinez's. This one got the most time of the episode, but overall didn't do a ton for me.

ER: Episode 2 moved quickly but won't make much of a lasting impression. As with last year I'm sure the matches will continue to get better in the later rounds, and this episode wasn't bad, more "mostly inoffensive".

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Mae Young Classic Episode 4

1. Candice LeRae vs. Renee Michelle

ER: I thought this was fine, but it also felt like an indy touring match. I liked Michelle when she was setting up LeRae's offense, but thought there was too much hesitation when she would go for strikes. But LeRae has a lot of offense so you need someone capable to set it up. A lot of LeRae's offense requires someone to be missing something, so you need to plausibly miss a lot of things or run at her a bunch. So Michelle was always good at running into a legsweep, missing a shoulderblock to take a knee on the apron, missing on a spin kick to set up a roll up, missing a big moonsault, that kind of thing. She would also toss out little things like kicking out of a pin while also jamming her forearm into LeRae's jaw. I wish Michelle would have responded a bit more as a heel, since the crowd was naturally behind LeRae and was trying to suck up to Gargano. I liked LeRae's jawbreaker and her ramped up forearms in the corner, and the neckbreaker off the top looked like a finish. This whole thing ran smoothly, but maybe a bit too smooth. It all felt really mapped out.

PAS: I liked the forearm's in the corner by LeRae and her neckbreaker finish was nasty, but this felt in parts like a swing dance routine instead of a fight (the Garganos must rule on wedding dance floors). Lots of miss this, flip that, kip up kind of stuff which was a little too stilted to transcend the silliness of it, Rey and Juvi could do it, these two couldn't pull it off.

2. Taynara Conti vs. Lacey Evans

ER: I've not seen either gal before, but Conti looks like Grace Helbig and I've always disliked that USO show pin-up gal look, the whole Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy thing comes off too Halloween. I think both these two are pretty new, so parts of this were somewhat disjointed, but I kind of appreciated the disjointed parts after the cleanness of the prior match. But I liked how Conti stepped up as a heel, and thought some of her throws were really cool. I mean, if you're a Brazilian judoka you better have a couple cool throws. I'm not really excited for the Evans/Storm match up. It feels like a battle between two Spirit Store advertisements.

PAS: There is something kind of gross about having a combat marine and turning her into some weird burlesque fetish object. The whole thing felt like a GLOW gimmick. Probably a mistake to have a rookie v. rookie match, as both ladies had cool moments but lots looked awkward. Conti is way more interesting to me, and would have rather seen her try to throw Piper Niven or Shayna in the next round..

3. Nicole Savoy vs. Reina Gonzalez

ER: I gotta go hard for Savoy in this tourney. She's definitely the one I've seen live the most since she's a Bay Area gal, and she definitely deserves to be here. It was weird they kept referring to Savoy as the queen of the suplexes and then put her against someone who she doesn't try to suplex. That said, I liked this. Reina seems like kind of a lug, but they worked that in well. Savoy's standing rana looked great, and I liked Gonzalez catching her by the hair and hitting a monster lariat. The finish was a really cool slow burn, my favorite finish of the 1st round: Gonzalez grabs Savoy in a torture rack attempt and slowly realizes she's in a spider web. You can see Savoy with a double wristlock on as Gonzalez tries to maneuver her, but Savoy keeps making herself heavier and Gonzalez drops to a knee, and before long Savoy has adjusted weight into an armbar. I love the time they spent on the finish, thought the slow build was totally worth it.

PAS: They really booked a lot of big girls in this tourney and it has been fun to watch the different ways that they work as powerhouses. Reina works this match like a brick wall, she won't get tossed by arm drags, the queen of suplexes can't lift her, and she smashes her with clotheslines and forearms. Finish was completely awesome, felt like a hidden Fujiwara finish, with Gonzalez not realizing she was in trouble until it was way too late, I loved how we got to see every part of the move up until the finish, so cool and maybe my favorite finish of 2017.

4. Kairi Sane vs. Tessa Blanchard

ER: Killer little match, and while Kairi being in the tournament was one of the things that piqued my interest in the MYC, I came away way more impressed with Blanchard. Both impressed, but Blanchard would probably be the one eliminated woman I most wanted to see advance. She held headlocks tight (and threw nice punches in the headlock), drilled Sane with her elbows, brought an intensity that a lot of them didn't. But both gals impressed. There were a lot of roll ups in the match, and there were no cheapies; both of them fully committed to them and it was cool to see roll ups with somebody actually using their full weight. Both were really good at applying and selling submissions: I though Tessa was really nasty locking in that abdominal stretch, yanking on Sane's head the entire time to twist. And Sane had a nice escape with some elbow points right to the thigh. Later, Kairi locks on a nasty octopus and I outright loved Tessa getting in a painful crouch and walking step by step to the ropes. Blanchard was aces at throwing in callbacks to her hurt back, holding it after that octopus, really screaming in pain after hitting her big senton, all nicely setting up a nice Kairi axe kick that puts her down. There was too much cool stuff in this, like Blanchard's headbutt, her sliding elbow strike to Sane's back, Blanchard's short clotheslines building to a deadlift back suplex; but even with Blanchard's convincing attacks, her selling was excellent enough throughout that I totally bought her staying down long enough for Kairi to hit her massive elbow. Really bummed Blanchard won't be advancing, she was arguably my favorite of Round 1.

PAS: Totally agree about Blanchard, she really wrestled like her dad, tight violent and simple. The moment where she cracks Sane in the throat with the forearm was killer, it really woke Jim Ross up. I also loved her catching the Sliding D into a roll up, great bit of scouting and that would have made a killer finish. Kairi is obviously a pro and a star, although she comes more from the Manami Toyota school of Joshi and I am more of an Aja Kong guy. The elbow looks as great as advertised, although I do wish she hadn't made Tessa sit there while Kairi ran through all of her video game taunts. Sane kind of comes off like Ibushi in the CWC, the most polished, biggest star, but I am more interested in the quirkier folks.

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