Mae Young Classic – September 19, 2018: The Good End Of The Scale
IMG Credit: WWE
Mae Young Classic
Date: September 19, 2018
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Beth Phoenix, Michael Cole, Renee Young
We’re halfway through the first round with eight names having already advanced to the second round. That means we still need eight more people to move on and we’ll be getting four of those names tonight. This week’s show features one of the bigger names that was announced for the tournament over the summer. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
All matches are first round matches.
Opening recap of the first eight winners and preview of tonight’s matches.
Opening sequence.
Kavita Devi was in the tournament last year and uh…..well she wasn’t very good.
Kaitlyn is back to prove that she can still do this.
Kavita Devi vs. Kaitlyn
Cole is a full on Kaitlyn fan here and Renee sounds like she has a crush on her. An early shot to the face puts Kaitlyn down as Cole talks about the original NXT’s women’s season and how that plays into the Women’s Evolution. Fair enough, though that’s more about the company as a whole than the women.
Kaitlyn chops away and gets two off a legdrop, only to get chokeslammed with no elevation. A running kick to the back sets up an armbar so Kaitlyn taps, which doesn’t count for whatever reason. Kaitlyn has to elbow her way out of a fireman’s carry and some forearms rock Devi. The Cannonball in the corner draws the YOU STILL GOT IT chants, followed by a spear to end Devi at 4:09.
Rating: D+. Devi was horrible last year and was upgraded to pretty bad this year, whichTy isn’t much of a step forward. She isn’t big enough to be a giant but is too big to be able to move around with most people. Kaitlyn on the other hand is being treated like a legend despite not really being a huge star in the first place. It’s nice to have her back and she has some credibility, but this wasn’t exactly a star making performance.
Jinny is a fashionista who has been signed to NXT UK.
Toni Storm was an absolute star in last year’s tournament and she has to be a big favorite this time around.
Tyler Breeze and the Iconics are watching.
Jinny vs. Toni Storm
Beth: “How does being a fashionista translate to a wrestling ring?” Well we’ve been trying to figure out the weird careers/interests in wrestling for years so she’s not alone. They take turns shoving each other around until a wristlock has Jinny in some low level trouble. A forearm to the face just fires Storm up though and it’s a running knee into the corner. Jinny is fine enough to hit a Downward Spiral into the middle buckle though and Storm’s nose may be messed up.
Some forearms to the face set up a Japanese armdrag into the corner and we hit the armbar. Toni is right back up with a rolling crucifix (and what looked like a wink to the camera) for two but Jinny reverses into something like a sitdown surfboard. That’s broken up as well before Storm’s shoulders are ripped apart and Jinny misses a charge in the corner. A hard German suplex puts Jinny down and Storm Zero (tiger driver) finishes her off at 7:09.
Rating: C. I know Jinny is a much bigger star (and different character) in Europe but I didn’t get much out of her here. All WWE told me was that she was a fashionista, which is hardly the most interesting thing in the world. Toni on the other hand continues to have more star potential than almost anyone else in the tournament and is clearly going to be a big deal in WWE as soon as she’s there full time. Not a bad match, even though Storm winning was never in doubt.
Xia Li (the woman from China with the fans) is back and ready to prove herself again.
Karen Q is ready to show what she can do, which includes speaking three languages. That’s more than I’ve learned about her in a year or so of watching her in Ring of Honor.
Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano are here, seemingly with no problems at the moment.
Karen Q vs. Xia Li
Cole is annoyed that Li didn’t bring them the promised dumplings. They bow to each other to start and take martial arts poses, which gets the loudest reaction of the night so far. Xia trips her down so Karen nips up and that’s another double bow. Back up and Li fires away in the corner but Karen pounds away and bows as well. A handspring elbow in the corner hits Li and a running kick to the face makes things even worse. Karen hits a pretty low full nelson slam and the cravate goes on. More kicks put Karen down for two and Xia hits a spinning kick to the back for the pin at 4:28.
Rating: D. They had me interested here with the martial arts stuff to start and then it was really just a match with some kicking included. Li moving on to the next round is fine, if nothing else so we can see the fan thing again. Karen continues to be one of the least interesting people I’ve seen in a long time. She’s not bad, but I still know nothing about her because she’s just someone who goes out and wrestles. That’s not exactly thrilling.
Allysin Kay (Sienna from Impact) is violent but classy, because she has her pinkies up. She was influenced by Bad News Brown, who isn’t a name you hear as inspiration all that often.
Mia Yim is aggressive and has a history with Kay, including a match where she severely broke her nose. That’s the kind of little story that can do a lot of good for these matches.
Sonya Deville is here and I didn’t recognize her with her hair down.
Shelton Benjamin is here.
Mia Yim vs. Allysin Kay
They go straight to the brawling with Kay having to bail to the ropes to get out of a cross armbreaker attempt. Mia does the Andrade Cien Almas pose and avoids a charge to send Kay outside. A kick to the chest has Kay in more trouble but she’s fine enough to Pounce Yim to the floor. Yim shrugs off some chops and heads back inside for a suicide dive without much impact.
A chop hits the post with a lot more impact though and Yim gets dropped face first onto the apron. The fans are split between LET’S GO MIA/PINKIES UP as Kay kicks her in the ribs. Kay blocks another armbreaker attempt and has to do the same to get out of a kneebar. They’ve finally had it with the wrestling and just start hitting each other until Kay bicycle kicks her down.
Yim is right back with some running dropkicks and a missile version gets two. A Code Red is good for the same but Kay is back up with a discus lariat for two more. We get a double knockdown until Yim goes up top (Cole, as she climbs the buckles: “IS SHE GONNA GO UP TOP???”), only to get caught by Kay. That earns Kay a super Soul Food (Eat Defeat) for the pin at 9:37.
Rating: B-. Match of the night here by a pretty wide margin and a lot of that is due to the two of them having a story coming in. I get that you can’t do that in a tournament with a bunch of fresh names (not a criticism, just a reality) but it helps so much to have even something like this. There’s a reason for them to be fighting each other like this and that made the match a lot easier to get into. Good match, and one of the best of the tournament so far.
Overall Rating: C. Totally watchable show this week with nothing terribly bad (Kaitlyn vs. Devi was short enough to get by) and a good main event. We’ve only got a week left of the opening round and the shows being about an hour each make them easy to sit through. After next week we can move on to the better matches, which is where a lot of the fun is in a tournament. This year’s edition has been perfectly fine so far and that’s a good result for something like this, which can go in either direction.
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