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.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

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Ring of Honor
Date: June 29, 2016
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Andrew Gervani, Nigel McGuinness

This is another of those odd weeks where we should be past a pay per view but instead it’s a stand alone show which might feature a midcard feud not big enough to get on the actual pay per view. Or it might be an hour long look at the Bullet Club, which could be almost any given episode of the show. Let’s get to it.

Thankfully the opening narration tells us that we’ll be back in two weeks with the Best in the World fallout. Therefore tonight is all about the Women of Honor division, which is almost never mentioned on the regular TV show.

Opening sequence.

Veda Scott/Amber Gallows/Allysin Kay vs. Sumie Sakai/Thunderkitty/Crazy Mary Dobson

Kay is better known as Sienna in TNA. Gallows (the Bullet Babe, as in Bullet Club BECAUSE OF COURSE IT IS) starts with Kitty, who claims to be 95 years old. Amber beats her down to start and shrugs off a faceplant before it’s off to Dobson vs. Kay with Allysin catching a cross body in a fisherman’s buster. Scott comes in and misses some kicks, allowing Dobson to dropkick her in the chest.

Sumie comes in for two off a nice northern lights suplex, followed by a double dropkick with Kay helping things out a bit. Everything breaks down and Gallows offers a distraction so Kay can kick Sumie in the face. Scott grabs something like Stratusfaction and we take a break. Back with Gallows grabbing an X Factor before stopping to say Too Sweet. Sakai gets in a fisherman’s buster and the hot tag brings in Mary as house is cleaned.

Everything breaks down again and we get a Tower of Doom, followed by the parade of finishers. Dobson stomps on Allysin’s foot and kicks her in the head, setting up the Kaiju Killer (split legged moonsault) but Gallows makes a save. Kay gets in a discus lariat for the pin on Dobson at 9:45.

Rating: C-. This is going to be a long night. These matches fall under the category of “wrestling is cool because it’s wrestling” and that’s not a theory I really subscribe to. I need a story and some personalities and just calling someone CRAZY isn’t going to be enough. The match was fine enough but it was really just six women doing moves to each other for about ten minutes.

The other weird part is Scott is an evil attorney on the regular ROH shows and here she’s just a wrestler with no real character. There’s a disconnect there and ROH doesn’t do anything to explain it, other than saying we don’t usually like her. I need more than that and I don’t think we’re getting it here.

Faye Jackson vs. ODB

This is Faye’s debut and I’ve never liked ODB. Jackson isn’t sure what to do to start so ODB slaps her (own) chest and no sells a bad clothesline. A running splash in the corner crushes Jackson again and a better clothesline puts ODB down for two. We’re two minutes in and the announcers already declare it gutcheck time. Jackson hits three straight running Umaga Attacks in the corner (the Triple Spun Milkshake) for two but she can’t get ODB in a fireman’s carry. Instead ODB hits the middle rope Thesz press for the pin at 4:14.

Rating: D-. The match sucked and ODB continued to do everything that gets on my nerves about her. Jackson looked like a rookie out there and a lot of that probably has to do with how little ring time these women get. This show is rapidly falling downhill and a lot of that is due to having no reason to care about these women. Jackson is a rookie and that’s about all I know about her. Again, I need more than that.

Inside ROH is a pair of dueling promos from Hania and Mandy Leon before their match tonight.

Hania vs. Mandy Leon

Hania is billed as a huntress which feels like something out of GLOW though she looks like she’s carved out of stone. Leon on the other hand….how do I put this…..well simply put she looks great. Feeling out process to start until a test of strength doesn’t go anywhere. We get the eternally stupid suplex to break it up with both women laying on the mat and popping their shoulders up at two.

Hania flips her away and the overly choreographed stuff continues because that’s how a lot of people think wrestling works. They trade rollups for two each until Leon headscissors her out to the floor, only to have Hania trip her up and send Leon into the barricade. Back from a break with Hania getting two off a springboard missile dropkick. A victory roll gives Mandy the same but Hania gets two more off a spinwheel kick.

Mandy grabs a neckbreaker and hangs onto it for a fairly unique (and not that painful) submission, followed by a Stratusphere but she misses a moonsault. A double clothesline puts both of them down until Hania tries some YES Kicks. Mandy shrugs them off and grabs a bulldog, only to eat more kicks to the face. They trade reverse DDT attempts, only to have Mandy counter into a Koji Clutch. It’s right next to the ropes though so Hania gets in a Codebreaker for the pin at 13:46.

Rating: B. I was blown away by this as it really looked like two good looking women in their very revealing outfits (an aspect that worked very well here and there isn’t much other way to put it) but they were actually working hard. There’s A LOT of work to do for both of them but I got into the match and had fun watching it, even though I still don’t know much about either woman. Good stuff here and very interesting that Leon is better than just a talker.

BJ Whitmer talks about how awesome Kelly Klein is and says her name over and over again in an old school manager trick. The promo is about how strong of an athletic background she has and how serious she is about her training. That tells me more than I know about most of the women on this show in about thirty seconds.

Taeler Hendrix is tired of hearing about Klein because this is her company and we get in the ring with her.

Kelly Klein vs. Taeler Hendrix

BJ Whitmer and Truth Martini are in the respective corners. Klein grabs a quick abdominal stretch but Taeler reverses into one of her own. Hendrix grabs a rear naked choke but gets broken up as we take a break. Back with Klein sitting on the top rope with a chinlock before Hendrix cartwheels into a superkick. Kelly charges into a kick as well and a palm strike staggers her again. A spinning kick to the face gets two for Hendrix before she kisses Klein to set up a Tombstone for two. Klein doesn’t seem to care for the sexual assault and grabs a guillotine choke for the tap out at 6:32.

Rating: C. Not bad here and they have a character in Klein. Unfortunately there’s nowhere for them to go because the women are never featured on the TV show. The wrestling wasn’t bad and Hendrix comes off more like a character than a wrestler, which is exactly what this division really needs. You need someone to care about and someone reminiscent of a redheaded Paige is a good idea.

Overall Rating: C. Well it was different, though it seems to be a one week concept, which makes this a bit more difficult to care about. There was one strong match in here but I really don’t know enough about most of the women to get into the shows. For a one week concept I liked it though there isn’t enough to make this work every single time. A match here or there would be fine though and a nice change of pace over all the normal stuff they do on this show.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on NXT: The Full Sail Years Volume II at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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