Please note: there are FULL spoilers for episode 1 of the Mae Young Classic here. If you have yet to watch the first episode, read my spoiler free review here.
The first round of the WWE Mae Young Classic is officially underway, after four women have advanced through the first stage mof the tournament. Four more matches from the first round of the tournament are on show here: Xia Li (China) versus Mercedes Martinez (United States); Marti Belle (Dominican Republic) versus the second generation wrestler Rachel Evers (United States); the Aussie Rhea Ripley facing off against Miranda Salinas (United States), who was a replacement for the injured Nixon Newell; and the South Korean Mia Yim versus the United States’ Sarah Logan. Once again, Jim Ross and Lita provide commentary, and the show as filmed At Full Sail University, the home of NXT.
I’ll admit, I am only familiar with a handful of the competitors, so this will be mostly a ‘clean slate’ for me to form my opinions.
+ Mia Yim vs Sarah Logan (First Round Match): this was the best match of this episode, and both women should be complimented. Both Yim and Logan went all out with strikes, slams and submissions, and it made for a really good match to watch
– Rhea Ripley vs Miranda Salinas (First Round Match): from her pre-match video alone, Ripley is my new favourite ever. Salinas is tiny, but she used her stature to her advantage as she ran around the ring, and she still hit so hard. The crowd was into Ripley, but this was still only average at best
– Marti Bell vs Rachel Evers (First Round Match): I’m not a fan of Evers, in the first place, but this match just solidified it. Belle was athletic, sure, but in a tournament like this you need more than just good cardio, and Ever showed next to nothing impressive. As always in these tournaments, once the less-good workers are out, then we’ll get some much more entertaining matches, but until then we have to go through matches like this
– Xia Li vs Mercedes Martinez (First Round Match): the commentators mentioned this was Li’s first ever wrestling match, and frankly it showed. Much like Deeb/Borne in episode 1, it was Martinez doing the majority of the work here, and although I certainly enjoyed Li’s character, this was not a very good match
> Marti Belle’s entrance music was literally just a slowed down, pitched up version of Kevin Owens’
Should you watch this event: Unfortunately, Episode 1 may have been a bit too good, because nothing on this show was able to compare. Xia Li, Sarah Logan and Rhea Ripley were personal favourites, but unfortunately only the final match of Mia Yim versus Sarah Logan was any good. As mentioned above, once we get into round 2 I fully expect the match quality to get much higher.
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