The inaugural Mae Young Classic came to a head in Las Vegas – as the winner received an unexpected surprise.
Sandwiched between SmackDown and 205 Live, we’ve got Jim Ross and Lita at the announce desk. But first, in the 30-minute special, we’ve got Renee Young on the stage with the massive trophy, before she throws to a video package of the red carpet event from earlier in the evening.
Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler are walking, but first… more video promo packages! I fast-forward…
Mae Young Classic – Final: Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane
They’ve wheeled out Lilian Garcia for the main event-style intros – but Jessika Carr isn’t the ref for whatever reason.
We start with Sane and Baszler circling each other as Baszler scores an easy takedown and looks for an early submission attempt… but Sane escapes into a series of roll-ups to frustrate the former UFC fighter. Baszler keeps up, tripping away the leg of a bridging Sane, who gets some headscissors in return as Baszler then dropped her to the outside with a headkick.
Shayna joins her outside for a PK on the apron, before she started to wear down on Sane’s right arm. An attempted takedown from Sane misses as Shayna just sidesteps, and it’s back to the submission attempts, twisting the arm between her legs a la Zack Sabre Jr. Kairi escapes the Kirifuda Driver submission, but a spear’s caught and turned into some rolling gutwrenches.
Sane hits back with a series of chops, sending Baszler cowering into the ropes, but a bicycle knee instantly follows as a receipt. Finally, Sane gets off the spear for a two-count, before a sliding elbow and a baseball slide dropkick took Shayna down again, with the Pirate Princess working over her ribs for a spell. Body scissors keep Shayna grounded as well as increasing the pressure on those ribs, but Baszler escapes and throws some forearms from the guard.
Shayna avoids a sliding elbow in the corner, but takes an axe kick as those ribs kept their bullseye. Sane goes up for the elbow, but Shayna gets to her feet and catches her… locking in a rear naked choke upon landing, but Sane holds firm and elbows free!
A spinning backfist from Sane sent Shayna down like a sack of potatoes… but she can’t get the elbow off again, and Shayna catches her up top. The two trade right hands, before Baszler grabs a Kimura on the top rope, only for Sane to headbutt her down into a Tree of Woe for a big double stomp!
She gets a near-fall as they were way too close to the ropes, so Kairi returns with another sliding elbow, before heading back up top… and this time she lands the crushing elbow as Kairi Sane gets the win! A fantastic finale to the tournament, which saw Baszler start with a lead… but lose it as Sane worked over the ribs, leading to the finale off the top! Perhaps not the best match in the tournament, but it’s right at the top! ***¾
After the match, we had the usual presentation, with Kairi getting the bunch of roses… but wait, there’s more! Once the show went off the air, it was announced that Sane would be competing for the vacant NXT Women’s title at NXT Takeover: Houston in November. As for her opponent – that’ll be decided on NXT!
There’s one more match left unaired from the tournament – taped on July 14th, featuring a handful of those who were knocked out in round one.
Tom Phillips, Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix are your announcers for this – an unusual trio, but one that was like night and day compared to the sometimes overly-scripted-feeling stuff we heard in the main tournament.
Santana Garrett, Sarah Logan & Marti Belle vs. Tessa Blanchard, Jazzy Gabert & Kay Lee Ray
It’s an understatement to say that Jazzy was over as hell at Full Sail!
Blanchard and Logan start us off as commentary keep up the story about Logan wrestling animals on the farm growing up. Perhaps she delivered diving knees like the one she gave Blanchard? Garrett comes in to get some near-falls from that, but Blanchard manages to get up and tag Kay Lee Ray, as they combine to drop Santana with a double shoulder block.
Garrret kips up and hits a pair of armdrags, before dragging Kay Lee into the corner to bring in Marti Belle. Problem was, Marti instantly almost fell into the Gory Bomb, before escaping and landing some headscissors instead. Some forearms and stomps drop Ray in the corner, but Kay Lee rushes in with a forearm to cut off a charge.
Belle hits back in kind for a two-count, but Ray keeps in control and tags in Gabert – to a monstrous pop! Some spinning backfists just crumple Belle to the mat, before a torture rack sees Belle ragdolled like she were nothing. That torture rack’s released, sending Belle into the corner as Blanchard chokes her across the ropes, then hits some sliding elbows to her back.
Some short-arm clotheslines keep Belle at bay, but a jawbreaker gets her free to Garrett – just as Gabert returns! Santana hits a handspring back elbow in the corner as the crowd boos anything defensive by Jazzy, including taking a ‘rana. Garrett grabs a Muta lock as we get a rather delayed Parade of Moves, featuring a Mountain Bomb from Logan, and a hammerlock DDT from Blanchard.
We end with Jazzy stalking Belle, before catching a crossbody from Santana ahead of the Alpha Slam as the crowd went home happy! A fun trios match – with the obvious star being made by the Full Sail crowd. **¾
That’s it for the Mae Young Classic – at least, the first edition of it. Whilst the tournament may not have had the stand-out marquee matches that last year’s Cruiserweight Classic had, this was a solid tournament that at the very least, exposed some new names to an audience that may not have been aware. That being said, the proof of the success comes in the follow-up to this.
Sure, we’ve got Kairi Sane in one half of a match to crown the NXT Women’s title vacated by Asuka, but what of the other 31 women in this tournament? Not all of them are under contract, or indeed were offered one… so what was the Mae Young Classic? A moment of generosity from WWE, giving people face-time to help increase their indy bookings? A benchmarking exercise, as some have suggested, to rate existing talent at the Performance Centre against unsigned talent? Or a genuine effort to increase the profile of women’s wrestling?
Whilst the eventual end game of the Cruiserweight Classic was to bring back that division, eventually in the form of the oft-forgotten 205 Live. Whether the Mae Young Classic leads to something similar, either as a series of specials or a regular weekly show, remains to be seen… but until the end game is known, we can only take the tournament for what it was: an entertaining bunch of matches, which highlighted Kairi Sane to a new audience, and laid the foundations for some more new stars… should WWE opt to go down that route.