The Mae Young Classic

[Grimmas]

I've seen the whole first round now. Some amazing production as the CWC. About the same quality for the first round. The "main event" of each of the first four episodes were all awesome, with there being good to ok matches on the under cards.

 

They should sign about 25 of these wrestlers at the least. Lots of great talent.

[sek69]

Marti Belle vs Rachel Evers supposedly was so bad that the call was made to change the finish to put Rachel over. The editors must have really earned their money because nothing seemed outrageously horrible based on what aired.

 

Also I understand why everyone was hyped about Jazzy at the tapings, she's like the love child of Braun Strowman and Lady Maxine.

 

Another thing that was clear watching this is the "WWE higher ups didn't like the look of most of the women" is probably more based on half the participants being covered in tattoos more than them not having the typical WWE Barbie look.

[jcmmnx]

How long has Piper Nevin/Viper been awesome? I saw a few of her tag matches in Stardom, but I didn't know she could work singles this well. I thought her and Kairi were the standouts of the first round. Jazzy hit a couple of awesome strikes, but I'm not completely sold on her. There were a lot of "power house" style workers in this, and Nevin was the clear standout. I thought Dakota did a good job pin balling to get her opponent over then hitting a couple of great looking moves to pick up the win. Mostly a fun first round.

[Grimmas]

How long has Piper Nevin/Viper been awesome? I saw a few of her tag matches in Stardom, but I didn't know she could work singles this well. I thought her and Kairi were the standouts of the first round. Jazzy hit a couple of awesome strikes, but I'm not completely sold on her. There were a lot of "power house" style workers in this, and Nevin was the clear standout. I thought Dakota did a good job pin balling to get her opponent over then hitting a couple of great looking moves to pick up the win. Mostly a fun first round.

She's been awesome in singles in Stardom all of 2017 at the very least.

[Bix]

Curious what's up with them redoing a significant amount of the voiceovers the week before SummerSlam. The sound quality was really bad on some of the commentary and I'm wondering if significant parts of the audio get messed up and they had to scramble to salvage it. There were some really weird moments, like there being very obviously canned heat for the post-match stuff after Jazzy vs Abby Laith even though the crowd was visibly going nuts.

 

Wrestling wise they have a very clear pattern for this type of show which is fine, but it's a bit of a slog when they recruit someone who doesn't belong. But all of the main events were good, and it was almost shocking how fun to watch Jazzy is.

 

JR was better than he was in Long Beach but he's always be way below par doing canned commentary and that hurts. He was still pretty bad here, and both the leering and ethnic comments were...unfortunate. Lita was more than fine on color, surprisingly.

[Mrzfn]

I discovered Viper in Stardom earlier this year as well, and firmly agree she is 1000% awesome.

[Al]

Marti Belle vs Rachel Evers supposedly was so bad that the call was made to change the finish to put Rachel over. The editors must have really earned their money because nothing seemed outrageously horrible based on what aired.

For some reason I thought the match was particularly sloppy. I thought it was Rachel's fault though, so what do I know?

[Grimmas]

 

Marti Belle vs Rachel Evers supposedly was so bad that the call was made to change the finish to put Rachel over. The editors must have really earned their money because nothing seemed outrageously horrible based on what aired.

For some reason I thought the match was particularly sloppy. I thought it was Rachel's fault though, so what do I know?

 

Me too.

[C.S.]

I'm still going through the first round. I've watched two of the four episodes so far. ***SPOILERS BELOW*** for the first two episodes.

 

Marti Belle vs Rachel Evers supposedly was so bad that the call was made to change the finish to put Rachel over. The editors must have really earned their money because nothing seemed outrageously horrible based on what aired.

I was shocked that Marti Belle lost, because she was featured on Bracketology, and isn't the unwritten rule that those wrestlers tend to go far? I guess this explains why.

 

Also, I'm sure everyone else has already figured it out, but I was wondering why she used Rachel Evers instead of Ellering. Well, as it turns out, she was trained by Lance Storm (Evers), so it's a nice nod to that.

 

Also I understand why everyone was hyped about Jazzy at the tapings, she's like the love child of Braun Strowman and Lady Maxine.

Yeah, I was even more shocked that she lost. Biggest upset so far? Abby Laith wasn't bad or anything, but how do you not see the potential in Jazzy? Was really hoping for an eventual Jazzy Gabert-Shayna Baszler match.

[Richeyedwards]

Yeah, I was even more shocked that she lost. Biggest upset so far? Abby Laith wasn't bad or anything, but how do you not see the potential in Jazzy? Was really hoping for an eventual Jazzy Gabert-Shayna Baszler match.

Laith is Kimber Lee who was a bigger name in American wresting than the alpha female. That is the only logical reason I can come up with as without that I have no reason not to put the monster through.

 

Maybe they did not want two of them in there with the way the are pushing Shayna? But why not build up to the meeting of the monsters which I guess they can do down the line.

[Timbo Slice]

They didn't expect Jazzy to get over to the degree she did in that first match. It was done to make Kimber take down a bigger opponent, and it was basically like the Tessa matchup with Kairi, where they like both of them but want to push who they're gonna push in the tourney. Also, Jazzy is 35, and while she'll get a look, there's a lot more young talent here in the tourney that they'll have a priority on.

 

The commentary is definitely bad. JR was slow on the uptick for most of the matches unless the action picked up, and people who were calling for Prazak to be a part of it to at least be the Mike Tenay of the team would have added something to it. Would have let everyone do better work. That's just a broadcaster being a nitpicker, though.

[jcmmnx]

Abbey is signed and Jazzy isn't. Plus Abbey is one of the best wrestlers in the MYC so it's not hard to see why they booked her to go over.

[sek69]

I really liked the match, but Tessa deserved better than to be a first round out. It's funny how they have such a hard on for the Horsewomen as a stable name and Tessa god damned Blanchard is right there, but maybe when they finally turn either Sasha or Bayley heel she can be their Barry.

[JAC]

I was really excited to watch the MYC. Having gone through the first four episodes comprising the preliminary round of the tournament, it seems that there's more to complain about than to praise. The entire show is hurt because of the obvious comparisons to be made between it and the Cruiserweight Classic. Don't get me wrong--I enjoyed the first four episodes, and eagerly anticipate watching the rest of the tournament. But this could have been significantly better. ***SPOILERS BELOW***

 

Presentation:

• The video packages were done well; no complaints there! I wish we'd see a similar approach taken with Raw & Smackdown.
• The "Missile" theme music became horribly grating on my ears by the third episode. I under stand the idea of having an "official song". Presumably, the WWE is being paid to feature the music. But by having just one song, it gets painfully overused.
• The arena set-up was generally appealing. I liked the idea of dimming the lights to keep the attention on the ring, although it may have been overdone at times. I noticed some distracting shadows from time-to-time, and once or twice found a wrestler's facial expression to be obscured because of the lack of light.
• The commentary was rough. This is one of two places where the comparison to the CWC hurt the worst. Ranallo and Bryan's enthusiasm during that event was palpable. JR and Lita are both naturally more low-key and it hurt the excitement-level. The commentary here didn't add much to the action and was occasionally cringe-worthy. The whole time, I found myself thinking that adding Bryan, Ranallo or even Corey Graves would have livened things up significantly.

In-ring Action:

• There are so many good women wrestlers out there, I was left scratching my head at some of the choices. I understand that the WWE wanted to spotlight some of their new NXT recruits, but many of them were green-as-grass. This really brought the quality of the shows down. Each show seemingly featured an average or above-average opening match, two very blah matches in the middle, and one good-to-very-good match to close the show. I don't think someone like Rachel Evers really benefited from being put out there in this tournament. It would have been better if they had brought in more independent talent to work in the first round. Someone like a Kaitlin Diemond or a Leah Vaughan would have been a solid upgrade over at least half of the women in the tournament and could have yielded a better prelim round match opponent for a wrestler being pushed to the second round.
• Jazzy, Kay Lee Ray and Sarah Logan were the three wrestlers eliminated in round one who I thought were most deserving of advancing. Their eliminations make sense in the sense that they needed to put good talent in the main event matches and, presumably in Ray's case, the first bout to be shown. I do think they should sign Jazzy. She gives them a look, style and a body type otherwise missing from the women's division.
• I thought the prelim round matches didn't do much in the way of favours for Savoy, Storm or LeRae. They just didn't highlight their strengths as wrestlers. In particular, I'm shocked that Storm didn't get more of a showcase match.
• I shouldn't comment on Kairi Sane since I'm biased in her favour, but I really thought she came across as a star. She's the class of the field. Bazsler lookied unique. I like Viper but I can't see Vince McMahon getting behind her.

While the MYC is fun, some better commentary and a better selection of talent would have really improved things. The talent selection drove me crazy because there were too many blah matches involving mediocre wrestlers. The CWC was filled with consistently entertaining matches. I see no reason why the MYC couldn't have accomplished the same given the quality of talent available. I think some bad choices to showcase not-ready-for-primetime WWE-signed wrestlers really kept the show from reaching its full potential.

[Grimmas]

JAC I think if you only watched the first round of the CWC you'd be in the same spot.Useless talent, lots of matches some awesome, some good, a few nothing.

[JAC]

JAC I think if you only watched the first round of the CWC you'd be in the same spot.Useless talent, lots of matches some awesome, some good, a few nothing.

Maybe I need to go back and re-watch, but remember I don't remember the low-end preliminary round matches of the CWC beings as pedestrian as the low-end first round matches at the MYC. My recollection was that nearly every match was at least fun, if not good. I'd say a third of the matches here were tepid as all get out.

 

By the time we get to the final eight, the mediocre wrestlers should be eliminated and the quality should improve markedly.

 

Also, I don't mean to sound completely negative. I'm just frustrated that the MYC is only good when it could have great with just a little tweaking.

[Grimmas]

 

JAC I think if you only watched the first round of the CWC you'd be in the same spot.Useless talent, lots of matches some awesome, some good, a few nothing.

Maybe I need to go back and re-watch, but remember I don't remember the low-end preliminary round matches of the CWC beings as pedestrian as the low-end first round matches at the MYC. My recollection was that nearly every match was at least fun, if not good. I'd say a third of the matches here were tepid as all get out.

 

By the time we get to the final eight, the mediocre wrestlers should be eliminated and the quality should improve markedly.

 

Also, I don't mean to sound completely negative. I'm just frustrated that the MYC is only good when it could have great with just a little tweaking.

 

I remember after the first round of CWC being dissapointed with some nothing matches. Of course nothing as bad as Rachel Ellering though.

[Boss Rock]

First round was good. Only match I thought was truly bad was Marti-Rachel. I have heard good things about Rachel elsewhere, so we'll see. Favorites so far have been KLR-Sugehit, Jazzy-Abbey, Yim-Logan, and Kairi-Blanchard.

 

And dammit I wish they had signed Jazzy, she's awesome. Not to mention the division is in desperate need of a monster heel not named Nia Jax.

[jcmmnx]

There are so many inexperienced Performance Center women in this I don't think it's fair to compare it to the CWC. Plus they had to work 3 rounds on day two so the matches aren't going to be as long. There should be more than one woman from Japan in this, but It is what it is. Personally I've enjoyed seeing women like Rhea Ripley, Taynara Conti, and Bianca Blair show that WWE has some good looking prospects at the PC. I'm looking forward to seeing how Bianca does against Kairi, and how Ripley does against Evie/Dakota.

[Tim Evans]

Rachel/marti was much worse live than on TV. They edited it lot. Glad I got to see these shows in person cause jr is such a buzzkill on these shows. Plus they muted the crowd heat a lot. Especially for the jazzy match.

 

As for comparing this to cwc, guys like Kenneth Johnson, Anthony Bennett and the Bollywood boys were way worse than the green females. I thought most of them did well. Was really impressed with sage and xia.

[Cap]

Some Spoilers Below

 

Just finished round one and I really liked it. Sure it had its ups and downs, but overall I thought the women looked good. Everything was put together and most of organized in a way to highlight strengths.

 

I thought Sane, Baszler, Jazzy, Abbey, Martinez, and Kai really stood out. Storm, Piper, and Savoy were also sort of stand outs, but more in that I know/believe they have a little more to show and think they have good matches in front of them. There are lots of interesting matchups that could come up down the road and I am pretty pumped for later rounds where - ideally at least - the cream has risen to the top.

 

I particularly liked Jazzy vs Abbey, Yim vs Logan, and especially Sane vs Blanchard. Sane/Blanchard was pretty easily my favorite match of the first round. I thought it was excellent and with the exception of Jazzy (maybe) Blanchard wound up being the strongest looking loser of the first round. Sane's top rope elbow was awesome, but her top rope forearm was (hell her not-top rope forearms were) brutal looking. Just really good stuff.

 

Not surprisingly, I am not a huge fan of this commentary team. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and I don't think they really take away from matches, but it isn't ideal. Is it just me or does JR sound more like a video game version of himself every time you year him? His one liners feel more contrived and cut-and-paste each time.

[jcmmnx]

I guess I've gotten to the point where I've just blocked WWE commentary out completely. I honestly can't remember a single thing about it during the opening round it's all just like the teacher from Charlie Brown to me.

 

Yeah Kairi's top rope diving forearm was king sized. She could easily use that as a finish on occasion.

[EricR]

Phil and I are going to be writing all of these up at Segunda Caida. First episode was more fun than I expected, already bummed we won't be seeing more Borne or Jazzy. Pissed we won't get a Baszler/Jazzy showdown. But still, first ep was a win.

 

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/08/mae-young-classic-episode1.html

[Ricky Jackson]

Really enjoyed the first four eps. Sure, not every match was a winner and not every wrestler is a future star, but I was impressed with a lot of the talent and really look forward to the rest of the tourney. JR and Lita were fine. Lita clearly cares a lot about this and I'm fine with a more subdued JR who isn't shouting all the time

[EricR]

Phil and I reviewed episode 2. A clear step back from ep 1 due to the odd inclusion of a certain match, but I came away impressed by Xia Li and Sarah Logan.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/08/mae-young-classic-episode-2.html