Mae Young Classic 2018 thread

[rovert]

11 hours ago, Al said:

Now that Tegan has revealed the extent of the injury, how in the hell did she get up and stumble around on that?!

I don't know if watched her climb on the UK indies. But she is some with genuine and grit. 

Tegan's injury is worse than Joey Janela's which was horrific in its self. 

[Alucard]

Catching up on the thread after wanting to make sure to avoid spoilers throughout. Fav matches were Meiko/Mercedes, Hiroyo/Evers, and Meiko/Kelly. Meiko is of course the best on another level while I felt Matsumoto was a real gem in this. Loved the performances from Kacy C, Taynara, Deonna, and Killer Kelly as well. Purazzo/Shirai was a lot of fun, I love Deonna's armbar work there.

[NotJayTabb]

Looking forward to seeing a few more of the PC trained women getting integrated into NXT over the coming year, the way Lacey Evans and Bianca Belair have in the past 12 months. In particular, Xia Li and Taynara Conti have shown a load of improvement from last year, thought both of Li's matches this year have been really good.

[NintendoLogic]

I'm officially All In on Ripley after her match with Io. She grabbed the hell out of that brass ring in a match she wasn't even supposed to be in.

[Downend2005]

Toni Storm vs Meiko Satomura was absolutely fantastic, easily Storms best showing. When Toni turns down the ham, she can be awesome. Loved how this match built and built to the finish. 

Rhea Ripley will be a huge huge star, she looked great in a match that she wasn’t even supposed to have. Io Shirai looked the best she has all tournament, and I actually think I preferred her working from underneath.

Also, can someone please explain the mask Io wears during her entrance? Being unfamiliar with Joshi I don’t understand it’s significance, if there is any.

Beth Phoenix and Renee Young screaming ‘OH!’ every five seconds was increasingly annoying, but it didn’t detract from the sheer quality of the matches. A really good hour of wrestling.

[donsem43]

18 hours ago, Downend2005 said:

Also, can someone please explain the mask Io wears during her entrance? Being unfamiliar with Joshi I don’t understand it’s significance, if there is any.

I don't remember exactly when it started, but she began to wear them as part of her entrance during her first (2013/2014) World of Stardom title reign. It's basically a slightly different design of the Tiger Mask mask. Rossy Ogawa, who runs Stardom, has a thing for Tiger Mask which is why about half the roster now comes out with some type of similar mask during there entrances. Io almost always has a different mask for every show.

While Toni/Meiko was pretty good, I thought Io/Rhea was great. Rhea doing a terrific job grinding down Io, while Io did a nice pacing out her come back to sell Rhea's work. Io also looked a lot less nervous than she did in her other matches in the tournament. Toni/Meiko was really hard hitting but I didn't like how, at the finish, Toni kicked out of the Scorpion Rising then Toni immediately coming back to hit a Storm Zero for the win.

The final will be interesting since the Io/Toni matches in Stardom have been a mixed bag. Add in that this will pretty easily the biggest crowd that either of these women have performed in front of but that didn't turn out to be a problem for Shayna Bazsler and Kairi Sane last year, plus this should be a more welcoming crowd than the one from last year final.