The Cruiserweight Classic last year was something special – the follow-up not so much. The U.K. Championship Tournament was really cool – the follow-up more cautious. The Mae Young Classic was something in between – at times special, at times cool.
The follow-up is always key, and WWE traditionally sucks at follow-up, but at the end of the day they made two stars and introduced the world to a handful of gals with potential to be stars.
0. Sarah Logan, Santana Garrett & Marti Belle vs. Tessa Blanchard, Jazzy Gabert & Kay Lee Ray
This aired on the Road to the Finals special, and was a match all about Jazzy Gabert. Every participant got a sweet spot or two in, but this was The Jazzy Show – the Stone Cold pop for her entrance, WE WANT JAZZY chants early, pop for the tag, JAZZY chants as she went to work on offense, PLEASE SIGN JAZZY chants post-match. A fun match made special by the primal crowd reaction. **3/4
1. Mae Young Classic – Final: Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler
This was very good, had all the pomp and circumstance and both have defined roles that they played up big. You’ve got Shayna’s dirty-ass matwork, asking for a test of strength against the outsized Kairi, just kicking Kairi’s leg out on the test of strength bridge. Kairi was the obvious tiny underdog – hitting a headscissors and getting kicked in the head, throwing a bunch of fired up shots and getting bodied with a knee. Crowd was ALLLL in on the finish too, especially Kairi’s first elbow attempt getting caught with a sleeper, which was an awesome close call. A match in the 205 Live deadzone getting dueling chants was something special too. ***1/2
