The SmarK Rant for the Mae Young Classic–S02E03

The SmarK Rant for the Mae Young Classic – S02E03

Taped from Full Sail

Your hosts are Michael Cole, Renee Young & Beth Phoenix

Can’t wait to hear which news outlets broke the news of this week’s participants!

First round: Kaitlyn v. Kavita Devi

Gotta say, I preferred the blonde/black look on Kaitlyn. Now she just looks kind of generic and overly thin. Michael Cole assigns Devi the coveted title of TRAILBLAZER…in India. That word is losing all meaning with me now. Devi works a headlock on Kaitlyn, but she comes back with a clothesline and legdrops for two. Devi gets a backbreaker for two and a back elbow for two. A slam gets two and Devi gets a devastating armbar. They should call that one the TRAILBLAZER. Because that’s what Devi is. In India. Because literally any woman in any capacity in WWE is either a trailblazer or part of the Women’s Revolution. Kaitlyn fights out of a samoan drop and fights back with forearms, then hits a cannonball in the corner before finishing this god-awful match with a spear at 4:10. Cole wonders if she’ll be the Cinderella story of the tournament, which is a question he’s asked about 4 times already this season. They can’t all be Cinderella stories! Devi has not improved at all over last year, and Kaityln hasn’t gotten much better since leaving. This looked like a couple of trainees practicing basic moves on each other with no storyline to the match or point to any of the moves. And supposedly this was the EDITED version of the match! DUD

First round: Toni Storm v. Jinny

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for, as Michael Cole announces that the Daily Mirror broke the news of Toni’s involvement this year. Quick complaint: The thing where they show who’s at ringside watching (The Iconic Duo in this case) is so stupid because the entire front row would have to be filled up with WWE stars if everyone actually stayed for all the matches. Like, do I care if Peyton Royce or some rando from developmental is supposedly there watching the show? They probably just shot it in second-unit and edited it in later anyway. Anyway, both of these ladies are representing the NXT UK brand. Is that, like, even a thing yet? Aside from that one show earlier this year? Jinny’s character is “fashionista”, by the way. Storm runs her into the corner, but Jinny slams her head into the turnbuckles with a flatliner for two. She goes to a chinlock and armdrags Storm into the corner for two and then goes to the armbar. Toni comes back with a crucifix rollup for two, but Jinny rolls her into a surfboard submission until Storm makes the ropes. Blind charge hits boot and Storm comes back with a german suplex and finishes with a Tiger Driver at 7:15. Storm sold WAY too much for this geek. It’s the first round! Just do a squash and move on. Match was OK. *1/2

First round: Karen Q v. Xia Li

It’s MORTAL KOMBAT to start and the crowd is all about that, but Karen Q goes heel first with a cheap slap and hits her with a boot out of the corner. Q with an exploder suplex for two and she goes for a boston crab, but Li reverses out of it and Karen lands on her feet and keeps coming with a full nelson slam for two. Xia comes back with kicks to the leg and gets a high kick for two. Karen cuts her off with a samoan drop and goes up with a frog splash, but it misses and Xia finishes with the ax kick at 4:20. Really disappointing, actually. They teased a cool and different martial arts showdown to get the crowd all hyped, and then just did a normal, boring WWE developmental style match. Nothing to this one, it was OK. *

First round: Mia Yim v. Allysin Kay

They quickly brawl out of the ring and Kay shoulderblocks her out of the ring once they make it back in. So they trade chops out there, but Yim misses one and chops the post by mistake. OUCH. Back in, Kay with a fallaway slam and she goes to a neck vice, but Yim takes her down with an armbar and Kay slams out of it for two. They slug it out and exchange high kicks and both are down, but Yim comes back with dropkicks for two and tries the package piledriver, but Kay backdrops out and puts her in a Gory Special, which Kim reverses into a sunset bomb for two. That was slick. Kay comes back with “The Big D” (nyuk nyuk), which is a discus lariat that gets two. They exchange high kicks again and both are down again. Yim recovers first and goes up, but Kay catches her, so Yim hits a falling armbar called Soul Food to finish at 9:30. Really good match to finish up the week. ***1/4

A definite mixed bag this week, but Yim v. Kay is worth checking out and the rest is mostly fine. Next week, we wrap up the first round and finally get to Io Shirai!