Best Mae Young Classic Matches From Round 1

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you're all well and having a good week so far! Now, this past Monday the WWE finally released the first four episodes of the Mae Young Classic and after waiting so long for these shows to air I was super excited when Monday rolled around of course binge watches all four on Monday and again on Tuesday. I mentioned in yesterday's blog post that I haven't been very well at all these past few days and so I've basically been living on the sofa and while I hate sitting around doing nothing it did give me the time to do some much needed catching up on wrestling an the Mae Young Classic was the first on my to watch list. Personally, I loved all four shows. There were standout competitors every episode and we saw a great first round to a historic tournament. Already we are seeing the female talent of the world of pro wrestling shine and the thirty two women we got to see compete in those four episodes all were apart of history and honestly did a fantastic job putting on an amazing first round. Now, I'll be honest I was disappointed with a couple of results but thats simply because I was backing the opposite opponent but I'll be getting into that a little later on in the week. I also found that I wasn't really surprised with any of the first round results. I did mention a couple of months back that I wanted to write a great amount of content focusing on the Mae Young classic and today I really want to kick start that. Over the next month or so I'm going to be uploading a series of posts reviewing and taking an in depth look at the Mae Young Classic. I won't be reviewing each show of the first round but I am going to be talking about some of those standout moments, matches and competitors. In today's blog post we're going to be taking a look at the top five matches of the first round of the Mae Young Classic. After watching the four episodes twice I've really been able to see which matches have been the standouts an while I pretty much enjoyed them all there were five in particular that need special recognition. As always you can let me know what you thought of the first four shows and what your making of the Mae Young Classic so far by leaving a comment bellow or tweet me over at @TezangiVictoria.

Kay Lee Ray VS Princesa Sugehit

Kick starting things off in today's post is the first match of the Mae Young Classic which saw ICW star Kay Lee Ray challenge Princesa Sugehit in what was a brilliant opening match. Now, I will admit that I actually didn't know all too much about Princesa prior to this match. There were a couple of names in this tournament that I went' too familiar with and Princesa was one of those names. I knew about her style, where she was from and the potential she had when it came to putting on good quality matches but not really seeing her work before this made things super interesting and fun. I was really excited to see what she was going to bring to the table and what her performance would look like once she stepped inside a WWE ring. Pairing Princesa up with Kay Lee Ray was a perfect match. Both these women are not afraid of taking things high risk and I knew from the moment I learnt these two women would be colliding that we were going to be in for a treat. The women were under a lot of pressure being the first match of the tournament but there were no nerves in sight as both competitors looked to walk out with the first victory of the night. Early on it was clear to see the roles each women was playing in this match. While both were clearly confident Kay Lee Ray had an arrogance about her that remained throughout this match bringing character and intensity. The height advantage she had was something she quickly used to mock and intimidate Princesa however the Mexican star fought back and while  she owns a small frame her performance in that ring makes her just a threat as any other. Both women had an amazing speed and worked very well together. It was great seeing just how firmly behind Ray the crowd were due to her popularity however the longer the match went on the more we saw that begin to change more and more. Now,  I do feel as though both women were holding back a little and if they had been given a little bit more time than we really could have seen something epic. Kay Lee Ray was one of my personal favorites and I so I was disappointed to see her out after the first round but she certainly made an impact. I would have liked to have seen more high flying monomers from both women and it's a shame we won't get to see more of that extreme, risk taking side of Kay Lee Ray's move set but all round this was a very strong opener and I strongly liked the action we saw.

Piper Niven VS Santana Garrett

One of the first round matches I was really looking forward to saw Santana Garrett face off against Scotland's very own, Piper Niven otherwise known as Viper. As someone that really is a big fan of the indie and British wrestling scene I've been a fan of both these women for quite some time now and following both their careers for so long it was a real special moment seeing them both take part in the Mae Young classic. Of course it was bitter sweet moment seeing them face off against one another. Both amazing talents I knew this was going to be strong match but again it was sad to think one of them had to go home. I did in the end decide to back Viper just because I think I'm a slightly bigger fan of her work. I was totally interested and excited to see how these two very different characters and in ring performers were going to work together and when it came to it they were honestly fantastic. There was a natural chemistry, the crowd were hot, and from the moment they stepped in the ring together you could feel how much both these women wanted to get the win. This match was a huge deal for both these women and you could tell one hundred and ten percent. Now, of course Piper had the size advantage but Santana did not show any signs of being intimidated and brought the fight to the larger opponent like a true veteran. The match flowed well and it was all round a very exciting match to watch. They both had a strong showing and the work between them was strong. Piper did get the win advancing to round two but Santana really did show why she had a place in the tournament in the first place.

Jazzy Gabert VS Abbey Laith

Again, Jazzy Gabert was a name that prior to the Mae Young Classic I didn't really know all too much about and when she was announced a competitor I really did make it my mission to do some research and learn about this amazing women. I was intimately stunned by her unique look and interested in learning more about and her so thats what I did. Finding out her first round opponent was gong to be Abbey Laith did leave me feeling a little disappointed. I am a huge huge fan of Abbey Laith as I will get into in a little more detail in a bit, and so of course I was really upset that we were going to see both these women go further than the  first round. I knew before the match kick started that these two both had so much to show for themselves and both were going to make a huge impact and it was a real shame one of them were only going to have one match to do so in this tournament. The match however between Abbey and Jazzy was just amazing. I would have loved to have seen them go at it for another ten minuets but they fitted a lot into the time they had and I honestly enjoyed every single second. Abbey is a phenomenal in ring performer with years of experience. Over the years she has stepped in the ring with some of the best wrestlers around the world both male and female and has always delivered an amazing performance in top quality matches. An opponent like Jazzy however was a new challenge and Abbey's experience was something she was going to have to put into action. What became clear very soon was the intensity between these two women. Abbey was quick to try and take out the larger opponent and the intensity between these two women meant they generated the biggest crowd reaction of the course of the four days. The fans remained red hot for this match with everyone on their feet backing both women. This was a hard -hitting, fast- paced slug-fest of a match that had the full sail crowd going crazy and watching it from behind a screen you could feel the energy. I have been surprised to see Abbey not used as much during her time with the WWE so far and I'm hoping her performance here was strong enough to tun heads backstage and encourage higher ups to throw into a bigger role down in NXT. As for Jazzy she didn't walk away with the victory but she won us all over completely. Her unique look and style, her dominant presence, her popularity and skill in the ring had everyone hooked and she so quickly and so easily connected with the full sail crowd and she was massively impressive. After her performance in this match I'm desperately hoping the WWE sign this women up! She would be an amazing addition to the WWE women's divison and I'm very excited about her future.

Sarah Logan VS Mia Yim

Sarah Logan and Mia Yim are two of the names I was really happy to see added to the first ever WWE Mae Young Classic. I've seen a lot of work from both women over the years and therefore know exactly just how talented they both are. They have their differences but when you put them in the ring there wrestling ability is matches perfectly. This was honestly a perfect pairing for a first round match and I'm so glad we got to see it happen. I would have liked to have seen both women advance to round two but this was the more unpredictable match that we needed and so quickly into this match both Sarah and Mia showed us why they were a perfect pairing and raised the bar. Their chemistry was so clear and it made their match even more entertaining. Mia is the veteran having a little more experience but at only twenty three Sarah moves around the ring like a natural performer. We've seen brief appearances from her over the past year and while she has always shown impressive little spots we haven't been able to see her full potential or at least close to it inside a WWE ring until this very match. She and Mia went out there and nailed it! The fans interest grew as the match went on and while Mia started out as the fan favourite the Full Sail crowd clearly found themselves more and more behind Sarah and it was amazing seeing her gain momentum and look even better in the ring. I do think that if they had more time this could have been an epic match but what we saw from them really was fantastic and I enjoyed it loads!

Tessa Blanchard VS Kairi Sane

When I tuned into the Bracket show hosted by Corey Graves and Lita I knew which was going to be the match of the first round and I was not wrong. Every single match we have spoken about today was very strong and I enjoyed every single one of them and many more none touched what we saw go down between my personal favourite Tessa Blanchard and Kairi Sane. When I knew this was match was set to take place in the first round I was super excited however I won't lie, I was pissed off. Any wrestling fan would look at those two names and know for a fact that they were in for a treat.

Here we have two of the best wrestlers in the world today taking gender completely out of the

pictures. Tessa while still so young has been competing in killer matches against amazing names throughout the past year or so including boyfriend Ricochet and she was honestly my favourite heading into this tournament. However, I'm also a massive Kairi Sane fan and her talent is something you just cannot put into words and so while this is a dream match and was always going to be a standout of the tournament it was bitter sweet because seriously both these women deserved to advance to round two. The match had me hooked from the beginning and while I knew deep down Kairi was getting the win I knew my girl Tessa was going to make an impact and thats exactly what she did and I could not be happier.  She went out there and proved that she really is the future of pro wrestling and deserves a place in the WWE Women's divison, the company would be stupid not to sign her and get working against some of the best names they have right now. Blanchard and Sane worked amazingly well together thanks to not only their brilliant chemistry but incredible talent. Both women are so skilled in the ring it was the match with the most impressive spots and well executed moves. Kairi of course walked away with the win but the crowd reaction, wrestling and respect for one another made this such a special bout and in my personal opinion the best match of round one.

I know it has mixed opinions but so far I am loving the Mae young classic! Every single one of these women are killing it and showing the world what women's wrestling is all about. I am going to be writing plenty more matches talking about the tournament including new favorites, round two matches I'm looking forward to and single standout performers. As always you can let me know what you thought of the first four shows and what your making of the Mae Young Classic so far by leaving a comment bellow or tweet me over at @TezangiVictoria.