Mae Young Classic Competitors Eliminated Too Soon

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good and have had a nice week! This past Monday as you all know the WWE released the first four episodes of the Mae Young Classic, a tournament that sees thirty two women from around the battle it out showing the world the evolution of women's wrestling, their individual skill and of course become the Classic winner. With this being the third WWE tournament of this sort of the past year fans have been massively excited in the build and with history showing these tournaments are a huge success the expectations have been high and those expectations have raised thanks to the serious competition in this tournament. We have thirty two extremely talented and popular women from around the world including Brazil, England, Scotland, India, Australia, New Zealand, the US and more. I was able to watch the first two episodes on Monday but my stupid illness meant that I was sleeping on and off all day and wasn't able to finish the full four days properly until Tuesday. Personally I really enjoyed all four episodes. I wasn't as amazed as I was expecting to be but with round two on its way and the field now full of far more experienced women I really do believe this is when are going to be seeing much stronger and more exciting matches. Already this week I have uploaded a post talking about the standout matches of the round one series and in that post I mentioned that there were a number of standout performers that didn't advance to round two an so in today's blog post I want to spend some time highlighting those women. I am going to be writing a separate post talking about the standout women who did advance to round to but that will be save for next week. For now, you can let me know what you thought of the first round of the Mae Young Classic, who were your favorites, and your favourite match so far by leaving a comment bellow or by dropping me a tweet over at @TezangiVictoria. 

Tessa Blanchard 
I'm going to kick start this post off today with a big obvious pick, Tessa Blanchard. If you have been reading my blog for a while or follow me on twitter you will most certainly be aware of the fact that I a massive Tessa Blanchard fan. Over the past month in particular I have spent a great deal of time talking about Tessa here on blog featuring her in several lists posts that have highlighted her as one of the most promising and talented women in the world of pro wrestling today. A little over a month ago I wrote a blog post listing my top seven Mae Young classic competitors and of course Tessa was a heavy feature in that post and I mentioned that she was my personal favourite to go all the way and get the win. When I watched the bracket show and saw that she would be facing Kairi Sane in the first round I was hugely disappointed. I touched on this in my previous post but while I knew this was going to be an epic match and an easy favourite of the entire tournament I wanted to see both these women in advance to round two at least and I knew there was no way Tessa would be getting the win over Kairi and trust me when I say that has nothing to do with her talent because I strongly believe those women are massively talented. Looking on twitter I realised that I wasn't the only one that felt this way. Blanchard and Sane could so easily have been the final two in this tournament and I honestly did believe that was going to be our finals and so you can see why I was so disappointed. Now, as predicted the match was without a shadow of a doubt the best match of round one. The two women worked amazingly well together and you can check out my full review of that match in my previous post which will be linked bellow. However, also as predicted Kairi Sane picked up the victory advancing to round two. Throughout the match the commentary team touched on the fact that only one of these women would be advancing an it was exactly what I was thinking the entire time. For me neither women stood out more than the other and with both proving to be massively talented and over it was a real shame that one had to go home. I do strongly believe that Tessa Blanchard had so much more to show in this tournament. She could so easily have been apart of some epic matches and the thought of her going one on one inside a WWE ring up against the likes of Kay Lee Ray, Candice La Rae, Mia Yim, Toni Storm and more had me very excited and it's a shame we wont see any of those matches go ahead. I do hope we will see more of Tessa in the future as the WWE would be stupid not to snap her up and add her to its women's divison.

Kavita Devi 
I also mentioned in my previous post that there were a few women in this tournament I didn't know all too much about at all and Kavita Devi was most certainly one of them, in fact I didn't know anything about her. She was however a big part of this tournament, making history as the first ever female Indian wrestler in the WWE. Because I didn't know anything about her I was really interest in seeing how she was going to perform and what she was going to bring to the table. As soon as she popped up on my screen I was invested in Kavita; her look, her stater, her story and I was very excited to see her compete. You could tell she wasn't very experience in front of a camera and working a crowd so easily but she put everything into make an impact and getting a reaction from the crowd. Facing off against the popular Dakota Kai it was clear that Devi had a big size and height advantage. Towering over the New Zealand star Kavita looked to dominate her opponent and that is exactly what she did. Her power and strength was highlighted very very early on and she made throwing Dakota around the ring look effortless. She looked amazingly strong an it was those powerful moves that had the crowd getting more behind her as the match progressed. However, despite a strong performance she didn't pick up the win and for now at least we won't be seeing any more of Devi in a WWE ring. Now, it was clear that Kavita is not as experienced as many of the other women involved in this tournament however her potential is insane. There is no other female competitor like her in the WWE right now and I would love for them to eventually snap her up. With more training and character development Devi could be a huge star in the WWE women's divison. She really is someone to be excited about and I think it's a shame she was eliminated so soon.  While I didn't have her down as a potential winner I believe she had more to show and if she was pitted against at least one more women then she could have shown a lot more of her skill set and could have impressed even more. I think she could have been an even bigger part of this tournament.

Sarah Logan 
Sarah Logan is a wrestler I have had a lot of interest in for the past year or so. I've seen little bits of her work here and there an every time I've seen her perform I've enjoyed what we have seen from her and always wanted to see given more time in the ring to really show what she can do in the ring in a full length match. So when she was announced as a participant in the Mae Young Classic I was really excited to see more of Sarah Logan. Finally, after a year long wait I was able to see take part in a strong match inside a WWE ring and even though she didn't get the win she proved herself massively and had me wanting to see way more of her ring work. Taking on the much experienced Mia Yim this was a perfect paring as I mentioned in my previous blog post. The two worked so amazingly well together and in the end put on what was easily one of the best matches of the first round. Sarah at only twenty three made her mark and stood out greatly taking on a veteran in this industry. She got a slid crowd reaction and while she wasn't the most well known competitor in this tournament she sure does have a loyal following and after her performance on the night I'm confident she now has many more fans around the world. She was clean throughout the match with every move looking impressive. She came across hungry and confident fighting for her place in round two and while she was unsuccessful in doing so she made a huge impression and certainly got heads turning. I do wish that we could have seen even more of Sarah however I'm glad she was able to make an impact, get people talking and prove she really is an amazing talent who clearly has a bright bright future ahead of herself.

Kay Lee Ray
Up next is a women I most certainly knew a lot about heading into the Mae Young classic, someone I have written about here on my blog and over on  social media a number of times the Scottish star Kay Lee Ray. Again, I did talk about Kay in my previous blog post because she really did have one of the standout matches of the first round. Taking on Princesa Sugehit in the first match of the tournament the pressure was on for both women to kick start things strong and thats exactly what they did. Both looked amazing throughout and Kay Lee Ray brought a heck of a lot personality and skill to the ring. As the more popular with the Full Sail crowd originally she picked up the bigger reaction and had the fans behind her throughout the match however Princesa did look to be making an impact and very quickly we could see the fans begin to warm to the Mexican star who really was impressive. Now, I did have Kay Lee Ray down as one of my favourits in this tournament and in another blog post I spoke about why and how much of a fan I am of her and her work. When I knew she was going up against Princesa I was very confident that she would be taking the victory and moving onto round two, however within the first three minuets of their match I knew that things were not going to turn out like that and predicted that in order to have more variety in the tournament Princesa would have to advance. Because of that I wasn't surprised to see Kay Lee Ray take the loss however I was disappointed. Ray had so much to bring to this tournament and we didn't get to see a fraction of what she is capable of. She looked amazing in that opening match an had a brilliant showing but being a fan of her work for so long I know that there was so much more she could have shown and if she had advanced to round two then I know for a fact she would have amazed fans ten times more. It would have been amazing seeing her go up against a number of different women in the tournament including Tessa Blanchard, Candice La Rae, Mia Yim, and Kairi Sane. I really was disappointed that we lost Kay Lee Ray in this tournament so soon. She is a big big loss.

Jazzy Gabert 
And finally we have the women I honestly have not stopped talking about all week long, Jazzy Gabert. Ah, where do I begin? Honestly, I didn't know a lot about Jazzy before this tournament but she was someone I had a huge interest in and wanted to learn more about. Looking at the line up

Jazzy was probably the women I was most excited about seeing compete in this tournament. I've mentioned it already this week but from the moment I laid eyes on her I was interested. She has a completely different look, there is not a single women in the WWE or in fact the wrestling world that looks like her, she's out here representing Germany, she's strong, powerful, passionate an I love everything she stands for. Just looking at her you just know what Jazzy is someone to be excited about and trust me when I say I was. She picked up a decent reaction from the full sail crowd but going up against the popular Abbey Laith it was clear that Jazzy needed to make an impact and get people talking and again that is exactly what she did. Within seconds of this match starting it was made clear that the fans were super into this match. Red hot the crowd were up on their feet going crazy for these two women and it possibly the biggest crowd reaction during the match we saw throughout round one. She very very quickly won over the full sail crowd and looking on twitter everyone has fallen in love with jazzy Gabert. Ah, I honestly only have good things to say about this women. I love when a superstar just oozes something new so and unique changing the game so well. She looked strong and dominant throughout the match and brought something totally new to the table. She was fun to watch and the issue I had with this match was I honestly wanted both women to advance because both really do have so much more to show. They did work so amazing together, their chemistry was brilliant and I enjoyed the match I just wish we got to see more of Jazzy. Hopefully, and they would be stupid not to but hopefully they sign Jazzy real soon!

As I said I have plenty more content surrounding the Mae Young Classic coming up but for now you can let me know what you thought of the first round of the Mae Young Classic, who were your favorites, and your favourite match so far by leaving a comment bellow or by dropping me a tweet over at @TezangiVictoria. 

Recent blog posts:
Best Mae Young Classic Matches From Round 1
Last Week in Wrestling