a returning rocker with martial arts in a rivalry revisited

wrestling 018 & tv review 059

WWE

Mae Young Classic 2018

s02e03

[ WWE ]

[19th of September, 2018]

[54min, Pop culture, Sports Entertainment, Wrestling]

With last week not getting any entry whatsoever, let's try to release one a day until I can match up to this week's sixth episode. Let's see whether I can deliver or not!

It's kind of fitting to have the first match of this third episode with a former champion of a arguably bygone 'Diva' era, Kaitlyn, that started in the industry at a relatively young age, leaves after achieving relative success and now rejoins to restart her life after being put through the ringer. In the opposite corner is Kavita Devi, an up-and-coming talent from India that have a lot of potential in her imposing physique and improving skills and you can see the difference between her debut last year and in this match. They are a perfect pairing under this circumstances with the former needs to get rid of some of the visible ring rust (that tapping on the mat for example that looks like submitting rather than a call for support from the audiences) while the latter is still green with some indecisiveness in her actions and noncommittal to her character. This might be a bit more harsher compared to my previous assessments but the faults are more apparent when there are more established wrestlers who put out better products comparatively. With that being said, the match is quite even in the exchange with the Indian effectively dominate with power while the veteran pulls out hard-hitting moves from her arsenal to counter back and eventually win the match with a superb Spear. She can only moves forward from here on out.

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You will be fooling yourself if you come into this second edition of Mae Young Classic without considering Toni Storm as one of the main favourites to go all the way after falling short last time out. Despite making her names in the independent scenes and are well known by the more hardcore fans, she will prove herself in the eyes of the casuals yet again, with the British fashionista Jinny. Despite her lean figure, she is quite relentless and vicious in the ring which forces the Australian to dial back her rockstar personality and treat her as a viable threat. That face buster to the middle turnbuckle starts a hard hitting exchange between them that much at a much more faster pace, with that modified submission one of the highlights. The fan favourite needs to pull in deep to subdue the momentum with a snap German Suplex starting her comeback and a Star Zero (is that correct? I heard what Michael Cole said in conjunction of the modified Power Bomb) to end the bout in her favour. This is a limited time to for Toni to properly showcase her full arsenal but the next round should suffice, right?

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Now this is not something you will see everyday! Having a predominantly martial arts-focused encounter with two Chinese wrestlers from two different backgrounds, one from a family of migrates and one from the mainland. There are a number of memorable scenes in this particular fight between Karen Q and Xia Li as the former took the initiative with a cheap heel shot and followed it up with a wonderful string of athletic and hard hitting backflip and kicks, taking advantage of her extended gymnast background and backing it up with a number of wrestling moves such as Full Nelson Slam and even Frog Splash. This is a match to watch to see a successful combination of wrestling with martial arts with a lot of hard hitting kicks being exchanged between these two, with the first Chinese wrestler to be signed into NXT proven her worth to overcome the adversity and pull off a win with a quick followup of a flipping X kick after a missing high risk maneuver. With Deonna Purrazzo waiting for her in the next round, I wonder who will come out on top?

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Casting a lot of wrestlers from the independent scenes means that some of the contestants could have a lot of history fighting alongside each other and in this particular case against one another with a broken nose as a lasting memorabilia of the last time they met in the ring. Mia Yim and Allysin Kay try to play by the book at first but then all the formalities are dropped with both of them trying to edge out one another, until a mistimed chop block swing the momentum over to the classy Savage, with a pinky hooking the mouth and even a strangling attempt with the native Korean's own hair! It's not as effective for offense but she still able to keep up to subdue her frenemy with other vicious submission attempts. Credits to the blue haired woman for fighting back with a flurry of speedy kicks and moves which culminates with a Sunset Powerbomb. This is awesome, indeed, A competing Discus Lariat, the Big D, couldn't turn the tide against her and after a simultaneous kick to the head restoring the parity for a moment, a desperate climb to the top of the rope allows Mia Yim to use the leverage in her favour with an over the top rope Soul Food to end the hate-love tour, at least for now. This is by far the best match of the night and I want to see how Mia would fare with Kaitlyn next.

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Another varieties of styles and quality for the third outing. What could be waiting for me with the last eight contestants?!

Execution = around 80% with unique pairings and built-in storyline for us to indulge in!

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