Mae Young Classic Final Review - Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

On 12th September 2017, WWE aired the Final of the Mae Young Classic live on the WWE Network, from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show featured Kairi Sane [Kairi Hojo] and Shayna Baszler battling it out to become the first ever Mae Young Classic winner. But was it any good?

• Open - A quick look at the tournament so far, before the focus shifts to Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler and their skills, as well as interviews with both women.  

• VT - Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Becky Lynch,  Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Kia Stevens [Awesome Kong], Kate Nash, Ronda Rousey - Some footage from the red carpet event, with interviews with those listed about the final. 

• Promo - Shayna Baszler, Kairi Sane - Clips of the pair trip to the final, as well as words on the final from both, with Baszler putting over her MMA credentials and Sane's heart and will being put over. This was well produced and set out the potential story for the bout before it even began.  

• In-Ring - Shayna Baszler, Kairi Sane, Lilian Garcia - Lilian's ring announcing was spot on here as she told the story heading in and gave the match something different and allowed the perhaps unfamiliar crowd to buy into what was about to come.

Mae Young Classic Final

Kairi Sane def. Shayna Baszler 

(11:54)

This was a good match, but I can't help but thinking that it could have and perhaps should have been a great match. A lot of my issues with the Mae Young Classic had been down to the women never seeming to have enough time to tell some of the stories they were attempted to tell and unfortunately this was the case for the final as well. Less than 12 minutes was not enough time for these ladies to showcase their skills and it left the match feeling stunted, as they introduced a number of story threads but never seemed to anything with them. The early part of the match was arguably the strongest, with Baszler going for submissions early and Sane transitioning into a pinning combination on each one. This made it clear from the start the kind of dynamic that we would see and put over both as a potential threat to the other. Both produced some lovely looking strikes throughout the bout with Sane's double handed chops and Baszler massive roundhouse that knocked Sane to the outside standing out in particular, the wrestling wasn't always as clean and crisp as it could've been, but rarely did it look close to being sloppy. The two main narrative that the bout introduced was Baszler focusing on Sane's elbow (which Jim Ross called a "solar plexis" for some reason) and Sane zeroing in on a rib injury after nailing her interceptor spear. Both of these threads could've done with at least another five minutes to fully develop. Sane's elbow in particular seemed like something that could have been used to heap more drama onto proceedings, especially when her finish is a diving elbow drop and whilst we saw flashes of solid storytelling, like Baszler blocking a top-rope move with a kick to the elbow, before locking on a kimura, there was a lack of follow through in those closing stages that could've lifted the match above. Despite my complaints, this was an enjoyable match, with my highlight being Sane escaping a rear naked choke by jabbing at Baszler's injured ribs (with Baszler selling being exemplary) and feel like the best is yet to come from both ladies as they continue to grow as performers. I just hope that they get more time to show off their skills on NXT or wherever WWE chooses to place them.

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.75/10

Well, with only one match on the show, there's not really much else to put in the wrap up. The rating got pulled down by the overkill on the build up and whilst I understand that the two girls needed to be introduced to an audience seeing them for potentially the first time and the need for WWE to make this event feel special, it felt like it came at the detriment to the main attraction. Either extend the show to 45 minutes to give the ladies more time, cut back on the build or air the event live from a different venue on a different date where it isn't sandwiched in between SmackDown and 205 Live.

WWE NXT #264 Review (Aired 7th September 2017)

On 7th September, WWE aired its 264th episode of NXT, taped at Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida on 23rd August. The show's main event match would see the dastardly Hideo Itami take on the still employed and underused Kassius Ohno in a No Disqualifications Match but the true main event would be Asuka's emotional farewell to NXT after having her never-ending title run cut short by real-life injury. With an undercard formed of Sonya Deville taking on Mae Young Classic competitor Zeda, Lars Sullivan taking on a trio of tiny men & Andrade 'Cien' Almas getting some revenge on Cezar Bononi, it had a lot of potential as an hour of television but as always, was it any good?

Andrade 'Cien' Almas (w/Zelina Vega) def. Cezar Bononi

In a rematch from NXT #250, the two lads Lockup to begin with Almas powering the Brazilian to the corner, the ref calls for the break and Almas obliges but hits a thunder slap before stomping out Bononi in the corner, a snapmare takedown into a basement drop kick and more corner stomps follow, Bononi tries to fight back and takes a knee to the head for his effort, the two trade strikes, run the ropes and Almas goes into a pair of big clotheslines from Bononi, punches in the corner, a reverse atomic drop and a drop kick swing things back in Bononi's favour, Almas gets a moment of control and goes for a DDT but Bononi leverages into a pinfall for a 2. Shades of their first match here but Almas regains control with a stiff punch leading to a Rope hung GTR and some forearms in the corner, Almas is about to go for the corner double knees till Vega tells him to destroy him, hits the Hammerlock DDT for the pin. A nice, little match that continues to build Almas and Vega as something of a Latin American Rusev & Lana. The match itself wasn't much more than it needed to be but it was still smooth, hard-hitting and gave Bononi just enough in terms of hope spots to continue to build the big lad.

• General Manager William Regal isn't mincing words or pies right now as he calls out Adam Cole, Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly (& Lars Sullivan probably) for being naughty boys and attacking people all over the shop and Regal wants it known that he only wants fighting to happen in the ring. Let's ignore that Team ROH's TakeOver attacks took place in the ring yeah?

• Itami and Ohno work out backstage before their match.

• The Velveteen Dream says something about, I dunno, Prince things. He's going to give a proper promo soon, or a match or just drop a fire mixtape. Who really knows?

Lars Sullivan def. A Trio of Tiny Men

Quick squash m8. Lars is presented with a tag team match but he says no, he wants all the meat, all at once. He immediately double clothesline two of the tiny men before choking the other to the corner and launching him across the ring, he then ragdolls the fuck out of the men throwing them about like (I don't have a reference here, help me, Mauro). After some corner splashes, he hits his big modified Uranage Slam on all three men for the pin. Solid big lad fun and Lars didn't even have to do a...

• Lars continues to do a murder post-match, all three men try to crawl away from the man that resembles a gigantic, bald, Sami Callihan clone injected with Bane Venom, until No Way Jose's music hits to a big reaction. He talks about how Lars attacked him back in Brooklyn interrupting the biggest conga line Barclays has ever seen and he wants to see Lars do the same now his back isn't turned. Jose throws fists but Lars takes over and hits big ol' crossface blows before hitting another slam finish on Jose. RIP Jose.

• Jonny Wrestling is at the PC being interviewed about Brooklyn and talks of how amazing it was for him and how he refuses to see Zelina Vega and her DIY T-Shirt as a distraction and owns his failures. Talking of failures, enter Riddick Moss & Tino Sabatelli who talk of how they consider themselves responsible for breaking up DIY and how they wanted Johnny to know he won't cut it as a singles guy. Johnny responds by saying he's glad they enjoyed the match from their sofa and that next week he'll take either of them on. Which would he prefer, doesn't matter he says. Savage words, Johnny m'lad.

• Hype reel for Sonya Deville, lots of TapOut gear & punching. She manages to get in her  'put your hair up and square up' catchphrase.

• SANitY recap from Team ROH attack last week. A video message from SANItY as recorded on Killian Dain's old flip-phone (Editor: Probs a Motorola Razr) plays. Eric Young talks about how he can respect Team ROH for doing things their own way but that he doesn't care for them or about them and especially not for them if they're going to beat up his gang. He only knows one thing and that thing according to Alexander Wolfe, is chaos!

Sonya Deville def. Zeda

Another quick squash m8. The commentary team put over both women's real combat backgrounds before Sonya Deville puts on about two minutes of controlled waistlocks, interrupted by Zeda leveraging into a pin for a 1 and some running the ropes. Deville gets back to waistlocks, Zeda escapes but runs into a modified spinebuster takedown knocking her out of the ring. Back in and Deville hits a roundhouse, a front strike and locks in a Triangle Choke for the pin. This felt like a faint variation on the match that Zeda and Shayna Baszler had in round one of the Mae Young Classic but Deville looked great & Zeda has such a distinctive look and enough charisma to suggest she's worth keeping around.

• Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch are friends now and as a result, beat up Marcel Barthel (the former Alex Dieter jr.) and a friend while Regal looks on like a proud dad. Ruby Riot comes up to Regal and requests a handicap match to shut up the iconic duo for good, Regal tells her he won't book that match but if she can find a partner, he'll give her a tag match. She agrees. So who could it be? Perhaps Dakota Kai, she's been excellent in the Mae Young Classic, she's already held tag gold with Riot back in their Heidi Lovelace/Evie days, she competed in a womens tag match at PROGRESS: New York the other week and two of the PROGRESS owners Jim Smallman and Glen Joseph could be seen in the back of shot during this segment. Still, with all that evidence it'll probably be Liv Morgan.

No DQ Match: Kassius Ohno def. Hideo Itami

Ohno's gear for the evening has gone for those Neville: Main Roster Debut colours. As the match starts, Itami immediately bails to the floor, Ohno follows, Itami back, Ohno follows again, Itami tries to go for a sneak attack off the rope but Ohno is refusing this and represents a brick wall that Itami runs into. Ohno follows up with a body slam, a leaping leg drop, a slap and a delayed vertical suplex for a 2 count. Running boot, during a second one, Itami reverses and sends Ohno flipping over the rope before taking out Ohno with a running forearm and slamming him into the post. Ohno commits fully to this bump and falls to the outside in a terrifying manner, out of the ring and Itami bashes Ohno off those steps before taunting on his prone arm. Back in the ring and Itami starts on, you guessed it, kicks, all the kicks, into the corner, kicks, hits a hesitation dropkick for a 2 count. Itami heads out to get a chair, slides it into to the ring, goes to pick it up but Ohno grabs it, a tug of war starts which Ohno wins, he throws the chair to Itami before going for a Rolling Elbow but Itami smashes the elbow in question with the chair to send the two lads to an ad break. Back from the ad break and Itami is taunting Ohno with a series of kicks to the head, Ohno begins to hulk up and tells Itami to kick him with his best shot, on his feet and Ohno goes for a big boot but Itami catches it so Ohno hits a leaping boot to the head, another leg drop, a shining wizard and a senton get Kassius back on track, on their feet and Ohno sets up for a neckbreaker but Itami snaps the arm, sets up for a GTS but Ohno slips out and hits his own GTS, a Firemans Carry Into a Rolling Elbow knocking Itami out of the ring. Itami crawls up the ramp away from Ohno who begins kicking a Itami and picks him up for an elbow, he wants Itami to know how much that hurts, a lot from the looks of it, Itami is back up again and Ohno goes for a suplex but Itami reverses into a fisherman's suplex, Itami gets Ohno in the corner and straps the chair to Ohno's face before hitting a shattering hesitation dropkick but takes too long getting to the pin so only gets a 2. He demands respect, Ohno hits a swift right to daze itami, Itami goes for a boot but Ohno catches it, Itami pokes him in the eyes before setting up the GTS, Ohno escapes and hits the low blow to end all low blocks before following up with a Rolling Elbow for the pin. This was some truly glorious nonsense. With less than 10 minutes, the two men manage to create something truly powerful and memorable with Ohno picking up his biggest victory since returning to NXT (yes, even more important than his match with Elias Samson). Credit must also go to Itami who has not only firmly settled into a very satisfying groove with his current heel run but gave the most beautiful performance as a man whose nads are in the most possible pain after that low blow. I can only imagine what could have been done had these two been given 5-10 extra minutes to create chaos. Elbows and kicks probably.

Thank You, Asuka

William Regal introduces Asuka who gets a hero's welcome as she comes to the ring in her fly-as-fuck suit. She talks of how she's been in NXT for nearly two years, has fought so many great superstars and loves NXT, she's grown so much and is so grateful for it. Regal talks of how he respects Asuka's determination to constantly defend her title and knows she'll go down in history as one of the greatest champions in WWE history. Others have started to notice how great she is and Regal has been discussing her move up to main roster with Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan. Regal is sad to see her go but happy to watch the world discover that "no-one is ready for Asuka". The entire locker room come out to join in with the 'Thank You, Asuka" chants as Asuka grabs the mic declaring "you are NXT, I am NXT. Wherever I go, NXT comes with me". The crowd are on their feet. Ember Moon steps forward as her music hit, she goes to the ring, her music dies down and they face off, Moon extends her hand for shaking but as Asuka goes for it, she pulls a move from the Asuka playbook and slides it back before going in for a big, long hug, friendship is fucking beautiful. Finally out comes Triple H with his flowers lackey in tow, he takes her title and trades it for roses before putting over the 'undefeated, women's champion, the empress of tomorrow'. Asuka basks in the crowds adoration as the show goes off. I bet there were more than a few moist eyes in the house and at home during this one. You could say that this segment really undercut the move towards heel-dom that Asuka was taking but the truth is that this was such a show of respect and such an all-encompassing emotional event that it's hard to critique it. Asuka seems to be gone and that makes me sad, not just as someone who reviews NXT because it means I don't get to talk about her anymore but as someone who never really wants her streak to end. Treat her well, Main Roster, she deserves it.

ATPW Scale Rating: 7/10

A series of strong angles, some very good in-ring work from Itami, Ohno and Almas as well as the emotional farewell of Asuka led to one of the most cohesive episodes of NXT in a long time. That they were able to fit in so much, at such a breakneck speed and have it not feel overstuffed at only the standard one hour running time was impressive. Now let's watch as all this goodwill and positive momentum is squandered. Andrade Almas for NXT Champion, that is all, goodnight.

Article by Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

Wrestling Isn't What It Used to Be...But Why Does That Always Have to Be a Bad Thing?

So, after what has seemed like a lifetime since I found out I would be doing this, it is time for me to write my first piece for Across The Pond Wrestling.

I was deciding for a while what I wanted to write about first, and eventually decided that I wanted to start off by writing something positive, because there doesn't seem to be so much of that out of there.

It's always easier to criticise things. People like to focus on the bad things about pro wrestling these days and don't get me wrong, I'll certainly be doing that regularly in the future but I wanted to start off by doing something a bit different.

This piece is about wrestling not being what it used to be, it is about it not being as popular as in the past but it's also about why that is absolutely okay.

Now, just to add a little bit of context to my views, I'll tell you a bit about my background. I'm 24 years old and I've been a wrestling fan since roughly late 2000, when a school friend introduced me to the crazy world of the World Wrestling Federation. It's been something that bar a couple of short hiatuses, I've had an interest in ever since.

Now, as amazing as it seemed at the time, the main angles during my first year watching wrestling saw Stone Cold Steve Austin turn heel at WrestleMania X-7 as well as the infamous Invasion angle... hindsight kind of proves that I was introduced to wrestling just as its mainstream popularity began to dwindle, which was also around the same time WCW and ECW were about to close their doors.

Since the true competition disappeared, there's been a lot of discussion amongst fans about WWE's lazy approach to storytelling, with many suggesting that they need to push boundaries in order to recapture lightning in a bottle like they did in the eighties and nineties.

I personally think that this is unlikely to happen regardless of what they try to do but that is something I'm fine with, simply because it's not something I blame the industry for.

We do live in a period where pro wrestling doesn't really fit in with society's mainstream culture any more but then what does that really mean in 2017? Pop culture in general is an a perpetual state of nostalgia when it comes to film, television and music. There's very little fresh being brought to the table in any area of entertainment.

In fact, funnily enough, I think whilst the WWE in particular can be very heavy on nostalgia at times, wrestling is actually one of the few artistic pursuits that is beginning to change. For a start, wrestling is now being made for the pure wrestling fan, which means it is catering to the audience that remains. This is a smart business strategy, even if it's not always the most successful one.

Today's wrestling has become purely athletic competition for the most part, and that is a direct result of the new generation of talent. That is never going to bring in the mainstream crowd but is it really that big a deal? Popularity and quality aren't two things that go hand in hand. As long as the industry is still surviving, and it is more than doing that, it will continue to entertain generations for years to come.

People will miss the larger than life characters from the childhood without a doubt, but the pure wrestling fan is absolutely spoilt for choice in terms of content these days if they look hard enough.

You only have to look at the situation here in the UK to see how much better our scene is for this, with the likes of PROGRESS, WCPW and IPW:UK in particular flourishing in a British scene that is hotter than it has been in years. I was used to All-Star Wrestling shows as a kid with the main attractions being WWF tribute acts. It's now the other way around, and WWE are using our wrestlers to enhance their product.

Add in the likes of New Japan, Lucha Underground and NXT across the world and there has never been such a high calibre of in ring talent in the industry.

While WWE in 2017 might not always be everyone's cup of tea, even their product has suddenly started to resemble an independent promotion these days. I'm not just talking about NXT either, RAW in particular has never been less about storylines and more about in-ring action on a weekly basis than it is today.

Something else that you can look at as a positive is the way women are treated in wrestling these days. Although as a red blooded male there were always some positives to the way women were portrayed in the past, I've also always realised that it was a bit tacky, and there wasn't really any true justification for the industry to be as misogynistic as it was.

It is truly refreshing that the industry has decided to grow up a bit and champion equality. In addition to the huge strides women's wrestling has already taken, we're getting the Mae Young Classic on the WWE Network and the first ever Women's Money In The Bank Ladder match in a few short weeks, so the boundaries are being pushed all the time.

Then, there is the most important thing. The deaths. A wrestler's lifespan has been greatly increased as a result of the changes in the industry over the last few years, and there is no way, shape or form that this can't be considered a good thing.

There was a point where it seemed a weekly occurrence that another wrestler had died young, and it was quite soul destroying. You watch pay-per-views from twenty and thirty years ago now and it's often quite ridiculous how many people on those shows have passed away when you consider how young they were at the time.

It might have taken an absolutely horrific incident in June 2007 to kick start this whole movement, but nobody should ever have to die for their craft and to entertain others, which is something that the younger generation should never have to deal with when it comes to their heroes..

So, as I said at the start of the piece, wrestling isn't what it used to be, but lets not ignore the positives either, both in and out of the ring.

Written by Andy Phillips