wrestling / Columns

Previewing The 2018 Mae Young Classic

August 8, 2018 | Posted by Justin Watry

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such columns as March 2012’s “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan In Less Than A Minute” and October 2016’s “WWE NXT: Bobby Roode, You’re Next.”

Backstory

The second installment of the Mae Young Classic is set to begin soon. Thus, consider this my preview and prediction column for the tournament. First, a little flashback…

Last Year

In my Mae Young Classic preview last year, I correctly predicted Kairi Sane over Shayna Bassler in the finals. I correctly predicted Toni Storm would be the breakout star of the tourney and eventually be signed. I correctly predicted the final four. All without reading the taping results and avoiding spoilers. A good presentation all around and clearly a concept worth bringing back again.

My big complaints were the commentary team of Jim Ross and Lita (no surprise they aren’t back) and the binge watching nature of the WWE Network roll out. No time to really digest everything as it was here and gone in an instant. Besides that, I enjoyed mostly everything else. Now let’s get to a few points about the 2018 edition!

Timing

Okay, we all know the finals will take place on October 28th at WWE Evolution. If the matches are being taped this week, that gives WWE two and a half months to figure out the airing schedule. As noted above, I didn’t care for the way WWE just dumped all the episodes on their network in such quick fashion. I know binge watching can be popular and all that, but the Cruiserweight Classic didn’t do that, and it has been labeled a huge success. Hopefully, we get an episode a week in late August or something like that leading to mid-October and then a week or two of hype with the last two competitors appearing on RAW/Smackdown Live to hype up their showdown at WWE Evolution. Please don’t just throw this out there in the middle of October or something and then have the finals without much build.

I am going to trust WWE on this one.

The Field

Like last year, I am only familiar with a select few of these women. I openly admit that and have made no bones about it. No different than the men. I have never seen Matt Riddle wrestle. I have never seen Keith Lee wrestle. Until I started reading about WWE’s interest, I couldn’t even pick them out of a photo lineup.

Here is the kicker though.

Before signing with WWE/NXT, I also never saw Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Hideo Itami, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and countless others…but I became fans of them and now sing their praises each week. The Mae Young Classic introduced me to Shayna Baszler, Kairi Sane, Lacey Evans, and others last year to where now I support them. I expect the same this year with women I have never seen compete but often read about: Xia Brookside, Nicole Matthews, Karen Q, Io Shirai, and more.

Who will stand out? Who won’t? I have no idea, but I am more than ready to find out.

Commentary

Yeah, JR and Lita stunk as a duo. Moving on from there, rumor is Beth Phoenix may be at the desk this time around. From what I saw of the Mixed Match Challenge, she did alright. No issues there. Lots of fans seem to always want Renee Young to return to the booth, but she has kinda admitted she didn’t do so well in the past. Time will tell. I just hope WWE picks the right tandem. Again to praise the Cruiserweight Classic, the commentators added so much to the tournament. It really helped elevate the product every single week. Like WWE Evolution in late October, I don’t believe we 100% need a female commentator…but I get it. No complaints one way or another. Just want two good commentators, male or female.

Teases

In 2017, WWE was still in the process of luring over the MMA Four Horsewomen, so they used the Mae Young Classic to promote them and the WWE Four Horsewomen. Would a brawl break out? Was a future bout on the horizon? How would it all shake out? Well, it turned out to be nothing because let’s be honest, Ronda Rousey is a much bigger name and obviously worked best on her own. Same with Baszler getting her own shine…and Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke had yet to be signed officially yet. So yeah, a bunch of teases for nothing.

I believe we WILL get more Four Horsewomen stuff (none are in the tourney as of now) with perhaps an actual payoff at Survivor Series. Plus, I do believe we will get other mid-card type hints for WWE Evolution. Remember the company has to fill a full pay-per-view card. I am expecting more than just the finals to be featured there. Maybe a great first round match gets a rematch? Maybe there is controversy in the second round with Madison Rayne and Sienna continuing their feud to the PPV? Something like that. This won’t just be a stand alone tournament with no future ramifications.

Omissions

It is impossible to get every single woman signed and every single fan favorite under contract and every single women to wrestle at this tournament. Whether it is Gail Kim, Chelsea Green, Rosemary, Santana Garrett (who I once interviewed for this very website!), Jazzy Gabert, Kelly Kelly, or anybody else…we are NOT going to get everybody we want, okay? Impossible to get a perfect field of 32 here. WWE did a great job selecting talent last year and did so again this year. Give them credit rather than nitpick one or two wrestlers that weren’t selected. Whether it is due to contract issues, visa issues, talent issues, scheduling issues, or just simply declining the invitation – focus on the positive and not the negative.

Picks

Enough stalling. Here are my completely irrelevant and ‘throwing things at a wall’ predictions…

– Sienna and Madison Rayne will wrestle each other. I assume WWE might want to avoid this awkwardness but screw it.
– Kaitlyn will be like Serena Deeb last year. Have a good showing but not make it very far. Hoping for the best though. She deserves this second chance. Big fan.
– No returning star from the inaugural Mae Young Classic will win it all. Sorry to Toni Storm, Mia Yim, Rachel Evers, etc.
– With the finals in New York, Deonna Purrazzo is the PERFECT underdog fan favorite winning the grand prize there. Diehards love her.
– Io Shirai seems to have the most buzz for coming in, so like Kairi Sane proved, I have to believe the hype is real. Her in the finals also makes sense.
– Above all else, I am predicting WWE learned from their (small) mistakes in 2017 and will make the 2018 Mae Young Classic an excellent tournament.