A veteran, a rebirth and an underdog! The Mae Young Classic lives again!

Image credits for this article: WWE.com.

If WWE has shown anything over the past two years, it is that their tournament events are well worth a watch. Whether it was the Cruiserweight Classic (an event I would like to see again) and the first Mae Young Classic, WWE has proven it can write compelling storylines out of the thirty-two person single elimination tournament.

With the finals announced for WWE Evolution, the show can waste no time with thirty matches to air in the upcoming eight weeks between now and then. With an entirely new (and much improved) announce team of Michael Cole, Renee Young and Beth Phoenix, the call is spot on.

The first round kicks off with Tegan Nox, a British talent with tons of upside that missed the last year to injury, and Zatara, Zartan's evil sister. No, that's Zarana, sorry. The Chilean luchadora Zaranna, one of the best wrestlers in the southern hemisphere. As much as I'd like to see more of Zatanna, this match was a foregone conclusion before it opened. Nox picked up the big win with her shiniest wizard. She moves on to face the winner of Isla Dawn & Nicole Matthews.

The second match brings the first return from the last MYC, Rhea Ripley, the Australian star that was eliminated in a bit of a shock to Dakota Kai. But the young star goes against another very new talent (and a personal favorite of yours truly) MJ Jenkins. This one was really built as a style battle between the fun-loving Jenkins and the intense powerhouse Ripley. Rhea controlled all the early goings of the match, but when Ripley pauses to taunt, it only fires up MJ. Jenkins comes back with some hard strikes of her own. But much like, the previous match, the announce team made the results of this one a foregone conclusion with their heavy focus on Rhea Ripley. MJ Jenkins goes down to a powerbomb, but the knowledge she's now at the Performance Center gives me hopes she can have a bright WWE future. Rhea takes on the winner of Kacy Catanzaro and Reina Gonzalez.

To quote Kid Rock quoting ZZ Top, she has legs & she knows how to use them.

I'm a bit surprised Lacey Lane kept her Ember Moon-esque look, just as I'm a bit surprised they mentioned her Performance Center signing. Vanessa Kraven is just a great power wrestler and against the much shorter Lacey, it creates a fun bout between the two. Vanessa acts as a rampaging beast on the indies, but here she works the more traditional WWE monster style. And despite all the power Kraven brings to the ring, the hometown girl hits a Crucifix Bomb to steal a win from the giant. She'll go on to face the winner of Jessie Elaban and former Undisputed Era dupe Taynara Conti.

The main event of night one pitted the Portuguese Killer Kelly against arguably the greatest still active joshi wrestler in the world today, Meiko Satomura. Killer Kelly is a great talent with a strong future in NXT UK, but seriously, she's facing down Meiko freaking Satomura. I respect the awe all three of the announcers hold for Satomura in their introduction of her, which instantly makes her feel like the big deal she should always be. Yet Killer Kelly was allowed to show how physical she could be, as she delivered some devastating strikes to the joshi veteran. Ultimately though, Satomura showed her fighting spirit and demolished her with a death valley driver a few minutes after hitting the move of the night, a flipping double kick to the back of Kelly's spine. She'll move on to face down one of two veterans in Mercedes Martinez and Ashley (Madison) Rayne. I like Madison, but Meiko and Mercedes has to be a dream match for more than just me.

It takes years to build that level of intensity on a headlock.

Overall, the first episode was very solid. Though the announcers telescoped the winners for eagle-eared fans, they never failed to get any talent's names wrong or forget any moves. Outside a few bad ADR post-recording spots, the first hour of the tournament gave some great wrestling and awesome talent. Like a thousand tournaments before it though, the really story will be to see what comes from the tournament. With Satomura present, it remains to be seen whether WWE will build a relationship with Sendai Girls like it seems to have started with NOAH. Which of the stars from the tournament will immediately hit WWE and NXT television? All that remains to be seen as we have seven weeks of action ahead of us!

What were your highlights from week one of MYC2? Let me know in the comments!

SHINE 28 offers a solid card and an underwhelming delivery

I am fan of women's wrestling. I say that with no trepidation whatsoever as I feel women are just as good wrestlers as men. I own a few SHIMMER DVDs (and desperately wish they would start using a streaming service that gives full events.) But SHIMMMER has a sister company in the form of SHINE, that runs on internet pay-per-view. Part of the World Wrestling Network, it suffers from commentary by one of the worst announcers in wrestling today, Lenny Leonard, but her cohost Amber Gertner at least tries to make up for it. But with a solid card on paper, I decided to make the jump and try out SHINE 28.

Image credit: ShineWrestling.com

The show opened with 90s independent wrestling icon (and brief WCW & WWE star) Malia Hosaka (with classic WWE star Leilani Kai) going up against La Rosa Negra. Rosa is an interesting part of the roster as she is the only member of the roster to really embrace a bit of cheesecake in her entrance. The match starts out well, but a clear injury to the throat early caused Rosa to have breathing issues. (The show later reported she actually went to the hospital for assistance post-match.) The match stretches out long past its clear need to finish as Malia kept the match going despite Rosa barely being able to keep up for much of the match. (If I'm incorrect and Rosa was just selling all match, she should be hired immediately by WWE.)