Tag: Mae Young Classic

Several Names Revealed For WWE’s Mae Young Classic

As noted, WWE will tape The Mae Young Classic on July 13th and July 14th at Full Sail University. The following names have been confirmed for the 32-competitor tournament:

* Bianca Blair – standout at the WWE Performance Center and signed in April 2016

* Danielle Kamela – WWE developmental talent, trained at WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi’s school

* Julia Ho – WWE developmental talent with MMA background, trained with Brian Kendrick

* Kimberly Frankele – WWE NXT talent, formerly known as Kimber Lee on the indies

* Lacey Evans – NXT talent and a Marine, formerly known as Macey Estrella

* Mary Kate – NXT talent and formerly known as Rosie Lottalove in TNA

* Sarah Logan – NXT talent, formerly known as Sarah Bridges in NXT and Crazy Mary Dobson on the indies

* Taynara Melo – WWE developmental talent signed last year, black belt from Brazil

* Victoria Gonzales – WWE developmental talent signed in 2016, college athlete and daughter of Rudy Boy Gonzales

* Zhao Xia – WWE’s first female Chinese talent

The tournament will tape on July 13th and July 14th but there are plans to hold live finals on Tuesday, September 12th, possibly at the WWE SmackDown Live tapings in Las Vegas that night. The plan is to release the first round of the tournament in late August with the second round being released in early September via the on-demand section of the WWE Network.

Source: WrestlingINC

Update On The Mae Young Classic

We noted before that WWE officials were planning on releasing 3 or 4 episodes of The Mae Young Classic at a time instead of one new episode each week. PWInsider now reports that a preview special for the tournament will air on the WWE Network on Sunday, August 20th with the first round of the tournament being released via on-demand during the final week of August as a way to let fans binge-watch the episodes.

The second round of the tournament will then be released during the first week of September. The original plan was to release them during SummerSlam week but the decision was made to hold off so The Mae Young Classic isn’t overshadowed by everything else going on that week.

The live finals had been scheduled for Tuesday, August 29th but the new date is Tuesday, September 12th. It’s possible that the finals air live from Las Vegas on the WWE Network as WWE will be in town that night to tape SmackDown.

As noted, the 32-competitor tournament will tape on Thursday, July 13th and Friday, July 14th at Full Sail University.

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE Women’s Tournament To Be Named The Mae Young Classic, Possible Plans For Tournament

Triple H announced that the tournament will be called the “Mae Young Classic.” The name honors Young, who the company has long held up as a legendary figure in women’s wrestling. She was 90 years old when she passed away in January 2014.

WWE announced the following:

WWE has announced that the first-ever Mae Young Classic women’s tournament will take place Thursday, July 13, and Friday, July 14, from Full Sail Live in Orlando, Fla.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. ET via www.nxttickets.com.

The tournament, named after WWE Hall of Famer and one of the greatest WWE Superstars in history, Mae Young, will feature 32 of the top female competitors from around the world participating in a single-elimination tournament. The unprecedented event will stream later this summer exclusively on WWE Network.

“The Mae Young Classic will mark a significant moment in the evolution of WWE,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events and Creative. “We are proud to provide this unique opportunity for the best female talent from around the world.”

Additional information on the Mae Young Classic will be announced in the coming weeks.

Click here for additional information on the life and legacy of WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young.

The current plan is for the tournament to have a very strong female presence, besides the talent roster, according to PWInsider. There has been talk of using female announcers, something like 2 female announcers and 1 male. No word yet on who the female announcers would be but they could go with something like Renee Young and Charly Caruso or with a guest WWE Hall of Famer, perhaps Lita or Beth Phoenix. We already know that WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will be working the announce table that week.

There’s also been talk of using female referees for the tournament. We noted a few weeks back that indie women’s wrestler Kennadi Brink has been signed to work as a referee for the company. She will likely call at least some of the matches but there’s no word yet on if there will be another female referee brought in.

WWE has confirmed that the tournament will tape on July 13th and July 14th but they have not announced an air date yet. We do know that the tournament will air later this summer and as noted, the plan is to release 3 or 4 episodes at a time instead of one new episode each week. There are also plans to hold a live WWE Network special with the tournament finals on Tuesday, August 29th but that date could change.

Sources: WWE.com and WrestlingINC.com