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What’s the story?
As the Mae Young Classic approaches its live finale on Tuesday, September 12th, it's already being hailed as a success.
According to the Wrestling Observer's report of the most watched WWE Network shows (via VOD viewing), all eight episodes of the tournament commanded the top eight slots.
In case you didn’t know…
The 32-woman Mae Young Classic, a first of its kind for WWE, had a unique release compared to other recent Network-exclusive tournaments. Unlike the more traditional episodic viewing of the Cruiserweight Classic and the UK Tournament, this competition dumped multiple episodes at a time over two weeks.
The first four episodes went live on the WWE Network on Monday, August 28th, while episodes five through eight were made available on Monday, September 4th. The live finale will air this coming Tuesday night.
The heart of the matter
The September 4th episodes were the four most watched shows this past week, according to the video on-demand viewing. The August 28th episodes took the next four spots in the Top 10. This is undeniable dominance by The Mae Young Classic, proving that there's still a strong desire to see more women's wrestling among WWE's fanbase.
The tournament showcased the talents from a plethora of wrestlers who deserved their shine. Jim Ross and Lita called the action as viewers watched the likes of Kairi Sane, Piper Niven, Toni Storm, Abbey Laith, Shayna Baszler, and many more fight to make it to the finals. The numbers don't lie and according to the viewership, WWE made a wise decision in holding this all-female tournament.
The final three spots of the 10 most watched shows were the September 5th episode of 205 Live and SummerSlam 2017.
What’s next?
The live Mae Young Classic Finale airs on Tuesday, September 12th after SmackDown. Kairi Sane will take on Shayna Baszler during the 10 pm EST hour on the WWE Network. It will be a battle between Sane's gorgeous top rope elbow drop and Baszler's unstoppable rear naked choke.
It will also be interesting to see what happens with the tournament winner as well as the horde of new talent once the competition concludes. Will the either Sane or Baszler be inserted into the NXT Women's Title picture since it was vacated by Asuka?
Also, will the featured talent be added to an existing WWE roster or will they be treated to their own separate division and/or specials, much like the cruiserweights and the UK Title scene? These are all scenarios that we'll have to wait and see how they play out.
Author’s take
Tournaments, in general, are awesome. This was a pretty solid one and I can only hope that WWE takes note of how their fan base binges content like this and not only gives us more women's wrestling but more wrestling in general.
If it were up to me, I'd take a new tournament every month.
