Photo: WWE

Ahead of next week’s Mae Young Classic tapings, the WWE revealed two new names for the women’s tournament. Australian Rhea Ripley (pictured above) and American Sage Beckett are the 14th and 15th confirmed names for the tournament.

Ripley, at just 20 years old, is touted as a “wrestling prodigy” and prepared for throwing hard kicks as a result of her soccer career. In addition to becoming a two-time Riot City Women’s Wrestling Champion in Australia, she has also wrestled in Japan.

Beckett may be a familiar face to wrestling fans. She had a brief stint in TNA as Rosie Lottalove in 2010. She would make another short appearance in 2015 against Awesome Kong for a pay-per-view special. During the last few years, she lost a considerable amount of weight and has signed with WWE NXT. Beckett will finally make her WWE programming debut with the Mae Young Classic.

#NewProfilePic #NXT #ItIsWrittenAndSoItShallBe pic.twitter.com/95JaNVcfBy

— Sage (@SageBeckettWWE) June 28, 2017

The other 13 names participating in the tournament are Kairi Sane, Sarah Logan, Lacey Evans, Bianca Belair, Princesa Sugehit, Toni Storm, Abbey Laith, Tessa Blanchard, Taynara Conti, Jazzy Gabert, Dakota Kai, Piper Niven, and Kavita Devi.

The Mae Young Classic will film on July 13 and July 14 from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. The women’s tournament, however, won’t start airing until Monday, August 28 on the WWE Network. The final round will air on September 12 from Las Vegas at 10 p.m. EDT.

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Photo: WWE

The Mae Young Classic received a fresh logo on Wednesday. The WWE revealed the women’s tournament’s logo will sport a shade of blue and white with a symbol resembling a woman with her arms in the air.

The previous logo, seen below, featured “Mae Young” in gold font and “Classic” in black on a red rectangular background.

BREAKING: @JRsBBQ & @AmyDumas to announce the #MaeYoungClassic, streaming on @WWENetwork starting Monday, Aug. 28. https://t.co/LS2bvwf1jS pic.twitter.com/PR6Ma2Wdx0

— Mae Young Classic (@MaeYoungClassic) June 26, 2017

The WWE has publicly announced 13 of the 32 female wrestlers. As of June 30, Kairi Sane, Sarah Logan, Lacey Evans, Princesa Sugehit, Toni Storm, Abbey Laith, Tessa Blanchard, Taynara Conti, Jazzy Gabert, Dakota Kai, Piper Niven, Kavita Devi, and Bianca Belair.

Belair secured a spot in the women’s tournament after defeating NXT superstar Aliyah in a qualifying match.

Four-time WWE Women’s Champion and WWE Hall of Famer Lita and fellow Hall of Famer Jim Ross will commentate the tournament. The Mae Young Classic will film on July 13 and July 14 from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. The tournament won’t air until Monday, August 28, on the WWE Network. Subsequent episodes will air in bulk on the WWE Network leading to the final round on September 12 from Las Vegas,at 10 p.m. EDT.

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Photo: WWE

According to PWInsider, all of the following names have been confirmed as participating in this summer’s inaugural Mae Young Classic on the WWE Network.

Zhao Xia: The first Chinese woman to sign a developmental deal with WWE and was brought over as part of a group of Chinese trainees who have been working out in the WWE Performance Center.  Xia has trained in martial arts and has had multiple first-place finishes in various martial arts and fitness competitions, including the Second World Traditional Chinese Wushu Championship, the Nike Challenge Competition and First China Throw Down: Battle on the Bund.

Mary Kate: The former Rosie LottaLove in TNA, was originally trained at the Team 3D Academy, who completely remade herself on the independents and later toured in Japan.

Bianca Blair: Former crossfit and track star that was signed by WWE in April 2016.

Danielle Kamela: Trained by Rikishi’s Knox Pro school in Arizona, Kamela was an on air personality for Fox Sports Arizona, an Arizona Cardinals cheerleader and a former member of the Phoenix Suns’ dance team before signing a WWE deal.  She was in the top 30 finalists for the most recent version of Tough Enough as well.

Julia Ho: Canadian model and MMA fighter, who trained with Brian Kendrick before being signed.

Kimberly Frankele (aka Kimber Lee):The former CHIKARA Grand champion.

Lacey Evans: Former Marine who recently debuted on WWE NXT TV.

Victoria Gonzales: he daughter of Rudy Boy Gonzales  Gonzalez played basketball for two seasons at Texas A&M-Kingsville before transferring to Sam Houston State, redshirting one year and playing another before graduating in 2013.  She was signed to a WWE developmental deal last year.

Sarah Logan: The former Crazy Mary Dobson aka Sarah Bridges, who recently debuted under that name on WWE NXT TV.

Taynara Melo: A black-belt judoka from Brazil who was signed last year.

Plans are to tape the Mae Young Classic, a 32-woman tournament, over two nights (7/13 and 7/14) at Full Sail University. Unlike last summer’s Cruiserweight Classic, multiple episodes will become available on demand, rather than one per week. First round matches will available after SummerSlam while the second round will be released the first week of September. The finals of the tournament, expected to air live on the Network, will take place 9/12 in Las Vegas.

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Photo: WWE

The highly-anticipated WWE women’s tournament finally has a name. The WWE Mae Young Classic will take this place this summer, and today, WWE announced further information on the taping dates and location on the tourney

The tournament will take place Thursday, July 13, and Friday, July 14, from Full Sail Live in Orlando, Florida, and tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10:00 am EDT. The show will be available via WWE Network later in the summer.

Triple H had the following to say about the upcoming tournament.

“The Mae Young Classic will mark a significant moment in the evolution of WWE. We are proud to provide this unique opportunity for the best female talent from around the world.”

It’s nice to see WWE go with honoring Mae Young with this. While she definitely had some skeletons in her closet and was no angel to say the least, WWE dodged a major bullet by not going the obvious route and naming the tournament after The Fabulous Moolah. That would have not have gone over well, especially given information that has come to light over the years about how Moolah treated other female wrestlers throughout her career and time as a performer, promoter, and trainer.

We will keep everyone updated on the Mae Young Classic as WWE releases more information on participants and the tournament in the weeks to come.

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Photo: WWE

It looks like plans are finally firmly in place for the long-awaited WWE Women’s Tournament. It is being reported that WWE plans to tape the tournament on Thursday 7/13 and Friday 7/14 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. The event will have 32 competitors from across the globe, and like the Cruiserweight Classic, the major focus will be on various popular international competitors, some of whom are already undergoing background checks.

The event will have 32 competitors from across the globe, and it will be taped as a WWE Network series. Apparently, the current plan is not to have the tournament air as weekly episodes but to have it released as a set of episodes at once as video on demand programming. This is similar to how WWE has done other original series in the past like Holy Foley and Camp WWE.

The current plan calls for the finals of the tournament to be aired live on The Network on Tuesday, August 29th.

As far as who will be calling the action for the tourney, right now, Jim Ross is being reported as the lead announcer for the series. Who he will pair up with or if he is actually locked in for the tournament is unknown at this time.

We will keep everyone up to date on the WWE Women’s Tournament as it gets closer.

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