Io Shirai’s technique meets Rhea Ripley’s brute force
>After soaring into the Semifinals on the heels of one dazzling performance after another, Io Shirai has proven that all the fanfare accompanying her WWE arrival was completely justified. The Genius of the Sky will face her biggest test yet, however, when she battles the callous Rhea Ripley in the Semifinals.
>The Aussie with a bad attitude isn’t just an unabashed black hat (you need look no further than Ripley’s taunting of the injured Tegan Nox on social media for proof), but she’s also one of the most physically intense Superstars in sports-entertainment. Though Shirai boasts an immaculate and thrilling in-ring game, she has yet to face anybody with the strength and size of Ripley.
>Can Shirai find a way to topple Ripley, or will The Genius of the Sky be taken under by the Aussie’s ferocious Riptide powerbomb?
Toni Storm steps to the iconic Meiko Satomura
>No competitor has been more dominant in this year’s Mae Young Classic than Meiko Satomura, the Scorpion Kicking legend of Japanese wrestling that just about every other tournament competitor identified as the woman to beat as soon as she was announced.
>Though no one’s cracked the Satomura code yet, NXT UK’s Toni Storm looks to find a solution when she returns to the Semifinals for a second consecutive year. Storm’s journey to this point has been far from easy — her last two battles against Hiroyo Matsumoto and Mia Yim were absolute nail-biters — but The Lightning Down Under has weathered the storm.
>Yet, Satomura is widely considered to be in a class of her own. Will Storm’s tenacity and strong-style offense be enough to take down the icon?