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As PWInsider broke two weeks ago in the Elite section, the following names have been confirmed for the Mae Young Classic tournament, which will tape 7/13 and 7/14 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail Live:
*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 - The 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.
As PWInsider.com broke on 6/6, WWE's plan is to film the 32-woman tournament on 7/13 and 7/14 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for the WWE Network. The Network will debut a preview special for the tournament on 8/20 (likely following Summerslam) with the first round of the tournament being released via Video on Demand the final week of August as a way to let fans binge the "episodes." The second round will be released the first week in September, again via the VOD service. Initially, the plan was to release them Summerslam week but the decision was made to hold off so that the women's tournament was not overshadowed by everything else WWE had scheduled for that week, which is pretty smart. The current plan is to hold the finals live on Tuesday 9/12. Currently, the only WWE event scheduled that day is a taping in Las Vegas for the Smackdown brand, so it may be that the finals of the Mae Young Classic will air live on the Network from Las Vegas.
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