Sienna and Rachael Ellering Headline Next Five Names for Mae Young Classic

The WWE has announced five more names as entrants in this year’s Mae Young Classic II, leaving only five more names to be announced (one more for the actual tournament, plus four alternates), bringing the total list of competitors to 31. Here’s a run down of today’s announced quintet, featuring Allysin Kay (former 2x Impact Knockouts Champion Sienna), Rachael Evers (also known as Rachael Ellering on the indies), former Knockout MJ Jenkins and Chilean wrestler Zatara.

ALLYSIN KAY, USA

The Detroit native has been one of women’s wrestling’s hottest stars for the past few years, starting out in 2010 with the nearby Ohio indie scene with Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) and Main Event Wrestling (MEW). The following year, she broke out into women’s promotions like Women’s Superstars Uncensored (WSU) and SHIMMER, and her career began to take off. She became a regular with other promotions, like SHINE, Smash Wrestling, Beyond Wrestling and All American Wrestling (AAW), touring Japan with the likes of Sendai Girls and DIANA, before signing with Impact Wrestling in 2016, where her long time indie name was changed to Sienna. As Sienna, she won the Knockouts Championship twice, adding to her AIW Women’s Championship (which she held for a whopping 713 days). Allysin Kay hasn’t worked for Impact since the January tapings, after blood clots were found in both lungs, and recently left Impact Wrestling just as she was cleared to return to the ring.

RACHAEL EVERS, USA

Daughter of WWE Hall of Famer and former manager for Legion of Doom/The Road Warriors and Authors of Pain “Precious” Paul Ellering, trained by former WWE/WCW/ECW Superstar Lance Storm, and long time girlfriend of NXT Superstar Kassius Ohno (aka Chris Hero), Evers bleeds professional wrestling. A former power lifter, Evers made her debut on the Western Canadian indies in 2015. By her sophomore year, she was working the indie circuits, including SHINE, Queens of Combat (QOC) and IWA Mid South, as well as enhancement spots with NXT. She debuted with SHIMMER last year, as well as had her first run with Japan’s Stardom, where she’s spent a part of her year this year as well. Known as Rachael Evers in the WWE (and Rachael Ellering on the indies), this second generational wrestler is a star in the making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeONQVmk9iQ

MJ JENKINS, USA

Another of the recent announced Performance Center recruits (alongside Lacey Lane and Deonna Purrazzo), MJ Jenkins is another former Knockout entering the field for this year’s Mae Young Classic, joining Madison Rayne, Sienna, and Mia Yim (aka Jade). An emerging star on the women’s and indie circuit, she’s competed for the likes of CZW, AIW, SHINE, RISE and Women’s Wrestling Revolution (WWR) as well as her brief stint with Impact Wrestling last summer.

XIA LI, China

WWE’s first Chinese-born women’s wrester, Xia Li debuted at last year’s Mae Young Classic, but suffered a serious injury during training just after that has kept her off of NXT Live Events for nearly a year. She recently returned to action and the WWE is looking to re-debut the athletic Xia Li again this year, hopefully with greater opportunity following.

ZATARA, Chile

Although only 26 years old, Zatara is a 10-year veteran of lucha libre, starting out with Revolucion Lucha Libre (RLL) in her native country at the age of 16, and later working other Chilean indies like MAX Lucha Libre and 5 Luchas – Clandestino. In Chile she works under the name Tifanny, where she’s a 2x RLL Women’s Champion and current reigning Reina de Xtreme Champion with Xtreme Club Lucha Libre (XCLL). She recently headed to Mexico to continue her training, where she assumed the new moniker Zatara.