SHIMMER Women Athletes – Volume 17 – 26th April 2008
In preparation for writing this introductory paragraph I briefly glanced at the line-ups for SHIMMER’s V17/V18 taping weekend – and it immediately occurred to me that this has to be, by some distance, the most formidable and impressive talent roster Dave Prazak has pulled together thus far. Of course SHIMMER Champion Sara Del Rey is here, along with other top notch regulars like Cheerleader Melissa, MsChif, Daizee Haze, Allison Danger and Lacey (in her final weekend as a regular performer). But they are also joined by the likes of Sarah Stock, Amazing Kong, the returning Mercedes Martinez and a fearsome newcomer in the shape of Wesna Busic. There are plenty of undercard competitors whom I enjoy too (Nicole Matthews, Ariel, Amber O’Neal, Rain & Jetta for example) so I really have high hopes for my next two SHIMMER reviews. The headline bout for this show is a dream tag match which pits MsChif and Cheerleader Melissa against the ‘Dangerous Angels’ of Allison Danger and Sara Del Rey. Sweetening the deal beneath that are Lacey/Stock, Kong/Ariel, plus the return from injury of Mercedes Martinez – stepping straight into a potential war with the debuting European talent Wesna Busic. Dave Prazak and Allison Danger welcome us to Berwyn, IL for the first time in 2008.
International Home Wrecking Crew vs Jennifer Blake/Danyah
It’s nice to start getting some new talent filtering into SHIMMER shows after quite an extended period of time with a relatively static roster. Jetta debuted at the last tapings of 2007 and really impressed, to such an extent that she forged an alliance with two of the top names on the roster (in Lacey and Rain), and has now apparently taken Eden Black’s roster spot and UK airfare. Blake and Danyah get the chance to earn a spot tonight. I know very little about Danyah, but I do know that Jennifer (although almost entirely unknown at this point) would go on to make quite a career for herself in Mexico.
Blake has less than a year of experience under her belt apparently. She does have the awesome nickname of ‘Girl Dynamite’ though. If you are being cruel her lack of experience really shows in the opening minutes as she makes multiple very obvious mistakes which give the whole match something of a farcical feel. Danyah looks better, softening up Rain so Jennifer can whack her with a series of forearms. RUNNING DROPKICK THROUGH AN OPEN CHAIR ON THE FLOOR! Girl Dynamite just arrived in SHIMMER folks! Rain has been decimated, so Jetta comes to her rescue and snaps Blake to the canvas with a neckbreaker. The International Home Wreckers isolate the rookie; intent on making her pay for that explosive high spot on the outside minutes earlier. They ruthlessly attack her back with little regard for the rules, but she refuses to submit or be counted down. Hot tag to Danyah, who lands a version of Matt Sydal’s Slice on Rain for 2. D-Bomb gets another close nearfall, this time necessitating a save by Jetta. Lungblower combo by the Home Wreckers! Jetta forces Danyah to submit to a stranglehold camel clutch at 12:37
Rating - ** - Considerably more competitive and intense than the regular standard of opening match on a SHIMMER show. Blake took a while to get going and looked very poor early on, but got better and better as the match progressed and actually wound up delivering a strong performance as the whipping girl and focal point of the Home Wrecker onslaught. Jetta similarly looked poor at the outset, but by the end was reminding everyone why she made such a strong impression at the last tapings. I really like her chemistry with Lacey and Rain and they were deserving winners here.
Nicole Matthews vs Shark Girl
Shark Girl is just Daffney under a hood, because apparently she needed a gimmick to be more weird and irritating than she already was. Despite her quirks, she remains one of the most experienced professionals on the roster and is probably the perfect person to help a promising up-and-comer like Nicole. Of course, long-term SHIMMER fans know that Matthews would go on to become a major star for the promotion, and I’m looking forward to watching her grow from a charismatic but limited undercard youngster (as she’s been thus far) to a credible main event talent.
I like that Daff hasn’t even bothered to die out the green streaks in her hair for this change in gimmick, yet has gone to the expense of getting all-new gear made. Her new act is a faithful female interpretation of the Shark Boy gimmick, meaning she of course regularly bites her young Canadian adversary. Matthews retorts with some rough striking and argues that choking in the corner should be legal in this match because ‘she’s a fish’. A jumping knee really rattles Sharkie’s skull, only for her to miss a slingshot elbow drop. More biting from SG follows, followed by a bulldog (renamed ‘Bullshark’ by Danger) then the Daff Knees for a win at 06:59
Rating - * - I can’t say that I found this overly enjoyable, but they didn’t get heaps of time and I’m certain that others would have found this far more effective as comic relief than I did. I don’t really ‘get’ Daffney – either as herself or now as Shark Girl – since she seems like a solid wrestler that uses ridiculous gimmicks to actively sabotage her own matches.
The Experience vs Ashley Lane/Nevaeh
For sixteen Volumes The Experience have made a living for themselves by beating up the young pups of the SHIMMER undercard. Expect this to be no exception as they set their sights on the plucky new blonde duo of Lane (Madison Rayne) and Nevaeh. Neither Ashley or Nevaeh have been able to hold down regular SHIMMER bookings yet, so will have their eyes on upsetting the veterans tonight to solidify their spots.
Obviously the intention is for Ashley and Nevaeh to team regularly as they now have matching gear and a somewhat coordinated entrance routine set to Paramore’s ‘Misery Business’. Speaking of new looks, Lexie has one too – a ‘mum bob’ haircut which massively ages her. The new young team gain some early credibility by dominating Hosaka, forcing her to quite literally jump out of the ring to escape. Fyfe suffers similar treatment and it’s difficult not to be somewhat impressed by the tenaciousness of Nevaeh and the young Madison Rayne. A rake to Lane’s eyes is necessary to finally give The Experience a foothold in the match for the first time. Malia targets Lane’s arm, and joyously gets to call out a moron in the crowd chanting ‘USA’ at her (since, as with last time this happened, she’s from Hawaii). DIVING ARGENTINE BACKBREAKER by Lexie! I suspect that was slightly botched but it wound up looking way more brutal and impressive than whatever they were initially going for. Ashley survives that – so a remorseless Hosaka tosses her straight across the ring by the hair then kicks her right in the face. Nevaeh gets a hot tag and flattens Fyfe with a shoulder tackle for 2. FACE CHOP by Fyfe! DOUBLE PEDIGREE! That’s a violent new finisher for The Experience, and more than enough to pin Nevaeh at 10:12
Rating - ** - I enjoyed the first third of the match, where they tore up the script on a traditional ‘Experience’ tag match and had the newbies unexpectedly show off their skills and dominate for a time. Unfortunately after that it got a bit generic, and then got rather sloppy through the closing exchanges too. I’ve given it a 2* rating as it had a solid structure and featured a few really vicious moments from Lexie Fyfe, but the opening tag involving the International Home Wreckers was clearly far more vibrant and memorable.
Amber O’Neal vs Lorelei Lee
At V16 Lee seemed on the verge of being cut from the roster due to poor performance and a persistent inability to score wins inside a SHIMMER ring. However, she pulled out an upset victory over Amber with the Oklahoma Roll to cling on to her booking by the skin of her teeth – and now returns in 2008 looking to build some momentum. O’Neal obviously views that defeat as a fluke and will be keen to avenge that instantly with this immediate rematch.
Amber attacks Lee during her entrance, such is her anger at the V16 loss. Her attempts to jump Lorelei are so spectacularly unsuccessful that she wounds up getting the back of her own head kicked against the guardrails. Lee’s first botch of the night comes when she tries to slip through the ropes and gets stuck (although some clever editing removes most of the evidence), which is really bad timing since Allison Danger is trying to put over how much she has improved. O’Neal crashes into her with a running lariat for 2. Camel clutch applied, with the added venom of hair pulls and legit jaw cranks looking to dislocate Lorelei’s jaw. Handspring Elbow smash nailed by Lee (by far her best execution of that manoeuvre), but O’Neal recovers with a bridging backslide and snatches a win at 05:36
Rating - * - This was certainly not Lorelei’s worst SHIMMER match, and I liked the story of Amber being ultra-aggressive and craving revenge such was the ignominy of losing to the lowest-ranked member of the roster. But the truth is I lost all interest in Lee a long time ago, and just because, after almost three years of SHIMMER existence, she can finally almost execute one of her signature moves correctly, I don’t feel she has demonstrated any real value to the promotion since she debuted. Her look is the same, her matches still aren’t great and when you put her alongside others (like Portia Perez, Nicole Matthews, Alexa Thatcher or Cindy Rogers for instance) who have managed to consistently improve at a real pace, it really is clear she lacks the talent to still be here.
Cindy Rogers vs Daizee Haze
Last summer Cindy’s career looked poised to take off after she ended her vicious feud with Allison Danger in a potentially career-making 2/3 Falls Match during SHIMMER’S Florida debut. Unfortunately by November and the final SHIMMER tapings of the year something had started to go awry. She looked a shadow of her former self in dropping a disappointing loss straight back to Danger at V15, then got stuck in a mediocre and forgettable undercard filler bout with Daffney at V16. Despite that, she’ll be aware that all of her momentum could be swiftly recaptured if she was somehow able to pull off a huge win over one of SHIMMER’s top stars – like Daizee Haze. This is a major opportunity for her that she cannot afford to waste.
Things get personal before the bell, with Daizee stealing Cindy’s leather jacket prompting Rogers to toss her stuffed flowers out of the ring in response. The wonderful thing about the SHIMMER audience is that they REALLY get this, and react perfectly to it. Rogers is instantly the most over heel on the show now. She attacks Haze’s arm from the opening bell with the aggression of someone who knows this could be a career-defining bout. Daizee is keen to show her own mat-wrestling acumen though and is happy to trade arm submissions with the ‘Definition Of Technician’ on the canvas. The work Haze does on Cindy’s arm is actually really impressive – some of Daizee’s best sequences in SHIMMER history in fact. Rogers has to amend her approach and does so by going after the leg instead. With the help of the ring apron, a spinning toehold and some brutal strikes to the knee Rogers soon has Haze struggling to walk. She isn’t bothering to sell the arm at all which is a shame, but her job picking apart the leg is commendable, with a Trailer Hitch seemingly bringing her to the cusp of victory. RINGPOST FIGURE 4 LOCKED IN! Somehow Haze fights out of a tree of woe in the corner, into a SWINGING DAIZEE CUTTER! The Haze can’t walk though and her knee collapses under her as she lands a northern lights suplex. Heart Punch blocked with a kick to the bad leg…so Daizee eeks out the win with one of the ugliest victory rolls I’ve EVER seen. What a disappointing finish to a half decent match! 10:03 was the time.
Rating - ** - There were some really strong elements to this. Some of Daizee’s pure wrestling in the opening exchanges was outstanding, which was great to see after she was really sloppy in her last major singles SHIMMER bout at V15. She also did a great job selling the knee injury in the second half of the match as well. Likewise I really appreciated Cindy’s extremely aggressive approach. As I said in my intro, this really felt like a pivotal match in Rogers’ SHIMMER career and I was glad that she wrestled it accordingly. Unfortunately that awful finish and Rogers’ total no-sell on the arm were pretty major shortcomings – and actually left me feeling like these two athletes were capable of a far better match than we actually got here. As I’ve said before though, this wound up being Cindy’s last weekend so we’ll not get a rematch I’m afraid.
Amazing Kong vs Ariel
It seems remarkably sadistic of Dave Prazak to book his most violent and aggressive competitor on the entire roster against one of the most persistently cheerful and enduringly positive performers. Ariel has been a smiley, consistently fun presence on SHIMMER undercards since the promotion formed – although she has shown a tough streak on occasion. We saw some of that two years ago at Volume 6, when she actually shared a ring with Amazing Kong as part of a 6-woman tag. But in 2008 Kong is an entirely different beast. She remains furious at the controversial finish to her SHIMMER Title match with Sara Del Rey at V15, and as we saw at V16 with her violent dismantling of Cheerleader Melissa, Kong is now violently protesting and demanding another shot. Is the question here whether Ariel can defeat Kong…or whether the Portuguese Princess can even SURVIVE Kong?
You can definitely hear portions of the crowd groan as B*Witched’s ‘Cest La Vie’ starts to play and they realise Prazak is sending poor Ariel out to face Kong. ‘Please Don’t Die’ – Berwyn as Kong grins demonically in her opponent’s direction. CACTUS CLOTHESLINE! Ariel is violently ejected from the ring! Amazing K has to be prevented from using a steel chair as poor Ariel bravely limps back up the steps to fight again. She dives off the second rope with a forearm smash – and is punished with a massive Warrior Splash for 2. Ariel has made it to five minutes and celebrates with a running dropkick into Kong’s chest. TORNADO BULLDOG! For the first time she gets Kong off of her feet…so Kong gives her a LARIAT TO THE FACE! Dariel COUNTERED TO THE IMPLANT BUSTER! AMAZING BOMB COUNTERED WITH A HURRICANRANA! FOR 2! SPINNING BACK FIST! Ariel gets a foot on the ropes! KONG ATTACKS THE REF! AMAZING BOMB ON LAURA MATTANO! That’s a DQ obviously, meaning against all odds Ariel is actually the victor at 08:26
Rating - *** - Kong can work phenomenal matches. Her V15 title match with Sara Del Rey is potentially my favourite SHIMMER match I’ve seen thus far. But actually, the real highlight of Kong’s SHIMMER run isn’t replicating the awesome matches she was having on the TNA circuit at that point in time, but seeing her get really violent with plucky underdog babyfaces. This reminded me of her previous matches with Nikki Roxx and Daizee Haze, with Kong beating the sh*t out of a crowd favourite. The response is so unique to SHIMMER, in that Kong doesn’t get heat for her actions – she is over as hell and the SHIMMER fans love her. Instead the crowd reaction is an outpouring of concern and support for her opponent. From the moment Ariel walked through the curtain she had this audience in the palm of her hand. They CARED about her wellbeing, and it meant that even the most rudimentary of attempts at an offensive move on the big monster across the ring from her was cheered to the rafters. Of course this is isn’t a classic, and the shady finish was all about keeping Kong strong whilst also exiling her from the SHIMMER Title picture (since SHIMMER can’t have their title on someone TNA is able to pull at short notice)…but it was still a riot to watch. Kong in SHIMMER is an incredible spectacle, and every match she contests feels like a real event.
Bryce Remsburg threatens to suspend Kong, as Dave Prazak confirms on commentary that her actions will definitely hurt her chances of getting another SHIMMER Title shot.
Wesna Busic vs Mercedes Martinez
I’ve seen Wesna live a few times in the UK. She is a ferocious competitor and has a genuinely intense presence to her, and fully deserves this opportunity to make an impact in the US. She is getting thrown straight into the deep end of the SHIMMER pool – with a huge match against a returning main event player. We haven’t seen Mercedes since she finally got her win over Sara Del Rey at the final SHIMMER taping of 2006. Before ’06 was out she sustained a career-threatening injury and missed the entirety of 2007 in recovering from it. A lot has changed in the promotion since she was last here, and Martinez will know she needs a strong victory here if she is to recover her spot as one of the premier performers on the SHIMMER roster.
Both women have a reputation for stiff striking, and neither backs up an inch as they clatter into each other in an intense shoulder block duel. Things get a little sloppy, but the intense pace of a back and forth counter sequence which lasts more than two minutes is nonetheless impressive. Next they tee off on each other with strikes, and Martinez absolutely pummels Busic in the corner with elbow smashes. The European looks to ground the contest with a mat submission after that – but even when interlocked on the canvas the two women are slapping the taste out of each other’s mouths. Mercedes senses that her opponent has the edge on the ground so creates some distance again before dishing out repeated kicks. Now she can work the mat – and cranks on a Regal Stretch (with fish-hooking to the mouth) to wear the Croatian Panther down. Running Samoan drop by Wesna gets 2! It’s too early for the CB4 Driver but she is able to floor Martinez with a DVD instead. She tries an ill-advised climb up the turnbuckles, only to be met with a running butterfly superplex by the Latina Sensation! Three Amigos gets 2! Bull Run blocked with a kick to the face! STALLING MICHINOKU DRIVER by Wesna! She dropped Martinez right on her surgically-repaired shoulder! CB4 Driver COUNTERED WITH A BACK DROP DRIVER! BULL RUN! Mercedes wins her comeback match at 12:35
Rating - *** - This was intense! It wasn’t always perfectly executed, but they were hard-hitting and completely unforgiving in their desire to pack as much action and violence as they could into their time allocation. This was something of a tough spot for Dave Prazak, who can’t kill Mercedes’ comeback momentum by having her lose badly here, and likewise is spending a lot of money to fly Wesna over so couldn’t exactly have her look weak either. In the end both women emerged from this looking rather impressive. A US crowd who potentially weren’t too familiar with Busic’s work now know exactly what she is about, whilst Martinez gets a huge win to immediately re-establish herself as a main event player in SHIMMER. MOTN thus far…
Rebecca Bayless brings her unparalleled journalistic skills into the ring to interview Mercedes. She proclaims that, but for injury, she’d have won the title tournament and been the inaugural SHIMMER Champion – and points out she is the only person to have beaten Del Rey. She puts the entire roster on notice that she is coming for the belt…
Lacey vs Sarah Stock
What a bittersweet match this is. On the one hand, it should be awesome as the top heel in SHIMMER goes up against arguably it’s finest in-ring worker. But it is also something of a sad occasion since this weekend marks Lacey’s final shows as a SHIMMER regular. She popped up for occasional managerial appearances, but she would quit wrestling after these events and bar a few appearances here and there hasn’t been back since. For the first time there is actually some serious pressure on Stock to perform here. At Volume 16 she lost her title shot against Sara Del Rey, and now has the arduous task of rebounding and working her way back into championship contention.
Lacey brings both Jetta and Rain out with her, meaning we get plenty of Home Wrecking, heat drawing antics as they endlessly stall and keep Lacey out of Stock’s clutches. They are all mind games of course, since Lacey is well aware that trying to straight-up grapple with the Dark Angel will see her totally outmatched. That’s how it works out every time they actually lock up; Stock taking Lacey to school until the Home Wrecker is forced to take evasive action. SPRINGBOARD DROPKICK by Sarah! She tries to go one better with a missile dropkick – but misses and opens up a window of opportunity for Lacey. In a flash the SHIMMER veteran is on her, not letting her off the mat before hammering her with forearms and cranking onto a camel clutch. Cobra clutch backbreaker nailed next as Lacey moves right into her go-to strategy of targeting the back and neck of her opponent. Bridging bow and arrow next – after Allison Danger on commentary smartly points out the merits of slowing the pace and grounding an explosive, Mexican-based wrestler like Sarah. The Dark Angel actually tries to leave the ring for some respite only for Lacey to give chase and hit a Russian legsweep INTO THE RINGPOST! Even when Stock looks to mount a comeback Lacey quickly smothers it with a Polish Hammer to put her back on the deck. Dark Angel is barely able to stand and stumbles blindly into a stranglehold neckbreaker for 2. HEAD DROP JAPANESE ARMDRAG by Stock! But she tries a foolish bridging pin and gets booted in the back again for her trouble. LUNGBLOWER! Stock kicks out! Any time Sarah is able to get to her feet now she goes right for flash pins in complete desperation just to escape with a win…and is punished for that again with a TKO. Implant DDT countered to a northern lights suplex. TIGER DRIVER from nowhere! Stock wins! The time was 17:39
Rating - **** - She doesn’t have the size of Kong, the power of Del Rey, the popularity of Daizee, the stiff striking of Mercedes, the explosive moveset of Stock or the technical prowess of Rebecca Knox, but where Lacey excels it that her matches always tell a story, and always make complete sense. Her act can be quite obnoxious and loud, which I understand is too much for some to see past, but when you look a little deeper she is such a solid worker and will be a massive loss to SHIMMER after this weekend. Even the silly Home Wrecker shenanigans before the bell had a point here – she was playing mindgames with her technically superior opponent. She wanted to get into her head, unsettle her, and crucially keep as far away as possible. And although Stock dominated their initial exchanges, you were never given the impression that Lacey is a complete dunce in the ring. She stalled, ducked, dived, walked away…and when Stock finally made an error (a missile dropkick which she’d only attempted because Lacey kept running away from her) the Home Wrecker pounced in seconds. Despite Stock’s reputation and exposure in Mexican promotions, it never felt hard to believe that Lacey could dominate her, after all this is a woman who went almost 30-minutes with Del Rey in Florida last summer. And that’s why the finish was so awesome too. The great Dark Angel had been picked apart by the screechy, brash SHIMMER heel, forcing Stock to suck up her pride and look for a win by any means necessary. When her assorted flash pins (which have brought her wins in the past) didn’t work, she went for broke and busted out the Tiger Driver. She could hardly move after executing it, and you really leave feeling like had Lacey survived that move then she would have had an easy victory waiting for her. These two have just stolen the show.
Dangerous Angels vs MsChif/Cheerleader Melissa
With SHIMMER Tag Titles on the horizon, it’s fitting that we main event Volume 17 with a big tag main event. It’s also a rare SHIMMER appearance for the Dangerous Angels, who haven’t teamed up much so far – but are instantly considered a top team as they contain the SHIMMER Champion in Del Rey and the ‘matriarch’ of the roster in Allison Danger. Across the ring from them are MsChif and Melissa, who have teamed with greater regularity. None of these women are strangers to each other, and Del Rey will be keenly aware that she has the biggest target on her back since both of her opponents will want to defeat her and earn a title shot.
Danger starts impressively and ties MsChif into knots with various submission holds…and of course it has very little effect as Chif is obscenely flexible. The opening salvo between Melissa and Del Rey is a lot more intense as they go amateur-style on the mat in a compelling battle for superiority. They barely break contact with each other for the next five minutes…and everything they do is SO aggressive. From Cheerleader’s proactive and persistent attempts to stretch the champion, to Death Rey’s ultraviolent headbutt flurry to escape a bodyscissors. The Dangerous Angels look to bully MsChif instead, tying her in the ropes for a tree of woe/spear combo! They want to work her back – a strategy many of her opponents have attempted previously – however, my personal highlight is Sara breaking away from that to stomp to the opposite corner and chop Melissa IN THE FACE! The resilience of MsChif is legendary though and she absorbs an impressive amount of punishment seemingly unscathed before repeatedly double stomping Danger into the turnbuckles. ‘She’s just a cheerleader’ – Del Rey to taunt Melissa…as she beats the sh*t out of poor Allison. The Cheerleader instantly gets some payback for earlier by dashing to the Dangerous Angel corner and elbowing the sh*t out of the SHIMMER Champion. Allison gets a big elbow into her mouth too when she looks set to make a much-needed tag. Melissa is actually doing such an awesome job in this match the fans are starting to cheer her during what should be a heat segment for Danger. Lovelace Choker finally scores on Chif, at last giving Danger the chance to tag out…and giving us more of Del Rey and Melissa beating the hell out of each other. NECK DROP GERMAN gets 2 for Sara! ELBOWS BY MELISSA! ELBOWS BY SARA! Samoan drop on the American Angel…into a WIND-UP CURB STOMP! Air Raid Crash blocked! Royal Butterfly blocked! SARA SLAPS HER IN THE FACE! CODE GREEN COUNTERED TO A DRAGON SLEEPER BY DEL REY! AIR RAID CRASH BY MELISSA! MsChif gets a nearfall with the Unhallowed Grace springboard moonsault. DESECRATOR ON DEL REY! But the ref is in the corner with Danger and Melissa! When Bryce finally does count Allison is able to run in and boot Chif in the head. Melissa DESTROYS Danger with elbows…then the AIR RAID CRASH! Cheerleader Melissa gets a huge win at 24:14!
Rating - **** - This was a bit of a slow burner, but the last few minutes were all out war. Every single Del Rey/Melissa exchange was solid gold, and their intense rivalry absolutely carried the match. I know they went in a different direction, but I think SHIMMER could have made some decent money promoting a Sara/Melissa feud over the SHIMMER Championship off the back of this. But if we are talking about the title picture, you now need to seriously consider MsChif as a top contender, considering she hit the Desecrator and appeared to have Del Rey defeated – were it not for a distracted referee. I thought MsChif was extremely well booked throughout this match, and came out looking extremely strong. She endured lengthy periods where she was taking abuse from the Angels, but her reputation as a flexible, enduring and resilient worker made it entirely believable that she survived assaults from big names like Sara and Allison almost completely unscathed. Ultimately – that actually became the crucial differentiator between the two teams. During their heat segment on MsChif the Dangerous Angels simply couldn’t inflict enough damage – whereas MelisChif were so dominant with Allison when they were on top that it left her with very little left in the tank to survive that Air Raid Crash. SHIMMER doesn’t have much of a pedigree of high class tag team main events as of yet, so this was certainly a welcome edition to their DVD series…
Tape Rating - ** - I am seriously enjoying my trips back to check out old SHIMMER shows…way more than a 2* rating for this particular show might suggest. I think my rating is fair since it reflects that the entire bottom half of the card (i.e. the first seventy minutes of the show) are obviously weak before all the big names come in to deliver the goods…but what is so endearing about this company is how freaking hard EVERYONE works. I trash on Lorelei Lee because just isn’t good enough, but I’ve never come away from any of her matches feeling like she hasn’t worked her ass off. Even performers like Amber O’Neal, who portray a traditional ‘diva’ presentation of women in pro-wrestling, leave everything in the ring. It is a passion, dedication and enthusiasm for their company and their work that truly is infectious and makes reviewing these shows a real pleasure. I loved the two headline bouts here too. Sara Del Rey and Cheerleader Melissa were utterly fantastic in the main event, and that was after Sarah Stock and Lacey had torn the house down in the semi-main. Lacey and Stock’s chess-match definitely stole the show, but I defy anyone not to enjoy the final five minutes of the Angels/MelisChif tag with Del Rey, Melissa, MsChif and Danger tossing around stiff strikes and big bumps in a frenzy. It’s only a mild recommendation for this particular Volume (SHIMMER definitely has plenty of better shows)…but damn this company rocks.
Top 3 Matches
3) Mercedes Martinez vs Wesna Busic (***)
2) MsChif/Cheerleader Melissa vs Dangerous Angels (****)
1) Sarah Stock vs Lacey (****)