SHIMMER Women Athletes – Volume 19 – 5th July 2008
This show feels like something of a new era for SHIMMER. Lacey, Sarah Stock and Cindy Rogers are gone, a new champion has been crowned, we aren’t far from the rise of young talents like Portia Perez, Nicole Matthews and Madison Eagles, the SHIMMER Tag Titles are just round the corner, LuFisto returns this evening…and even the arrival of regular Joshi talent isn’t a million miles away. This one will feel even more unfamiliar as SHIMMER stalwarts like Amber O’Neal, The Experience and even Daizee Haze aren’t working! The big hook for this show is that new champion MsChif will be defending against an unknown challenger in the main event. That opponent will be determined by a Battle Royal earlier in the show featuring the vast majority of the SHIMMER roster. Presumably therefore, the rest of the card is heavily subject to change? That card includes Mercedes Martinez vs Cheerleader Melissa in a match which could steal the show. The rest of it appears to heavily feature SHIMMER’s undercard talent getting to mix it up with the established top tier girls. Matches like Kong/Lorelei, Roxx/Matthews, Danger/Blake and Del Rey/Ariel fall into that category. For someone like me who’s not enjoyed her work since her debut appearance, the prospect of Amazing Kong smashing Lorelei Lee all over the Eagles Club is a hell of a draw! Dave Prazak and Allison Danger are in Berwyn, IL.
SHIMMER Battle Royal
As I mentioned, the winner of this heads to the main event to challenge MsChif for the SHIMMER Championship. It is fought under typical Royal Rumble rules, with a new entrant arriving every thirty seconds. Former champ Sara Del Rey is an obvious favourite and will be on the hunt to immediately regain her belt. Amazing Kong is in this too, meaning the rest of the field is going to have to figure out a way to get her over the top rope. If not one of those two, will the winner be someone like Mercedes Martinez, Cheerleader Melissa or LuFisto…or perhaps even a rising star like Portia Perez, Nicole Matthews, Jennifer Blake, Ashley Lane or Nevaeh? In total more than twenty women will enter.
Portia Perez is #1, which is the perfect spot for her and her giant ego. Serena Deeb is #2, looking different than the last time we saw her as she took time away from the ring to have breast augmentation and a nose job in an effort to get noticed by the WWE (which is a sad indictment as to where wrestling was at that time). Portia is so damn entertaining she is actually more of a babyface than Deeb here. #3 is Jennifer Blake, appearing in only her third SHIMMER Volume. Nicole Matthews is #4, as her tag partner Perez eliminates Blake. The Canadian NINJA’s want to team up on Deeb, only for Shark Girl to come to her rescue at #5. Cat Power is #6, and she is an imposingly large figure compared to some of these women. #7 is Jetta, who is barely in the ring before #8 arrives. It’s LuFisto (dressed as Alice In Wonderland) making her return! #9 is Veronika Vice, a SHIMMER debutant. Perez ditches Shark Girl somewhere in there, racking up her second elimination of the match. Deeb boots out Power somewhere in there too. Even with those eliminations, by the time Ariel enters at #10 the ring is starting to fill and the action becoming impossible to follow. Ariel thins the herd by tossing Nicole Matthews! #11 is Rain, as LuFisto ends Veronika’s brief debut. The remaining International Home Wreckers start teaming up, and #12 (Lorelei Lee) sensibly slides right past them. Lucky #13 is a pissed off-looking Cheerleader Melissa. Lee tries to do the HBK skin-the-cat spot but gets ditched by Rain anyway…as LuFisto and Melissa BEAT THE SH*T out of each other! Nevaeh appears to almost no reaction at #14. Sara Del Rey is #15, sporting a new look and gear…and instantly eliminating Nevaeh! #16 is Allison Danger, as Del Rey VIOLENTLY eliminates Deeb and LuFisto in quick succession. Danyah is #17, followed by Ashley Lane at #18. Rain was eliminated, somewhere amongst that – but both Jetta and I missed it. #19 is Amazing Kong – and business picks up! Danyah, Danger, Melissa and Lane all get dumped out by Kong in mere seconds! Mercedes Martinez is #20. KONG PRESS SLAMS PORTIA TO THE FLOOR! But as she surveys the damage done from that Del Rey, Martinez and Ariel all sneak up behind Kong and dump her out too! The final entrant (#21) is Nikki Roxx – now shaven headed following a TNA angle. Jetta is sat in the corner hiding and watching the other four do all the work which is a nice touch. Death Rey throws Roxx out, then gives her old rival Martinez the same treatment. ARIEL ELIMINATES DEL REY! Jetta and Ariel are the final two, but before Jetta can do much a vengeful Sara has smashed Ariel out of the match as well. Jetta scores a somewhat fortuitous victory and earns the title shot at 11:50
Rating - ** - It was certainly a different way to start a SHIMMER show, although having the entrants come in at thirty second intervals made everything frantic and really tough to follow. There were some highlights though – such as the pop for LuFisto’s return, Jetta being a cowardly dickhead, Portia Perez getting a good run, and Kong’s amazing cameo appearance. There were a number of women sporting new looks too – with Del Rey, Roxx, Deeb and Danger all freshening up their appearance or attire for one reason or another. MsChif/Jetta definitely isn’t the title match I’d have booked (I’d have gone for MsChif/Portia – but I think it’s clear I’m a mark for Perez) but it has the potential to be a lot of fun – and Jetta is a solid worker underneath her big personality.
Del Rey CHOKE BOMBS ARIEL INTO THE GUARDRAILS then stomps the sh*t out of her even as Jetta celebrates her win. Jetta actually sprints to the back to avoid the wrath of the former champion! It takes the entire SHIMMER referee crew to get Sara off of Ariel…
Daizee Haze is brought out for an interview with Rebecca Bayless. This is the first SHIMMER taping that she isn’t competing at, having sustained a back injury earlier in the week. It isn’t serious and she’ll be back for Volume 21 though…and she has the SHIMMER Championship on her mind.
Portia Perez vs Shark Girl
Sharkie defeated Portia’s Candian NINJA partner Nicole Matthews at V17, so will be looking to avenge that loss. She missed the last taping and was definitely missed, judging by the response she gets from the SHIMMER audience. She spent more time in the Battle Royal than anyone else though (and eliminated Shark Girl during her tenure too) so may well be a little fatigued…
Perez really doesn’t like it when Shark Girl bites her ass. I don’t like it when they manage to botch a basic body slam spot! The Canadian NINJA chokes Sharkie in the ropes to turn the match in her favour, then puts a crisp high knee into her face in the corner. Try as she might she can’t keep Shark grounded, meaning the masked competitor is frequently able to use her size and striking ability to her advantage. Portia grows frustrated…and pins her using the ropes at 05:34
Rating - * - The kindest thing I can say about this match is that it was ‘forgettable’. But, putting Perez over was absolutely the right call as it was clear her big character and charisma were starting to get her seriously over with a SHIMMER crowd crying out for a new pantomime villain now Lacey has gone. I don’t get where Prazak is going with Shark Girl/Daffney though. Surely she is one of the more expensive talents on his roster due to her mainstream exposure…but she is hidden under a hood eradicating that name value, and wrestles mediocre comedy matches on the undercard. I don’t see what she contributes working this gimmick?
Danyah vs Serena Deeb
It seems rather harsh of Prazak to throw out the two ladies who entered first in the Battle Royal into the subsequent two matches. It didn’t work out too badly for Perez though, and Deeb will be looking to emulate her success. Serena has shown us brief flashes of quality in her SHIMMER run thus far, but hasn’t contributed anything substantial – and it will be interesting to see if her style and abilities are impacted in any way by her cosmetic surgery. Danyah could use the win too, having struggled during her debut tapings last time out…
Danger and Prazak knowingly acknowledge Deeb’s ‘new gear’. They work the mat with impressive ferocity in the early minutes, producing work of sufficient quality to distract everyone from the insanely creaky ring. I really like that they have sufficient knowledge of each other to bust out some counters to some of their ‘regular’ moveset. Serena starts to attack the midsection of her opponent, looking to set her up for the Spear. Since she is attacking that region of the body, it is relevant to point out that Danyah’s abs are utterly ridiculous. She needs all of that core strength to survive as Deeb cranks on her with an abdominal stretch. Danyah throws some kicks back in Serena’s direction, and annoyingly isn’t selling the injury at all. Deeb hits the Spear to win at 06:33
Rating - ** - This was a really interesting little match, and it was only Danyah’s lousy selling of the ribs which stopped me taking my rating one star higher. It wasn’t perfectly executed, but I appreciated the intensity with which they attacked the mat in the early stages. Deeb definitely looks to be improving fast, and by this point was reportedly extremely frustrated that she couldn’t even get a WWE developmental contract despite being a top female star in OVW. Perhaps that frustration will contribute a much-needed edge to her ring work. This was arguably her best individual SHIMMER performance thus far.
Cat Power/Veronika Vice vs Ashley Lane/Nevaeh
As mentioned earlier, whilst we’ve seen Power before this show marks Veronika’s debut. Lane and Nevaeh, known informally as ‘The Ohio Girls’, are gaining momentum and fans at the perfect time as we are now just one taping away from the introduction of the SHIMMER Tag Team Championship. They come into this one on a high having defeated the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew at V18.
Ashley starts with Vice and outwrestles her so comprehensively that the debutant flees the ring into the arms of her much bigger partner. Lane and Nevaeh quickly join forces to ensure Power can’t use that size to her advantage…and in the end it takes a distraction from Veronika to hand them the advantage. The Canadians isolate Lane, battering her midsection much as Deeb did to Danyah in the prior match. Rather comically, the crowd are trying to rag on Cat Power by ‘meow’-ing at her. They start cheating to wear Lane down, with Nevaeh making matters worse by losing her cool and persistently distracting the official. Nevaeh does finally get a hot tag and busts out some impressive strikes on both opponents. The Ohio Girls get the win with the STO/Yakuza Kick combo at 06:59…although it looked terrible as Power was lying less than a foot away from the pin and did nothing to break it up.
Rating - ** - It took far more generosity to give this one 2*, than it did for Deeb/Danyah. I find Lane and Nevaeh a strangely watchable team however. Strange in that their execution isn’t always that great and their matches often feature quite a few obvious mistakes…but I find their enthusiasm infectious and they both make for great whipping girls/babyfaces in peril. Lane really worked hard during the heat segment on her and was the best part of the match for me.
Amazing Kong vs Lorelei Lee
There is every chance that this will be my favourite Lorelei Lee match in SHIMMER history. She has certainly been one of the more consistently underwhelming performances in the two year history of the promotion and has been in danger of being cut from the roster for most of her tenure here. Kong is still raging over her failure to win the SHIMMER Championship from Del Rey, and will be even more angry after being eliminated from the Battle Royal earlier in the show. Will Lee be able to withstand her fury and pull out the biggest upset in company history?
Kong has a huge brace on one of her knees and is walking with a pronounced limp. She still looks confident, and stands motionless as Lee simply bounces off her when attempting a crossbody block. Lorelei then appears to legitimately botch being pulled up off the canvas. How is this girl still getting booked? Kong is merciless with her, chopping her ferociously in the corner than throttling her with a camel clutch. Lorelei throws some questionable dropkicks…before missing her handspring elbow then standing around like a goof. KONG BACK FISTS THE F*CK OUT OF HER! It’s all over at 04:23
Rating - N/A - I’m giving this the N/A treatment since by and large this went exactly as it should have done. Kong spent almost the entire match completely destroying Lorelei, and rightly punishing her every time she made a visible f*ck up. Some of Lee’s errors are simply inexcusable by this point. She was apparently legitimately knocked out by the finish, and didn’t work the V20 tapings. In fact, she only has one match left in her SHIMMER career (at V21). To end on a positive note, if Kong is working injured this weekend, having her crush lower card talent in emphatic squashes like this is quite an effective use of her time.
Nicole Matthews vs Nikki Roxx
This Volume is the first time we’ve seen Nikki Roxx since the Florida event over a year ago. She’s been busy with TNA since her last SHIMMER appearance, and now sports a drastically different look having been forced to shave her head as part of an angle there. In her absence young talent like Nicole Matthews has flooded into the promotion. Matthews doesn’t have many high profile wins yet, but like her partner Portia Perez, is gaining quite the reputation due to her brash attitude and massive personality. It would certainly be her biggest victory to date if she could somehow score a victory against Roxx…
Matthews tries to take a cheap shot at Nikki…so Roxx really pops her in the jaw with an elbow smash. Edge-O-Match from Matthews to retaliate, followed by a jumping knee as Prazak puts over what a big opportunity this is for the young Canadian performer. Everything Nicole does targets Roxx’s neck, priming her for the Vancouver Manoeuvre. Roxx cracks her across the back…so Matthews ELBOWS HER IN THE FACE! Wow! That looked almost as brutal as Kong’s knockout strike on Lorelei. Nikki really fights to keep Matthews away from her neck – mounting her with a flurry of forearm strikes! Matthews swiftly shuts her down with a snap suplex, wrenching that neck once more. Roaring Elbow by Roxx! NO SOLD! LARIAT! Roxx gets a nearfall with a Samoan drop, and tosses Nicole across the ring with a fallaway slam. Matthews counters another slam attempt with an inverted DDT and swiftly scales the ropes to hit a missile dropkick for 2. BARBIE CRUSHER from nothing! Roxx wins at 09:19
Rating - *** - By a distance the best match on the show so far, and a real glimpse into what Nicole Matthews would go on to achieve in her SHIMMER career. Her execution was still a little sloppy here, but everything else was right on point. She was entertaining and loud without letting her character-work outshine her wrestling. The way she attacked Roxx’s neck for her finisher was logical, extremely well-done and never got boring. She also showed real toughness for the first time in some outstanding little strike exchanges. As Allison Danger pointed out on commentary, SHIMMER could claim that Nikki Roxx is their first ‘homegrown star’, since she is someone that they helped take from the bottom of the card to a creditable main event talent – and in doing so prepared her for national television exposure with TNA. This was a welcome return to SHIMMER action for her…
Jennifer Blake vs Allison Danger
Blake has lived up to her nickname of ‘Girl Dynamite’ with some explosive little performances since debuting a couple of Volumes ago. Her team with Danyah didn’t see much success though, so now she has her first singles match – and it’s a big one. Danger is wrestling for the first time since suffering a legitimate collarbone injury in the V17 main event and would be a major scalp if Blake could win.
Blake’s performances at the last taping obviously impressed the Berwyn fans as they loudly chant for her at the bell. It is noticeable that Allison is very keen to keep Girl Dynamite away from her bad arm/shoulder, and really struggles to find a way to combat the lucha-esque skills of her opponent. Blake teases a tope suicida, and instead SUPERKICKS Danger into a chair! LARIAT ON THE FLOOR by Allison! Now Danger gets to bully Blake, cranking on her with a half crab to further attack the back that just crashed onto the hard-wood floor. Bow and arrow next; doing more damage to that back and further negating the high-flying skills of Blake. She can strike too though – and drives Danger into the corner with MACHINE GUN CHOPS! Allison scores with a hanging neckbreaker over the knee for 2! Old School Expulsion blocked, ripping Blake’s shirt open in the process. Briefly distracted by her malfunctioning ring gear, Jennifer exposes herself to a roll-up from Danger, who wins at 09:54
Rating - *** - The wrestling hasn’t been amazing, but this show is so tonally different to many of the previous SHIMMER Volumes. With so much regular talent not available it is given the hungry undercard women a genuine opportunity to progress their career. Perez and Matthews, Lane and Nevaeh, Serena Deeb and now Jennifer Blake have all really grabbed their chance and delivered commendable showings. Blake looked to be a real talent here, coupling the explosive offensive stuff we saw from her at the last tapings with an impressive grasp of the fundamentals and really throwing her body around to put over Danger’s work too. It’s a shame she had that wardrobe malfunction at the end, as I sense it rather distracted them when the match should have been reaching its climax. It isn’t difficult to see why Blake was able to carve out a career for herself in Lucha Libre, she really did look an exciting young talent even at this stage in her development.
Allison grabs the microphone to put Blake over as the best talent to come out of Canada…which instantly brings out the Canadian NINJAs. Portia calls Danger a ‘diet Canadian’, and Nicole challenges them to a match at Volume 20.
LuFisto vs Rain
If it felt like it had been a while since Nikki Roxx had made an appearance, it has been even longer since LuFisto last performed in a SHIMMER ring. It’s been almost two years since we last saw the Super Hardcore Anime, which is a long time for a worker of her calibre to be gone. Rain is her opponent for her second debut, looking to refocus her career after losing to the Ohio Girls at V18 and her long-time tag partner Lacey now seemingly gone from the company.
Rain spends the first minute trying to avoid LuFisto’s strikes. They horribly botch back-to-back armdrag spots, but fans are so happy to have Lu back they don’t rag on them at all. The Home Wrecker sensibly tries to keep her grounded, reeling off submissions and strikes to the neck and back – which Prazak points out have been the sources of the persistent injuries that have kept LuFisto out of SHIMMER competition. A neckbreaker is rolled into a front choke…only for Fisto to power out into a DVD. Perhaps showing her desperation, Lu looks straight for the Diving Star and is punished with a press slam off the second rope. Japanese stranglehold applied next, before LuFisto counters the Rain Drop leading to them both knocking each other down simultaneously in the middle of the ring. CHOP DUEL! They really lay those in! Fist gets some payback by repeatedly kicking Rain in the back then crossfaces her hard out of a camel clutch. FACE WASH! Diving Star misses! Rain Drop COUNTERED TO THE BURNING HAMMER! Lu wins at 10:20
Rating - *** - They started dreadfully, but kept getting better and better as the match went on. I was dreading this being something of a squash, with Rain reduced to playing a scared bimbo getting a pasting from the returning LuFisto – but I shouldn’t have worried. This is a promotion that wants to present their women as athletes, and I loved that Rain got to come of so credibly here. She devised a great strategy to negate LuFisto’s threats, but ultimately couldn’t do enough damage to her neck or back before succumbing to the devastating Burning Hammer.
Sara Del Rey vs Ariel
Losing the SHIMMER Championship to MsChif at V18 has caused a major change in Sara’s demeanour. She has cut her hair, drawn odd facepaint eyebrows onto her forehead, purchased new ring gear and ditched ‘Final Countdown’ as her entrance theme in favour of something more sinister. She violently assaulted Ariel earlier in the show after the Portuguese Princess eliminated her from the Battle Royal, and is reportedly pissed off that SHIMMER officials haven’t handed her the immediate title rematch she feels she is entitled to. Ariel is, for the second time this evening, the unfortunate victim of the Death Rey’s fury…
Fans really do love Ariel, and scream at her to ‘look out’ as Del Rey prepares to assault her during her entrance. The Portuguese Princess is assaulted against the guardrails again, then chased around ringside being peppered with some horrific strikes. Even when she makes it to the relative safety of the ring Sara is still all over her with kicks and headbutts. Ariel desperately tries to fight back, stringing together a flurry of pinning combinations in a frantic bid to escape with a win! ELBOW TO THE FACE by Death Rey! The former champion them choke bombs her into the turnbuckles to entirely close down that brief burst of offensive activity. FLYING BUTT SPLASH gets 2! A few minutes later Ariel once more tries to score a flash pin on Sara…only to be roundly shut down again with a knee right to her jaw. Amazingly, Del Rey’s attacks get even more sadistic as she starts standing on Ariel’s face, and camel clutching her with handfuls of hair and fingers nails raked across her eyes. Sara sets up for more diving butt splashes from the second rope – perhaps a sign that she has grown too confident. Ariel capitalises with a press slam off the top to give her some much-needed respite. ELBOWS BY ARIEL! SARA KICKS HER IN THE FACE! MORE ELBOWS BY ARIEL! RUNNING ELBOW! Almost limp due to the beating she’s taken, somehow the Portuguese Princess lands a basic suplex – but then flops down on the mat right afterwards. Dariel countered with AXE KICKS! Royal Butterfly COUNTERED to a tornado bulldog! Ariel won’t quit! ROYAL BUTTERFLY NAILED! Del Rey ends the carnage and takes her first step on the quest to regain her title at 14:24
Rating - *** - Ariel was the perfect opponent to debut Del Rey’s new style and character against. Like I said during play-by-play, the SHIMMER fans really do adore Ariel. She’s not the biggest star, but she’s so endearingly smiley, perky and cheerful that they’ve taken her to their hearts over the past two years…and they really didn’t want to see Del Rey beating the sh*t out of her for almost fifteen minutes. This possibly did go a little longer than it needed to, but the story they told was ace – and the audience was absolutely with it, as indicated by the reaction to Ariel firing up and trading strikes with Sara down the stretch.
Mercedes Martinez vs Cheerleader Melissa
The Latina Sensation returned to SHIMMER at the V17/18 taping and promptly went 2-0 with victories over Wesna Busic and Cindy Rogers to reassert her credentials as a main event talent. She made it known that she wanted a SHIMMER Title shot as soon as possible and would become one of the undisputed top contenders if she could back up her previous wins with another over Melissa here. The Cheerleader also went 2-0 on the previous set of tapings though, and will consider herself a top challenger. She and MsChif have been to war before, and even though they are partners now, Melissa will surely still be sore at ultimately ‘losing’ their feud during the early SHIMMER Volumes.
There is evidently a lot of respect between these two athletes, and they are both extremely tentative when trading holds back and forth on the canvas. Melissa is looking for arm submissions, which is significant because it will test out Mercedes’ surgically repaired shoulder. Martinez passes the initial test and cranks onto Cheerleader’s neck. She evades more attempts to attack her arm and drives Melissa back into the corner with a series of dropkicks and stomps. Regal Stretch applied to do more damage to the neck. Melissa is pissed off now – rocking Mercedes with a series of elbows then yanking at the shoulder again to deliver the Curb Stomp. Fed up of having her neck attacked, Melissa drags the Latina Sensation around ringside to repeatedly brain her against the apron. GERMAN SUPLEX ON THE BAD SHOULDER! NO SOLD! GERMAN SUPLEX ON MELISSA’S NECK! Both women down! Neither woman wants to back down, so they slowly come back to their feet still throwing strikes at each other. Bull Run blocked! Kudo Driver blocked! BRAINBUSTER by Mercedes gets 2! Still Melissa fights the Bull Run, but doesn’t have enough to lift her for the Air Raid Crash. Samoan drop instead! Kudo Driver COUNTERED TO THE BULL RUN! Martinez wins 15:46
Rating - **** - This is really the only match on the card this evening that puts two established SHIMMER main event talents in the ring together, so it should be no surprise that they stole the show. That doesn’t diminish what was a top quality performance from both women however. The story of the match here is that Melissa continually tried to injure Martinez’s arm but simply couldn't inflict enough punishment. That is a huge deal in itself, since it firmly establishes that Mercedes is now 100% after returning from injury, and that her shoulder won’t be considered a weakness for the remainder of her career. And in failing to do sufficient damage to the Latina Sensation’s arm, Melissa was leaving herself open to the aggressive and hard-hitting offence of her opponent. Her last major shot – the German suplex right onto the shoulder – failed so comprehensively it was no sold, and from that point Martinez was on an unstoppable charge to victory. They could have more spectacular matches, but when you consider the fact they both have high profile matches on the V20 taping to work today, plus the fact that Melissa now has TNA commitments to worry about too this really was smartly worked and superb to watch.
We go backstage for the first time on this DVD, where Becky Bayless is set to interview Sara Del Rey. She wants to know why Sara has had a change in attitude, but is shouted away by an angry Death Rey. She complains about having to carry SHIMMER for two years, is furious about being put in a Battle Royal with ‘bottom of the barrel’ talents and is going to take her anger out on everyone until she gets her championship back…
MsChif vs Jetta – SHIMMER Title Match
One shouldn’t pretend that Jetta will be too fatigued or inconvenienced by having to work two matches this evening. She won the Battle Royal to earn this title opportunity…but did so by teaming with Rain, hiding in the corner and fortuitously profiting on Del Rey’s fury at poor Ariel. She isn’t a challenge that MsChif should underestimate however. Since debuting we’ve seen that she has a big mouth, but she has also proven to be an extremely sound wrestler, with a penchant to bend the rules in her favour much like her International Home Wrecking Crew counterparts Rain and Lacey. If MsChif doesn’t take her first title defence extremely seriously she may be putting her reign in serious jeopardy. Before the match Jetta grabs the mic and announces plans to take the belt back to England and make ‘everyone else try to wrestle with jet lag’ like she has to every time she comes to Chicago!
Jetta enquires as to whether MsChif screaming is ‘illegal’…although if it was wouldn’t that then be a DQ meaning she couldn’t win the belt? She seeks shelter by hiding behind Bryce Remsburg instead. Next she brings the British style, working a variety of wristlocks and trying to confuse the champion with some elaborate chain wrestling. All the fancy holds in the world mean nothing if you have to flee the ring in terror whenever MsChif screams. Ms gives chase, driving her shoulder into the guardrails and ringpost to open up a major injury. Back inside the ring she elbows, stomps and stretches the arm and shoulder, provoking some genuinely hilarious comedy over-selling by the champion. She pokes Chif in the eyes, but is too weak in her arm to execute the stranglehold lungblower she uses as a finish. ARM CAPTURE GUTBUSTER by the champ for 2! Jetta knocks her opponent outside and attacks her against the railings although only has limited success because she is fighting one-armed…and finally gets hammerlocked into the ringpost! ARM-SELLING SNAP SUPLEX ON THE FLOOR! Jetta grabs some much-needed respite after that, and uses what every recovery time she has to hit a SUPERPLEX! ‘Why did I do that?!?!’ – Jetta to herself as she oversells the arm again after that. MsChif hits back with Gateway To Annihilation for 2. Jetta starts cheating, and fails to win both by putting feet on the ropes then by grabbing the tights. MsChif fights the stranglehold lungblower again, and counters it to the DESECRATOR! MsChif retains at 14:06
Rating - *** - Whether it was appropriate for SHIMMER to give MsChif what was essentially a comedy match for her first title defence is up for debate, but personally I found this something of a guilty pleasure. Jetta provided some legitimate belly laughs with some of her over-the-top narration and selling…and actually carried this match almost single-handedly. MsChif went through her usual routine and efficiently attacked the arm – but all the interesting or unique selling points of this match came from Jetta. She has been nothing but entertaining since her debut and comfortably adapted that style to a main event level singles match.
Tape Rating - *** - This is far from a must-own SHIMMER Volume. In fact, if you selectively purchase them I’d go so far as to suggest this one is skippable since, outside of a highly competitive Melissa/Martinez match nothing is particularly outstanding. But for someone that’s seen all eighteen previous Volumes, in many ways I found this one of the most interesting SHIMMER events thus far. After two years of existence and a pretty steady core roster, things really got shaken up here. We know that Lacey and Sarah Stock were gone, but this taping is also missing staples of the undercard like The Experience, Cindy Rogers and Amber O’Neal. Daizee Haze was injured so couldn’t work, whilst Allison Danger was just back from injury so needed protecting too. Even talents they are used to relying on like Cheerleader Melissa, Nikki Roxx and Kong (who herself was obviously pretty banged up) are now employed by TNA therefore expected to prioritise them over killing themselves in front of a couple of hundred people for SHIMMER. The roster is in a state of flux, opportunities abound – and the wonderful selling point of this show is how damn hard a lot of talent worked to step up. Lacey is gone – so Rain and Jetta get to step out of the shadows and show what a strong workers they are. Higher profile midcard slots are available – and young guns like Portia Perez, Nicole Matthews, Serena Deeb, the Ohio Girls and Jennifer Blake are hungry to fill them. Stock is gone, Wesna isn’t available and Kong is hurt…but LuFisto is back and ready to throw her hat into the ring as the tough-as-nails, world-travelled hard-hitter. Not everything is a home run, and only one match scrapes through the 4* rating barrier, but you couldn’t wish for a finer three hours of wrestling when it comes to talented young women busting their asses and grabbing opportunities. Couple that with a unique (if cluttered and chaotic) opener in the SHIMMER Battle Royal, and an awesome use of the popular Ariel as a launchpad for Del Rey’s new character and you really have a decent little show. Thumbs in the middle for the quality of the in-ring content…but thumbs WAY up for workrate and heart. I am genuinely having more fun reviewing this promotion than anything else I watch right now.
Top 3 Matches
3) MsChif vs Jetta (***)
2) Sara Del Rey vs Ariel (***)
1) Mercedes Martinez vs Cheerleader Melissa (****)