SHIMMER Women Athletes – Volume 21 – 19th October 2008
There probably are other promotions I should be reviewing right now, but I am having so much fun with SHIMMER I’ve decided to review the next two shows and round out their 2008 season before moving on to any other product. This is another pretty significant show in SHIMMER history, as we’ll see a Gauntlet Match to crown the first ever Tag Team Champions in company history. The talent involved in that match is impressive, with The Experience, the Ohio Girls, the International Home Wreckers, the Canadian NINJAs, Jennifer Blake and LuFisto (dubbing themselves the ‘Suicide Blondes’) and a debuting team from Australia featuring future main eventer Madison Eagles and future WWE/NXT female athlete Jessie McKay (Billie Kay) all competing. If that weren’t enough, MsChif defends the SHIMMER Championship against the returning Daizee Haze, we have a rematch from the outstanding Del Rey/Deeb match from V20, and poor Ariel is getting thrown into a fourway match alongside Kong, Melissa and Mercedes! Dave Prazak goes solo on commentary in Berwyn, IL.
SIDENOTE – SHIMMER have ditched their previous DVD background music and film roll, which has basically been the same few clips since the very first release. They have replaced it with silent, static backgrounds and higher-quality posed pictures of various combatants, which looks far more professional.
Serena Deeb, sporting new cheesy entrance music, opens the show demanding a rematch with Sara Del Rey. Sara comes out and calls her ‘bottom of the barrel’ again…but is goaded into accepting.
Serena Deeb vs Sara Del Rey
At Volume 20 Deeb delivered perhaps her finest performance in a SHIMMER ring thus far. Unfortunately for her it wasn’t enough to get a win over the former champion, as Sara tore apart her leg and forced her to tap out. Death Rey tore through both Serena and Ariel at the previous taping, and is furious at being booked against ‘bottom of the barrel’ talents rather than being granted an immediate rematch for her title. She’ll be looking to destroy Deeb here to further strengthen her title credentials.
Del Rey grants the rematch by punting Deeb in the face to emphatically put her down to ground. Is Sara going after Serena’s breast implants? She delivers remarkably precise chops and kicks directly to the ‘upper chest region’! Serena looks for a flying crossbody…but is put down once more after being caught with a backbreaker. The former champion is all over Deeb’s back, with as much ferocity as she worked the leg at Volume 20. RUNNING MAFIA KICK TO THE BACK gets 2! Senton bomb missed by an over-confident Del Rey, and Serena hits back with a flurry of punches then a neckbreaker. Just like V20 Sara dodges the Spear…but learning from that mistake Deeb catches herself in the ropes rather than falling to the floor! Just as admire that progression from their last match Death Rey pounces to maul poor Serena in the ropes instead. Royal Butterfly blocked for Deeb to break out a flurry of credible nearfalls. ROYAL BUTTERFLY! Sara puts Deeb down for the second show running at 09:35
Rating - *** - Not quite of the same quality as the V20 match, but this was a far more heated, intense and exciting opening match than we usually get from a SHIMMER event. Once again this was formatted as an extended squash, and used an outstanding babyface performance from Deeb to keep things interesting. This has actually been a decent little program over the past two shows, since it has enhanced Sara’s new ruthless character greatly, and also allowed Serena to show real progress too. Will Serena push for a third match with Death Rey?
Miss Natural vs Lorelei Lee
This is a debut for Miss N, who in name and ring attire appears to be paying homage to Ric Flair. Lee has been around the promotion for a long time but has failed to make any progress – either in terms of winning matches or improved performances. Last time we saw her she was knocked unconscious by a rampant Amazing Kong, leaving her SHIMMER career hanging by a thread. She badly needs a win against the debutant…
Natural immediately slaps Lorelei in the face to give herself an advantage. Prazak reveals that Miss Natural is an 8-year veteran…which means she should probably know better than to walk repeatedly into Lee’s armdrags (since they are pretty much the only spot she doesn’t consistently mess up). Lorelei looks for a handspring crossbody, only for it to be impressively countered into a fallaway slam by Natural for 2. Together they make an absolute butt ugly mess of an attempted headscissors spot, then flub a few pinfalls as well. In fairness it wasn’t all Lorelei’s fault, but she is horrible and really should have been cut long before this. Everything she does looks dreadful, including trying to spring off the ropes like a luchador into an armdrag. Miss N hits the Natural Disaster to round off a miserable SHIMMER career for Lee at 05:35
Rating - DUD - This was a fittingly wretched end to Lorelei Lee’s rather torrid time in SHIMMER. Nobody could fault her workrate, but after two years in this company this match proved beyond any doubt she was going absolutely nowhere. Miss Natural looked unremarkable, but at least had a clearly defined gimmick and didn’t spend the entire match randomly trying spots she was completely incapable of executing properly. With talent like Perez, Matthews, Deeb and Blake rapidly improving, and the arrival of someone like Madison Eagles tonight, the time where Lee is worthy of a spot on this roster has long gone. She’d go on to have cracks at making it in TNA and the short-lived ‘Wrestlelicious’ promotion, but achieved no further success there. As I said, she was clearly a hard worker and kept herself in phenomenal shape…but if she wasn’t showing any aptitude for pro-wrestling by this point it really is the right decision to cut her.
Daffney vs Cat Power
Does this mean the Shark Girl gimmick is dead (he says typing with fingers crossed)? This is another rematch from Volume 20, where we saw Power take advantage of Daffney’s ongoing knee problems to score a shock victory. The veteran is obviously here to avenge that loss.
Daffney’s pre-match promo is her finest contribution to SHIMMER by a mile, and is legitimately hilarious. Power has gone all gimmicky and wears a cheap cat mask on the way to the ring. Thankfully the pay-off for this is magnificent – as Daff tosses a ball of yarn at Cat who FREAKS! She wants that ball of yarn so bad, and the Scream Queen easily capitalises. Power retaliates with scratches (obviously) but then actually does start to wrestle and uses that power to her advantage. Daffney escapes a tree of woe without significant damage to her knee and executes an inverted DDT backbreaker. She distracts Cat with the yarn again and wins with Daff Knees at 05:12
Rating - ** - A generous 2* because, for possibly the first time, I found Daffney genuinely very funny here. I can’t help but feel a little saddened that Power, who looked to be an impressive and imposing physical specimen in her previous outings, was reduced to something of a silly comedy gimmick, but then again this was entertaining as her matches have been so far too.
Danyah vs Nikki Roxx
Perhaps Danyah’s reward for a brave showing in the face of the dominant Amazing Kong at the last show is another high profile match against a higher-ranking member of the SHIMMER roster. With main event experience under her belt, plus exposure on national TV with TNA, Roxx has now risen from the very bottom of the card to become a major scalp. Danyah would cement her spot in the company if she could pull off the upset here.
I’m sure I’ve said it before, but Danyah’s abs are completely ridiculous. Prazak admits that Danyah is still finding her niche, but reminds everyone that Nicole Matthews seems to have solidified her spot on the back of a strong performance against Roxx at the last tapings. Danyah is aggressive, double knee-ing Nikki into the middle rope to really make an early impact. Striking is clearly her tactic, since she follows that by driving Nikki into the turnbuckles with a series of dropkicks. Roxx has no problem trading strikes though, firing back with elbows and a big boot for 2. Thigh Master gets a nearfall right back for Danyah….before she is shut down with the Barbie Crusher! Nikki wins at 06:01
Rating - ** - It was brief and wasn’t particularly memorable, but otherwise this was a pretty solid little match. The strategy was clear – Danyah wanted to use her speed and striking to overcome Roxx, who simply had too much big match experience and power for that tactic…meaning she eventually swatted her opponent away and put her down with her signature finisher. Not complicated, but for it’s spot on the card it worked just fine. Nikki’s improvement from the early SHIMMER shows is bonkers, and puts Lorelei Lee’s total skill stasis over the same time period to shame.
Amber O’Neal vs Wesna Busic
Something about the last tapings didn’t feel right without Amber O’Neal and her ‘Material Girl’ entrance. She is back this evening, and straight back into the firing line against the intimidating Croatian Panther, Wesna Busic. Wesna debuted at the V17/V18 tapings and put in two impressive displays – but ultimately recorded an 0-2 record after losses to Mercedes Martinez and Amazing Kong. If she wants more SHIMMER bookings she needs to demonstrate she is worth the price of the plane ticket by racking up some wins…
Amber is terrified of Wesna, so refuses to get into the ring with her. ‘Wesna’s gonna kill you’ – Berwyn. ‘I KNOW’ – Amber in response. Against that back drop it’s remarkable that she actually takes an early advantage by kicking Busic’s legs. The Panther’s retort is to boot her in the face so hard she leaves the ring begging for a dentist. Again O’Neal targets Wesna’s leg and she silences the crowd by successfully applying a Trailer Hitch. She just isn’t doing enough damage though, as proven by Busic powering up then running into another boot to the head for 2. ELBOW DUEL! AMBER DOESN’T BACK DOWN! MORE ELBOWS! STO BY AMBER! CB4-DRIVER! Busic wins at 07:19
Rating - *** - Not for the first time, O’Neal produces a remarkably strong performance against a SHIMMER athlete you may have felt was way out of her league. I won’t pretend that this showing did too many favours for Busic, but as a piece of entertainment it was so fun to see the script completely flipped and watch the blonde ‘diva’ dominate the hard-hitting, violent fan-favourite. That closing stretch, with Busic trying to throw elbows only for Amber to totally no sell and stiff her right back was as exciting as the first hour of this show has gotten so far.
SHIMMER Tag Title Gauntlet Match
A number of people have told me I need to watch and review this as a single match, rather than split into individual bouts as I usually do with Gauntlet Matches. I am traditionally not a fan of Gauntlet Matches at all, so I’m willing to try anything to see if this one can make me a believer in the format (post match edit: it didn't). As previously mentioned, this one is to crown the first ever SHIMMER Tag Team Champions. On the face of it, you might say that the field is weakened without the likes of the original (i.e. Minnesota) Home Wrecking Crew, the Dangerous Angels or the MsChif/Melissa team…but there is still some serious talent on show. Lexie Fyfe and Malia Hosaka of The Experience have the knowledge and guile to deliver in big matches like this so may be considered the favourites – especially when you look at the comparative lack of experience standing across the ring from them. Will it be the veterans who leave with the gold – or will it perhaps be a young up and coming duo like Lane and Nevaeh or the NINJAs? Could it be an unknown quantity like the Suicide Blondes (LuFisto and Jennifer Blake) or the debuting Pink Ladies (Australians Madison Eagles and Jessie McKay) who surprise us all? Could Rain’s experience of tag team wrestling lead her and Jetta to the belts? It really is wide open!
The Canadian NINJAs are the first team in, with matching shirts, headbands and big gulps. They are joined by the Pink Ladies – Madison Eagles and Jessie McKay. Madison is 6’1 and dwarfs both opponents, so Portia hops on Matthews’ shoulders to attempt a knucklelock. ROPE RUN lucha armdrag by Eagles! McKay also shows some impressive early skill, belying the fact she had barely been wrestling for a year and was crazy young. It’s only when Portia rakes her eyes that the NINJAs finally get the advantage for the first time. They isolate young Jessie through fair means or foul, and McKay deserves credit for staying alive in the contest and always being willing to try a pinning combination when the opportunity presents itself. The hot tag to Eagles finally comes, hitting Hell Bound on Perez for 2. FUNKY COLD MEDINA on Jessie! The NINJAs advance at 10:08, and are joined soon after by the Suicide Blondes of Jennifer Blake and LuFisto. They are wearing exactly the same colours as the NINJAs so there is plenty of black and pink on display (in fact, Eagles and McKay wore those colours too). LuFisto is all over Matthews with some fierce striking…before DVD-ing her own partner into a senton splash for 2. Blake is fired up after what transpired at V20 and lays into Nicole with even more ferocity than Fisto. For a second time it needs a Canadian NINJA going after the eyes to hand them the upper hand.
LOVELACE CHOKER by Perez, taking more shots at Allison Danger! Girl Dynamite fights back with an airplane spin then brings in LuFisto, for a cradle suplex! SHIMMERING WARLOCK from Blake to Matthews (another Danger reference). It leaves Perez alone with both Suicide Blondes! She bails…DOOMSDAY POWERBOMB LUNGBLOWER on Matthews instead! The Blondes advance at 18:52! Next team in are the International Home Wrecking Crew, rocking their own new shirts, but walking straight into STEREO KOBASHI CHOPS! Jetta has to attack Blake from behind to halt their momentum. She is noticeably rather clumsy with Blake, who equally noticeably receipts her with some forearms and elbows which didn’t look to be pulled in anyway. In fact, Jetta and Blake have a really intense chemistry in the ring together and share some surprisingly intense exchanges (broken up with Jetta’s offbeat comedy stylings of course). LuFisto makes the save with a Michinoku Driver, and as Jetta bleeds from the mouth she walks into a flying crossbody by Blake. Emerald Fusion gets 2! Rain barges in faking concern for her bloody partner, and in the process sneaks her a pair of brass knucks…which Jetta uses to KO Blake and eliminate her team at 26:30. Thus far the fresh team has won every match, meaning the omens are good for the fifth entrants – Ashley Lane and Nevaeh. They arrive with an amazing flurry of tandem pinning combinations, all of which come close to eliminating the Home Wreckers.
Rain quickly dials up her own intensity, clearly remembering how the Ohio Girls defeated her and Lacey at V18. She spearheads the isolation of Nevaeh but isn’t able to land any of her finishing holds and allows her to escape with a tag to Ashley. TORNADO LUNGBLOWER from Rain to Lane gets 2! STO/YAKUZA KICK COMBO from the Ohio Girls, giving them a shock win at 32:51! It means the final two are the young girls from Ohio…and the old pro’s from The Experience! Fyfe and Hosaka have knowing smirks at their excellent draw, but just like the Home Wreckers get overwhelmed after a fast-paced, double-team packed start from Lane and Nevaeh. Sensibly The Experience pick off Nevaeh, who suffered plenty of punishment in the previous match so is already fatigued. They may be veterans, but an indication of how rapidly the SHIMMER tag division has progressed is that their heat segment is significantly less interesting than those we’ve seen from the Canadian NINJAs, the Suicide Blondes or the Home Wreckers earlier in the contest. Hosaka is much more interesting when she starts using her strikes to really rough up Ashley. Both she and Lexie take turns cranking submissions on Lane, turning her towards her corner to taunt her whilst doing so. Nevaeh saves her partner from the double gourdbuster, only for Hosaka to rescue her partner from the STO/Yakuza in turn! Fyfe hits the Attitude Adjuster on Nevaeh for 2! Malia accidentally kicks Fyfe to the ground…STO/YAKUZA NAILED! The Ohio Girls win! It’s over at 44:54, with Ashley Lane and Nevaeh crowned inaugural SHIMMER Tag Team Champions.
Rating - *** - This was far from a bad viewing experience, and 45-minutes of wrestling absolutely sailed by so it really can’t be classified as a failure by any means. My biggest disappointment was that the entire Gauntlet really was just a collection of decent, middling undercard tag matches one after the other. Each individual section had enjoyable moments, but I didn’t feel much of a thread holding everything together. Having every new team eliminate their predecessors didn’t help on that front, and having the two least interesting teams in the match make it to the finals certainly meant it ended on a flat note. I don’t mean that overly disrespectfully to Lane, Nevaeh, Fyfe or Hosaka – but everyone else really brought the goods here. Madison Eagles and Jessie McKay made a striking impression in their brief ten minute cameo at the start. The first twenty minutes, packed full of Canadian NINJA goodness were the highlight for me, especially once Perez started laying into Jennifer Blake whilst ripping off Allison Danger moves. As I said in my V20 review, my big issue with Lane and Nevaeh is that whilst they sell tremendously and are easy to empathise with – they just don’t have much in the way of believable offence. I won’t deny they worked hard and were popular winners, but they were basically assaulted and carried by two experienced and competent heel teams (the Home Wreckers then The Experience) and won the titles by hitting the same finishing move twice. You could spin it as them having a lethal finisher…but you could also spin it as them being limited workers. I’ve no issue with The Experience either per se, but they didn’t need to be in the final two. They’ve been a team since the early Volumes so I get why Prazak booked it that way – but the fact that Perez, Matthews, Jetta and Rain were all capable of more interesting, thought-provoking and crowd-engaging heat segments shows that they’ve been bypassed, and just aren't as relevant or necessary as they once were. Ultimately, as a bunch of solid tag matches smushed together this was enjoyable enough even if it wasn’t necessarily laid out to best suit my own personal tastes. The future of SHIMMER is certainly bright with the likes of Portia Perez, Nicole Matthews, Madison Eagles and Jessie McKay all primed for far bigger things…
Ariel vs Mercedes Martinez vs Cheerleader Melissa vs Amazing Kong
The winner of this one earns a SHIMMER Title shot at Volume 22. Interestingly, they’ve traded a number of wins between them too. Martinez beat Melissa at V19, Melissa overcame Ariel at V13, Kong defeated Melissa at V16…and perhaps most interestingly Ariel owns a (technical) win over Kong having bested her via disqualification at V17. Kong and Martinez have come closest to tasting the gold – pushing champions Sara Del Rey and MsChif close at V15 and V20 respectively, but both ultimately failing. Melissa and Ariel have never gotten an opportunity to challenge for the belt and will know a huge win here puts them at the front of the queue. Ariel is of course the underdog, but has proven she is a tough cookie whenever she’s been allowed to mix it up with the main event talent in SHIMMER previously.
Ariel makes the bold move to go after Kong, with Martinez and Melissa quick to join her! KONG FIGHTS OFF ALL THREE AT ONCE! Everyone hits running elbow strikes on Kong, at least stopping her momentarily, and allowing the other three to test their skills against each other. Mercedes gets 2 with a slingshot swinging neckbreaker on Melissa. Amazing K has seen enough, and drops Ariel with an effortless chokeslam…only to be knocked back out of the ring by a double dropkick from the other two. Ariel climbs…SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR takes out Kong! Melissa and Mercedes try a double superplex on Ariel…and at the same time are DOUBLE POWERBOMBED BY KONG! She starts beating up all three opponents at once again, getting 2 after the Implant Buster on Cheerleader. Martinez ducks the back fist, then COUNTERS the Amazing Bomb into a facebuster. BULL RUN on Melissa! Ariel breaks the count! DARIEL on a still-woozy Melissa! ARIEL WINS! It’s a huge upset, and she gets the title shot on the next show. Match time was a frantically-paced 09:06
Rating - *** - The last few shows have made it very apparent that Prazak is having to get funky with how he books Amazing Kong, presumably based on what TNA will and won’t allow her to do. She’s enough of a draw that it’s worthwhile, and after seeing her enjoyably massacre lower card ladies at the last taping, throwing her into a multi-woman spotfest here was another fun use of her time. All four of these women are experienced professionals and had no problem filling less than ten minutes with non-stop action; a perfect way to bring the crowd back to life after a 45-minute Tag Title Gauntlet. In reality, obviously MsChif/Ariel was the least appealing of the potential V22 SHIMMER Title Matches on offer, but will be a fresh main event we haven’t seen from SHIMMER previously (unlike MsChif/Melissa, MsChif/Martinez or MsChif/Kong).
MsChif vs Daizee Haze – SHIMMER Title Match
Disappointment was etched all over Daizee Haze’s face when she took to the ring during the last tapings to announce that injury was forcing her to miss SHIMMER action for the very first time. But she ended on a positive note by stating she wanted a title shot, and given that she holds a victory over MsChif (at V14 in Florida) it appears her request has been granted. If she can repeat that feat we’ll see SHIMMER crown a third ever Champion here…
The first thing MsChif does is punch at Haze’s ribs, which were the source of her injury when she missed the last taping. Daizee for her part spends the early minutes showing her technical prowess and using it to attack the champ’s arm. Obviously her strategy is to keep Chif on the canvas, and to her credit she is entirely dominant for the first five minutes. Of course, she’s also pretty rapid on her feet too, and after minutes of apparently being technically superior on the ground she is too quick for MsChif as well meaning she can rattle off an unanswered flurry of armdrags. Prazak really emphasises the history of these two in the business, adding some depth and character to some of their familiarity countering and chaining as the match progresses. Eventually Ms has enough and seizes the advantage with some rugged striking. She isn’t holding anything back and immediately starts stretching Haze’s suspect back. The standing moonsault spot (that MsChif does in every match) becomes a far more effective and devastating weapon to use on a woman with rib and back problems! Perhaps the most obvious indication of how quickly MsChif has weakened The Haze is that she is now able to easily and repeatedly counter Daizee on the canvas, whereas she was nowhere near doing so minutes earlier. Daizee tries a bridging northern lights suplex…and whilst she’s able to execute the move MsChif has no problem kicking out and we see Daizee really struggle to get to her feet afterwards. Chif drives her opponent’s ribs into the top rope, then sweeps her off with the AVALANCHE GHANA-REA for 2! CODE GREEN BY DAIZEE! She is stealing MsChif’s moves just like in Florida, and has seemingly knocked her opponent loopy. Haze sets up the frankensteiner like at V14…but this time MSCHIF BLOCKS! SHADOWS OVER HELL…GETS 2! Haze desperately blocks Obliteration, only for Chif to dodge the Heart Punch into CHEMICAL IMBALANCE II! Is MsChif a Delirious tribute act? HEART PUNCH! YAKUZA KICK! But Haze is injured and loses a previous couple of seconds before making a cover, allowing Ms to kick out at 2. Mind Trip countered into Gateway to Annihilation! DESECRATOR! MsChif retains at 18:56
Rating - **** - WHAT an outstanding performance from both women, up there with any of my favourite matches EVER from either one of them. Being completely honest, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this as a main event. Neither are my favourite SHIMMER worker and I tend to prefer them when they are in there with more of a solid hand to reign in their pitchy, sometimes sloppily executed styles. I also didn’t overly like their V14 match, which whilst decent was also rather aimless and forgettable. However, their performances here blew me away. The core story was beautifully simple, wonderfully executed and steered clear of so many of the usual ‘traps’ matches featuring Haze or MsChif can fall into. Daizee didn’t start trying to ‘break MsChif in half’ like most of Chif's opponents in big matches – since we all know it doesn’t work. Likewise she didn’t try any silly lucha-esque sh*t since she knew MsChif would knock her block off. Haze realised her advantage lay in working the mat, using the intricate technical skills we’ve seen her demonstrate previously with Rebecca Knox and Sarah Stock to outfox the impulsive and aggressive MsChif. And by working the back and ribs, so much of the random flashy stuff MsChif usually does gained significant extra meaning. Her standing moonsault, her needlessly complex submission holds – they all made sense because they worked the back and ribs. They also did some amazing familiarity counters, both of their moveset in a broader context and also more specifically working an obvious (and far superior) sequel to the Florida match. To put some perspective around how much I enjoyed this – to my mind this is potentially the third best SHIMMER Title match I’ve seen to date. And when you consider the two above it (Del Rey vs Lacey from V14 and Del Rey vs Kong from V15) are two of my favourite SHIMMER matches ever I really hope I’ve conveyed how good I thought this was. The only reason I didn’t go higher was that I felt they held off on moving into the higher gears a little too long – with the initial ‘look how good Haze is at mat wrestling’ portion outlasting it’s use. I think the match would have been better served with MsChif adding some drama by getting the extra time to work Daizee’s back…but that’s such a minor gripe.
The show ends just as it started – with some Serena Deeb promo time. She reiterates that she wants to be a main event talent and says she’ll take on anyone. MsChif interrupts to tell her she’ll give her a title shot…if Deeb can beat Del Rey.
Tape Rating - *** - Up until the main event I wasn’t enjoying this SHIMMER release as much as many others. Whilst I appreciated the company trying to do something a little different to crown a new champion (as opposed to a tournament), the core of this event really is the Tag Title Gauntlet, which I didn’t overly love. I don’t like the gauntlet stipulation generally, and I’m not sure SHIMMER has a big enough roster to pack SO much talent into a single match just yet. Although the undercard was ok, nothing smacked you in the face and made you feel like you ‘needed’ to see this DVD as a result. MsChif and Daizee Haze then went out with their working boots on to deliver an absolute classic that I can’t praise highly enough. A great main event, a broadly solid undercard, and some obvious historical significance with the debut of Madison Eagles and crowning of SHIMMER Tag Champions mean this winds up being an easy one to recommend. If you like Gauntlet Matches you’ll probably like this one even more than I did…
Top 3 Matches
3) Sara Del Rey vs Serena Deeb (***)
2) SHIMMER Tag Title Gauntlet Match (***)
1) MsChif vs Daizee Haze (****)