McXal's Reviews

Volume 34 wasn’t SHIMMER’s best Volume, but there’s currently so much talent in the company that even on their ‘lesser’ shows there is still plenty to enjoy. I went back and rewatched Madison/Ayumi again a day later (and I rarely find the time to re-watch matches) because I’d enjoyed it so much. What V34 did do well is set up this one as potentially a must-see event. From the main event pitting teacher (Madison Eagles) against student (Jessie McKay) in a battle over the SHIMMER Championship, through to undercard grudge matches like Danger/Vice II or Perez/Deeb. We’ll see rising stars like Nicole Matthews and Rachel Summerlyn get big chances to shine in marquee matches (versus Ayako Hamada and Sara Del Rey respectively), and the semi-main event pits the two women who couldn’t take the belt from Eagles yesterday against each other as Cheerleader Melissa squares off with Ayumi Kurihara. Mercedes Martinez returns for the second two shows of the weekend too, cramming yet another big name onto the talent roster. We are, as usual, taped in Berwyn, IL with Dave Prazak and Portia Perez on commentary. This show also has new DVD menu formats – updating the ‘look’ which has stayed largely the same for their six years of existence. 

Opponents don’t get much more contrasting in stature than these two. Melanie is tall, rangy and powerful, whilst James is short in stature but quite the spitfire. Cruise is 2-0 for the weekend having returned to the ranks of singles competition after two stalled attempts at starting a tag team. Jessie has a regular team-mate (Rachel Summerlyn)…and probably couldn’t have wished for a tougher way to ‘test the water’ for a singles career in her own right.

Even standing on the bottom rope doesn’t make Jessica as tall as her opponent, which is an ominous sign. She buzzes around the taller woman like an insect, using her speed to keep out of her grasp then hitting a tornado DDT into a running senton flurry for 2. Sadly for her it takes a single big boot from Cruise to make her emphatically eat the mat. Jessie dives onto Melanie’s back like a drunk just trying to hold her down…only for Cruise to fling her aside and literally kick her out of the ring. Spinning, stalling, devastating sidewalk slam nailed by Cruise for 2. A desperate James bites Cruise’s leg to stop her hitting a powerbomb…but really has no real tactic to beat her other than running for cover. JJ Kick (handstand scorpion kick) knocks her back at least. She locks in a scrappy, ugly cross armbreaker, which Cruise simply stands up out of and converts into a ‘modified’ Cruise Control. She wins at 05:51

Rating - ** - Some may call that rating somewhat generous, but I thought this was an entertaining little match. It was kept brief, they never stopped moving or working hard…and most importantly it contained loads of fun little big worker versus little worker sequences which made sense. I can’t think of many on the SHIMMER roster who have made Cruise look as good as she did here. Having a smaller, faster, bumping machine across the ring from her made Melanie look really imposing.

Amber Gertner wants Rachel Summerlyn’s thoughts on facing Sara Del Rey tonight. Apparently she’s a dream opponent for Rachel…which is just terrific.

I liked Misaki just fine during her debut weekend (particularly her match with Del Rey), but it was the V33/34 taping which really sold me on her. She has a phenomenal gift for brief, high-speed undercard matches with real substance and contributed to giving both Ariel and Nikki Roxx their best singles showings in a long time. Ohata steps up in class again this afternoon to face the returning Latina Sensation, who is on a 5-0 winning streak (but had prior commitments so couldn’t appear yesterday). A victory over one of the high profile Joshi visitors would surely make Mercedes’ claim for a title shot against the winner of Eagles/McKay undeniable?

Ohata goes straight to the canvas, which makes sense as she has a track record of tearing opponents apart on the deck. Even a powerhouse like Martinez has to work damn hard just to hang in there against the deceptively dangerous Misaki. Mercedes prefers to strike and draws loud gasps when she full-on slaps Ohata in the face. The Joshi star puts her right back down with a running crossbody into a cross armbreaker. Dave tries to sell Martinez as the ‘complete wrestler’, but she can’t cope with Ohata right now. The smaller Japanese athlete blitzes her with running dropkicks…but then makes an error and misses a missile dropkick. THRUST KICK TO THE HEAD by Martinez! She moves to show off her power with a lengthy stalling BRAINBUSTER (RIGHT ON HER EFFING HEAD!!), but Misaki kicks out at a close two. Regal Stretch applied, and when that doesn’t work Mercedes busts out the Kellie Skater Killer chops and elbows. SO OHATA CROSS ARMBREAKERS HER STRIKING ARM! That was awesome! Portia Perez talks about Martinez’s history of shoulder problems, which won’t get any better after Ohata lands a BRIDGING GERMAN SUPLEX for 2. POP-UP NECKBREAKER by Mercedes to leave them both down. Martinez is up first and hits the BULL RUN! It’s six in a row for Mercedes, winning at 07:46

Rating - *** - Once again Ohata proves herself to be the queen of this type of match. It told a different story again to the Roxx or Ariel matches, simply because Martinez is such a different opponent. Ohata’s excellence on the mat wasn’t just a strategy, it was a survival technique because every time the SHIMMER stalwart got her on a vertical base Ohata got an absolute sh*tkicking. From that nasty kick to the head, through to the chops and elbows and the stalling brainbuster. If they were off the ground it meant that Martinez was beating her ass. The methods she used to get Mercedes on the deck were outstanding, and her marvellous response to being chopped (grabbing the arm and putting a cross armbreaker on it) will be amongst my favourite moments of the weekend. She is a super little wrestler, and her hard work means Martinez looks extremely strong in beating her to go 6-0. Can anyone deny her a SHIMMER Title shot now?

The fans chant ‘title shot’ as Mercedes calls for a microphone. She reminds the powers that be of her 6-0 streak and becomes the latest member of the roster to vocally demand a title match. 

Speaking of title shots, Amber Gertner now has tonight’s challenger Jessie McKay with her. Jessie laments Madison’s personality shift effectively ending their team and friendship, and ends with a vow not to be pushed around by her trainer and mentor. It’s the biggest match of her career tonight…

The last time we saw The Haze she was suffering a loss to Ayumi Kurihara at Volume 33. She had a dark match at V34 (reportedly cut due to how awful it was) so returns this afternoon to reform her tag team with Tomoka that we saw at the last tapings. They looked an impressive duo, but will give up some experience to Ariel and Nikki Roxx – who have teamed more often and are great friends outside of the ring as well. 

Daizee comes out eating a sandwich in response to the uncomfortable fan chant she usually has to endure, and watches from the apron as her partner trades holds extensively with Roxx to get us started. Nikki shows her experience by cheating (biting out of the referee’s eyeline), in response to Tomoka’s usual assorted attempts to manipulate the rules for herself. Nakagawa doesn’t like it at all, and bites back at her fingers in an armbar. She then starts raking Nikki’s back whilst working a front facelock too. In what feels like no time at all Roxx and Naka have breezed through five minutes simply trading holds back and forth. Tomoka tries to force a submission with a half crab…which Roxx once again escapes with some savage biting. Tags all round, with Daizee hurling her sandwich into Ariel’s face then cheap-shotting her like a dick. Haze is in a foul mood; suffocating Ariel with the plastic bag she’d had her sandwich in then grinding her face into one of the pieces of bread on the canvas. Nakagawa is, of course, on hand for additional illegal strikes and together they cut the ring in half to isolate the Portuguese Princess. As Nikki frantically protests the heel duo hold her partner down and viciously pummel her head and neck. It’s a violent assault, which takes a comical turn when Haze starts giving her a noogie. The asshole antics of Haze and Naka are legitimately very entertaining and leave Ariel a mess on the ground with a beaten up neck. She manages to block the Heart Punch though, and slumps into a crucial tag to her partner. Roxx unloads on Nakagawa, getting a hot two-count with a spinebuster despite Haze’s best efforts at interfering. Ariel tags back as Tomoka climbs into Nikki with jumping enzi strikes. Daizee sneaks in and spits water into Ariel’s eyes…allowing Nakagawa to pin her at 16:49

Rating - *** - The finish came rather quickly, and having given this one so much time it was a shame not to really pull the trigger and let them have a few more minutes with a strong closing stretch as well. But this was constantly fun to watch, and comfortably the best Pretty Bitchin’ tag team match (great weekend for Roxx and Ariel in general!) thus far in SHIMMER. Much will be made of how dastardly Haze and Nakagawa were in isolating Ariel, and with good reason. They were downright dirty villains in the best possible way. But SHIMMER already has an asshole tag team (the Canadian NINJAs), so they needed more than just heel antics to stand-out. Well Nikki and Tomoka brought plenty of that in the first five minutes. I thought their pure wrestling exchanges (plus some low level cheating) were wonderfully fluent. Without ever getting too flashy, too violent or stealing thunder from anything else on the card, this was 15+ minutes of consistently decent wrestling. It’s a shame it finished abruptly and felt a little shorn of the strong closing act the rest of the body of work warranted, but this was still rewarding to watch. I really like longer undercard matches like this, so I hope SHIMMER do more of them (although appreciate it’s difficult when they tape in such a short period and have so many workers to fit in).

The biggest shock of the weekend (and arguably in SHIMMER history) came at the last show when Vice, making her return to the company after an innocuous two show run years earlier, grabbed the tights and scored a huge win over Allison Danger. She’d come back to this company demanding the opportunities she’d felt deprived of last time and certainly did everything within her power to grab it. Danger now has a rematch, and will be looking to even the score. From Veronika’s perspective, she could go from not booked to top billing in a single weekend if she can somehow deliver back-to-back wins over Danger.

Vice’s confidence appears boosted by the victory on the last show, and she is the aggressor as they work the mat in the opening minutes. Allison has grown to love the mat-based, methodical stuff though so is happy in that environment…so it’s wise that Veronika switches it up with a series of forearms and elbows to the back and neck. The elaborate chain-wrestling sequences are now gone and replaced with seemingly endless shots to the spine by Vice…and Danger doesn’t appear to have an answer. At last she starts blocking Vice’s shots and returning fire with some of her own. It takes a diving knee strike off the second rope to actually knock her to the ground though. Vice elbows the neck to counter Danger’s STO once…but can’t execute a DDT and gets countered back to the STO seconds later. A Russian Legsweep does plant Allison onto her banged up neck once more though. Up to the top she goes, landing a missile dropkick which catapults Danger backwards for a nearfall. Allison aggressively fights to hit the Lovelace Choker, then defies her injuries to nail the Shimmering Warlock for the win at a competive 08:57

Rating - *** - I thought this was significantly more interesting than their first match. It showed logical progression from V34, but what really impressed me was that this did so much more to showcase Veronika as a performer. Even in defeat here I feel like I learned far more about her as a worker than I did from her pretty mediocre win on the last show. She did a strong job, looked confident and attacked the match with real conviction. Her work on Danger’s back and neck was decent stuff, which I would’ve liked to have seen explored further had they got more time. Given that Vice doesn’t return after this taping though, it’s hard to argue too strongly against what turned out to be an impressive win for Allison. 

Once again the Canadian NINJA with a baby-face and a big mouth has gotten herself into a heated situation. Fresh from the Allison Danger feud, at V34 she went to the ring to angrily confront the returning Deeb and accuse her of being a sell-out (and a ‘diva freak show’). Naturally Serena didn’t like that one bit and laid down a challenge for this Volume. 

The cool thing about this is that since Portia questioned Deeb’s credentials as a wrestler, it actually makes perfect sense that we’d start this with some seriously intense grappling. Deeb throws her opponent around early on to make a mockery of the assertion that she’s just a ‘diva’. PORTIA PUNCHES HER IN THE FACE! Prazak implies she targeted the nose, as she bailed on failing to match wrestling skill with Serena and opted to make this a fight. On the floor Serena throws chops…only for Perez to rake the eyes and bundle her into the guardrails. The Tag Champ keeps going to the eyes every time Deeb threatens to fight back and has now grasped full control of proceedings. LARIAT by Deeb…but she’s so beaten up and struggling for breath that she can’t get up to capitalise. Portia pops her in the face again, but this time Serena is up to the task and trades blows with the Canadian. She punches Portia with such gusto that her gear starts falling apart…but showing all her intelligence Perez turns that to her advantage. She cheap-shots Deeb from the deck with a jawbreaker before biting her in the shaven-head! Deeb counters Portia’s superkick into the Go To Sleep Gutbuster for 2! Spear COUNTERED TO JUST FACELOCK! Nicole Matthews runs in and distracts the ref, causing him to miss Serena grabbing the ropes. Portia pulls her back and retains the hold, eventually choking Serena into unconsciousness and scoring the victory at 12:36

Rating - *** - I wasn’t overly enamoured with her return match against Skater, but this felt a lot more like the Serena Deeb who was so impressive back in the early-20’s Volumes against the likes of Sara Del Rey and Mercedes Martinez. Working with a heat magnet, and having a bit of a story to tell coming into the match really helped her. This one felt aggressive, as it needed to be given the harsh words spoken between them at the last show. Indeed, such was the crispness and precision of this it’s up there with Portia’s best SHIMMER singles matches thus far. She was great here, right down to the little things like her offence targeting the ‘diva’ in Deeb (i.e. punches to the nose, chops to the ‘chest’, biting the shaved head etc). They had great chemistry as opponents, and as one hopes Serena will be around for a while to ensure we’ll get to see a lot more from this budding rivalry yet it’s somewhat redeemable that the finish was a lame.

Amber Gertner wants Madison Eagles’ thoughts on her challenger tonight. Madison is paranoid about people wanting to take her belt…and since she’s the one that brought Jessie to SHIMMER she now plans to be the one to ‘kick her out’.

Kellie Skater enters the Eagles Club next to bemoan poor officiating as the reason she lost her open challenge match to Serena Deeb at Volume 33. She still thinks she can fight the biggest and the baddest that SHIMMER has to offer…and as she utters the words you can hear fans groaning for her. Since she was advertised for this taping she isn’t surprise, but through the curtain to make a (sadly brief) return and answer the Rate Tank’s challenge comes AMAZING KONG!

Kellie Skater vs Amazing Kong

The theme of her SHIMMER career thus far has been Skater’s big mouth and obsession with being a Tank getting her into all manner of trouble. She’s had to fight some of the toughest competitors on the SHIMMER roster and taken some real beatings. But her spirit has never been dampened…which is fortunate because she’ll need all the spirit and heart she can muster to combat the imposing, intimidating and returning Kong. I know I said she was basically gone after the loss to MsChif back at V28, but I did say she pops up a couple more times for cameo appearances and here is one of them. 

These two have fantastic chemistry, since Kellie is so deluded she actually tries to intimidate Kong with her size (and gets shoved on her ass repeatedly). She then starts an in-ring workout which has the crowd in hysterics. Next Kong no-sells a flurry of strikes to almost take the Rate Tank’s head off with a lariat. Skater dodges the Warrior Splash though, then DOES PUSH-UPS ON HER BACK! Now she’s attempting to SUPLEX HER! Kong’s face is magnificent as she steamrolls the Australian with a body avalanche. She swings Kellie around by the throat…but is then caught completely off guard as Skater hits a succession of kicks and takes her off her feet with a bodyscissors. An utterly idiotic crossbody attempt has no effect, but Kellie blocks the Implant Buster for MUSCLE POSES! AMAZING BOMB! Yeah, it’s over. Kong wins her comeback match at 05:55

Rating - *** - In some ways I’d like to go higher on the rating because this was, to my recollection anyway, the best comedy match in the history of SHIMMER. This was an exceptional pay-off to the way they’ve developed and built the Rate Tank character over the last year or more. I believe Dave had publicly acknowledged that the cost of the loaded SHIMMER roster and fly-ins from all over the world meant that it had become preventative to fund Kong as a regular for the time-being. She had a great four year run in SHIMMER, gave us some incredible matches (Kong/Del Rey remains one of my all-time favourite SHIMMER bouts) and left on a high by putting MsChif over. Paying a high fee to bring her to Berwyn, then book her protectively due to commitments to other companies had ceased being worthwhile (there’s only so many squashes, tag matches and multi-person encounters he can hide her in). And some would argue that paying her to come back for a five minute comedy match wasn’t smart money either…but I’d hugely disagree. Kellie Skater is very obviously now a real star for SHIMMER. She may not have the great matches (yet), but her ‘Rate Tank’ character has now become a core part of the ‘SHIMMER’ experience. Yes she got crushed here, but that only adds to the mystique around her persona. Bring Kong in to decimate her was the BEST way to put over a big part of his roster, therefore Prazak’s money was incredibly well spent. This was a total riot.

Mired in personal difficulties with Daffney thought she may be, Rachel needs to put everything to one side and acknowledge that this is a huge opportunity for her. She has called it a ‘dream match’, and stepping into the ring with the ace of SHIMMER and first ever champion is something she needs to capitalise on. It’s a good time too, with Del Rey in arguably the biggest slump of her SHIMMER career. After going years with barely any losses she’s been beaten twice in quick succession across recent Volumes (Ayumi Kurihara and Jessie McKay the beneficiaries). That means the Death Rey is under some pressure to deliver a strong showing here too…

Summerlyn uses flash pins, that have caused Sara difficulties in the past, to score some close early nearfalls. It shows she is serious and seriously aggravates Del Rey. She violently kicks at Summerlyn, only for Rachel to fire right back! Daffney makes an inevitable appearance in the aisle distracting Rachel (even as referee’s drag her away). CAPO KICK TO THE BACK OF SUMMERLYN’S HEAD! With Rachel rattled, Del Rey starts going to work on the fingers. Yes, the fingers…and it’s f*cking brutal to watch. KICK TO THE HAND! ARMBAR WITH FINGER SNAPPING! This is as sadistic as we’ve seen the former champ. And it gets worse when she starts inserting Summerlyn’s fingers into the turnbuckle bolts and trying to snap them off in there. Rachel throws some elbows back her way, prompting Del Rey to bite the hand and smash it into the turnbuckles again. Summerlyn can’t use her left hand at all…and after defying the pain to hit Best Of Both Worlds she collapses in pain. Sara, meanwhile, had rolled out of the ring and lies in wait so she can hammer the hand and fingers into the steel steps. Back inside she locks in a CROSS ARM AND FINGER BREAKER! Rachel taps at 09:06

Rating - *** - So Sara Del Rey has essentially become Bryan Danielson at this point. This is exactly the kind of match he’d deliver for Ring Of Honor in his prime – on the undercard, elevating a lesser talent to the best match of their tenure in the company and demonstrating their greatness by picking a random body part and using it as the focal point of the match just for fun. Del Rey’s work on Summerlyn’s fingers was as scary as Amazing Kong was in the previous match and far tougher to watch. To her credit, Rachel sold it like she was being straight-up murdered too (although using it to hit her big finish was stupid). I understand this isn’t a draw, and Rachel isn’t necessarily top of the list of people you want to see Sara wrestle. But don’t skip this – it’s a Del Rey masterclass and another example of why she is a sensational, world class worker.

Daffney returns and takes a few hits at Rachel’s injured fingers and hand just to be a dick. Jessica James makes the save causing Daff to leave. Summerlyn recovers and, despite having a misshapen claw hand, stomps to the locker room looking for a fight with her former mentor.

With her tag partner now apparently embroiled in another feud of her own making, once again Matthews is free to pursue her own singles ambitions. The loss to Jessie McKay at Volume 33 will have hurt, and she will now look to recover strong against a big name in Ayako Hamada. Ironically, Hamada is also smarting from a loss to McKay, albeit she wasn’t pinned and it was a triple threat. It did mean she isn’t in the main event challenging for the SHIMMER Championship herself though. She’ll be seeing a win herself to reinforce her credentials as a main event star…

Nicole gives Hamada something of a disrespectful slap…SO HAMADA PALM STRIKES THE F*CK OUT OF HER! MATTHEWS FIRES BACK! Here we go! Big kick to the back of the head rocks the Canadian, who can’t get back to her feet and finds herself sustaining more head kicks when she tries. Demonstrating her veteran skills, Ayako starts bending the rules to beatdown Matthews…so it is all the more creditable that the Tag Champ gets back up and throws kicks back at her. Mounted elbows and yet more brutal kicks beat Hamada back into the corner and audibly stun the crowd. She shows she can break rules too by eye raking and choking the veteran. A huge punt to Hamada’s ribs actually forces her to leave the ring to recover…but also makes Nicole so confident that she wastes valuable seconds posing to the crowd. SUPERKICK by Hamada, quickly followed by a headscissors then a jumping DDT for 2. She looks for the moonsault…but Nicole gets the boots up into the ribs she’s already injured! RIB LARIAT gets 2 for Matthews. She lines up the Vancouver Manoeuvre only for Ayako to counter into a jawbreaker. MOONSAULT MISSES! NO SOLD! GERMAN BY MATTHEWS! FOR 2! Hamada’s midsection is now so hurt that even she seeks respite by going for quick pins. SUPERKICK! PYRAMID DRIVER! MATTHEWS KICKS OUT! HEEL KICK BLOCKED! BUZZSAW KICK DUCKED! JUMPING ENZI BY AYAKO! AP CROSS NAILED! Hamada picks up a hard-fought win at 10:49

Rating - **** - Well that ruled! I’d read that they only got ten minutes so was initially disappointed and feared the worse. I’ve loved Hamada in SHIMMER thus far, but previously all her best work (i.e. the Mercedes, Sara and Melissa matches) have all gone longer, whilst her shorter efforts haven’t quite hit the same level. Thankfully she put that streak to bed here with a killer little match. She and Nicole tore into each other from the opening bell and didn’t let up for a second. Hamada leaves victorious, but Matthews did so much to stand up to (and hang with) her here that this will do huge amounts for Nicole’s credibility too. She capably traded strikes with the veteran, she opened up an injury, she prevented her from hitting the signature moonsault…and ended one big move away from victory herself. That sequence at the end as each woman threw and countered big kicks was electrifying to watch. MOTN thus far on what is one of the most consistent SHIMMER shows ever…

Nicole Matthews regroups in the parking lot with Portia Perez after the match. Portia decrees it a ‘great day’ for them after she beat Serena and Nicole pushed Hamada to the limit. In a completely serious (and equally effective promo) they end by calling themselves main eventers...and also have no plans to drop the Tag Titles anytime soon either.

Failing to take the SHIMMER Championship from Madison Eagles means that neither of these two women will look back on this taping fondly. However, if either of them want to get another shot at The Punisher then victory here is critical. They are both actually 1-1 for the weekend, with big singles wins over Daizee Haze (Ayumi) and Tomoka Nakagawa (Melissa) to go alongside the title defeat. Can Melissa defeat her second Joshi talent of the weekend, and become only the second person in SHIMMER to pin Kurihara?

A handshake and a clean break from Melissa make you think we are going to see a respectful opening exchange. That is until Ayumi full on ELBOWS HER IN THE FACE! Melissa’s face is all like ‘well f*ck you then’, as she catches her trying a crossbody and emphatically slams her to the deck. Dropkick flurry from Kurihara, but she doesn’t have the strength to get the Cheerleader off her feet and Melissa profits with a running tackle which rockets her through the air. Melissa goes after Kurihara’s arm and shoulder, which historically has been a real problem area for her. Kurihara fears sustaining more damage to that body part so locks onto a bodyscissors…and clings onto it even when Melissa dives backwards and squashes her! MOUNTED ELBOWS by Melissa, but still Kurihara fights to maintain the hold. Ayumi throws double knees at her opponent, sparking a big elbow duel in the middle of the ring. KNOCKOUT ELBOW BY MELISSA! Followed by an Ocean Cyclone suplex for 2. Cheerleader makes an error in judgement in trying to go to the top rope – traditionally Kurihara’s area of expertise. Ayumi knocks her out of the ring, then climbs herself for a FLYING CROSSBODY TO THE FLOOR! Having not died on that, Kuri hops back to the top again to hit the MISSILE DEATH KICK! FOR 2! Urinage blocked by Melissa…Air Raid Crash blocked by Kurihara! Kudo Driver blocked, elbow smash blocked…AIR RAID CRASH! STILL 2! What an incredible sequence! Melissa is incredulous that Kurihara kicked out of one of her finishers, so literally climbs on top of her and tries to beat her senseless! CURB STOMP NAILED! KURIHARA F*CKING BRIDGES TO KICK OUT! KNEES TO THE HEAD BY MELISSA! Kudo Driver…countered to a backslide…AND AYUMI WINS! Just like the Del Rey match, she uses a flash pin technique to beat a SHIMMER original. 11:21 is your time.

Rating - **** - This was starting to threaten an even higher rating. They beat the sh*t out of each other at a frightening pace, taking in dives to the floor, neck bumps, superb counter-wrestling exchanges, Ayumi’s ridiculous missile dropkick spot and some frenetic hot nearfalls too. But my favourite moment may have been in the first minute when they teased a nice respectful babyface exhibition match only for the super-cute Kurihara to attempt to break Melissa’s jaw! This was all-out war between two of the best workers on SHIMMER’s current active roster.

The two get a standing ovation for their efforts, and they end their match as it started with a handshake. 

What a journey for both of these women. From near-unknowns coming in from Australia at Volume 21 to participate in the Gauntlet to crown the inaugural Tag Champions, they now main event together with the singles title on the line. But despite starting their journey together, their paths since have largely been divergent. Madison has looked a class act from debut, and despite the controversial way she earned the title shot, her emphatic win over MsChif that earned her the SHIMMER Championship was a masterful performance. Despite a questionable attitude, she has backed up that win with impressive defences of the belt against both Melissa and Kurihara to get here. She is also Jessie’s trainer, meaning that after their team went their separate ways as Madison got to fight the likes of Mercedes and Del Rey, McKay went to the bottom of the card to work her way up. She has fought with honour and courage, winning fans in abundance along the way and showing remarkable improvements as a worker. Her matches against Nicole Matthews were both superb, and she backed them up with a memorable shock win over Del Rey and Hamada in a triple threat which earned her this match. She’ll enjoy the vocal support of the live crowd…but does she have the skills needed to defeat the woman who trained her? Will Eagles show the strain of a punishing series of title defences so early into her championship reign? 

Eagles is such a pro, and swarms McKay from the bell trying to keep her on the ground where she can make her technical superiority count. Jessie fights gamely but finds the champion too skilled and too damn tall meaning she continually gets ensnared in her limbs. McKay smartly gets some distance and quickens the pace with armdrags and ranas which works much better than trying to out-wrestle The Punisher. Unfortunately for her Madison is an experienced competitor and soon works out that strategy…then emphatically puts a stop to it by countering another rana attempt into a powerbomb. They go to the outside where Jessie MISSES a running knee strike and collides with the guardrails. It opens up an immediate injury which Eagles looks to exploit…by wrapping the leg around the railing and blasting it with a running dropkick. Prazak points out that a bad leg effectively removes the School Girl Crush from McKay’s repertoire, and Madison has evidently reached that conclusion too as she repeatedly smashes the leg into the metal rails. The assault continues inside the ring with a barrage of submissions and strikes which drastically impair Jessie’s ability to even walk. She swings a hopeless kick back in Madison’s direction only to have her bad leg jerked out painfully from under her again. From nowhere she locks in 7 Minutes In Heaven…which Eagles BRILLIANTLY counters into a horse collar stretch on the bad leg! CODEBREAKER by McKay, knocking her trainer backwards but leaving her doubled over in pain as well. Eagles responds by sprinting across the ring into another savage kick planted right into the decimated knee. The challenger refuses to quit and lunges into a diving double knee strike…but yet again that badly hurts her. SCHOOL GIRL CRUSH KNOCKS MADISON OVER THE TOP ROPE! And with that McKay collapses to the canvas too. She needs the ropes to stand, but when she does she somehow lunges into a FLYING HEADSCISSORS OFF THE APRON! Back in the ring she looks for the Boyfriend Stealer, only for Madison to lift her into an attempted brainbuster – but she counters back with BAD KNEE STRIKES! Screaming in pain as she goes, Jessie drops south into a front choke…only for the champ to counter back into a northern lights suplex for 2. BRAINBUSTER nailed for 2! Tornado DDT out of the corner by McKay though to leave both champion and challenger flat out. Eagles goes for a powerbomb…which Jessie somehow evades and turns into a CODE PINK for 2! To the top McKay goes, right into a ROPE RUN ROUNDHOUSE KICK by the champ! HELL BOUND! Eagles retains at 19:57

Rating - **** - What a fantastic main event to round out what has been one of the better SHIMMER Volumes that I can remember. Jessie isn’t the most athletic, graceful or natural worker that I’ve ever seen but she has developed an organic connection with the SHIMMER fans and absolutely nails the lovable babyface trying her hardest. They milked that connection for all it was worth to create something really dramatic, yet entirely in keeping with the theme they’ve developed of Madison delivering scarily dominant performances in SHIMMER Title matches. This went twenty minutes, and she was the aggressor and driving force for almost all of it…but that worked. She’s a better worker, a more experienced performer and having destroyed MsChif and dominated Melissa it wouldn’t make sense for Eagles to have a 50/50 match with Jessie. The format hid Jessie’s weaknesses, and played to her real strength, which was selling everything like complete death and drawing real sympathy from a hot crowd who adored her. On a technical level her selling became VERY patchy towards the end, and it made no real sense why she KEPT using her knees to hit offence…but that wasn’t really relevant. You bought that she was suffering, you believed she was in jeopardy therefore you rallied behind her when she hit nutty dives off the apron. Madison’s trilogy of title defences across the first three Volumes of this taping have been outstanding. She’s a superb worker and is, for my money, a serious step up in quality from the popular but inconsistent MsChif. 

Tape Rating - **** - I thought this was a really great SHIMMER event, and one of my favourite Volumes thus far. Until the main event nothing was crazily outrageous, but on the flipside everything was so consistently decent, enjoyable and downright fun. We saw good tag team wrestling, a sound grudge match, legitimately funny comedy, thrilling Joshi versus SHIMMER battles, world class wrestling from Del Rey and a cracking championship main event which stands out as one of the more memorable SHIMMER Title matches ever. Matthews/Hamada, Melissa/Kurihara and Eagles/McKay are where the money is on this DVD…but the whole card had much to enjoy and recommend. A strong rebound after the moderate Volume 34 and a must-purchase DVD for SHIMMER collectors.

3) Ayako Hamada vs Nicole Matthews (****)

2) Ayumi Kurihara vs Cheerleader Melissa (****)

1) Madison Eagles vs Jessie McKay (****)