McXal's Reviews

The long SHIMMER spring 2011 weekend draws to a close with one final loaded card. At the top of the bill is perhaps the most challenging defence of Madison Eagles’ SHIMMER Title thus far, as the legendary Joshi veteran Ayako Hamada steps into the ring with The Punisher. We started the weekend with the shock dethroning of the Canadian NINJAs by the Seven Star Sisters. They end the weekend with one last title defence against the dastardly team of Daizee Haze and Tomoka Nakagawa. Christina Von Eerie, Athena and Jessica James are all rewarded for their strong performances all weekend with matches against SHIMMER main event talent; CVE facing Mercedes Martinez, Athena facing Jessie McKay and Jessie James working Sara Del Rey. The rest of the card includes Ayumi Kurihara’s second match of the weekend, Portia Perez and Serena Deeb bringing their feud to a four corner survival...and the grudge match between Regeneration X and the Knight Dynasty. Dave Prazak and Portia Perez are ready for commentary on action taped in Berwyn, IL.

This is Taylor’s second pre-Made In Sin appearance on the main SHIMMER roster, having previously lost to Melanie Cruise on Volume 33. Skater is currently 1-1 for the weekend, and should view this as a huge opportunity to end a SHIMMER taping with more wins than losses in her name. For a talented worker who has lost almost constantly since debuting that would represent a major accomplishment.

Kellie’s lengthy list of nicknames now also includes her being the ‘Ultimate Total Package’…of course accompanied by plenty of flexing and posing. Made is unimpressed and beats her back into the corner with strikes, before landing a couple of dropkicks (only one of which is any good). Kellie asks for a time out for squats and protein shakes which draws Made towards her where she can catapult her neck-first over the top rope. To give the Rate Tank her dues, much of her offence after that is geared around punishing Taylor’s neck. What’s more impressive is that Skater looks very comfortable assuming the role of aggressor and dominant force in the match – a role she doesn’t get to take on very often despite her larger-than-life persona. The Squatting Samoan Drop gets 2, and after every major spot Kellie hits she makes sure she stays on Taylor with knee strikes or clubbing blows to the neck. Made delivers a dreadful Stinger Splash, into a moderately better Ace Crusher for 2. It sounds like some of the fatigued fans are starting to call her out for her dire execution now…and are happy to see Skater pick up the win with her flipping neckbreaker spot at 06:17

Rating - * - This featured a strong showing from Kellie, dragged down by a particularly poor performance by Taylor. She looked clumsy, awkward and sloppy throughout and it left Skater to hold things together single-handedly. I can’t be the only one ready to see Skater get some opportunities in higher profile matches. I know she’s worked a lot of big SHIMMER names, but largely in pseudo-comedy squash matches. She is capable of, and deserves, more.

CVE has certainly had an eventful debut weekend. She was kicked out of the locker room by Sara Del Rey, then she traded wins with the former SHIMMER Champion…and now she ends by squaring off with another SHIMMER original. Having lost her title shot at Madison Eagles at Volume 37, Martinez is looking to put together another winning streak to earn another shot…and is already two straight wins into it having bested Rachel Summerlyn and Britani Knight.

Relations between Christina and Mercedes seem far more cordial than the hostile welcome that Del Rey offered to the newcomer. Von Eerie wrestlers smart in the first minute, keeping the match almost entirely on the ground and almost pinning her in a series of roll-ups. And then Martinez almost kicks her head off. It’s a familiar pattern as Mercedes works to make a mat-based match more of a brawl where she can utilise her famed hard-hitting style. And in turn CVE counters an attempted right hand with a crucifix pin looking to take her right back down. But she tries trading blows with Mercedes only to miss an enziguri kick and get punished with a spell in the Regal Stretch. The Latina Sensation starts getting aggressive and attacking the throat of her Mohawked adversary in amongst the ferocious striking. Throat-grabbing Iconoclasm nailed for 2, then Martinez rolls her into a front butterfly stretch. Von Eerie enzi kicks her way free and shows her own toughness with headbutts and knee strikes. Her version of the Pedigree (which Wikipedia informs me is terrifically titled the ‘Graveyard Smash’) is countered into the Bull Run, giving Martinez the victory at 07:55

Rating - *** - It’s a shame these two were wheeled out so soon into the evening, as they had genuine chemistry and a solid connection with the crowd. This could have gone quite a bit longer and not lost the audience at all. It was a simple enough story, and one we’ve seen often in Martinez matches as she doesn’t always find ways to out-manoeuvre opponents on the mat or out-sprint them in the speed-stakes…but she has dogged toughness and unrelenting aggression which is frequently too much for her opponents to handle. Von Eerie tried everything, from flash pins to mat wrestling to trying to trade blows with Martinez, but ultimately she couldn’t hit her finishing move when Mercedes could. It’s the end of a very decent debut taping for Von Eerie, whom more than merited a return invitation for future SHIMMER weekends.

For the second time this weekend, Cruise gets to test herself against main event talent. Two Volumes ago she lost a tooth in combat with MsChif’s old partner/rival Cheerleader Melissa before succumbing to defeat. She won’t want to go 0-2 for the taping, and will have her eyes firmly set on upsetting the former SHIMMER Champion.

Cruise throws down the gauntlet early by repeatedly shoving Chif into the corner and doling out some big chops. MsChif doesn’t like it one bit; giving her Kobashi chops then headbutts. It takes a series of clotheslines to actually get Melanie off her feet though, and it isn’t long before she is back up and putting the boots into MsChif’s face. Seeking to chop her down, Ms works a leg submission and cranks on the knee. Melanie’s size and strength is just too much though, and she powers up to batter her way into her own submission hold on MsChif’s heavily braced knees. That strategy really works and leaves her able to take MsChif off her feet with a solitary kick to the leg...therefore it is super annoying when Cruise randomly abandons it to work a surfboard (albeit it does make sense to set Chif up for the Cruise Control). MsChif hits Gateway To Annihilation, but the leg injury mean she is slow to stand and Melanie gets to pile in again with shots to the back and a swinging sidewalk slam for 2. She easily counters Code Green…but MsChif counters a chokeslam into the Desecrator. She wins at 07:58

Rating - ** - I’m not sure Melanie will be entirely happy with her weekend. She got to wrestle two top quality opponents, didn’t disgrace herself and neither match was bad. But she also didn’t deliver a break-out performance of the kind that we’ve seen from the likes of Jessie McKay, Nicole Matthews, Madison Eagles, Serena Deeb, Nikki Roxx and more when elevating their roster statuses. I thought the story here was decent and gave Cruise plenty of good material to work with. She smartly used her size to intimidate and dominate…but despite several attempts never really pinned MsChif down for long enough. Her work was adequate but lacked a little focus and/or drama…which really showed when MsChif hit the Desecrator to almost no reaction. 

This is definitely the weekend that Athena went from promising upstart to SHIMMER regular. Her match against Cheerleader Melissa at V37 was excellent, and she followed it up with a super-entertaining back and forth contest against Jessica James on V39. She is still looking for her first SHIMMER win, and to hit her much-hyped top rope diving Stunner finish, the ‘O-Face’ (or ‘Eclipse’ as WWE fans will know it). McKay needs to rebound after dropping the 2/3 Falls rubber match in her rivalry with Nicole Matthews last time out. She knows a thing or two about being a rising star on the SHIMMER roster…and presumably won’t want to be the ‘established talent’ that the new woman makes her name on.

McKay shows her experience in big SHIMMER matches by coming straight out of the blocks and looking to negate Athena’s speed and agility. She works the mat, she works headlocks, she grabs wristlocks; whatever she can to ensure she keeps hold of (and retains control of) the Wrestling Goddess. What’s impressive is that Athena busts out some pretty awesome counters to McKay, to the extent that this starts resembling a World Of Sport match for a brief moment. Finally Athena creates some distance…and capitalises with a hanging backbreaker out of the corner. She is relentless in her attack on the midsection after that; using both submissions and strikes to wear down the Australian. A suplex rolled into a version of the Side Effect, then followed by a standing backbreaker…all do more damage to McKay’s back. Jessie desperately counters another backbreaker attempt into a ragged headscissors takedown…but it’s only temporary respite as Athena starts wrenching her back further in the ropes. Another headscissors by Jessie, with more impact this time, and converted into a standing facecrusher for 2. SCHOOL GIRL CRUSH gets 2! Athena blocks the Boyfriend Stealer into the Ultimate Backslash (urinage backbreaker) for 2. She climbs the ropes…but McKay meets her at the top with right hands. Athena knocks her away…O-FACE NAILED! SHE FINALLY HIT IT! And then slumps to the ground in disappointment when McKay falls out of the ring after falling victim. When she finally retrieves her Athena is only able to get another 2-count. NORTHERN LIGHTS BOMB BY JESSIE! BOYFRIEND STEALER! McKay gets a hard-fought victory at 11:49

Rating - **** - What a break-out weekend this has been for Athena. This was probably her best match of the taping, which is really saying something considering her match with Jessica James was so much fun, and I adored the Cheerleader Melissa match too. To be able to pull out something that felt this energetic and dynamic four shows deep into a weekend of tapings is a real testament to the stamina of both these women (particularly McKay, who worked the 2/3 Falls match with Nicole Matthews a couple of hours previously). This was a perfect tone for a tiring crowd; they moved quickly, told an easily relatable story of the popular McKay trying to ground her ultra-athletic foe, then in turn Athena countering that strategy by putting on a masterful performance. It culminated in her finally hitting the O-Face for the first time (which got a definite pop even though she was a heel at this point), then followed by immediate drama as Jessie fell out of the ring and got time to recover. Athena is quickly becoming one of my favourite SHIMMER performers…

I really like that SHIMMER is acknowledging one of its earliest rivalries in Danger vs Rebecca Knox in this one. On V39 we saw the Knights and Becky attack Leva Bates in the locker rooms (presumably at K-NOX’s request), angering Allison and leading to this showdown. I have a slight issue with it in that they ran it AFTER we’d already seen Saraya pissed off at Knox for both her and Britani’s singles losses on Volume 39 so I’m not sure why she’d then help Rebecca with her issues…but I can roll with it. The Knights have been in fine form all weekend, making an immediate impact as much with their colossal characters as they have with their wrestling (although all their matches have been good too, especially their Tag Title Match with 3S). Re-X are a new team to SHIMMER this weekend and have gone 1-1 thus far. Their fun-loving cosplay gimmick couldn’t be at greater odds with the utter anger and fury of Sweet Saraya.

I’ve openly stated I don’t love the cosplay stuff as much as some, but I will admit that the Hit Girl outfit Leva wears to compete in tonight is flat-out tremendous. Paige immediately rips her purple wig off though, before tossing her head-first into the guardrails. Meanwhile Saraya is grappling like f*ck with Danger, grinding on the arm and shoulder that Allison has struggled with in the past. Of course, Becky Knox is more than willing to hop up onto the apron and provide a distraction so that both Knights can maul the SHIMMER veteran in the corner. The momentum changes when Danger full-on knees Britani in the stomach and forcibly DRAGS her across the ring into the Re-X corner. Bates tries a flying headscissors…but she is CAUGHT BY BRITANI! Then dumped into an alley-oop! Where did that come from? The young Paige looks awesome here, completely owning Bates with suplexes and a neckbreaker as she restores dominance for her team. Lucha-inspired armdrag from Leva to Saraya, who looks so pissed off at falling victim to such a flashy move that she then stumbles into a crossbody block from Leva as well. Enter Britani to once again take control, royally f*cking up Bates’ back as she goes. Once again Bates draws from lucha libre influences to make a comeback…and once again Britani shows insane strength as she simply CATCHES Leva trying a headscissors and drills her into the mat with a sidewalk slam. But the teenager’s inexperience comes back to haunt her when she delivers a snapmare with such ‘snap’ on it that she flings Bates into her own corner…bringing an irate Danger back into play. Running STO on Britani…BRUTAL POWERSLAM ON SARAYA! The Knights cue up their basement dropkick combo in the corner, but Bates makes the save with a LARIATOOOO on Britani! Saraya hauls poor Leva up by her pigtails…so Bates hits a headscissors/headlock takedown combo on both opponents! Danger goes for a suplex on Britani, only for Rebecca Knox to grab her old rival by the leg and trip her. She then holds the legs down as Britani covers Allison for the win at 11:24

Rating - **** - I admit this is a generous rating, but I absolutely loved everything about this one. It had drama, a great story, superb heel and babyface work, an astonishingly high quality performance from a teenage woman making her way in the business (Britani), a gutsy, breakout performance from Leva, and even the finish harped back to the very early days of SHIMMER with Knox cheating Danger once more. The Knights are SO GOOD at being villains, and on the flip side the SHIMMER fans adore Leva and Allison. It meant they had incredible chemistry, and from the second Re-X sprinted to the ring this felt like a straight-up fight between four women who hated each other. Everyone (including Knox) had a role to play…and they all smashed it. I know I’ll get accused of over-rating this, but personally I thought there was too much genuine quality contained here not to acknowledge it. An genuine hidden gem, on a weekend where tag team wrestling truly has come to SHIMMER in earnest for the first time.

The end of the match doesn’t mean the fight is over. Danger and Knox scream at each other on one side of the ring, as Leva climbs the turnbuckles AND FLIES UP THE AISLE INTO A SUICIDE DIVE ONTO THE KNIGHTS! LOVELACE CHOKER ON KNOX! Danger clenches her fists in triumph having finally got to beat Rebecca Knox up after waiting for almost five years!

We said goodbye to Rachel Summerlyn at Volume 39 (although she worked a dark match on this show), and unfortunately she is taking her tag partner Jessie James with her. James has come into her own at this taping, particularly in her awesome little match against Athena. She gets to sign off against the ace of SHIMMER, the first champion, and all round ‘Queen Of Wrestling’ Sara Del Rey. 

‘Please don’t die’ – SHIMMER fans to James. She spends the first minute frantically evading Sara’s attempts and knocking her block off…but eventually gets dragged from the floor to the ring by her hair! MAFIA KICK! Del Rey looks annoyed that James evaded her for so long, and now looks to punish her even more; almost snapping her in half in a Mexican surfboard. Quite incredibly Jessie doesn’t tap or snap in that hold…so Death Rey ties her in the ropes to relentlessly punt her across the spine. Gory Special (with ‘Queenly wave’) applied, but still Jessica refuses to quit. She even tries to counter into a small package, which Del Rey snuffs out quickly by landing another big boot. LARIATS TO THE FACE! James blocks a powerbomb and lands the JJ Kick into a jumping enzi for a shock 2-count. Front Choke applied by James…which she clings to even as Del Rey pummels her in the corner. SARA DROPS TO ONE KNEE! She starts waving instead of tapping…and still Jessie won’t let go. Del Rey thinks about tapping – a feat in itself! Eventually Sara pulls James’ hair to break it and counters to the ROYAL BUTTERFLY! Del Rey wins at 10:08

Rating - *** - It really feels like Jessica’s last two SHIMMER matches, by far her best in a SHIMMER ring, could have been the start of something. She was developing a genuine connection with the SHIMMER fans. Her small stature and bubbly personality were easy to like; here the audience genuinely cared for her and didn’t want to see Sara destroy her. The fans were almost at fever pitch any time she even hinted at a comeback, and the lengthy front choke spot which almost brought her victory was as dramatic as anything else you’ll see on the show tonight. Sara is the master of winning matches in what feels like a ‘dominant’ fashion, but actually making her opponent look great, and she did that again here. 

It isn’t often that SHIMMER puts on box office four corner survivals, featuring four genuine top tier talents, like this. Not overdoing it with the format means that this feels fresh, and like a ‘big deal’. At the heart of it is the ongoing rivalry between Deeb and Perez. We saw another flashpoint in that feud at V39 when they competed once again, only for Portia to knock Serena out with a cookie/baking sheet, getting herself disqualified. Throwing the unpredictable LuFisto and imposing Melissa into the mix certainly won’t do anything to quell their fire. Each of these four know victory here would go a long way to earning them a shot at the SHIMMER Championship.

LuFi and Melissa show mutual respect to each other in contrast to the animosity between Perez and Deeb. Portia decides she wants the limelight for herself and blind-tags in so they don’t get to start together though. She trades holds with Lu on the mat but mostly just pisses her off by continually pulling her hair to get an advantage. In the end LuFisto puts a stop to it by physically BITING the arm she keeps using to pull her hair! It becomes apparent that Perez has a target on her back, and with nobody willing to tag her out she has to stay in the ring with the Super Hardcore Anime. Serena wants a piece of the Canadian Ninja…so Portia sprints away, slaps Melissa by way of a tag then heads up the aisle! Deeb and Melissa work back and forth, and the aggressive Cheerleader delivers the more potent offence in this period; seemingly opening up injuries to multiple body parts. Serena is no rookie though, and grabs a headlock to nullify Melissa’s advantage...at least until the Cheerleader batters her way free and delivers a back suplex. That noticeably hurts Deeb’s back, which Melissa immediately tries to exploit with the Kondo Clutch. Deeb does an awesome job throwing her body around and bumping like a ragdoll to sell the effects of Melissa’s offence. She misses an opportunity to tag out thanks to Portia, so instead nurses her aching back and prepares to square off with LuFisto as well. As LuFi tears into the back as well, Perez now ironically finds herself diving into the ring to SAVE Deeb from losing the match. Serena tries her best to fight back on LuFisto…but hardly gets off the canvas when throwing dropkicks. CHOP DUEL between Deeb and Lu…firing Serena up hugely, but resulting only her in her trying to throw her Spear in desperation and diving right into the ringpost. Of course, the first woman on the scene is Portia to mock her enemy and start attacking her now-injured shoulder against the guardrails. With Deeb injured Perez does now willingly tag into the match with her, continuing to pick apart the arm with a number of submission holds. Even when Serena looks to mount a comeback Portia quickly negates it with an armbar DDT. At last LuFisto gets a hot tag – chopping lumps out of Portia in the corner. Then finally, for the first time since their MOTYC at Volume 20, Melissa and LuFisto lock horns! ELBOWS! GERMAN BY LUFISTO! CANNONBALL ON PEREZ! SAMOAN DROP BY MELISSA! Deeb and Perez are legal, and they watch as Melissa and LuFisto maul each other all the way down the aisle. Portia as nowhere to run! SPEAR! Serena finally pins Perez at 21:45

Rating - *** - Individually this match had a lot of really strong elements, and whilst it was enjoyable I can’t but feel like it amounted to less than the sum of its parts. At the core were great performances from Perez and Deeb. They were the two that had a feud going on, and they carried the responsibility of injecting emotion and drama into proceedings at all times. Perez is so good at being an aggravating little sh*t; watching her pull that routine on legitimate bad asses like Melissa and LuFisto was great fun. Deeb worked almost the entire match, and did a hell of a job. She sold her injuries competently, she worked really damn hard to make all her opponents’ offence look violent, and masterfully conveyed the lust for vengeance on her rival Perez in that final minute. I think my main issue is that, whilst SHIMMER deserve credit for letting them go this long, the match they worked didn’t fit the time they had. They either needed LESS time to work more of an aggressive sprint, or they needed longer to build the tension around Deeb’s injuries, Perez’s asshole tendencies and tease the eventual showdown between Melissa and LuFi too. In the end it felt like they worked eighteen minutes of quality foundation work, then spunked the pay-off in about ten seconds. 

On the one hand, it’s a shame that Kurihara is only working twice this weekend. On the other, she pulled out all the stops and delivered arguably the best SHIMMER match ever with Ayako Hamada a couple of Volumes ago and if she needed V37/39 off to make allowance for that I have no issue. She won’t want to head back to Japan winless but faces a huge test in the form of Nicole Matthews, who enters full of confidence having bested her rival Jessie McKay in their 2/3 Falls Match at V39.

Nicole seems to want a low key feeling out process…but Kurihara shatters that by running at her and dropkicking her full pelt in the face! The Canadian angrily retorts with a forearm shot to Ayumi’s back, which even in the first minute of the match looks to be bothering her. ELBOW by Kurihara (how f*cking stiff was that!?), into another dropkick…but once again Nicole hurts her back; this time by jerking her down onto it by the hair. Seated abdominal stretch further targets that body part (plus her lousy shoulders too). Matthews kicks at the shoulder as the wounded Kurihara desperately tries to get off the ground, and follows with a dropkick to the ribs when she at last does so. The fans rally behind Ayumi as she sprints into repeated double knee strikes in the corner. HANGING ARMBAR! LARIAT BY MATTHEWS! NECK DROP BRIDGING GERMAN…GETS 2! Once again the wounded Ayumi is on the deck in a heap…but she does at least step to one side to avoid Matthews trying to clobber her off the top rope. MISSILE DEATH KICK NAILED! Nicole blocks the Urinage…and instead they start elbowing the sh*t out of each other. KNEES BY AYUMI! RUNNING ELBOW puts Matthews down for 2. BRAINBUSTER BY NICOLE! FOR 2! Vancouver Manoeuvre COUTNERED TO THE URINAGE! Kurihara wins at 08:21

Rating - **** - I don’t know whether Ayumi was legit banged up or whether they were just doing a hell of a job putting that over as the big ‘hook’, but if she wasn’t capable of going long with Nicole, and after the bruising weekend both women have had (quite literally – they were both covered in bruises, scrapes and welts even before the bell), I have no issue with them going working flat-out to try and decimate each other in an eight minute rampage. It’s easy to see why Dave has used Kurihara as the top ‘singles’ star of the Joshi 4 Hope girls (i.e. excluding Hamada). She is young, fiery, crosses the language barrier to get the American fans to relate to her superbly, hits f*cking hard, and sells the sh*t out of everything her opponent does too. The match was barely thirty seconds old before she was on the ground, grabbing her back and writhing in pain; selling a Matthews forearm like she’d been hit by a car. It was the catalyst for an adrenaline rush of a match where the determined Canadian went all out to exploit Ayumi’s wounded state and pick up the win before the explosive Joshi star finally hit her with something hard enough that she couldn’t kick out of. She failed…but what a fight it was!

Here we have a battle between two undefeated teams with the Tag Titles on the line. 3S – Hiroyo Matsumoto and Misaki Ohata – sprung something of a surprise when they ended the lengthy reign of the Canadian NINJAs at the start of the weekend. Not ones to shirk a challenge, since then they’ve put them on the line in hard-fought title defences against The Knight Dynasty and Pretty Bitchin’. At Volume 38 Haze and Nakagawa announced their intention to team more regularly. They had already formed something of an evil alliance, but formalised their desire to team more often…and they still haven’t lost a match together. Arguably nobody is better equipped to take down Ohata and Hiroyo than one of their biggest rivals in Tomoka. We couldn’t possibly see the titles change hands twice in the same weekend…could we?!

The fans are fervently behind Hiroyo, to the extent that Haze gets intimidated and seeks the reassurance of her tag partner. Sensibly Daizee uses her now formidable mat-wrestling skills to tie Matsumoto in knots and stop her unleashing any of her power moves. It isn’t long before the smiling Hiroyo emerges from the canvas to emphatically slam Haze onto her historically problematic back. Tomoka and Hiroyo come together and genuinely seem to enjoy inflicting pain on each other…before 3S bust out some combo moves to put Nakagawa on the back foot. DROPKICK BLIZZARD by Misaki! She delivers countless dropkicks on the spin without pausing for breath…and looks completely fine (and like she could go for more) afterwards. Tomoka tries to throw a right hand, and is expertly countered into a Fujiwara armbar by the brilliant technician Ohata. Haze has seen enough and rescues her partner by spitting water into Misaki’s eyes. The heel challengers at last have a foothold in the contest and take turns abusing Ohata. My favourite thing about this heat segment is that it constantly reminds you how f*cking great Ohata is. Haze and Naka will start acting like they’ve got her incapacitated, then she pops up from nowhere with an astonishing piece of counter wrestling and threatens a comeback. It means that the fans really rally behind her when the challengers continually cheat to snuff her out. That brilliance from Ohata is what eventually leads to her hot tag – as she comes up with such bewitching methods of dragging Tomoka into roll-ups that Haze runs in and inadvertently boots her own partner. Matsumoto hits a tandem JAWBREAKER/DOUBLE KNEE DROP COMBO to both challengers! FLYING SPLASH by Ohata for 2. She tries to attack Tomoka’s arm as set up for the Fairy Lock, so Nakagawa MURDERS HER DEAD with a jumping enzi! German suplex into a low crossbody on Haze for 2! Daizee grabs the ref to save herself from Hiroyo’s Back Drop Driver. Heart Punch COUNTERED TO THE HIROYO STONE! POP-UP ALLEY-OOP GETS KNEES! TIGER SUPLEX! Daizee pins Matsumoto! We have new Tag Champions (again) at 14:57

Rating - *** - As a match taken out of context this was decent but no better. But almost four shows deep into the weekend, fan and wrestler fatigue will very much play a factor. To that end this was a pretty perfect match. It didn’t go too deep or cerebral, it kept things simple and crucially, kept things high quality. Haze and Nakagawa are entertaining heels who draw heat pretty effortlessly. Matsumoto is beloved by big sections of the SHIMMER fanbase (and Ohata is a terrific worker) so they comfortably assumed the babyface role. This was a solid working of the standard tag team formula, with an exciting finish which sees the deserving SHIMMER original Daizee Haze – who has improved SO much since this promotion first opened it’s doors – finally get a title. 

Although her attitude is questionable, and she has at times tried to duck out of facing top quality opposition, nobody could deny that the list of challengers that Madison has had to defend against is stellar. Hamada has one of the best won/lost records in SHIMMER right now, and has been on the right side of two victories over the champ (SHIM-vivor Series and the tag main event of V39). That, plus her legendary status within the business, means she is more than deserving of this opportunity. Will The Punisher once again escape Berwyn with her championship reign intact?

Eagles cuts an agitated figure during the introductions, but explodes into life when the bell rings – using her range to land kick after kick into the torso and head of the challenger. GERMAN BY HAMADA! RUNNING KNEE TO THE HEAD! It’s immediately apparent that this isn’t going long because they are going full throttle. Both women fall out of the ring…and keep brawling once they hit the floor. Hamada smashes the champ HARD into the ringpost; it isn’t quite Nigel McGuinness but it certainly delivers a sickening thump. Sensibly Madison takes the match right back into the ring with a press slam. SUPER RANA by Ayako! She thinks about an Asai Moonsault to the floor…but an irate Eagles drags her to the floor and nails a CANNONBALL OFF THE APRON! Into the crowd they go, where Eagles grabs Hamada and SUPLEXES HER ON HER HEAD ON THE WOODEN FLOOR! Is she dead? Not even a little bit – Hamada recovers quickly and rams the lid of a trash can into Eagles’ face. The challenger re-enters the ring with a missile dropkick…only for Madison to no sell and knee strike her into oblivion. Brainbuster gets 2 as they continue to beat the snot out of each other. Hell Bound blocked, with Hamada perching on the top rope and literally THROTTLING the champ with a hanging sleeper hold. Ayako pummels Eagles with missile dropkicks, into the PYRAMID DRIVER BOMB for 2! AP Cross COUNTERED TO ANOTHER BRAINBUSTER! HAMADA NO SELLS! SPINNING HEEL KICK! NO SOLD BY MADISON! JUMPING HEEL KICK! EAGLES WON’T GO DOWN! SUPERKIIIIIIIICK! AP CROSS! ONE COUNT OF DISRESPECT! HELL BOUND! HAMADA KICKS OUT! HELL BOUND AGAIN! EAGLES RETAINS! 10:39 is your time.

Rating - **** - I’m a little reticent to casually say ‘man I wish these women had more time’ here. There are so many extenuating factors which come into play when you’re talking about the last match of a weekend where four shows are taped back-to-back. Does the building have a curfew? What shape are both women in? Eagles and Hamada have both worked main event level matches all weekend. Could their bodies realistically tolerate going longer than this? To be frank, they didn’t need to. Of course I’d have liked it if they’d have gotten twenty or thirty minutes to go in depth on a technical clinic…but from the opening bell they came out to beat the f*ck out of each other in a total war, and it was a complete blast to watch. We’ve seen Eagles as the dominant technician, we’ve seen her as a strategist and even as a paranoid cheater. But here we got to see The Punisher in a fight; a straight-up brawl with a challenger out to take her head off from minute one. Please don’t look at this and see that they only went ten minutes and be disappointed. This was legitimately one of the matches of the weekend in my opinion.

Tape Rating - **** - Four matches reaching a 4* level, a generally consistent remainder of the card; I thought this was a hell of a show. Sure I may get accused of rating certain matches a little high, but I really think this show had something for everyone. A title change, a war of a main event, a hugely under-rated tag team undercard bout, break-out performances for the likes of Athena and Jessica James, stunning heel/face dynamics between Deeb and Portia, Ayumi Kurihara and Nicole Matthews rocking it. There were multiple different styles, some amazing moments and, aside from Taylor Made’s performance in the opener, very little to criticise. V37 was a GREAT top to bottom card, whilst V38 had the must-see Hamada/Kurihara MOTYC main event. And for me this is now the third show taped this weekend which almost becomes must-see for SHIMMER fans (or at least checking out on their new streaming service).

3) The Knight Dynasty vs Regeneration X (****)

2) Ayumi Kurihara vs Nicole Matthews (****)

1) Madison Eagles vs Ayako Hamada (****)