SHIMMER Women Athletes – Volume 5 – May 21st 2006
It’s a pleasure to return to Dave Prazak’s all-female Chicago-based promotion for their fifth show. The roster is absolutely stacked for this set of tapings (Volumes 5 and 6 are being taped on this date) so the next two shows have the potential to be the best SHIMMER outings thus far. All the talent that has shone on the previous four shows is back. That means the likes of Del Rey, Haze, Lacey, Martinez, Danger, Melissa and MsChif and so on are all here. Rebecca Knox returns after impressing in her debut matches. We’ve also got guest stars in for these shows as well. Amazing Kong has been flown in from Japan where she has a stellar reputation, whilst the former UK sensation (now wrestling under WWE employment in OVW as Katie Lea), Nikita is booked too. The card for Volume 5 is positively sumptuous. We’ve got the highly anticipated Del Rey/Martinez rematch following their memorable bout on the debut show. There’s a rematch from Volume 4 as Daizee Haze and Rebecca Knox collide again, this time under 2/3 Falls rules. Lacey/Nikita, Kong/Roxx and Danger/Melissa should all be good too. Hosts are the usual duo of Dave Prazak and Allison Danger. We’re in Berwyn, IL once again.
Daizee Haze vs Portia Perez
This a pre-show match, taped and available to watch for free at SHIMMERwrestling.com and is included as a “bonus” on the DVD. I figured I might as well throw in a review of it since SHIMMER’s official results page acknowledge it. Seems harsh making Daizee work another match considering she’s already got a tough schedule on the two main show tapings. Anyway, this is Perez’s debut.
Headlocks traded to start, then Perez attempts a series of pinfalls that don’t come off. Daizee armdrags her hard and holds on to keep her opponent immobile. Perez escapes with a pretty hideous headscissors, and an equally sloppy crossbody. Doesn’t mean anything though as Daizee completes an almost-effortless victory with the Heart Punch/Mind Trip combo at 02:31.
Rating – DUD – Calling that a ‘bonus’ is stretching it a little bit. It was too short to mean anything as a match, and Perez got in too much offence for it to mean anything as a comprehensive Haze squash victory. I wasn’t impressed with Portia’s execution and thought she looked sloppy. But then again, that’s a criticism I frequently level at the Haze too – and she’s one of SHIMMER’S top stars. I’ll give her another chance when I see her in a more competitive match.
Rebecca Knox runs in and drops Daizee on her head with a wicked-looking suplex. Her promo is totally inaudible, except for the great line ‘you smell like ugly people’. I think the point is that she’s going to beat Haze in the 2/3 Falls match later.
SIDENOTE – Checkout SHIMMER’S new video screen over the entrance. It’s nothing more than a widescreen and a projector but it makes the promotion look that much more professional. Nice work.
The show opens properly with more Haze/Knox stuff. Daizee says she’ll win in two straight falls tonight.
Rain vs Lorelei Lee
This is a curious booking decision here. Rain is fresh off her best performance in SHIMMER to date after playing her part in a great little match with Sara Del Rey on Volume 4, so they drop her right back to opening match duty with women who aren’t as talented as she is. Lee suffered at the hands of The Experience (Fyfe and Hosaka) at Volumes 3 and 4 but is a young talent and is back for more.
Lee tries to control Rain with headlocks and finds ways to take her down with the hold from a variety of positions. It’s not fancy but both workers bring a good deal of intensity to keep the matwork interesting. Lorelei picks up the pace with a handspring elbow so Rain quickly slides to the floor. She re-enters and plants her opponent with a front lungblower for 2. That raises the ire of the crowd, and she further irritates them by choking Lee over the ropes then kneeing her square in the chest. In a new twist on a well-used spot, Rain climbs the ropes to give her opponent bootscrapes from that elevated position. She continues to dominate until Lorelei gets it into her head to attempt a crossbody block leading to a mid-air collision. It’s Lee up first with some generic babyface comeback offence that makes her look incredibly green. She tries the Three Amigos but Rain fights that, so she opts for a mall package instead and gets 2. ACID RAIN wins it at 09:19.
Rating - ** - The crowd was hot so the match served its purpose as a show-opening bout. It was a total carry job by Rain though, and Lorelei looked pretty bad whenever she was required to work offensively. Fortunately Rain held it together enough to make for a semi-decent match. Hopefully this was booked to give Rain a singles victory before moving up the card to more significant challenges in the future. In my eyes she’s the most under-utilised SHIMMER talent at the moment.
Cindy Rogers vs MsChif
I’m guessing Cindy will be pretty up for this one – it’s easily her biggest booking thus far in SHIMMER. MsChif has been one of the big successes of the opening four shows thanks to her feud with Cheerleader Melissa. Those two stole the show on Volume 4 with their wild Falls Count Anywhere brawl. MsChif lost there, whilst Rogers hasn’t really done anything too substantial thus far in her SHIMMER career. Both women therefore come in craving what would be a crucial victory.
I like the fact that both these woman launch into some more complex matwork than headlocks and wristlocks. Haze/Perez and Rain/Lee both did that and it started getting repetitive. MsChif bridges out of an armbreaker and lays waste to Rogers with repeated forearm blows. She scores with a version of the Bubba Bomb (full nelson atomic drop) but Cindy rolls her into a surfboard and thusly avoids further damage. On commentary Allison Danger points out how they’re just going back and forth with submission holds. Rogers seems to have the edge until Chif uses a bodyscissors to drop her on her FACE. I don’t know if that was a botch or not, but MsChif capitalises anyway with a MutaLock. She struggles to maintain the hold though. Forget the submissions, both ladies decide to paste each other with forearm shots, before MsChif scores with the Desecrator and picks up the win at 07:59.
Rating - ** - Definitely a break-out match for Cindy Rogers there. Whilst she was nowhere near as over as MsChif, she looked right at home on the mat working a submission-based style. My only disappointment here is that the finish was far too sudden. The back and forth war on the canvas was really good but it felt like they were setting up for a longer match. It would’ve been that much better had we had a few more nearfalls and dramatic moments. Still, I think Cindy will go to the back knowing she put in a good display in her biggest match to date.
Nikita says she’s one of the toughest women in Europe and looks forward to Lacey testing her.
Amber O’Neal vs Serena Deeb
Serena makes her debut here (apparently she primarily wrestles for OVW), and she’s at least sure of having the fans hot for her match since Amber’s act makes her one of the more over acts on a SHIMMER card. I’m not sure the former Team Blondage member’s win/loss record is too good but she’s good at the role she plays.
O’Neal isn’t impressed that Serena has chosen to wear pink to the ring. Deeb shows a lot of fire so O’Neal drops out of the ring and drags her opponent to the floor to do some damage. That approach doesn’t work as Serena refuses to stay down. Unfortunately she propels herself into a turnbuckle and this time Amber takes advantage by pulling on the hair. She works a full nelson with the legs and shows off her cocky streak too by doing a few sit-ups. Together they manage to screw up a crossbody spot and Deeb bounces off O’Neal’s back and collapses in a heap. Finally she does come back with a series of forearms and clotheslines. Amber rakes the eyes to put a stop to that, but just as Danger starts making blind wrestler jokes Serena runs through her opponent with a spear. Amber nails an STO for 2. They botch a roll-up finish too, but the point is that Amber wins holding the tights at 08:13.
Rating – DUD – Not good I’m afraid. A combination of factors all came together to make that match really hard to sit through. For one thing, it seemed to be an attempt to get Amber’s wrestling over as much as her comedy heel act. That’s a mistake in my opinion because as a wrestler she isn’t great, and they need to accentuate the positives i.e. her ability to work her gimmick. It didn’t help that she was in there with Deeb who, be it through nerves, inexperience or sucking, wasn’t nailing anything clean. The whole match just looked so sloppy, went way longer than it needed to and was epitomised by that lousy finish. I’ll hope for Serena’s sake that she brings more to the table than that.
The Experience vs Ariel/Josie
Ariel was one of the women who missed the last tapings in February due to flight problems from the northeast so it’s good to see her back – she was one of my favourites from 1 and 2 (partially influenced by her choice of entrance music). Anyway, Fyfe and Hosaka had an open challenge to any team for this taping, which Ariel accepted. She has now revealed the debuting Josie as her tag team partner. Yet again I know nothing about one of the new girls so have no idea what to expect.
Ariel goes right after a flash pin on Hosaka who runs right back to her corner in a panic. She tries the same thing with Lexie and sends her scampering to the ropes as well. Josie is from Chicago so she gets a decent response from the crowd when she enters for the first time. The babyface team are in charge early so Hosaka goes after Josie’s eyes. Fyfe does it to her as well and it’s immediately The Experience that have the advantage. Josie gives Malia an enzi which allows her to tag out to Ariel, but her initial momentum doesn’t last as Hosaka drops her with headbutts and a martial arts kick. Fyfe gets 2 with a stalling sidewalk slam, then causes Josie to distract the ref allowing some Experience double teaming behind his back. They do the whole partner switching behind the ref’s back deal whilst keeping Ariel trapped on the canvas. The next illicit tactic is to use the ropes to choke her. If you’re keeping count, both teams have attempted double hiptoss spots, and both times it looked f*cking pathetic. Hosaka goes for a Warrior Splash but Ariel gets the knees up and makes the hot tag. Josie slams Fyfe but Ariel misses a splash from the second rope. Double gourdbuster on Ariel and The Experience win at 11:55.
Rating - * - Blargh…I wasn’t feeling this at all and felt bored through the whole thing. I’m not sure why since The Experience are fine (if a little predictable and uninspired) at working a formulaic tag match. Maybe it’s just that I couldn’t buy into the babyface team. I like Ariel but Josie didn’t do anything to impress me at all. She’s now the third debutant tonight and none of them have looked especially good.
Cheerleader Melissa vs Allison Danger
In my mind the real show starts now, and the gulf in class between SHIMMER’s undercard and the more talented women at the top of it will begin to show. Melissa has been immense on all four previous shows, having one of the best matches on each volume. She’s coming off her biggest victory on Volume 4 when she beat rival MsChif in their violent Falls Count Anywhere brawl, but after events on an ROH show (the Six Woman Mayhem match at Supercard Of Honor) it’s clear that their feud isn’t over yet. She now faces Allison Danger, who’s the poster-woman of the promotion.
I love Melissa’s intensity, as she looks like she wants to destroy Allison. It makes her so crisp in everything she does. FOREARM DUEL early in the match to demonstrate how bad ass these women are. That ends when Cheerleader KILLS Danger with strikes. She wrenches the leg then looks to hit her Kudoh Driver extremely early. She hasn’t softened Allison up enough though so starts choking her in the corner. Surfboard applied as Melissa ruthlessly goes about the task of tearing Danger apart – and when Allison finds a way to counter she almost effortlessly escapes and slams her. Chinlock WITH CROSSFACE STRIKES next, but frustration is starting to creep in as Danger continues to fight back. Allison musters up the strength to hit a facebuster then a running knee to the head for 2. Melissa tries more forearms so Danger drops her with a Lovelace Choker. She thinks she’s got enough time for a tornado DDT though, and Melissa almost knocks her clean off the top rope with another vicious forearm. MOUNTED STRIKE FLURRY followed by the INVERTED CLOVERLEAF! MsChif is at ringside watching now as Danger reaches the ropes. Obviously that distracts Melissa allowing Allison to small package her for 3 at 09:45.
Rating - *** - Head and shoulders above anything else on the card thus far, and it didn’t even feel like they scratched the surface of what they could do with each other as opponents as the end of the match was sacrificed to continue the Melissa/MsChif feud. The story of Melissa’s violence and ruthless attitude going up against Danger’s fire and refusal to quit really worked, and although they went less than 10 minutes it was obvious that everyone was lapping it up. There’d best be a rematch soon.
Melissa and MsChif start fighting on the floor and have to be pulled apart by referees and wrestlers.
Amazing Kong vs Nikki Roxx
In terms of size and experience this is a colossal mismatch. Kong has vast experience wrestling around the world, primarily in Japan. She’s over 6 feet tall and over 230lbs and is a total beast of a wrestler. Nikki has none of that going on, but has clearly impressed Dave Prazak enough in her initial outings to warrant booking her in this match, and he frequently puts her over on commentary as a future main eventer too. This is easily the biggest match she’s had thus far in SHIMMER and she’ll need to put in a performance of epic proportions if she is to trouble her massive opponent.
Nikki looks way too happy considering her opponent. She even laughs off some ‘please don’t die’ chants. Kong effortlessly pushes her away so Roxx slaps her in the face. WARRIOR SPLASH gets 2. Maybe don’t slap Kong in the face anymore? Nikki gets tied up in the ropes for a few chops then taken to the floor to be introduced to the steel ring steps and guardrail. Kong shows off more power by lifting Roxx in the air by the throat. Credit to Nikki, she shows guts by hitting the ropes for a flying forearm, then keeps AK on canvas using a figure 4 leglock. She just doesn’t have enough power though, as Kong eventually kicks her away then flattens her in the corner with a body avalanche. Forearm strikes by Roxx…AND SHE FLOORS KONG! Not for long though, and AK almost takes her off her feet with a retaliatory slap. Still Nikki keeps fighting, dropkicking Kong in the corner, softening her up for a bulldog. She comes off the top rope with a missile dropkick BUT KONG NO SELLS! Amazing dishes out a big powerbomb then squashes Roxx against the ropes with another avalanche. But then she does to the well once too often and Nikki drops forcing Kong to fall over the ropes to the floor. TOP ROPE PLANCHA BY NIKKI! She tries a flying headscissors on the way back in but they screw that up. Kong doesn’t look best pleased and grabs Roxx to give her Suwa’s FFF move. AMAZING PRESS…but she pulls Roxx’s shoulders up at 2. Nikki almost makes her pay for that arrogance by ducking a spinning backfist and attempting a schoolboy. SPINNING BACK FIST NAILED! SIT-OUT POWERBOMB! Kong wins at 10:39.
Rating - *** - Who’d have thought that after Prazak trying so hard to get Nikki Roxx over, it would be getting the sh*t beaten out of her that finally got her over? That was a hell of an effort by Nikki who impressed everyone by taking that beating and still getting up for more. Most of the credit lies with Kong though, who’s way more experienced and far more talented than Roxx. In truth she probably could’ve had the exact same match with any other woman on the roster, but she still deserves some acknowledgement. Her job here was to get Roxx over whilst putting in a totally dominant display on debut herself. She struck a great balance, letting Nikki get enough offence in to get over before obliterating her with the finish. The David vs Goliath deal was successfully pulled off. Shame about that rubbish flying headscissors spot though.
We get a replay of the finish afterwards, and Kong’s spinning backfist was disgusting.
Lacey vs Nikita
This is an intriguing bout. Lacey is still my favourite female wrestler (although she’s now got stiff competition from Del Rey and the K-NOX) so it’s good to see her back in SHIMMER where she can really showcase her skills. Nikita, on the other hand, is a performer I’ve seen live a few times, and never once seen her wrestle women. I only saw her in there with men at the smattering of FWA shows I attended. I’ve heard lots of her fellow professionals rave about her though.
People can slag off Lacey as annoying all they want, but she’s been out there 3 minutes and she’s easily the most over heel in the promotion. She’s in stalling, no mood to lock up with Nikita mode though. Eventually she whips Nikita over for a kick to the spine. She’s so hated that it’s actually hard to hear the commentary. Nikita has had enough of those antics and grabs an abdominal stretch. At least that draws Lacey into more of a wrestling match and less crowd interaction. CURB STOMP BY NIKITA! Everybody loves that, and the Brit follows it up with a tilta-whirl backbreaker that sends Lacey crawling to the floor. Nikita actually tries to drag her back in, and Lacey shows great awareness by taking advantage and snapping her arm on the top rope. That’s her cue to work that arm and even when Nikita tries to mount some offence Lacey cuts it off with kicks to the injured body part. She utilises the ropes to do more damage too. Nikita is working hurt so tries to win it with some quick pins (with no arm selling) but that tactic proves unsuccessful. Lacey starts snapping at the arm again as we approach 10 minutes. But finally she strays away from the arm work in favour of chops. That’s a mistake and it allows Nikita to lay in a few chops of her own. Lacey drops her head-first over the turnbuckles then goes to the arm again with a keylock. Nikita frees herself with a jawbreaker and follows up with a neckbreaker to leave both athletes down. I wish Nikita would sell the arm. She scores with a monkey flip then a dropkick from the second rope. A Samoan drop gets 2 but Lacey grabs hold of the arm again. Nikita leaps into an enziguri but still can’t stop Lacey attacking her with an ARM STUNNER! Implant DDT blocked so Lacey uses a HAMMERLOCK inverted DDT instead. Nikita still blocks the Implant though, then hits an urinage backbreaker for a surprising win in 14:55.
Rating - *** - Much like Danger/Melissa, I thought that was a great match but I came away with the impression that they had even better in them if they wanted to. Lacey certainly made a welcome return to SHIMMER competition and proved why she’s one of the top players. In terms of character and recognition she’s perhaps more over than anyone else and she’s a great worker too. The assault on the arm was meticulous and thorough and drove the match along. Nikita looked like another good addition to the roster (so it’s a shame these are her only tapings before WWE signed her). I just wish she’d have sold Lacey’s arm attack more since it would really have added to the drama. Had she put the injury over more her victory would’ve seemed like a real triumph against the odds. As is it felt sudden and tacked on to a totally different match.
Rebecca Knox vs Daizee Haze – 2/3 Falls Match
There’s nothing overly complicated behind this match. Daizee beat Knox in the main event of Volume 4, now Rebecca is coming for revenge. I assume Knox’s claim that the Haze got lucky last time is the reasoning behind the 2/3 Falls stipulation.
I’m sorry, but Knox’s crazy dancing and screaming is hilariously great. The match starts with an Irish jig duel. I’m really not kidding. Once that’s done they show off more of the super-smooth chaining that impressed me so much on the last DVD. Knox is obviously better at this sort of thing but Daizee holds her own and after five minutes neither woman has a clear advantage. Prazak points out that they’ve barely let go of each other and this is pure counter-wrestling. The way they’re going back and forth like this kind of reminds of Danielson/Gibson from Glory By Honor 4. Knox attacks a leg at 10 minutes and apparently she’s a real fan of leg submission holds. Typical of this match though, she isn’t able to go anywhere with it before Daizee has escaped and has a hold of her own. The intensity is being subtly increased with each passing minute though. According to Dave, Knox is 19. I’ll say that again…this girl is 19 f*cking years old. She hits the first real high impact move with a fishermans neckbreaker. Knox to the floor, but this time Haze isn’t dealing with her antics and pursues with a TOPE SUICIDA! CHOP DUEL on the floor! And seriously, they’re really laying them in. But Haze makes the first mistake and is thrown sternum-first into the metal rail. K-nox to the top rope but she misses a flying leg drop. Daizee climbs and WILDLY misses a missile dropkick. HEART PUNCH! YAKUZA KICK! Daizee takes the first fall at 17:22.
We get a rest period where Rebecca complains about germs on her water bottle. She then marches back into battle and threatens to get the better of the Haze throwing forearms. Daizee smartly takes it back to the mat with a double underhook submission. It’s not like Rebecca isn’t happy on the mat though and we’re right back to the human chess game we saw in the first fall. Knox is looking increasingly frantic though. She unleashes more strikes then SHORT KICKS! She rolls Daizee up and GRABS THE ROPES to win the second fall at 21:58. Its now 1-1 and Rebecca just made herself even less popular in Berwyn, IL. Daizee is pissed off and she aggressively rushes her opponent after the rest period. She hangs Knox in the tree of woe then sprints across the ring to knee her in the stomach. DOUBLE SPRINGBOARD DROPKICK by the K-nox though and that gets 2. Yet again she tries to work the legs but Haze still manages to block that. Knox avoids the Heart Punch and hits a back suplex. HEART PUNCH…but now it’s the Yakuza Kick that doesn’t score. Rebecca goes to the legs again and PULLS ON THE ROPES to add more torque on a leglock. Daizee can’t hang on and lets her shoulders collapse on the mat for 3 and to lose 2-1 at 24:38.
Rating - **** - Best match in SHIMMER thus far in my estimation…and the crazy part is that the last two falls felt so rushed that you KNOW they’ve got a better match in them than even this. The first fall was a superb exhibition of wrestling to such a high standard that you rarely even see men pull it off. And that 20 minutes laid the ground work for a wonderful story in the last 5+ minutes when Knox snapped, abandoned any thoughts of wrestling and adopted a win at all costs mentality which infuriated fans and commentators alike. I always say I have my doubts about Daizee as a wrestler, but she’s consistently stealing the show and I am loving her work right now. If you like technical wrestling you need to see this one.
Allison Danger storms off commentary and appears at ringside to yell at the referee for missing Rebecca’s cheating tactics. She grabs the microphone and says that she and Daizee are ROH girls. Since Knox likes using the ropes so much Allison challenges her to an ROH Pure Wrestling Rules match on Volume 6.
Sara Del Rey vs Mercedes Martinez
Probably the most notorious match in SHIMMER’s short history took place on Volume 1 when Del Rey and Martinez went to a hard-hitting classic 20-minute draw. When the time limit expired Mercedes had just hit her finishing move so could perhaps claim that Sara got lucky. They clashed again in the four woman elimination main event of Volume 2, a match Del Rey won but came away disappointed because it was Daizee Haze that managed to pin Martinez rather than her. The documented travel problems prevented Martinez from making it to the February tapings but it was on Volume 3 that Sara challenged her to a no time limit rematch and that’s exactly what we’re now about to get.
They go all around the ring in a collar and elbow to demonstrate how evenly matched they are, then start dodging each other’s kicks and pinfall attempts to further drive the point home. Despite holding onto a knucklelock they batter each other with forearms. Both give vertical suplexes the no sell treatment and stare down to enjoy some much-deserved applause. It’s inevitable they need to slow it down a tad and work the mat, and I like how they differentiate their style of matwork from the Haze/Knox stuff we saw in the previous match. They worked ‘I want to be a better wrestler’ style. These two are doing it ‘I want to make you my b*tch’ style. Neither succeeds though and eventually return to a vertical base to reassess their situation. Del Rey tries the Mexican surfboard of her trainer Bryan Danielson only for Martinez to block it. Equally impressive is the way she modifies it to apply a camel clutch instead. She connects with a couple of big boots but Mercedes swats away a third shot and kicks her down. It was apparent she didn’t have the edge on the mat so her new approach is to use her striking power. It clearly rattled Sara, as she climbs the ropes for a crossbody block and Martinez meets her in mid-air with a dropkick. After chucking her into the railings on the floor she looks for the trademark Fisherman Buster but Del Rey escapes with a powerful forearm. Sara’s Royal Butterfly isn’t successful either and Martinez beats her into the corner at 15 minutes. INVERTED BRAINBUSTER ON DEL REY! That was surely supposed to be a suplex but that looked brutal. Still no fisherman buster and Del Rey nails a STRAIGHT JACKET GERMAN SUPLEX! Martinez gets caught on the top rope with a BUTTERFLY SUPERPLEX! It’s only good for 2. Mercedes fights the Royal Butterfly and nails a BACK DROP DRIVER! That’s one of her finishers but she’s too beaten up to cover. Sara knocks her opponent off the apron for a MASSIVE tope suicida. She doesn’t usually fly so that puts over how much victory means to her. STILL Mercedes evades the Butterfly Lock though and she puts Sara into a grounded abdominal stretch using a leg around the neck for extra leverage. Sara manages to roll backwards and hold Mercedes’ shoulders down for 3. It’s over at 21:55.
Rating - *** - Like a lot of things, the original was better. Not that this was bad by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there were bits of this one that I really preferred – however, I’d rather have an epic non-finish than a flat, disappointing roll-up finish like this one got. I loved how they worked the first 5 minutes to give the match a real big-time feel, and equally enjoyed how they gradually built up the tension before exploding in that flurry of hard-hitting, head droppy moves. However, it ended in such a way which just left you BEGGING for more. I suppose that’s the point really. We all know we’re getting a third match in the Del Rey/Martinez series. This was a fitting companion to Volume 1. The pressure is, however, very much on now to live up to the hype and produce their best match for the final match in the trilogy.
Sara Del Rey echoes my sentiments and basically promises Mercedes another rematch down the line.
Lexie Fyfe and Malia Hosaka big themselves up as the best tag team in SHIMMER. That’s all they have to say it seems.
Dave Prazak announces a Last Woman Standing match between Cheerleader Melissa and MsChif on Volume 6 in order to settle the war between those two.
Mercedes Martinez is set to demand another match with Sara for the next show too, but she’s interrupted by Lacey, who says she’s bored of those two wrestling each other. She challenges Mercedes and a partner to face the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew (that’s Lacey and Rain by the way) to a tag match. At which point Sara Del Rey walks in to offer her services as a tag partner. Awesome…
Tape Rating - *** - As usual the undercard was a little weak since SHIMMER just don’t quite have the calibre of wrestler at their disposal to put on an amazing top to bottom card quite yet. However, once that was out of the way this turned out to be the best SHIMMER show yet. Four matches reaching 3* level, and the Haze/Knox 2/3 Falls Match being my favourite match the promotion has done so far – that’s a pretty impressive release right there. If you’re thinking about checking out some SHIMMER and you’re not sure which show to get, it’s this one for me. It’s also the longest release thus far by some way so you’re also getting the most wrestling for your money too. I’ll have a review of Volume 6 up soon. With Haze/Nikita, Knox/Danger II under Pure Wrestling Rules, Melissa/MsChif III in a Last Woman Standing match, the first SHIMMER outing for the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew and more of Amazing Kong too it promises to be another good show.
Top 3 Matches
3) Nikita vs Lacey (***)
2) Sara Del Rey vs Mercedes Martinez (***)
1) Rebecca Knox vs Daizee Haze (****)
SHIMMER VOLUMES 1-5 TOP 5 MATCHES
5) Daizee Haze vs Rebecca Knox (**** - Volume 4)
4) Cheerleader Melissa vs MsChif (**** - Volume 4)
3) Sara Del Rey vs Mercedes Martinez (**** - Volume 1)
2) Daizee Haze vs Lacey (**** - Volume 1)
1) Rebecca Knox vs Daizee Haze (**** - Volume 5)