SHIMMER Women Athletes – Volume 6 – 21st May 2006
Someone emailed me recently to ask me why I reviewed the first five SHIMMER shows, then stopped. It’s a fair question as it’s been years since I watched those events, and had a really good time reviewing them. The simple answer is that I simply couldn’t make time in my schedule to watch SHIMMER shows, even though I had the next five volumes (6-10) sitting on my shelf still in their plastic wrapping. It’s not that I didn’t like the product, as I really enjoyed supporting the concept of presenting women’s wrestling as a serious and viable niche commodity…I just couldn’t fit them in alongside life, ROH review commitments and so forth. Eventually time passed and I never really motivated myself to jump back in. That was until I received the aforementioned email. As I’m currently pretty caught up on Ring Of Honor DVD’s I have a gap in my schedule, so I thought I’d jump in with a review of Volume 6 (even though I’m not sure you can still get this DVD anywhere).
My memory of what went down on the previous Volumes is extremely sketchy, so apologies in advance if I get any of the details wrong. The main event of this Volume is the conclusion to the violent Cheerleader Melissa vs MsChif feud as they meet again, this time in a Last Woman Standing Match. Arch rivals Sara Del Rey and Mercedes Martinez try to put their two high profile singles bouts behind them as they now join forces to face the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew (Lacey & Rain – making their SHIMMER debut as a team). Allison Danger goes for revenge on the dastardly (and utterly awesome) Rebecca Knox, who cheated to beat her on Volume 3, in what turned out to be Rebecca’s final SHIMMER Match. Nikita (aka Katie Lea in WWE or Winter in TNA) squares off with Daizee Haze and there’s also a veterans versus rookies trios tag as Amazing Kong joins The Experience to face Ariel, Cindy Rogers and Josie. Dave Prazak and Allison Danger are in Berwyn, IL.
Allison Danger is extremely bitter at Rebecca Knox. As the leader of the SHIMMER locker room she feels massively disrespected by K-nox’s cheating and dastardly deeds. Apparently she’s been preparing for their Pure Wrestling Rules Match with ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness…
Amber O’Neal vs Serena Deeb
At Volume 5 we saw former Team Blondage member Amber cheat to beat Serena Deeb in her SHIMMER debut. Deeb was devastated at her defeat and has apparently petitioned Dave Prazak for an immediate rematch.
Amber (who recently married Doc Gallows) is quite endearing as she bops to the ring to Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’. She makes good use of the ropes to stunt Serena’s early aggression as she looks to obtain payback for her controversial loss at the last show. Deeb’s over-enthusiasm leaves her vulnerable to plenty of O’Neal’s nefarious tactics…but equally Amber’s desire to check her nails after delivering a chop means she is vulnerable to getting socked in the face! She chokes Serena in the ropes whilst targeting her offence on the back, and rakes Serena’s eyes as she tries to fight back. More punishment to the back seconds later as Amber aggressively jerks her opponent down by the hair. Deeb nails a spear from absolutely nowhere, and defies the punishment she’s taken to drop O’Neal with a northern lights suplex for 2. Amber hits a suplex…only for Deeb to hook her legs into a pin at 07:26
Rating - ** - A massive improvement on their Volume 5 bout. The obvious botches were cut out, and the moments of utter sloppiness were heavily reduced. Amber was fun to watch as combined an entertaining character with some focused work on the back. Deeb (who really didn’t look particularly special in her SHIMMER debut weekend) got a popular victory and salvaged her reputation after a pretty disastrous showing earlier in the day at the V5 taping.
Amazing Kong/The Experience vs Cindy Rogers/Josie/Ariel
The premise for this one is pretty simple. It pits three veterans of female professional wrestling in Kong, Fyfe and Hosaka against three of the young upstarts in SHIMMER’s locker room. Ariel has been consistently fun to watch throughout SHIMMER’s run so far and is a perfectly serviceable face. Josie debuted as her tag partner at Volume 5 and looked thoroughly unimpressive in a losing effort against The Experience. Volume 5 also saw Cindy’s breakout match as she looked extremely competitive against MsChif. It’s only Kong’s second SHIMMER appearance too, having demolished Nikki Roxx at the last show. Who wins here – youth and enthusiasm or age and experience?
Cindy (who’s gear makes her look like your mother on her way to the gym) seems to enjoy Ariel’s entrance theme almost as much as I do. None of the babyfaces are particularly keen to start with Kong, who no sells all their offence with ease. In the end it takes all three of them to knock her down even for a moment. Allison Danger’s commentary style is REALLY similar to her brother (Steve Corino). Kong dismissively tosses Ariel around with a giant swing before bringing Hosaka in to take over. Rogers comes to Ariel’s aid and comfortably works the mat with Malia, bringing the veteran into her corner so the young guns can work her over. Keeping her in their corner also means there’s no chance she can tag Amazing Kong back in too. Hosaka does manage to tag in her regular partner Lexie Fyfe though, with the tables instantly turning back in favour of the veterans. Ariel and Josie horribly mis-time a double elbow strike on Lexie…and pay for it as the older lady rakes Josie across the eyes. The punishment continues for poor Josie she is FLATTENED by Kong’s WARRIOR SPLASH for 2. The Experience and Kong are noticeably rough with her, not letting her near her corner. Hosaka is so confident she finds time to dive into the opposition corner and dish out a cheap shot to Ariel just because she can. Meanwhile Kong puts her boot INTO JOSIE’S EYE as she slumps in the corner! She then slams her face against the bottom rope too. The crowd seem genuinely pleased when Josie makes an unlikely hot tag to Cindy, who piles in alongside Ariel to lead the fight back. Hosaka tosses Ariel out where KONG KILLS HER AGAINST THE RAILS! Rogers gets the same treatment as The Experience take out Josie with the double gourdbuster. AMAZING PRESS! Kong wins at 16:38
Rating - *** - Kong has had a fantastic debut taping for SHIMMER, and has dragged up a number of the promotion’s weaker performers along with her. Nikki Roxx (who really wasn’t getting over at all) got to work with her on Volume 5, and here at V6 she was the star of the show – finally making The Experience interesting and being so brutal on offence that you couldn’t help but watch in awe. Josie was very obviously the weak link of the match when it comes to offensive manoeuvres, but actually made for a very believable face in peril for the heat segment. The problem was Ariel and Cindy just weren’t credible for any kind of ‘hot comeback’ sequence against Kong, which definitely hurt the match. Pinning Josie even though she didn’t appear to be legal wasn’t great either.
Kong kicks the sh*t out of Cindy and Ariel some more on her way out, giving us a closing shot of all the young babyfaces looking beaten senseless…
Lorelei Lee vs Nikki Roxx
These are two of the younger talents on the SHIMMER roster, and have both been put over regularly by Prazak as having serious potential without ever really delivering the goods in the ring. Lorelei Lee got roughed up by The Experience at Volumes 3 and 4, and was carried to a mildly better match by Rain earlier in the day at Vol. 5. Nikki (Roxxi in TNA) is another one who hasn’t lived up to the hype she’s been given by SHIMMER’s owner…but took a giant step in the right direction with her courageous performance in the face of a real buttkicking from Amazing Kong. Which of these two young talents will take a giant step forward in their SHIMMER career?
Lorelei goes right for a pinfall, looking for her first victory since her first ever SHIMMER contest. Nikki survives that, much to the delight of the crowd who are still really into her after her match with Kong earlier in the day. They go into some pretty basic mat wrestling exchanges, and it’s Lee in particular who looks SO green. She is wrestling like it’s her first day out of wrestling school. She then misses a handspring elbow attempt, although it looked f*cking appalling even before she hit it. Nikki hits back with some incredibly basic spots then a sidewalk slam for 2. Given that Prazak and Danger are talking about the rest of the card I guess they are bored to hell by this match too. They botch running the ropes until Lorelei hits a god-awful Russian legsweep for 2. We get the 38th super-basic body slam of the match, before things kick into high gear with a…grounded bodyscissors. Roxx gets a northern lights suplex to escape, as the commentators plug Lee’s sports nutrition website. Barbie Crusher wins it for Nikki at 08:42
Rating - DUD - Genuine candidate for worst SHIMMER match thus far, and a major step backwards for Nikki Roxx after such a star-making performance on Volume 6. She needs better opponents to carry her to good matches at this stage. Lorelei is not that opponent, as she is so brutally green it’s just painful to watch. How long do we have to wait for her to get better before Prazak cuts his losses and chops her from the roster?
Daizee Haze vs Nikita
These two women experienced contrasting fortunes at Volume 5. Daizee Haze is a main event player in SHIMMER, but her won/loss record is only average – not helped by her controversial 2/3 Falls loss to Rebecca Knox. Nikita, meanwhile, made a successful debut for the SHIMMER promotion by defeating another top tier worker in Lacey. Can the Haze bounce back from an unhappy showing earlier in the day, or will Nikita’s successful debut tapings continue?
Nikita clearly impressed at V5 because she’s as popular as Daizee with the live crowd. Daizee’s match earlier in the day lasted twenty five minutes, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the pace is really slow at first. The British competitor tries to use her size to dominate Haze on the ground, only for Daizee to persistency use her speed and skill to find a way to counter out. Nikita doesn’t react well to Haze’s defiance, so cheap shots her from behind and clobbers her into the canvas to gain the first definitive advantage. A combination of Nikita’s size and sheer fatigue mean the Haze is quickly beaten down, and she looks limp and exhausted as Nikita plants her with an emphatic backbreaker for 2. Camel clutch applied next, wearing down that spine in preparation for the urinage backbreaker (Ice Breaker). The smaller athlete is being tossed around with ease, absorbs some incredibly rough landings, and looks completely incapable of tossing any offence back in Nikita’s direction. There are some adorable little kids who are really routing for Daizee, and they will be devastated as they watch Nikita counter the Daizee-canrana into a Lion Tamer. CURB STOMP NAILED! That looked completely vicious. If you’re keeping score, Allison has used the phrase ‘dynamite comes in small package’ in reference to Daizee on four separate occasions. Nikita looks to drive home her advantage with a stalling vertical suplex only for it to be COUNTERED into a facecrusher. Haze follows that with a shotgun dropkick but is visibly slowed and ragged in her offence. Ice Breaker blocked, as is the Samoan drop. Heart Punch COUNTERED to a northern lights suplex by Nikita! They didn’t look completely in control of that but it wound up being a brilliant little sequence. DAIZEE CUTTER! Nikita kicks out and boots her in the face. Ice Breaker countered into a sloppy bridging pin – and Haze snatches the win at 11:40
Rating - *** - Daizee has a tendency to be rather haphazard in the execution of her skills at the best of times so, having already worked for the best part of half an hour earlier in the evening, I was a little concerned that this one could get really messy. I shouldn’t have been concerned, as it actually turned out to one of her best individual performances in SHIMMER so far. Nikita, understandably, had to carry the bulk of the match from an offensive perspective, but Haze was absolutely superb as the underdog here. She sold Nikita’s moves like death, and you really believed she was in so much pain as a result of the Brit’s attacks. Things did get a little sloppy down the climactic stretch, but they largely held it together well. Nikita looked strong in her debut weekend for the company, but to the best of my knowledge she was never brought back. I know she started working with WWE developmental around this time so I presume her WWE then TNA commitments are the reason she never returned. A shame as she looked seriously talented and despite two decent matches at Volumes 5 and 6 you felt like she had plenty more in the tank.
Daffney replaces Allison on commentary for the next match
Rebecca Knox vs Allison Danger – Pure Wrestling Rules Match
Despite being only six shows old, and despite her only having debuted at Volume 3, Knox quickly became the biggest heel and most controversial figure in SHIMMER. In her debut match she made a huge deal of faking a knee injury in order to gain an advantage over, and eventually beat Allison Danger. At Volume 4 she was a huge dick again, this time in a losing effort to Daizee Haze. That loss was avenged at V5, when she cheated to win two straight falls in a 2/3 Falls rematch with the Haze – which caused Allison (as the leader of the SHIMMER locker room) to snap. She admonished K-nox for her bad attitude and persistent cheating, and in an effort to stand up for both herself and her fellow ‘Women Of Honor’ Daizee, challenged Rebecca to a Pure Wrestling Rules Match (as seen in ROH’s Pure Title division). It means three rope breaks for each athlete, no closed-fist strikes (punishable by a warning system costing you rope breaks then disqualification) and a 20-count on the floor.
Rebecca is crazily over as a heel now. She throws a massive tantrum and walks out when the crowd refuse to chant her name as they do for Danger. Allison retorts by blowing her nose on an Irish flag, and all of sudden we’re three minutes in, they still haven’t touched each other but everyone is LOVING the match. Knox channels her inner Scott Steiner with a ‘gun show’ then finally launches into battle by working the arm of her Canadian opponent. Nobody will chant ‘the referee’s a wanker’ with her either. I seriously love this girl. She is seriously f*cking awesome as a mat technician as well, and makes all the early running as she tests Allison’s limbs for weaknesses. The fluidity with which she can chain wrestle is absolutely remarkable and it’s a credit to Danger that she hangs with her – because there’s no way Allison gets to wrestle too many women with as much skill in that area. Both women do their best to try and work holds as close to the ropes as possible to tempt their opponent into utilising a cheap rope break. Knox starts using closed fist strikes out of the line of sight of the ref, occasionally stopping to flash him an innocent look and deliver a very deliberate open-handed strike to throw him off the scent. Danger is furious and sprints at her with an obvious punch, prompting referee Bryce Remsburg to issue her with a formal warning. Hilariously, Knox then BATTERS her with punches whilst Bryce explains the warning to the ring announcer, and when he turns back all he sees is Allison PUNCHING KNOX AGAIN! Danger is deducted one rope break at 11:58! Allison is furious, and MOWS Knox down with a spear before mounting her on the deck for repeated forearms to the face! Fujiwara armbar applied, forcing K-nox to use her first rope break at 13:12. Danger stays on the arm so it’s almost as a defensive strategy that Rebecca starts attacking her leg in return. Knox deployed this strategy successfully against Daizee Haze at Vol. 5 so it surprises nobody that she quickly incapacitates her opponent here.
First she steams into the leg with repeated kicks then works all kinds of leg submissions looking to force her opponent to use another break. Allison tries to strike back but can barely walk and is dropped to the ground again with a dragon screw. Knox runs through deathlocks, Figure 4’s, spinning toeholds and more in quick succession and finally succeeds in getting Allison to use her second rope break at 17:42. T-BONE SUPLEX nailed, combining a devastating impact move with yet more torque on the bad leg. Somehow Allison hits the Lovelace Choker, but of course it drops her opponent on her own knee so she is understandably slow to recover. STO gets 2 before Rebecca uses her second rope break at 19:20. Allison may have used the last of her energy hitting that offensive flurry and looks unable to defend herself as K-nox kicks her to the floor to repeatedly bash her brains into the ring apron. Yet she defies her exhaustion and her pronounced limp to hit back, draping the Irish flag over the apron then smashing Knox’s face into it! REGALPLEX gets 2 for Rebecca! She locks in an Octopus stretch, then floats into a cross armbreaker to showcase yet more of her amazing technical skills. Danger keeps countering, so Knox transitions to a MUTALOCK! Danger has to use her final rope break at 22:45! With no more rope breaks for Allison, K-nox takes great delight in using the ropes to add extra leverage to her submissions (as she did illegally against Daizee), then drags her up for a PUMPHANDLE SUPLEX! Out of nowhere Allison locks in the STRETCH PLUM! It’s a gutsy move by Allison, and she deservedly forces Knox to use her final rope break at 24:48. That looks like all she had left though, and she takes a knee strike against the ropes whilst Rebecca starts mocking her by jogging and jigging around the ring. SUPER UGLY CROSSBODY by Danger, only for Knox to roll-through and flash pin her for three at 25:46.
Rating - **** - I’ve not seen anything from the SHIMMER promotion in years. Beyond a cursory knowledge of who their champions are, and that Britani Knight (WWE’s Paige) worked their with her mother for a while whilst also working in WWE developmental, I know nothing about the current product either. But I really want to believe that Rebecca Knox’s four-show run in the early days of the promotion remains the stuff of legend. She has been, by a distance, the best pure wrestler on their roster – and the way she combines a freakish ability to chain wrestle and work submissions alongside one of the most entertaining and downright fun heel characters has been a joy to watch. I feel bad for these two that they somewhat botched the finish, because before that they’d worked another delightful technical clinic. Allison was the fiery babyface, determined to teach Knox a lesson for her nefarious ways, but Rebecca was always the superior athlete and after watching her cheat and manipulate her way through her matches in the previous three volumes, it was cool seeing her immense wrestling skill come to the fore. Great match…
SIDENOTE – This would turn out to be Rebecca Knox’s final match for the SHIMMER promotion. She was scheduled to return of course, with Prazak and Danger extremely high on making her the chief heel in their promotion. She was even booked into a 60-minue IRON WOMAN Match with Daizee Haze (how sick would that have been?) at the next tapings before disaster struck and she sustained a catastrophic neck and head injury working in Europe. She missed well over a year in the ring, before unsuccessfully attempting a comeback in 2008 (I think) – including backing out of some SHIMMER bookings at the very last minute. People thought she was done with wrestling until she surprisingly popped up having been signed by the WWE in 2013. At the time of writing she was still down in NXT and is still pretty freaking awesome in the ring.
SIDENOTE – And having given Daizee Haze an ‘out’ for some minor sloppiness in her match with Nikita because she’d already worked 25+ minutes with Rebecca at the Volume 5 taping – Knox just totally shows Haze up for that as she worked ANOTHER 25 minutes with Allison Danger here. Over fifty near-faultless minutes in the ring, across the course of one afternoon in two gimmick matches…a quite incredible farewell to SHIMMER for the K-nox.
Knox says goodbye by making Bryce Remsburg raise her hand in victory repeatedly and Blue Meanie dancing for joy.
Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew vs Sara Del Rey/Mercedes Martinez
At the end of Volume 5 Mercedes Martinez was all set to lay down a challenge for another rematch with Sara Del Rey. After a draw on Vol. 1 and a loss to Death Rey at Vol.5 she was frustrated at her persistent inability to beat her rival. Unfortunately for her she was interrupted by an equally frustrated Lacey – bored of seeing Sara/Mercedes matches and feeling victimised by the SHIMMER locker room herself after going 0-3 in the company thus far. The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew are going to make their first appearance as a team for SHIMMER, with Del Rey happy to step in and be Mercedes’ partner. Will Sara and Mercedes be able to coexist as a team in order to threaten one of the more experienced tag teams in American Joshi?
Lacey is such a heat magnet, and her reaction to a fan calling her and Rain ‘shower buddies’ is awesome. She doesn’t enjoy having to step into the ring with Sara either, as Death Rey quickly beats her into the mat. Mercedes and Sara show some surprising cohesion as a duo in the early going and work together to isolate Lacey from her partner. They trap her in the corner and PUMMEL her with chops and strikes, generally using their hard-hitting approach to rough her up. Even when Lacey tries to use some speed (dropping into the splits to avoid Del Rey), all it gets her is a brutal kick to the back of the head. NECKBREAKER IN THE ROPES from Rain to Sara, providing some much-needed assistance to her partner. They work together to get the better of Del Rey, first with Rain beating her down, before having Lacey join her for a full nelson/running dropkick combo. Lacey happily receipts Sara for some shots earlier and repeatedly punts her in the spine. Legsweep/neckbreaker combo from the Home Wreckers gets 2 as Martinez watches helplessly from the apron. MHWC make a point of using considerably more tags than their opponents to emphasise their considerable experience edge as a team which is a nice touch…and they are also more than capable of manipulating the referee to choke and cheap shot at their leisure too. Lacey is still peppering Sara’s back with kicks then drags her hair-first into a backbreaker for 2. REPEATED KNEES TO THE BACK by the Home Wreckers, before Rain hops to the middle rope for a neckbreaker drop. Double Japanese armdrag into a double wristlock takedown, further damaging the back and putting Del Rey on the brink of defeat. In a moment of sheer awesomeness, Lacey decides to put Sara in her own finisher (the Butterfly lock). If that wasn’t bad enough, Sara actually powers out of it into a tag only for the ref to miss it as he deals with Rain in the opposite corner. Rain repeatedly knees Sara in the face…only for Death Rey to WALK OUT OF THE CORNER into a powerbomb! The hot tag is finally made to Martinez who mows Rain down with a spinebuster. GUTBUSTER/LUNGBLOWER COMBO by the Home Wreckers for 2! Sara tries to help Martinez…but inadvertently boots her in the chest! Lacey hits the Implant DDT for the win at 15:47
Rating - *** - This was a riot to sit through. It was really nothing more than a basic southern formula tag match in its execution, but Lacey is simply so good at what she does that it’s impossible not to enjoy her work. To go higher on my rating I’d have liked to have seen a slightly less rushed finish (and for them to have timed it better – MHWC had to stand there for quite a while waiting for Sara to run in and hit the ill-placed boot), and maybe a little more out and out excitement, but this match accomplished all it set out to. The Home Wreckers were put over as an effective team, Rain looked at home stepping up the card to wrestle SHIMMER’s big hitters, the feud between Mercedes and Sara was continued, and Lacey finally got her first big win in the company.
Mercedes really isn’t happy about the loss, and grabs a microphone to demand the third match in their series before leaving.
Cheerleader Melissa vs MsChif – Last Woman Standing Match
These two had a competitive match at Volume 1, which kick-started the hottest rivalry in the early days of SHIMMER Women Athletes. Melissa distracted MsChif, causing her to drop a match to Lexie Fyfe on Vol. 3, prompting Prazak to book them together in a Falls Count Anywhere grudge match on Volume 4. It was a match which shocked everyone in its brutality, saw the fight spill all the way out into the streets of Chicago, saw MsChif lose plenty of blood before finally tapping out. But still their rivalry would continue – with MsChif giving Melissa the Green Mist during the Women Of Honor match at ROH’s Supercard Of Honor event then causing her to lose a match to Allison Danger at the last show. They engaged in a wild brawl which needed most of the SHIMMER locker room to separate, and have now been told to settle the score once and for all in this feud-ending bout.
They can’t even wait for the introductions before going at it, and come to blows almost as soon as MsChif makes it to ringside. Melissa is shunted into the guardrails and immediately has a nasty bruise come up around her shoulder blades. She is quick to hit back though, whipping Chif into the rails with such force that her head visibly bounces back off the metal fencing. ELBOW SMASH TO THE FACE! CM is absolutely destroying MsChif with those strikes before hooking her up for a MEXICAN SURFBOARD AROUND A CHAIR! As MsChif tries to crawl away from that Melissa f*cking BEATS HER SENSELESS! We’re talking close range knee strikes, countless elbows and violent body shots with her pinned against the wall of the building. MsChif barely stays alive in the match there, but as they return to the ring she counters the Kudoh Driver INTO CODE GREEN! It’s only temporary respite though with Cheerleader planting her onto her back and ribs again with a Samoan drop. MsChif blocks the Kondo Clutch so Melissa goes for a LION TAMER instead, stretching out that back some more. SHE F*CKING SITS DOWN! HOW IS MSCHIF NOT BROKEN IN HALF! That is psychotic! And amazingly MsChif absorbs that and whacks her straight in the jaw with an elbow. They go to the floor and commence stiffing each other some more, with Chif managing to beat her rival to the ground to baseball slide her into the railing! MsChif is clearly trying to work Melissa’s back in return as she double stomps her in the spine then tie her up for an ARM CAPTURE CRAB IN A CHAIR! The crowd don’t want this to end yet, with large portions loudly chanting for Melissa as she beats the 10-count and piles into Chif with another elbow flurry. Camel clutch around the chair now, as she continues to test the theory that MsChif has no spine. BODY SLAM OVER THE RAILS! Melissa brings a steel chair into the ring with the intention to Kudoh Driver MsChif onto it. Once again she counters though, INTO THE DESECRATOR as she did on Volume 1! Melissa is crawling back to her feet at a count of five, but only succeeds in inching towards the turnbuckles where MsChif is waiting to double stomp her against the bottom turnbuckle. PANIC ATTACK! That gets her an 8-count, although Allison Danger points out that MsChif is so exhausted it’s only the ropes holding her up. Melissa battles back to her feet and literally FORCES MsChif up the ropes for a TREE OF WOE RUDE AWAKENING! It’s MsChif’s turn to get a great pop for getting back to her feet to keep the match going. Kudoh Driver blocked again…DESECRATOR ON THE STEEL CHAIR! MsChif wins at 20:22
Rating - **** - Another amazingly brutal match between these two. The Falls Count Anywhere Match probably had a tad more innovation and violence, but this one was a hell of a brawl and had plenty of wrestling psychology to go alongside that. Melissa’s work on MsChif’s rubber-spine was unbelievably vicious. Of course, it brought her victory in the last match so it made sense, but it was like she was also actively trying to prove that SHE could be the one to finally break MsChif’s back after so many others have bent her in half and failed. That sit-out from the Walls Of Jericho position whilst still holding the legs is one of the most frightening spots I’ve ever seen in wrestling. MsChif gets the win to end the feud as she was the de facto babyface, but in truth SHIMMER is a workrate promotion and this rivalry has massively enhanced the reputation of both workers. Melissa is supposed to be a heel, but has looked so good as a complete bad ass in this feud that she’s pretty over as a face herself. A fitting main event to end SHIMMER’s best feud so far.
Both women get a standing ovation, and deservedly so. Melissa, in particular, looks very emotional as the fans chant her name whilst she exits the arena.
Nikki Roxx gets some promo time to tell everyone she wants to be in main events and wrestle the top talent in SHIMMER. Unsurprisingly she mentions her match with Amazing Kong at Volume 5 as an example of her main event potential, not her horrendous showing against Lorelei Lee.
BREAKING NEWS – Sara Del Rey and Mercedes Martinez want another rematch, but will have to wait. At Volume 7 both will face new talents in SHIMMER – with Sara facing Nattie Neidhart and Mercedes paired off with LuFisto.
Rebecca Knox ends the show with an adorably upbeat little promo. She smirks about beating Allison Danger in her ‘fancy Ring Of Honor rules match) and brags about being the best technical wrestler on the roster. Goodbye K-nox!
SIDENOTE – Since this show barely makes it to two and a half hours, SHIMMER have decided to use the extra space on the DVD to include matches featuring next month’s debutants (Nattie Neidhart and LuFisto) when they appeared as part of SHIMMER exhibition matches on a local Chicago independent show the night before the Volumes 7/8 taping
LuFisto vs Josie
Respected Canadian female worker LuFisto was always going to turn up in SHIMMER eventually, particularly given how much people enjoyed her work in CZW. She keeps a busy schedule though, so it clearly took Prazak a number of shows to book her. Before she debuts on Volume 7 we’ll see her in exhibition action against Josie, who hasn’t made the most of her opportunities at SHIMMER’s shows so far and will look to make an impression with one of the most feared and violent north American female pro wrestlers.
LuFisto starts in dominant fashion and comprehensively outwrestles Josie. To her credit, Josie absorbs that and retaliates with a SKULLF*CK! Belly to belly suplex comes next, as Prazak confirms that Josie is wanting to prove herself a great strong style wrestler. She chops and strikes at LuFisto in the corner, until the Canadian rocks her with a BACK FIST! Machine gun chops, into a hip attack next, followed by a high velocity running facewash! EMERALD FUSION wins it for LuFisto at 05:01
Rating - ** - Josie looked better here than she has in any of her SHIMMER main show appearances thus far. I like the idea of rebranding her as a strike-based, strong style worker as it allows her to use her size, power and hitting ability without going for as many complicated wrestling spots which she is more likely to botch. LuFisto was generous and let her get a fair amount of offence in before brutalising her to win it.
Dangerous Angels vs Cheerleader Melissa/Nattie Neidhart
Neidhart was the other high profile debutant scheduled for Volumes 7 and 8. Now in the WWE as Natalya (Neidhart), the daughter of Jim ‘The Anvil’ was someone SHIMMER fans had been clamouring to see in the company before she was finally booked, so this will be a taster for what they can expect. She teams with Cheerleader Melissa who will be desperate to rebound after her loss to MsChif in the main event of this show, against the Dangerous Angels (Sara Del Rey and Allison Danger). Danger and Del Rey have teamed fairly regularly in ROH, but have concentrated more on their singles work in SHIMMER thus far.
I can’t decide if Nattie’s Jim Neidhart laugh is awesome or kind of creepy. Del Rey and Melissa start us off with some basic holds. Sara is the first to step things up by delivering a running boot to the top of her opponent’s head for 2. Danger tags in for a VIOLENT elbow smash duel with the Cheerleader. Natalya tags in and doesn’t let up any either, hitting chops with such force that the smack is almost as loud as Dave Prazak’s commentary track. She and Melissa start isolating Allison combining some ferocious striking with some extremely liberal interpretations of the rules whilst working on her leg. Neidhart teases the Sharpshooter but heels out on the crowd because they ‘don’t deserve Bret Hart’ and simply rattles Danger’s knee into the canvas instead. Melissa rips off Allison’s knee pad before hanging the leg in the ropes for a running dropkick. Danger somehow hits the Lovelace Choker on Nattie, crumpling her own knee in the process, and slumping to the floor in disappointment as Melissa distracts the referee rendering her tag to Del Rey illegal. Neidhart pulls her back to the middle of the ring for a MICHINOKU DRIVER! SHARPSHOOTER! Del Rey breaks it by full-on punting Nattie in the back of the head! Hot tag to Death Rey finally comes, and she scoops Melissa up for a high angle back suplex almost immediately. Nattie appears to it harder with her chops than most guys by the way. DOUBLE OCTOPUS ON BOTH OPPONENTS! A hobbling Allison Danger joins her partner to crank an abdominal stretch on Neidhart for good measure. GERMAN SUPLEX ON SARA! Meanwhile Melissa dropkicks Danger’s leg from under her before applying the KONDO CLUTCH! Nattie and Sara are BEATING THE SH*T out of each other on the floor! Allison taps at 12:43
Rating - **** - This was a seriously AWESOME match. Everything was brutally stiff, the work on Allison’s leg was really strong (and she sold it pretty well), and it led to a great finish with Melissa working a submission whilst Sara and Nattie laid waste to each other outside. I really liked the references to the Danger vs Melissa Volume 4 match too. An absolute war from first bell to last, and one that definitely wets your appetite to see Nattie’s SHIMMER debut at Volume 7.
Tape Rating - *** - The Volumes 5/6 tapings were easily SHIMMER’s best double shot so far. They had produced plenty of great matches and memorable moments over the first four volumes, but this was the day they finally started putting it all together and producing genuinely great shows. Volume 5 was possibly the best DVD so far, with a succession of really good matches (including my favourite SHIMMER match so far in the Knox vs Haze 2/3 Falls clash), and Vol. 6 was probably the most consistent top-to-bottom show in company history. Apart from the atrocious Roxx/Lorelei match, everything else is really solid. Amazing Kong carried the bulk of the undercard talent who normally drag these SHIMMER shows down in a fun trios tag, the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew had a hell of a debut (whilst furthering the Del Rey/Martinez rivalry), Rebecca Knox said goodbye to SHIMMER in another out and out FUN technical wrestling match, and the conclusion to the MsChif/Melissa feud is well worth checking out. If you can find it anywhere this one gets a firm recommendation from me – and that was before they included the awesome Dangerous Angels vs Melissa/Natalya bonus match.
SIDENOTE – Drop me an email if you’re interested in me continuing to review these shows. I have up to Volume 10 on DVD which I’m happy to review as soon as I can. I had a blast watching this, and it was totally refreshing to watch a show where every wrestler is working as hard as they possibly can (in matches with generous time allocations and few restrictions placed on them) to produce the best show possible for the fans. A welcome change of scenery from the now highly regulated, structured and restricted world of 2014 Ring Of Honor.
Top 3 Matches
3) Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew vs Sara Del Rey/Mercedes Martinez (***)
2) Rebecca Knox vs Allison Danger (****)
1) MsChif vs Cheerleader Melissa (****)