SHIMMER: VOLUME 1

Taped November 6, 2005

So rumor has it that this promotion is featuring women’s wrestling prominently. The operative word in that sentence being *wrestling.* Well technically they’re not women wrestlers, they’re women athletes, but it still beats them being called ‘divas’ and having pudding matches, I suppose.

Beth Phoenix . . . shows early signs that she’d be an ass-kicking ‘Glamazon’

Mschif . . . takes the beating of a lifetime from a cheerleader, but still manages to come out on top.

Lacey . . . beats the living tar out of Daizee Haze to the point you wonder if it’s same Lacey from ROH.

SHANTELLE TAYLOR vs. TIANA RINGER

While not anything mind-blowing, SHIMMER’s debut match was a rather fun affair. The early portion with them working and trading holds was fun to watch, and Taylor’s cartwheel escape of the waist lock was a good moment (as was Ringer’s failed attempt to follow suit). For the most part, Ringer was good about working over Taylor’s back, and going back to it whenever it looked like Taylor was going to turn the tide. The only real failing of the match is that not everything looks as good as it could, this is especially true about the chops they throw at one another, as well as the big kick that Ringer throws after a snap mare. This is also true of the finish, as it looks odd to see Ringer go for a superplex and then only set her down on the second rope, and after having her back worked over so much, a missile dropkick probably wasn’t the best idea for a finishing move. Thankfully, the ugly parts are more the exception than the rule, and while this does have its flaws, it’s far from bad.

KRISSY VAINE/AMBER O’NEAL vs. CINDY ROGERS/NIKKI ROXX

I wonder if Team Blondage is actually good, or if they’re just doing a really good job with their gimmick (divas who can’t wrestle)? Aside from the double team Russian leg sweep on Roxx, all they have to offer is tons of stalling, and choking, hair pulling, and the cheap win when O’Neal counters Rogers’ sunset flip and Vaine gives her a hand from the floor. Rogers and Roxx both looked pretty good, bringing some good stuff, but this was just too long and too much of Team Blondage and their non existent offense in control of the match to really make it amount to much.

RAIN vs. ARIEL

In many ways this is similar to the opener, but Rain and Ariel are able to improve upon the things that held down Ringer/Taylor. Both matches feature a heel control segment that focuses on the back area, but Rain has much more of a mean streak about her, than Ringer did, and Ariel’s selling is much more exaggerated, although, like Taylor, there was nothing really long term about it. And this time around, the strikes looked much better, with both Rain and Ariel lighting one another up with chops, and Rain using some audible clubbing forearm shots to Ariel’s back. The match does have its awkward moments, Ariel provides two nice counters, a victory roll and a Tornado DDT, but neither makes much impact, they don’t hand control over to Ariel, they’re really just stall tactics. As the match heads toward the end, Rain starts to get frustrated that she can’t put Ariel away, but she’s just doing random moves and going for pins, and not going after the back area, which is how she got Ariel in trouble to begin with. The finish also comes out of nowhere, but it’s out of nowhere in a good way this time, with Ariel blocking the Acid Rain and surprising Rain with the Dariel (Diamond Cutter) to pick up the win. I’d have liked to see this go a bit longer, to see if they had any other tricks up their sleeves, but this is damn fine on its own.

LEXIE FYFE vs. CHRISTIE RICCI

Youth meets Experience, it’s about as simple as it gets, but like the previous match, they’re both good enough in what they do to make the match come off well. Ricci provides some nice flashiness, and starts to work over Lexie’s arm with some nice arm drags and then goes for a juji-gatame, only for Fyfe to get the ref to look away and go for the eyes. Fyfe has a similar mean streak to Rain, only instead of only trying to hurt her, she’s also going out of her way to be insulting, such as the camel clutch while she tears at the face, and unloading some audible chops. Fyfe also targets the back area with a surfboard and a couple of body slams. Spunkiness starts to win out again when Ricci catches Fyfe on the top and hits a superplex, and Ricci starts to unload of Fyfe only to get knees on an attempted splash and then planted with the Attitude Adjuster (TKO) and get pinned. Really solid stuff here, but again, I’d have liked to see them go a bit longer, to see what else they might have had on tap.

MSCHIF vs. CHEERLEADER MELISSA

Up to this point on the card, this is easily the most physical match. Both Melissa and Mschif bring a lot of good offense, and neither of them holds back when it comes to dishing it out. If this were based on a point system, Melissa would have won by a good margin, she spends the bulk of the match in control and brings all sorts of good, and brutal looking, ways to bring the pain. As seems to be a recurring trend, Melissa singles out the back area, and while she’s got all the nastiness of Rain and Lexie, she also supplied an innovative offense to match, Melissa actually uses the Gorilla Clutch, and the one-ups it by making Mschif kick herself in the head. She also gives Mschif a Boston crab over the guardrail. Not to be outdone, Mschif escapes Melissa’s attempted Kudo driver and hits a beautiful quebrada, as well as countering Melissa’s spine buster into a Muta lock, and shows her own brutal side with a drop toehold into the corner and then several diving foot stomps into Melissa’s back. The finish feels a bit tacked on, it makes a little bit of sense with Mschif again escaping the Kudo driver and hitting the Desecrator (spike DDT while holding the arm with her legs), but virtually none of the work done beforehand plays a real factor into it. That aside though, this is well worth going out of your way to see, and smokes just about any women’s match you’re likely to find in the WWE. ***

ALISON DANGER vs. BETH PHOENIX

Beth isn’t the ass-kicking ‘Glamazon’ that she’d become in the WWE, but she shows a few hints of it here. The few comedy spots (Beth’s continuous rope running, and kissing the ref to distract him from seeing her choking Danger) were a nice touch. Aside from those, Beth only gets in a couple of moves during her control segment, and the rest is lots of choking and chops. It’s useful to establish Beth as somewhat of a bad ass, but again, Beth looks far more bad assical in the WWE. Beth’s onslaught also helps show Danger’s toughness for taking the abuse. Aside from the early filler portion with the wrist lock sequence, Danger gets very little offense until her comeback toward the end. Danger manages to hit a series of forearms, lariat, facebuster, and neckbreaker, is quick succession, but she winds up winning after a roll-up reversal. The comedy stuff was good for maintaining interest in the match, but the odd finish and Beth’s rather pedestrian control segment makes the match come off a bit flat.

SARA DEL REY vs. MERCEDES MARTINEZ

For a twenty-minute draw between two workers who’d never worked together before (according to the commentators anyway), this is quite the remarkable match. While most of the matches up to this point were based on a solid babyface/heel structure, this based on something quite different, and even more basic: Their desire to win. It seems odd to think about that being the main story element, because winning is supposed to be everyone’s goal. But watching them trade holds, counters, strikes, etc. and then watching how aggressive they get as the match winds down, shows firsthand exactly how much each of them wants to win this match.

The best match to compare this to would be the Styles/London ROH match from 2003, this isn’t nearly as overtly hateful and aggressive as the former, but they also didn’t have all of the backstory going into the match. The work is simple and effective, with a minimal amount of silly things. Each of them has a clear idea of what they think will work, Sara wants to wear down Mercedes with a combination of high impact moves and submissions, and Mercedes wants to wear her down with her strikes and then knock her out with her fisherman’s buster. Both of them are given time to show off their game plan and their selling shows the effectiveness of said strategy. Del Rey’s is obviously more fun to watch from a variety standpoint, hip attacks, a huge powerbomb, modified abdominal stretch, Sara brings all sorts of ways to bring the pain. But at the same time Martinez and her running kicks to the chest, forearms to the jaw, and stinging chops do quite a bit of damage in their own right. Also, Mercedes has the best moment of the match: After surprising Sara with a German suplex, she more or less ties her up in a knot, and then trots to the corner to catch her breath.

There are a few odd moments to the match, but nothing that takes anything away from it. The biggest one being Sara’s pin attempt with her knee, when the ref started to admonish her for choking. Sara has to inform him that she’s covering her, and then he starts counting. Also, when Mercedes locks in the camel clutch variation and Sara winds up powering out of it, either due to Sara not knowing her own strength or Mercedes simply being too tired. In any case, this is really good stuff that needs to be checked out, and if these two can put on a match this good without being very familiar with each other, one can only imagine what will happen if this becomes an actual feud. ***1/2

LACEY vs. DAIZEE HAZE

As a wrestling fan, there are few things that are greater than going into a match thinking “They can’t follow that last match” and finding out that you were dead wrong. Lacey’s assault on Haze’s back (a recurring trend with this show it seems) is the most brutal one yet, and who’d have thought that Daizee Haze would throw a better Yakuza kick that Masahiro Chono? Even the early stuff with Haze keeping her grip on Lacey’s arm, and thwarting several escapes serves a real purpose. No, it didn’t lead to a long control segment on Lacey’s arm, or prevent Lacey from doing things earlier on. It frustrated Lacey and gave her that much more reason to go after Haze’s back with the vengeance that she did. They even covered their one real blown spot well, when Daizee’s attempted sunset flip went wrong because Lacey was too low, but Lacey rolled through and continued her assault on Daizee.

Almost all of the matches on this show featured the back being worked over in some form, but this match is easily the best use of it. The setup for it felt somewhat spontaneous, and Lacey’s vicious streak kept it from dragging. It didn’t hurt (well it hurt Daizee) that Lacey was really good with finding creative and painful looking ways to keep the pain coming, and whenever it seemed like Daizee was getting ready to turn the tables, Lacey was right there with another shot to keep her down. Daizee does a fine job in putting over the punishment, and her big comeback with the forearms, Yakuza kick, and the lariat has all the intensity of the last match. Haze also brings some cool spots like her Diamond Cutter from the Tree of Woe. On paper it looks odd to see Lacey dish out such a beating, and Haze picking up the win with only a couple of big moves, but all you need to see is how Haze nearly decapitates Lacey with the Yakuza kick to get the picture. And it’s impossible to not love seeing Haze use the heart punch to set up the Mind Trip (neckbreaker/facebuster combo). For anyone who’s only seen Lacey as the spoiled brat from ROH, you need to check this out yesterday to see how good a wrestler Lacey is, and how good women’s wrestling can really be. ***1/2

Conclusion: Women’s wrestling, what a concept! Aside from the Team Blondage tag, which had its own purpose, this was all solid wrestling that didn’t suck and didn’t have stupid gimmicks. Not to mention smartly laying the groundwork for potential feuds like Lacey/Haze and Melissa/Mschif, definite recommendation for this show, get it now!