SHIMMER: VOLUME 2

Taped November 6, 2005

Mere hours (if that) after tearing down the house in their debut performance, SHIMMER returns for more action. A couple of the losers from the last volume seek revenge on those that beat them, and the unofficial ace of the company is determined in a 4-way elimination match.

Team Blondage . . . proves to be very capable workers, despite their characters being anything but.

Rain . . . appears to have been watching some Greg Valentine during the intermission between the tapings.

Mschif . . . scares the living daylights out of a future WWE Women’s Champion.

CINDY ROGERS vs. KRISSY VAINE

I already knew that Amber was good, and it’s good to see that Krissy is also rather good. She’s not all that different from Amber, which is probably why they were partners. Krissy plays the diva character to a tee, but she also shows that she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty if push comes to shove, and also shows that she can wrestle, as shown when she holds her own on the mat with Cindy early on. At the same time, Krissy never lets her Team Blondage persona completely leave your mind, she’ll stop what she’s doing to check her nails or play to the crowd.

Compared to Krissy, Cindy is rather low-key, mostly due to Krissy controlling the bulk of the match. But, even when she’s in control, Cindy doesn’t show a whole lot. Her best moment is when Krissy offers a handshake and Cindy takes her down into an ankle lock, but the moment is made by Krissy’s over-the-top selling. Cindy tries to go back to it with her running leg sweep, but it doesn’t go right. Cindy gets in the bulk of her offense in the last minute or so anyway, and most of that is use of her butt and then tapping Krissy out to the TCB, which is the perfect revenge for Krissy swindling the win over Cindy on Vol. 1

NIKKI ROXX vs. LEXIE FYFE

Although this told a decent story, Lexie wanting to torture the less experienced Nikki and Nikki standing up to her, the execution knocks it down a few pegs. Lexie’s general mean streak is welcome, and it’s fun to watch her try to put the hurt on, such as the camel clutch with fish hook, and standing on Nikki’s hair and pulling her up. It’s also fun to get behind Nikki, and watch her climb to her feet and try to shake off whatever she just took and start fighting back. But, there’s some tarnish on their good work by things like Lexie’s weak looking strikes and Nikki dropping her head far too early for the back drop that Lexie turns into a facebuster.

The finish works on a certain level, with Lexie’s overconfidence costing her the match when she misses a splash and Nikki hitting the Barbie Crusher. But, at the same time, it’s another case of the execution not being all it could have. Nikki seemed to hit her move a little too easily, a missed splash, even from the ropes, isn’t something that one would think would be such a match breaker, although it’s plausible to think Lexie knocked the wind out of herself. But, after trying to put such a hurt on Nikki, it seems like Lexie folds a little too easily.

CHEERLEADER MELISSA/TIANA RINGER vs. ARIEL/SHANTELLE TAYLOR

Spunkiness meets Attitude, and the result is a very fun tag match, and boy, do Melissa and Ringer bring the attitude when they’re working over Taylor. They don’t bring a whole lot of wrestling, but they bring plenty of hate and attitude and that’s enough to get the point across. They start the proceedings when Ringer surprises Taylor with a wheelbarrow full nelson, and then Melissa assists with a facebuster. Ringer attempts a pin and the ref is out of position, so Ringer gets his attention and stomps a mudhole and walks it dry. The best part is when Taylor counters Melissa’s suplex with a small package and Melissa gets to her feet and tries to knock her block off with a lariat. As usual, Taylor makes the hot tag and the match breaks down, culminating in a tower of doom spot with Melissa giving both faces powerbombs while they give Ringer a double superplex, and Melissa finishes off Ariel with the Air Raid Crash. But, again, it seems to come a bit too easy for her, especially with Ariel having already blocked it once, and all Melissa does is a single kick to the gut, and the only big bump from Ariel was the tower of doom. Granted, Ariel would be ranked far enough below Melissa for it to make sense that Melissa beat her so easily, but it’s only the second show, the pecking order hadn’t been firmly established yet.

AMBER O’NEAL vs. CHRISTIE RICCI

It seems odd to think that Team Blondage, who are supposed to be untalented divas, outworked both of their opponents during this taping, but that’s just what Krissy Vaine did and that’s what Amber does here. The funny thing is that, while she’s not bad in the least, it shouldn’t be too terribly hard to outwork Amber. She’d show in later volumes that she could wrestle when she needed to, but she’s very much your stereotypical heel here, relying on hair pulling, choking, jawing with the ref, etc. As good as Amber is in this role, it’s not a daunting task to outwrestle her here. It apparently is for Ricci though, who manages to mess up every offensive spot of the match. When she powers out of Amber’s Steiner Recliner, she tries to back her into the corner, but she loses her balance before she can finish and they fall into the corner. Ricci tries, twice, to do her finisher, a tilt-a-whirl slam, and both times it goes wrong. Ricci’s Northern Lights Suplex that she gets the win with is also ugly, thanks to Ricci mistiming it. Ricci’s execution is the only real mark against the match, and, while this wouldn’t have been a classic if Ricci’s offense wasn’t so ugly, it’d have at least been solid.

ALLISON DANGER vs. RAIN

Once Rain got warmed up this started coming along nicely (just like Greg Valentine), the opening stretch has a lot of headlock and wristlock stuff from Rain, which one could argue shows that she’s a proficient wrestler, but it’s far from engaging. Once Rain starts heeling things up, it gets better, although Rain isn’t as animated as Amber. When Danger misses the Shimmering Warlock and Rain zeros in on the back and legs of Danger, this finally starts cooking! Rain looks like the perfect partner for Lacey, and damn if the Greg Valentine analogy isn’t true, Rain looks like she’s trying to put Danger on the shelf the way she torques the Boston crab, and she looks positively sadistic when she rams Danger into the post. The only thing missing was the windup elbow drop.

Rain appears to jar her knee a bit on a backbreaker attempt, which is what eventually does her in, although it’s not that cut and dry. Danger doesn’t get a full control segment to work over the knee, aside from the crab hold. Rain will attempt a suplex and Danger will block it by kicking at her knee, and it comes to a head when Rain’s knee gives out during her attempt at the Acid Rain, and Danger finishes her off with the Warlock. This isn’t going to set the world on fire, but the smart work makes this a fun way to spend fifteen minutes.

MSCHIF vs. BETH PHOENIX

Before she was kicking the ass of everyone in the WWE, Beth was scared to death of Mschif. Like the Danger/Rain match, this is a nice blend of story and work. Beth’s feat of Mschif is always present in some form or another, whether she’s hiding behind the ref and running to the floor, trying to befriend her, or fight to Mschif and trying to get a quick COR win. Beth eventually finds herself having success and winds up using the fear as a motivator to win. First she gets angry and then Beth tries to win by straight up outwrestling Mschif, which she does by blocking the Desecrator and hitting the BVD (Beth Valley Driver). Mschif mostly takes a backseat and lets Beth’s fear story play out, not that she doesn’t contribute anything, she shows off her own wrestling skills, the highlight being her body scissors reverse rana, and she gives Beth plenty of reasons to be afraid, so this is very much a joint effort.

LACEY vs. DAIZEE HAZE vs. MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. SARA DEL REY

While this is an easy pick for match of the night, it also falls into the disappointing category. The first twelve or so minutes, until Lacey’s elimination, are virtually an exhibition. There’s very little in the way of storytelling or development of any major themes. The only storytelling element was Lacey’s deviousness by blind tagging herself in when someone was in trouble, and also hurriedly tagging out when a fresh opponent was tagged in. There’s also times when it’s reminded that it’s every woman for herself, such as when Sara and Daizee seem to be working together a bit, only for Sara to suddenly take a cheap shot at Haze on the apron. But there’s nothing that deep as far as their ring work goes. Yes, they all get to show that they’re good wrestlers, but that’s really the only praise to give them.

Starting with Lacey’s elimination, this picks up and doesn’t look back. Lacey is eliminated using the same sort of sneak tactics that she was using. Haze levels her with two Yakuza kicks, and Martinez blind tags in and finishes off Lacey with her Fisherman’s buster. This segues into a Sara/Mercedes exchange of forearms, which serves to bring out the intensity that caused them to steal the show earlier in the night. Daizee’s Yakuza kick is further established when she intervenes and uses it to eliminate Mercedes, which also avenges Mercedes stealing her elimination of Lacey. This causes Sara to take the fight to Daizee, almost as much as she was to Mercedes, both because she sees the win in her grasp, and because Daizee stole her chance to pin Mercedes to prove she’s the better of the two. Daizee fights back with a powerbomb and a facebuster, but Sara counters the second facebuster attempt into the Butterfly Lock, and when Daizee doesn’t give it up, she goes with the Royal Butterfly and gets the win. Sara is firmly established as being the ‘best of the best,’ but there’s still that little bit of uncertainty because she wasn’t able to beat Mercedes. The portion from Lacey’s elimination until the finish alone is good enough to make this match of the show, but, had the beginning portion followed suit, it’d have been by a much greater margin. ***

Conclusion: The sophomore curse appears to have struck SHIMMER, although this is far from a bad show. The matches are mostly solid, but it’s quite a step down compared to what they did earlier on the same night. With no actively bad matches (even the Amber/Ricci match is salvaged by Amber), this warrants a mild recommendation.