Dark Pegasus Video Review: SHIMMER Vol. 3

SHIMMER Women Athletes Vol. 3 by J.D. Dunn Krissy Vaine and Beth Phoenix scored developmental deals with the WWE in late 2005. Phoenix worked out well, I’d say. Vaine decided to focus on her personal life instead. Nevertheless, that means that SHIMMER had to fill some spots. Let’s see how they did. February 12, 2006 From Berwyn, Ill. Your host is Dave Prazak. Opening Match: Rain vs. Nikki Roxx. Nikki wrestles her way out of a wristlock and hits a satellite headscissors. Rain hits a lungblower, though, to take over. She stops to jaw with the fans. Rain goes to work on Nikki’s back with a running knee and a surfboard chinlock. She starts cheating wholesale, and the fans get behind Roxx. Nikki reverses the Rain Drop to a Northern Lights Suplex. Nikki fights back and goes for the Cruncher, but Rain blocks and hits the Acid Rain (Straight-Jacket Electric Chair) for the win at 9:13. Solid-but-unexciting opener. *1/4 Three-Way Elimination: Amber O’Neal vs. Cindy Rogers vs. Tiana Ringer. Amber gets bitchy early, refusing to shake hands. Ringer and O’Neal form an alliance against Rogers since it’s elimination rules. Rogers hits Tiana with a facebuster, so Ringer rolls out to recoup. Amber is freaked because it’s a one-on-one now, so she stops to beg Tiana to get back in the ring. Rogers jumps her from behind and gives her an X-Factor at 5:15. That leaves Ringer and Rogers. Ringer hits a spinebuster for two. She tries to snapmare Rogers over, but Rogers blocks and locks in a Dragon Sleeper for the win at 7:15. I would have eliminated Rogers first and left O’Neal to fend for herself because she shows more personality, but it’s all good. ** Malia Hosaka vs. Lorelei Lee. Both women are making their debuts in SHIMMER. Hosaka is kind of a Luna Vachon lite. Lee is a cowgirl. Anyone remember Farmer’s Daughter from GLOW? Hosaka, a longtime veteran, immediately starts cheating by putting her feet on the ropes during a front facelock. Lorelei tries a cross armlock, but Hosaka squirms out and starts chopping her. She steps on Lee’s throat and hits a roundhouse kick. She grounds Lee with a reverse chinlock, but Lee hits a sunset flip for two. Hosaka blocks a charge with another roundhouse kick. She tries a splash, but Lee gets her knees up. Lee applies the Camel Clutch. It doesn’t get the submission, so she drops it, stomps Hosaka in the back and tries to reapply it. Hosaka powers her backwards, though. Lee fights back and applies a figure-four. The fans want Hosaka to tap, but she pulls Lee’s hair to get out of it. Hosaka reverse rolls her into a bodyscissors. Hosaka tries to finish her off, but Lee surprises her out of nowhere with the Oklahoma Roll at 11:55. Hosaka is pissed about being upset, so she puts the boots to Lee and calls out Lexie Fyfe to help her. They doubleteam her for a while until Cindy Rogers makes the save. Not a bad match, but I didn’t really feel it was going anywhere. *3/4 Lexie Fyfe vs. MsChif. MsChif beat Cheerleader Melissa on Vol. 1, so she’s in the cheerful one’s crosshairs. MsChif breaks a Full Nelson and turns it into a Dragon Sleeper. She takes Fyfe down into a Muta Deathlock. Lexie makes the ropes, so MsChif tilt-o-whirls into a hanging headscissors. Lexie slams her down and takes over. She puts MsChif in a Pendulum Stretch and drops her down. MsChif creatively uses her feet to choke Lexie, forcing her to drop the hold. MsChif takes over and chokes Lexie against the ropes. Cheerleader Melissa wanders out to observe, distracting MsChif. Fyfe uses the distraction to recover and block the Desecrator. Melissa trips up MsChif, allowing Fyfe to hit the Attitude Adjuster at 10:37. It was going along fine before the interference. **1/4 Cheerleader Melissa vs. Shantelle Taylor. Shantelle grounds Melissa early with a headlock. Melissa reverses to an armlock, but Shantelle makes the ropes. Melissa zeroes in on Taylor’s arm, but Shantelle hits a wheelbarrow armdrag to send Melissa to the floor. Back in, Melissa hits a forearm in the corner. Shantelle comes back with the handspring elbow and tries the wheelbarrow again. Melissa just tosses her back with a suplex, though. Shantelle comes back with a series of rollups but eats a clothesline. Melissa ties her up with the reverse Cloverleaf. Shantelle makes the ropes, though. They slug it out with forearms to a draw, and then they fight on top. Melissa gets the advantage, hauls her down and finishes with the Schwein at 17:39. Terrific back-and-forth action. Surprisingly well-executed too. *** Allison Danger vs. Rebecca Knox. Knox is making her much-hyped debut here. Allison looks mighty sexy in that one-shoulder thing. This is about *wrestling*, though, so we get a lot of wristlock exchanges. Very scientific stuff here. They take it to the mat and fight over an Indian Deathlock. Nice foreshadowing as Knox reaches out for the ropes instinctively but doesn’t grab them because she’s a sportswoman. They finally reverse each other so much that they roll to the other side of the ring into the ropes. This is some quality 1970s-style mat wrestling. Unfortunately, they pick up the pace, and now I see where Knox’s weakness is as she has a hard time selling armdrags and hiptosses. Knox tries a leapfrog, and her leg buckles. The ref tells Danger to step aside while the docs come in to check on Knox’s ankle. I think we all see where this is going, but Knox does a great job of selling the ankle injury, crying loudly as they try to move her. Danger, in a display of class, holds the ropes open for Knox to be carried out. Of course, Becky is just faking and boots Allison right to the floor. Prazak is IRATE! Knox controls for the next few minutes. Danger makes a few comebacks, but Knox is always able to cut her off and maintain control. Allison hits the STO out of nowhere, but Knox ducks the Shimmering Warlock and hits the Falcon Arrow for the win at 22:55. Hey, Dido has some spunk in her. The ankle spot has been done by everyone from Fit Finlay to Rob Conway, but it was nice to see it done again. Kind of like an old, comfortable shoe. If they had been able to put together a decent sequence when they picked up the pace, this would have been an excellent match. As it is, that little series exposed the match. **3/4 Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze. Both women are essentially faces, but Haze has been kind of a pest as Del Rey tried to get a win over Mercedes Martinez only to have Haze get in the way. They start by exchanging some holds. Del Rey has a hard time kipping up, so she stops to assure the audience that she can, in fact, do a kip up. The fans chant for her to do one, so she tries. Haze even offers to help out with some Flower Power. Yeah, I’m thinking more of an ‘herbal essence,’ considering it’s the Haze. Del Rey does a pretty shitty one but at least manages to land on her feet. The fans call for the ref to do one, SO HE DOES! The fans chant, “You got served!” at Del Rey until she starts pouting and walks to the back. The ref has to chase her down and apologize. Funny stuff. That’s the kind of goofy fun you can get in the indies. Del Rey controls early and tosses Daizee away as she goes for the bulldog. She slingshots Daizee’s throat into the bottom rope. Daizee fires back with chops but charges right into a big boot. A Fallaway Slam gets two. Sara starts headbutting her in the back of the head and gets frustrated. Daizee is able to sneak in a rollup. Del Rey nails her, though, and sets up for a powerbomb. Haze rolls over the top into a rollup! ONE, TWO, THREE? It sure looked like three, but the ref says two. They trade forearms, and Daizee just lays waste to her with a Yakuza kick. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Daizee hits the Heart Punch, but Del Rey ducks a kick and lifts Haze into the Electric Chair. Haze rolls her up, though. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Haze pops up and tries to chop her, but Del Rey is hunched over and gets hit in the jaw hardway. OUCH! Sara says, “To hell with this,” ducks another chop, and finishes with a Bridging German Suplex at 19:48. Spiffy little match. The best in the promotion so far. These two put together a match that had a little of everything, including (most importantly) a believable nearfall sequence down the stretch. ***1/2 Sara Del Rey says she’s the #1 competitor in SHIMMER, and she wants a “No Time Limit” rematch between her and Mercedes Martinez to prove it. Daizee Haze is upset that Rebecca Knox would stoop to cheating to gain an advantage. She asks for a match against Knox and tells Knox to leave the cheating tactics back at the pub.

The 411: At this point, you could clearly feel a dividing line between the undercard women who either didn't have the experience or talent to put on much more than an average match and the top of the card (Danger, Del Rey, Melissa, Haze, etc.), who excelled when given a chance. The last three matches on the card compare favorably to most men's matches out there, and they're well worth the price of the DVD. Thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]