Kevin’s SHIMMER 67 Review

SHIMMER Volume 67
October 18th, 2014 | Eagles Club in Berwyn, Illinois

I apologize for these SHIMMER review being so out of order. I really like the promotion but have volumes from all over the place and kind of randomly pull them out. This was a highly regard volume that I’ve never seen, though the card features a lot of my favorite female wrestlers.

Dave Prazak and Allison Danger handle commentary.

The Kimber Bombs (Cherry Bomb and Kimber Lee) def. Bambi Hall and KC Cassidy in 3:52
The Kimber Bombs came out to “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. Cherry Bomb has gone on to portray Allie in TNA. KC Cassidy found fame as Peyton Royce in NXT. Cherry Bomb attacked as soon as the bell rang, establishing her team as the heels. The Kimber Bombs did the little heel things like distracting the referee and getting in cheap shots throughout. Cassidy made a mild tag but Hall didn’t fare much better and lost after a lung blower/German suplex combo. This did what it needed to as the Kimber Bombs looked good and worked well as a heel team. **¼

Heidi Lovelace def. Nicole Savoy in 7:31
This is Savoy’s SHIMMER debut. She immediately showed no love to the fans and badmouthed them. Lovelace has been killing it for a long time now and is a highlight of the Alpha-1 Wrestling shows I’ve reviewed lately. Lovelace uses music from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, making me like her even more. Savoy kicked away a handshake, setting the tone for her attitude throughout. She was aggressive and really took it to Lovelace to the surprise of the fans. Lovelace came back with knee strikes and kicks galore. They continued to back and forth until Lovelace won it with a frog splash. A solid debut for Savoy that featured alright action. I need more personality from Savoy. Even in her later SHIMMER matches, something is missing. The things they didn’t weren’t bad, but it all didn’t seem to be messy at times. **¾

Sassy Stephie w/ Mademoiselle Rachelle def. Crazy Mary Dobson in 6:01
Stephie has been around for a while, while Dobson has appeared on WWE TV in the past. I actually bumped into Stephie at the first NXT show in Cleveland in 2015. This was rough. Stephanie looked way sluggish. Mary got tossed around and seemed to enjoy it. Stephie used her manager to some heel help. One thing that helped the match was that the crowd really liked Dobson. Mary rallied but still fell to the Kiss my Sass. Just a really bland match. I couldn’t get into at all and neither woman really impressed me. *¼

Number One Contender’s Match: Athena def. Nikki Cross in 9:07
Storm is on NXT now as Nikki Cross, as is Athena as Ember Moon. Once Backstreet Boys hit on the speakers, the crowd went nuts. We got a pre-match promo from Storm, who called herself the “white chocolate cheesecake of sports entertainment.” She never fails to entertain. Storm attacked from behind to start things off. Athena pulled out the Austin Aries heat seeking missile in the early stages. Storm took control for a while and got frustrated when she couldn’t put Athena away. We got some shades of her future Sanity character in NXT with her facial expressions and reactions. Athena’s comeback included a great sequence into the Koji clutch but Storm reached the ropes. Storm avoided the O-Face twice, so Athena reached into a great STF variation to make Storm tap out. The crowd seemed disappointed in the result. This was the best match on the show so far. It was too sloppy and disjointed at points to be great, but other than that, they managed to deliver a fun match. ***¼

A recap of SHIMMER 65 (I think) was shown. Portia Perez attempted to help Jessica Havok beat Heidi Lovelace but messed up and hit Havok with a wrench.

Portia Perez def. Courtney Rush via disqualification in 7:26
The crowd and I both love Perez’s “Edge of Seventeen” theme. Perez plays the cowardly heel so well and did so here again. She hit behind the official and used any cheap opening she could. Perez did really standard stuff, relying on her shenanigans to garner interest and heat from the fans. It’s a fine idea, but doesn’t make for an exciting match. Perez sent Rush outside but Havok showed up and took out Portia with a big boot, resulting in the DQ. This felt like two women killing time until the DQ spot. A disappointing, uninspired outing. **

Havok and Courtney Rush nearly came to blows but Havok just walked off.

Nevaeh def. Jenny Rose in 8:51
I’ve always really liked Nevaeh. She was part of SHIMMER’s first Tag Team Champions with TNA’s Madison Rayne. I was going to say that I’ve never seen Rose but Prazak explained that she used to work in SHIMMER under a mask as Jamilia Craft and is back after a stint in Japan. Rose showed her skill in the beginning until Nevaeh just walloped her with a forearm. Nevaeh took the time to abuse Rose with some relatively vicious offense. That included a big lariat and loud kick. Her offense was hampered by one too many chin locks though. Rose showed fire in her comeback, though she messed up a key suplex/DDT spot. Nevaeh eventually stopped her with a DVD. I wasn’t too impressed with Rose but outside of chin lock city, Nevaeh was good. They told the simple story of a no nonsense heel working over the plucky babyface who showed some alright fire. **½

Portia Perez replaced Allison Danger on commentary.

No Disqualification: Mayumi Ozaki def. Saraya Knight in 6:23
Before the match, it was announced that Ozaki only agreed to come to the States if all of her matches could be “No DQ.” Knight pretty much crapped on the fans, ring announcer and her opponent before the bell. This was two women in their 40’s trying to kill each other. Almost immediately, they brawled around the ring and in the crowd. The fight spilled over to the merchandise table and they really just beat the hell out of each other. Once back inside, Ozaki won with a spinning back fist. This was good and just really got going when it abruptly ended. I wanted more of a war but it ended too quickly to really get going. Saraya shook hands and hugged Ozaki before they left to the bar together ***

Evie def. Kay Lee Ray in 11:57
I just love Evie. We got a really fast paced opening sequence between the two. Both girls had bandaged fingers, leading to a fun test of strength using them. Not only was their work quick, but it was also crisp. Kay Lee Ray nailed a big kick and a springboard dropkick before wearing down Evie on the mat. In an awesome spot, KLR countered a sunset flip into a Northern lights suplex. Evie started in with some kicks to swing the momentum. She hit an awesome uranage backbreaker and then reversed a rana into a sitout powerbomb for near falls. After some more mat work, Evie hit a big Yakuza kick and KLR came back with an enziguri. The big moments just kept coming, from a wheelbarrow roll through by Evie to a suplex cutter and Gory Bomb by KLR. KLR went up top but Evie caught her with another running boot and picked up the win with the TTYL. An incredible battle. Two of the best around right now just went at it. It was fast paced, both women got to showcase how great they are and everything done made sense and looked great. Seriously, go watch this match if you can find it. ****¼

In the back, the Kimber Bombs cut a promo about being upset at getting rookies on the show tonight. They want the SHIMMER Tag Team Titles.

LuFisto def. Rhia O’Reilly in 7:52
Rhia taunted LuFisto about the demise of her old doll. Due to that, LuFisto is portraying a more serious gimmick. She attacked quickly. A lot of what they do was relatively hard hitting throughout. Though they laid into each other, Rhia looked to slow it down a bit. They fought up top where they just began to slap the shit out of each other. LuFisto survived a tiger suplex and hit a brainbuster variation followed by a burning hammer to win. I came away disappointed with this. It started hot, got slow and then the finish kind of came from out of nowhere. **½

After the bell, Saraya Knight and Mayumi Ozaki showed up to beat up LuFisto for defeating Saraya’s protégé. LuFisto was able to escape.

A recap was shown of Madison Eagles accidentally costing Nicole Matthews a match against Evie a few volumes ago.

Number One Contender’s Match: Madison Eagles and Nicole Matthews wrestled to draw in 20:04
Eagles and Matthews have been best friends (though Nicole’s real BFF is Portia) but this is about a spot in the SIMMER Title match and their issue after Eagles cost Matthews a match. Eagles using AFI’s “Prelude 12/21” will never not be tremendous. Madison had an extended bit with some plastic forks in her gear for illegal use later. Once the action got started, they showed just how evenly matched they were. It’s a good idea to go that route since these two went to a time limit draw in their previous outing. Their even mat work lasted a while. Matthews was perfectly content with trying to take a countout win. Matthews went after the leg continuously. Eagles started to fire up and they traded German suplexes, with Eagles winning out by hitting three to Nicole’s two. This led to a series of near falls for Matthews. The girls started taking it back to the mat after an Eagles brainbuster and neither could gain the upper hand. Madison gets a sleeper but Matthews countered with the old Bret Hart corner spot and gets on top Eagles. She covers her for three, but at the same time, Nicole tapped. Really good match. It started a bit slow but I liked how it felt like a struggle. The closing stretch is pretty rad, though I don’t love the finish. ***¾

Bryce Remsburg, the senior official, decided that both Eagles and Matthews advance to the SHIMMER Title match, which will now be a four way.

Akino, Kaori Yoneyama and Tsukasa Fujimoto def. SHIMMER Tag Team Champions 3G (Kellie Skater and Tomoka Nakagawa) and Mia Yim in 20:54
3G stands for Global Green Gangsters. This is the SHIMMER debut for the three Joshi stars. Commentary knew from the start that they couldn’t keep up with the play-by-play here. Yoneyama is small and fierce, while Akino is bigger and seemingly vicious. After each new lady was given a chance to work with one of the SHIMMER mainstays, the pace picked up. Like the commentary team, I can’t really give too much play-by-play. This was just nonstop action and featured some really cool moments throughout, including triple chops by the SHIMMER team and an awesome submission by Akino at one point. All six women got involved on a triple suplex spot that the 3G group won out on. There was an awkward spot where everyone got stuck and Skater had to wait for Fujimoto to come off the top. Yoneyama nearly saved it with a sweet chaos theory for two. After some insanity, Yoneyama got the win for her team with a top rope senton on Skater, setting up a future title match. This was pretty nuts and was a great way to debut the new girls. A frantic match that moved at a quick pace and had a hot crowd throughout. ***¾

SHIMMER Championship: Cheerleader Melissa (c) def. Kana in 21:33
Kana is now known as Asuka in NXT, while Melissa portrays Mariposa in Lucha Underground. It’s Kana’s first shot at the gold though she lost to Melissa in their only other match. The crowd was almost fully in support of Kana. They traded stuff on the mat to kick things off. Things spilled outside and Melissa took over with a body slam, really playing the badass woman that she’s known for. She swung Kana back and forth between the guardrail and ring steps. Kana answered that by slamming Melissa’s leg into the guardrail. The happiness on Kana’s face while doing these violent things is why I love her. Kana tried submissions inside only to lead to a battle of stiff strikes that ended when Kana grabbed the leg back into another submission. Melissa sold the leg work well, like not being able to pin after a leg drop. After surviving a bunch from Kana, Melissa hit the Air Raid Crash for two. That was how she beat Kana last time. Pissed that it didn’t work, Melissa proceeded to deliver TEN CURB STOMPS and a second Air Raid Crash to retain. Great main event. The leg work throughout was well done from both women and they got to showcase their vicious sides. The finish kept Kana looking strong and allowed Melissa to come out looking great as well. ****¼

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

A great show from SHIMMER that mostly lived up to the hype I heard from it. The show got off to a slow start but improved as time went on. It really reached another level once the Evie/KLR match came on. That was one of the best matches in SHIMMER history. Matthews/Eagles and the six woman tag were both really good and then the main event delivered in pretty much exactly the match I wanted from Kana and Melissa. Though it is a long show at 3.5 hours, it moves along quickly and is a whole lot of fun.