SHIMMER Vol. 18 DVD Review: MsChif vs. Del Rey for top title, Sarita vs. Melissa, Kong (Kharma) vs. Wesna (original) (raw)

By Anthony Beckingham, PWTorch specialist

After taking a volume off as a singles competitor, Sara Del Rey was in action defending her title after the conclusion of the previous show’s main event. Lower on the card, the promising Cat Power debuted with a birth name that could only lead someone into combat. Also, there’s another first-time dream match between former tag team partners in Japan, Amazing Kong and Wesna.

SHIMMER DVD Review Series SHIMMER Vol. 18 DVD review April 26, 2008 Berwyn, Ill.

(1) Shark Girl (1-0) beat Amber O’Neal (3-10) at 7:01. Comedy collides with the glamour girl O’Neal meeting the masked Daffney. Sharky reversed O’Neal’s wristlock and bit her opponent. O’Neal was thrown out, but hangmaned Sharky’s neck on the way back in. After the referee refused to count O’Neal’s leveraged pin, she used the stinkface. After posing, her second attempt allowed Sharky to bite her posterior, leading to a Chummer (Stunner) for the win. (*)

Becky Bayless (Cookie in TNA) brought out MsChif, who pointed out in her possessed voice that she had the Shimmer Champion pinned for more than a three count, which the crowd loudly responded to. Del Rey came out and asked MsChif to get to the point; Del Rey called herself a fighting champion and accepted MsChif’s challenge.

(2) Nicole Matthews (0-1) beat Lorelei Lee (2-5) at 7:35. A quick starter, as both ran into each other for arm locks. Lee kept reversing, so Matthews fled the ring. A close test of strength led to Lee monkey flipping Matthews. Matthews rebutted with a side slam backbreaker and a loud chop, then choked her. Matthews kipped up which popped the crowd; Perez is missing to keep her heel heat, although she garnered some by doing a feet-first suicide dive to a rope-choked Lee. After she capitalized on the neck damage with a Last Rites rolling cutter - think Cross Rhodes. (**)

(3) Daizee Haze (9-8) beat Jetta (1-0) at 11:16. Haze put Jetta’s hoodie on, so the Home Wreckers beat Haze’s flowers before leaving in lieu of a manager’s license. After a bit too much comedy, neither could gain an advantage in a lock up, so Haze picked up the pace and caught Jetta in a trip hold. Jetta to a standing position, then shoulder barged Haze and dominated her but couldn’t lock on the straitjacket submission. Haze hit a missile dropkick, then ran circles round Jetta on the way to a Heart Punch. She missed the Yakuza Kick but still hit the Mind Trip, leading Jetta to whine to the crowd. (**)

Becky Bayless welcomed Allison Danger to the ring while the end of her Volume 17 match was shown. She came out with a home made sling which one fan tried to mock, but she shot them down with that acerbic Corino wit. Danger announced that Cheerleader Melissa’s Air Raid Crash broke her arm, forcing her to take time off but vowing to return. The 100 percent attendance club is getting thinner.

(4) The Experience (Lexie Fyfe & Malia Hosaka) (7-1) beat Danyah & Jennifer Blake (0-1) at 9:48. The Experienced jumped the Canadians before the bell, but they fought back and locked both former NWA World Champions in a figure-four. The Experience escaped the ring twice so the Canadians dived out; Danyah feigned it but Blake lept through wholeheartedly. After exchanging tags, Experience isolated Blake and worked her legs and back, even pulling out the big swing. After reversing a suplex, Blake tagged Danyah who ran through both leading to a stereo Thesz Press. Blake went for the Dynamite Destroyer but Hosaka hit her from behind and she was pinned after a Double Gourdbuster. (**)

(5) “Portuguese Princess” Ariel (6-4) beat Cat Power (0-0) at 4:08. Too quick to gauge the debutante. They ran straight into each other to deliver quick scoop slams. After a stand-off, Power shook Ariel’s hand but hit her from behind. She hit a few more slams, but Ariel reversed an Irish whip into the Dariel cutter. (*)

(6) Mercedes Martinez (3-2-1) beat Cindy Rogers (7-6) at 12:35. Rogers took control with her usual innovative submissions; Martinez took a break outside, taking a seat and borrowing a fan’s water. The match went back and forth between Rogers’ holds and Martinez’s strikes. While Rogers complained to the referee, Martinez schoolboyed her but Rogers used her leg power to convert it into a crossface. After a rolling inside cradle that left both dizzy, they traded punches until Martinez hit a spinebuster for a nearfall. She hit some more power moves, but when she couldn’t secure the fisherman suplex she settled for a saito suplex. (***)

(7) Ashley Lane & Nevaeh (0-1) beat Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew (Lacey & Rain) (3-1) at 12:09. A very enjoyable tag match. Rain demanded quiet for Jetta’s headache; go figure it didn’t work. Nevaeh waved her goodbye (no manager’s license) as the bell rang and then sold shock at how much a chop hurt, so tried to end things quickly with a series of sliding pins. Lane scared both Home Wreckers with her arm drags, so she was pulled out of the ring from behind and thrown into the guardrail. She was then beaten from corner to corner and worn down with a double team arm drag and STO in succession. Lacey rolled into a Dragon Sleeper, she fought back against Rain but her neck damage was exploited with a neckbreaker and sleeper. She eventually rolled under a clothesline to tag Nevaeh who took down Rain with a dropkick, then a single-knee facebreaker followed by a whiplash neckbreaker. Nevaeh threw Rain into Lacey which led to a pin from the combination of Lane’s Yakuza Kick and Nevaeh’s STO. (***)

(8) Amazing Kong (5-2) beat Wesna (0-1) at 10:20. They slowly locked up, but their strength was equal so Kong chopped Wesna hard. The third time round, Wesna ducked the chop and tried a German suplex but couldn’t budge Kong so the crowd laughed. Kong choked Wesna, then picked her up for a sitout facebuster. Wesna fought back with a series of punches but all Kong needed was a single strike to take control.

After meeting the guardrail, Wesna found a second wind by reversing an Irish whip to bend Kong forward then kicked her face thrice before hitting a running neckbreaker. She tried a German and a Samoan Drop which put her back out, allowing Kong time to get an Implant Buster. Despite this, Wesna rolled away from the Amazing Press and launched a quick Samoan Drop. The dazed Kong took a kick in the gut, then an axe kick to behind her head followed by a running big boot. This allowed for Wesna’s German suplex to a massive pop and the nearest of falls from the bridge. She went straight up top, but Kong caught her senton bomb and turned it into a powerbomb. (***)

(9) Cheerleader Melissa (7-6) beat “Dark Angel” Sarah Stock (5-2) at 20:21. The title tourney rematch began with some chain wrestling to the mat, with Stock stretching Melissa’s limbs. She broke free and tried a cloverleaf but Stock used her lucha flexibility to stave it off. Melissa turned to power moves an slammed Stock’s wrist to the mat and bent her arm. After a hope spot from Stock, Melissa kicked her in the stomach and worked it with a seated abdominal stretch and chops to her chest. She broke free but Melissa caught her in a wheelbarrow, dumped her back on the turnbuckle. They reset the match with back and forth strikes until things became frenetic with a flurry of moves. Melissa went for the Kudo Driver but history repeated itself as Stock popped up on Melissa’s shoulders for a victory roll. She followed up with a wheelbarrow but Melissa learnt from her mistakes and turned it into a Kudo Driver for the pin. (***1/2)

(10) MsChif (6-6) beat Sara Del Rey (14-1-1) at 16:22 to become the new Shimmer Champion. Del Rey locked MsChif’s wrist, but she cartwheeled out of it so Del Rey deftly kicked her legs to ground her. Soon after, MsChif caught Del Rey off the ropes in a snapmare and kept the side headlock even after Del Rey’s backdrop. MsChif delivered a side hurracanrana, but was too slow setting up a moonsault. After sidestepping it, Del Rey took control with a Mexican Surfboard as she tapped into her heel character, telling the crowd “You’ll like her like this.” She kept Chif’s legs in place and put her into a dragon sleeper, then built up to some big power moves to elicit MsChif’s first screams of pain.

MsChif reversed a sidescissors into the Billy Goat’s Curse, but her weak back allowed Del Rey to lean back into a pin. MsChif eventually found respite after another long stretch by sidestepping Del Rey and dumping her out to the ground and hitting a top rope crossbody to the floor. Inside she tripped Del Rey’s face into the bottom turnbuckle then hit a series of double stops. Del Rey rolled her Descrator into a pin, then axe kicked her head. She tried to set up a Gory Special, but MsChif suddenly popped up and yelled to hail the excellent Code Green.

After kicking out, Del Rey went for the Royal Butterfly but MsChif pulled her to the mat, rolled to the middle of the ring while keeping hold of Del Rey to set up the Desecrator and become only the second person to beat Sara Del Rey in Shimmer. (***1/2)

Overall thoughts: 8.0 A cracking Shimmer volume that suffered slightly from not having any four-star matches on the card, but half the card was solid three-star matches and combined with the magic of seeing the Shimmer title change for the first time, after five successful defenses from Del Rey. This, of course, wiped the slate clean and began a whole new potential series of dream match main events, as Del Rey tended to be in the main event long before she was champ anyway. Given that Danger had broken her arm and Nikki Roxx was busy with TNA commitments (read: getting her head shaved), it’s impressive the quality of new talent Shimmer found to fill the void. It shows Shimmer is a promotion that knows how to put its best step forward, although I’m still confused as to a four-minute match for the debutante Cat Power.

FYI: ROHStore.com, where all in print Shimmer copies can be bought from, has been sold out of Volume 18 for some time but copies do appear on eBay, Highspots.com and other outlets. All individual matches can be found on ClickWrestle.com and more info is available at ShimmerWrestling.com.

(Photo credit Greg Davis)