Shimmer Volume 4

Welcome once again to another one of my reviews of a Shimmer show. Volume 4 will see Rebecca Knox, fresh off ending Allison Danger's unbeaten streak, taking on Daizee Haze in our main event and MsChif seeking revenge on Cheerleader Melissa in our first ever Falls Count Anywhere match after the latter cost her a match last time out. Elsewhere Sara Del Rey looks to extend her winning streak to four as she takes on the tricky Rain and following the events of Volume 3 the experienced team of Lexie Fyfe and Malia Hosaka will face off against Cindy Rogers and Lorelei Lee. All of that plus a Shimmer debut too! But up first:

Amber O’Neil vs Nikki Roxx

This is a grudge match of sorts as Amber’s Team Blondage beat Nikki and Cindy Rogers on Volume 1. Amber’s first out and she’s still wearing her 69 Team Blondage jersey. Face facts Amber, Krissy’s gone. It reminds me of X-Pac in 2000 clinging onto DX. Poor Amber. Nikki Roxx comes out next and now she has Beck’s E-Pro, the theme she will have for the rest of her Shimmer tenure. During the ring introductions the camerawork is really shaky for some reason, like they are all drunk or it’s a Shield beat down. Alison Danger is back on commentary for this volume and her volume level is much better than it was previously. The commentators talk about how Amber refers to herself as a Diva rather than a wrestler and that’s such a good way to get heat from a Shimmer crowd. I remember when fans wanted the Beautiful People to come to Shimmer and do their shtick just for the nuclear heat it would generate. This is the first time we get the famous “NIKKI – ROXX!” chants, though we’ll have to wait a little while later until the crowd finish off her ring introduction.

Nikki wins the match with the Barbie Crusher, although Prazak calls it ‘The Cruncher’ so either it changes its name or I’ve been calling it wrong all these years…O’Neal throws a temper tantrum once again after the match. Amber is now 1-3 in Shimmer and the one victory she did get was the tag match and it wasn’t her who scored the pinfall either. Decent opener once again by Nikki here and now I’m really wanting to see what she can do against better opposition. Amber held her own however and I would like to see her do the same by going up the card.

Ann Brookstone vs Shantelle Taylor

Jobber entrances for both! Why?! I’ve not been looking forwards to this match as Ann Brookstone has a reputation of being terrible. Is it deserved? Well, not really on the basis of this. The match isn’t very good, but it didn’t bore me so there’s that. I felt a bit bad for her right from the off with the fans chanting “She’s a man!” seriously, fuck everyone who chanted that. During the match Danger gives her support to Taylor because she’s Canadian like her, but Prazak points out that just because Danger was born in Canada it doesn’t make her Canadian. In a few years’ time that very same point will have big consequences in Shimmer. Taylor wins the match with a beautifully unique roll-up. I really do like Taylor, her kicks in this match looked fantastic and she carries herself like a star. Ann isn’t as bad as people say to be honest and I do like there being a giant monster heel on the roster, but luckily there’s going to be a much, much better one on the next volume.

Lexie Fyfe & Malia Hosaka (The Experience) vs Lorelei Lee & Cindy Rogers

Oh dear, this is another match that I wasn’t looking forwards too. It features four women that I don’t really like in a tag match, which as stated previously I’m not often a big fan of and while I was trying to give these ladies another chance during this re-run I hated this. A friend of mine says he saw Motorhead at a concert once and hated it as he said they had every instrument turned up to eleven and you couldn’t hear any chords or melodies just a wall of inaudible noise and this match had the same effect for me. Malia shouts in all of her matches as we saw last volume, and Lexie does the same. Then we have Lee shouting on the apron, Rogers shouting in pain and the crowd shouting whatever and it really doesn’t make a nice watch. This also has the classic tag spot, which I know has been a staple of these matches for decades, where the face tag partner enters the ring to tell the referee the heels are cheating but in doing so allows the heels to double team the face-in-peril which is a spot that needs to be dropped from all tag matches. It’s so bloody clichéd and stupid as anybody with a functioning brain can tell they are doing more harm than good by inadvertently distracting the ref. At least here they play up that Lee is doing it due to her lack of experience which I like.

This also never seems to end. Rogers is the face in-peril, then she makes the tepid tag (it wasn’t at all hot) to Lee, but then she too then becomes victim to a long drawn out beat down. Allison then leaves the commentary desk to prepare for her next match and if I was her I would have gone right at the start of this so I wouldn’t have had to watch it. The end comes when the Experience hit a lovely double goadbuster for the win while Cindy Rogers stands outside the ring and is seemingly just too lazy to break up the pinfall. I hated this match which is such a shame as I was really impressed by Malia last volume and thought Lee wasn’t half bad, but here no, just no.

Tiana Ringer vs Allison Danger

I like the way on this set of tapings they are given the Canadian girls bigger matches to see how they get on. Taylor got Melissa on Volume 3 and now we have Ringer going up against Danger. However this wasn’t nearly as good as Shantelle/Melissa from Volume 3. It might be that I was still worn out after that tag match previously but this didn’t do much for me which is a pity as I’ve been enjoying both women’s work up until now. I feel like they were trying to do the technical scientific match that Danger had with Knox previously, but Rebecca really is one of a kind and this fell flat a bit. It was alright, just nothing really memorable here either. Danger avoids Ringer’s South Palm Beach Driver (a move we are yet to see) and then rolls up Tiana for the three count. Allison’s back on winning ways while Tiana has yet to pick up a singles win.

We then get a promo from Rebecca Knox from Marc Anthony’s restaurant, which we are informed is where the Shimmer afterparties take place. It is the first time they’ve been mentioned the after parties on screen which possibly seems a tiny bit kayfabe-breaking doesn't it? Knox accepts Haze’s challenge to a match tonight and claims that Daizee is cruising for a bruising and that she’s going to leave in a bojangle. I bloody love Knox. They also play up that Rebecca’s not even showed up at the arena yet which does make her seem so arrogant and better-than-thou and is just perfect for her character.

Rain vs Sara Del Rey

We get a “Sara’s gonna kill you” chant to begin with, which goes to show where the fans place these two women on the totem pole despite Rain being one of the top heels. The early parts of this match do feel a bit like a glorified squash match too as it’s all Del Rey. At one point too during a submission move Sara has applied the crowdnstart to chant for Rain and Del Rey angrily lets go of the hold and glares at a fan which is a really odd out-of-character moment. Sara climbs the turnbuckles and then Rain yanks her off and Del Rey lands on her back which Ran begins working on the back for the rest of the match.  Sara climbs the turnbuckles again later on but is once again thrown off them Ric Flair style.

There’s a brutal exchange of slaps before Rain hits her trademark lungblower which is one of my favourite moves and another that targets Sara’s back. Rain’s not as crisp a worker as her tag team partner Lacey but she really does have good in-ring psychology. We saw before how Danger worked on her knee and how that played into the finish and here Del Rey connects with the German suplex she used to put away Haze, but due to the extensive back work Sara can’t properly bridge up and Rain kicks up. I loved that spot, but then Del Rey just gets up and hits the Royal Butterfly anyway showing no ill-effects of the back and wins. The early portion wasn’t great but once Rain gained the upper hand I started to enjoy this. The ending came out of nowhere however.

Falls Count Anywhere

Cheerleader Melissa vs MsChif

We get a recap of their Volume 1 match which is a good idea because this match references the old one a fair bit and we also see Melissa costing MsChif her previous match too. Melissa’s back to her baby-pink dress which is good and MsChif’s in baggy pants again, which isn’t. PJ Drummond goes to pat down MsChif for foreign objects but MsChif screams at him that this is no disqualification. Quite right too. I forgot to mention this in the Volume 2 elimination match but as the bell rings here we have the stipulation come on the screen in red font, which is just jarring as Shimmer’s colour is purple and the font itself doesn’t match either. The early portion of the contest takes place surprisingly in the ring and MsChif’s flexibility is once again put to the test with Melissa bending her around the turnbuckles. Melissa then tries to lock in the Kondo clutch that she used in Volume 1 to beat MsChif over the head with her own foot. MsChif obviously aware of how painful that move is tries to fight out of it and Melissa gives up on that idea and instead connects with, for the first time in Shimmer, her curbstomp. Awesome. Melissa once more tries to Kondo clutch but MsChif kicks her away and out of the ring.

The fight their way into the crowd as the fans scatter away. MsChif bends Melissa around a chair, which is only fair given how Melissa’s bent her body round turnbuckles and the guardrail in the past. Melissa eventually escapes and rams MsChif’s head into a wall and we have our first blood in Shimmer. They fight their way up the arena steps and I’m sure the Eagles club just loved MsChif bleeding all over their carpets. Melissa throws MsChif through the arena door and they end up in the streets of Berwyn, which is such a cool visual, and Melissa bodyslams MsChif on the hard ground. As the fans all flock outside to watch the action MsChif fights back and shoves Melissa into a pole. They re-enter the arena and MsChif kicks Melissa down the stairs back to ringside. Melissa opens up a hatch at the bottom of the stage and slides out a pallet on wheels before throwing MsChif into the hatch. Melissa sits in front of the hatch door to prevent MsChif from escaping but eventually notices that MsChif is no longer fighting her and then crawls into the hatch to see where she is. MsChif comes out another door however and drags Melissa back out.

MsChif tries hitting Melissa with the green mist but Melissa is able to block it with a steel chair and then nearly gets the victory with a roll-up. Melissa bodyslams MsChif onto the wooden pallet and MsChif sits up holding her back in pain when Melissa pushes the pallet towards the ring and MsChif hits her head on the apron, rolls all the way under the ring and hits her head again into the guardrails on the opposite side. Great spot! Melissa then throws MsChif onto a stack of tables, locks in the Kodo clutch at last, places the chair on the back of MsChif’s head and then uses MsChif’s foot to kick the chair into her own head and MsChif taps out. I love that ending. The match was the longest thus far in Shimmer at 26 minutes and did feel very slow at times and I didn’t quite feel that the match as violent as the commentators would have us believe. It was a lot of fun however and while I wouldn’t want a match like this to occur too often it was quite the spectacle. It was also brilliantly filmed. All too often in Shimmer the crowd brawls are either poorly shot or badly lit and you can’t see what is happening but not here. A great, very memorable match and ones that helped get Shimmer noticed.

Rebecca Knox vs Daizee Haze

 Before we get underway Haze and Knox climb the turnbuckles and pose for the fans to see who is the most popular. I don’t know why Rebecca even tries to be honest bless her. Now there is no more faux-babyface act from Knox we get to see her in all her heel glory which is such a treat to watch. Someone shouts out “we need subtitles” and “we speak English” at Knox. They do the same for most of the wrestlers from the British isles, but never seem to question whether it is actually them who’s the problem and as an someone who comes from the country that invented English I can understand her fine, so those chants always piss me off. Bryce pats down Knox, but then Rebecca decides to pat down Bryce in return and then slaps his arse. The fans chant “slut” at her, but she puts them all down with “you wish!” Haha way to shut up those cretins!

After five minutes or so of good back and forth chain wrestling Knox bails to the outside and mouths off to the fans. Rebecca keeps sliding in and out the ring to break the 10 count and eventually Haze has enough and climbs the turnbuckles and leaps at Knox, but Rebecca moves aside clearly having hoped Daizee would make that mistake. Knox now has the advantage and locks a submission onto Haze and does push-ups while doing so. Haha, she’s great and Danger gets so riled up by this on commentary. A beautiful pumphandle suplex by Rebecca follows and she gets a two count. She argues that it was a three or a “tree!” as Prazak thinks it sounds like and I’ll concede on this one that it kind of does. Haze briefly regains control and does the same submission and press-ups display that Knox did earlier much to Danger’s delight. An insane looking German suplex and later a T-Bone suplex once again gives Knox a near “tree” counts and she tries to end things once and for all with the Falcon Arrow, but Haze connects with the Heart Punch and then a Mind Trip to secure the victory. Really good match. Not quite as good as Danger/Knox from the previous volume, but really great stuff.

We end, as seems to be customary, with an Allison Danger promo. She says she’s happy she’s back on winning ways and notices that somebody else is too, someone she’s never faced before- Cheerleader Melissa and challenges her for a match. Then lastly we see a picture telling us that Mercedes Martinez vs Sara Del Rey in a no time limit match is booked for Shimmer 5 as well.

Overall Show:

In many ways this is your standard early Shimmer DVD where the undercard ranging from okay to decent matches but with the main events being the main reason to watch the event. In this case we had two great final matches with completely different styles. Watch the main two matches and maybe forget about the rest.

Match of the night: Rebecca Knox vs Daizee Haze. Some might prefer the falls count anywhere match and I wouldn’t blame them but I’ve always preferred the more scientific style myself.

MVP: MsChif. Tough one this. I kind of wanted to give it to Knox again, but I think Chif getting busted open like that and carrying on after suffering so much abuse earns her this award.

Shimmer Farewells:

-Ann Brookstone. So long Ann we hardly knew ya! Not a big loss. As I said before I like having someone playing the monster heel role, but we’re about to get the very best at the next volume.

-Shantelle Taylor. This one is a shame as I think she’s great and it feels like she’s gone just before she was getting really good. Taylor was another wrestler who was signed by the WWE, but when that didn’t work out she went to TNA and was renamed Taylor Wilde and for a while was their biggest female star. For some reason unlike future Knockouts she never returned to Shimmer whilst being part of the TNA roster which is sad. TNA were infamously paying her so little that she had to take up a second job at sunglass hut before she eventually quit wrestling for good.

So that does it for another set of tapings for Shimmer. Join me next time for Shimmer Volume 5 where we will see returns of Ariel, Lacey and Mercedes Martinez and some big name debuts by Portia Perez, Serena Deeb and Amazing Kong!! Here's a little teaser for Volume 5.