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SHIMMER WOMEN'S WRESTLING WEEKEND LIVE REPORT

Here is my live report of last weekend's SHIMMER Volumes 45-48 DVD tapings in Berwyn, IL

The roster had a different feel. Gone due to either injuries, scheduling conflicts, or other reasons were Madison Eagles, Serena Deeb, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Nikki Roxx, Ariel, Yumi Okha, Daizee Haze, Tomoka Nakagawa, and Britani Knight, among others. But there were some new additions to the roster, and there were others who stepped up when given the opportunity.

If Saturday didn't sell out, then there were less than a half-dozen tickets left. Sunday had slightly less fans in the building.

Thanks to Martin Brently for sending the full results of the 4 DVDs. This time, instead of trying to recap each and every match in order, in which I'd probably just say "good match" and nothing else for many of them, I'm going to look at a few of the storylines of the weekend, and the respective matches all at once.

Saraya's Revenge

After Britani Knight defeated her mother Sweet Saraya Knight on Volume 44, and moving on to Florida Championship Wrestling a few months later, where she now wrestles under the name Paige, many people thought this was also the end of Saraya in SHIMMER. Boy were we wrong

This weekend will be best remembered for Sweet Saraya. On Volumes 45, 46 and 47, she took on a lower level wrestler. Prior to each match, she would get very up close and physical with the fans. I'm talking about pushing and shoving, and even slapping and punching a few fans! She even got into my face for taking a photo of her. Needless to say, I put the camera away when she came back out!

It's pretty much expected that this is what she's going to do, and it's at the point where during Ring Announcer Joey Eastman's legalities announcement, the "don't touch the wrestlers, and they won't touch you" rule became "they probably won't touch you", and then "they won't touch you except for one particular wrestler so please be careful!" Several of the backstage crew members kept coming out to stop her, and one of them, Kevin Harvey, took several punches from Saraya, and had a swollen left cheek all weekend. She promoed to the crowd a few times, and when the microphone didn't work, she gave Joey a loud sudden slap.

The matches themselves against Davina Rosa, Veda Scott, and Shazza McKenzie were pretty much squashes. Her actions got her disqualified in two of those matches.

But it wasn't just her matches that she made her presence known. Nicole Matthews, Portia Perez, and Jessie McKay each received title matches over the course of the weekend. While each one conducted their own backstage promo, Saraya would interrupt them. While not being specific, she asked them to do her a favor, and if successful, she'd make it worth their wild. Well, she bribed the Ninjas, while threatening to harm Jessie if she failed.

There's a back story between Saraya and Cheerleader Melissa. Five years ago, the two had a series of vicious matches, and in one of them, Melissa severed Saraya's kneecap. She was able to overcome her injuries, but while she was recovering, she made an appearance from one of Melissa's matches, and vowed revenge, which you can watch below. During the weekend, it became quite clear that Saraya was putting a bounty out on Melissa.

bsp; During Melissa's title match against Nicole Matthews, which I really enjoyed, Portia Perez attempted to interfere when the ref was taken out, but Melissa was able to get the win. The two then beat her up afterward.

Portia was then granted a title match for Volume 46, and they ended up brawling all over the Eagle's Club. While Melissa was again able to retain, Portia once again teamed with Nicole to take her out again. Jessie, who was awarded the following title shot earlier in the volume in a win over MsChif, came to Melissa's aid. However, Melissa didn't want any of it, saying she didn't trust anyone

Perhaps the scariest image of the weekend was during the Melissa vs. Jessie title match, in which Saraya watched the whole match from outside the locker room, stalking both of them. I don't know if her presence was captured on the DVD, but it was quite a visual, and added another layer to the match. The match itself was evenly matched, but then took an interesting turn when Jessie thought about using a chair. She fought with her emotions, and decided against it. Later on, when the referee was knocked out, Saraya came to ringside and gave Jessie a chain. She loaded it up to use it, but again thought better, throwing it away. That might have cost her, as Melissa got the win.

At that point, Saraya came back out, and her and Melissa had an intense brawl. It took the entire backstage crew to separate them, with six men once again holding Saraya's limbs apart, and carrying her out like a wild animal.

During a backstage segment of Volume 48, Melissa was acting extremely paranoid; worried that someone would attack her. And sure enough, Saraya caught her from behind, beating her leg with a weapon.

Despite the fact that she was basically on one leg, Melissa still defended the title against Saraya. Saraya obviously targeted the leg, spending the whole match trying to make Melissa submit. Melissa was able to get some offense in, and even countered some holds to get her own submissions in. But Saraya kept up the attack on the leg, and with her variation of the LionTamer locked in, and with some extra leverage from the ropes, Melissa finally tapped out.

This was quite the shock to the fans. After two extremely long title reigns by MsChif and Madison Eagles, we all assumed that Melissa would easily get through the weekend with the title. And for Melissa, it was quite a shame herself. Being one of two women to be on every single SHIMMER Volume, she had worked so hard to win the SHIMMER Championship. But as soon as she did, Saraya made her life a living hell. She caused Melissa to experience the same pain that Saraya did, and took the title away much sooner than anyone expected.

After the match, sitting in the ring as she couldn't physically stand up, Melissa said that Saraya had unleashed a monster, and she vowed to end it.

Death Rush: The Queens of Winning

One of the up-and-comers of the SHIMMER roster is Courtney Rush. She's a high energy girl who enjoys showing her love for Winnipeg, or as she calls it, Winning-Peg! On Volume 44, she took on Sara Del Rey, and she tried to get Del Rey to have some fun, which led to an impromptu Lady Gaga dance session, which Del Rey took no part of, save for a brief Cabbage Patch after winning the match.

While the paths appeared to go in opposite directions, with Courtney defeating Rhia O'Rilley and Sara defeating Leon on Volume 45, they would soon cross back together. On Volume 46, Del Rey easily took care of Leva Bates. However, after the match she locked in an armbar, and this brought out Leva's partner, Allison Danger. Danger and Del Rey used to team up as the Dangerous Angels, and when Del Rey went heel, the two went their separate ways, not crossing back until now. Danger said she let Del Rey go on with these antics for far too long. She proposed a tag match between Danger and Leva, ReGeneration-X, and Sara and her partner, that is, if she can find one.

This led to a series of backstage segments, in which Sara kept asking various wrestlers of the roster to team up with her, but they kept saying no. After each rejection, Courtney would show up, offering to be the partner, which Sara refused. Getting desperate, Sara even asked Lacey, a former top SHIMMER star who retired a few years ago, and who was visiting. Sara said Lacey could resume her wrestling career, and Lacey just started laughing and left. Courtney tried again, and when offering Sara some gum, Sara got mesmerized and said yes, meaning for the gum, not for teaming. But that was good enough for Courtney, and the team was official.

On Volume 47, the tag match took place, obviously with Sara not really wanting anything to do with this. Despite their differences, which included Courtney thinking their combined weight was in reference to Sara, which nearly caused her eyes to pop out in anger, The Queens of Winning, as they are officially known as, got the win. It was odd that the collision between Sara and Allison longtime fans had been waiting for ended up being a small part of the formation of an odd couple tag team. Outside of that small quiver, I really enjoyed their segments and matches.

One of the bigger matches of the weekend came on Volume 48, which saw a four-way, Tag Team Championship elimination match. Champions Ayako Hamada and Ayumi Kurihara vs. ReGeneration X vs. The Canadian Ninjas vs. the Queens of Winning. RX and Hamada/Kurihara were the first two eliminated, which meant it would be the Ninjas vs. the Queens for the titles. This led to a big argument in the ring, as Sara tried to explain that they aren't friends, and was trying to side with the Ninjas. Sara even tried to lie down to give the Ninjas the titles, which Courtney broke up. This led to what was basically a handicap match between Courtney and the Ninjas, which the Ninjas were dominating. However, one of the Ninjas pushed Sara, and she knocked them both out. However, Sara then laid out Courtney and walked out. But, Courtney was able to roll up on of the Ninjas for the three count, to a huge pop from the crowd, winning the titles. Sara came back out shocked over what happened. She briefly celebrated with her, but then walked out. Still, Courtney continued the celebration. She even took a sign from "John Cena fan", which said "Sara must RISE ABOVE HATE", and told Sara to Be A Star, an awesome moment.

I Told Ya Baby...

The previous set of tapings last year saw a double-turn. Over the course of the four DVDs, Mercedes Martinez started showing frustration in her matches. During Volume 43 against Athena, the two were both counted out, and Mercedes surprisingly didn't want the match to continue. And in a rematch during Volume 44, when Mercedes couldn't finish off Athena, she snapped and brutally attacked her leg. These matches resulted in both Mercedes and Athena swapping their face and heel roles.

The rubber match, if you will, took place here on Volume 45. It was an extremely physical match, with a ton of brawling around ringside. Some of the more brutal moves included Athena hitting a Randy Orton style DDT on the hardwood floor, and Athena hitting "The O Face", a jumping stunner from the top rope on the floor as well. Athena was able to hit one more O Face in the ring to get the win, perhaps cementing her place as one of the top rising stars.

While she would go on to lose to Nicole Matthews on Volume 46, she rebounded nicely, taking care of Sassy Stephie on Volume 47. And while her match with Mercedes had the complete package of a great match and story, her Volume 48, 15+ minute match against the masked Ray was probably her best match of the weekend. I think a championship match against Saraya would be a welcome site this fall.

Well That Was Fast

Perhaps an even bigger moment from the previous weekend that the fact that Melissa won the SHIMMER Championship, was Nicole Matthews ruining the moment. Entering the weekend, this was the one match that everyone was looking forward to.

In her backstage promo, Nicole said she did what she did to get to the front of the line, and it worked as she got the next title match. And don't get me wrong, the match was fine, and in my opinion, showed that she belonged at the top. However, with Saraya being added to the title mix, the Melissa/Nicole feud was pretty much rushed through. I know the ends justified the means in this case, as Saraya is adding a fresh coat of paint to American Independent Wrestling, but it was unfortunate that after it appeared that she would become the next top singles star, Nicole was back to the same upper midcard level that she had been for a while.

Welcome Ray & Leon

With Tomoka Nakagawa and Hiroyo Matsumoto unavailable this weekend, the Joshi 4 Hope office added two new wrestlers to their group in the masked Ray & Leon, and the two made quite an impression. Both showed a ton of speed and athleticism with their high flying moves. I was most impressed with Ray's cartwheel powerbomb, and Leon's frog splash.

Their impressive showings in both singles and tag action let to an all Joshi Tag Team Championship match against Ayumi Kurihara and Ayako Hamada. This match was beyond words. Constant action and unbelievable moves. The challengers came close to winning on numerous occasions, but ultimately the champion retained. If you buy Volume 47 for one match, it's this one.

This weekend once again showed just how much talent there is in Japan, and that if a Joshi, or even a male talent comes over to the U.S., you need to go out of your way to see them live, as you'll never forget it.

On the road to recovery

There were two heart-felt video promos from Madison Eagles and Serena Deeb. Madison is going through career-threatening injuries, but she vowed to be back some day.

Serena opened up the Day 2 taping, and her's was more about how proud she was of SHIMMER's progress throughout the years. It almost seemed like a retirement speech, as she's dealing with a severe concussion, but she too said she'll be back.

Other Thoughts and Notes

It wouldn't be SHIMMER without a little comedy, and I mean that in a good way. Allison Danger has made it known that she's wanted to wrestle Ayako Hamada, and she finally got the chance on Volume 45 in a Tag Team Championship Match. When the two finally met one on one, Allison was so excited about the moment, that she wanted a photo with Hamada, right there. Her partner Leva was there to take a photo, but then they asked Ayumi to join the picture, and finally Leva joined in as well, with referee Bryce Remsburg taking the photo. Once that was done, the two teams had a solid match.

Kana was pretty much all business in her US debut last year. However, she had some fun as part of her tag team with LuFisto, which included posing with LuFisto's manager, "Pegaboo."

Kellie Skater spend a lot of time in Japan this past winter, and I felt she showed a lot of improvement this time around. She's still doing the indestructible character though, and I think it's time her character takes a further step up as a serious wrestler, and thus move up the card.

Christina Von Eerie is well known for her spiked mohawk. So it was only a matter of time before someone asked the referee to check it for weapons. Nothing was found, but she did end up poking her partner MsChif in the eye. This led to the crowd, which was chanting "Oi! Oi! Oi!" to now chant "Eye! Eye! Eye!"

The bar was selling $20 champaign bottles. Those who bought them were indeed "classy wrestling fans."

Melanie Cruise continues to improve each time out. In addition to her power game, she added an ariel move by hitting a top rope leg drop.

The New York Knockout seemed to poke fun at the mainstream Divas and Knockouts. At one point, she got mad that one of her opponents nearly ruined her "money makers."

With all the valid complaints about annoying authority figures in WWE and TNA, I've come to realize that the SHIMMER setup of letting the referees have all the authority, in keeping control and making matches, is a great method. I'd like to see those other companies employ that one day, but somehow I doubt that'll happen.

Mercedes may have injured her shoulder. In her match against Hailey Hatred, Mercedes went for a top rope sunset into a powerbomb, but something went wrong and Hailey landed flush on Mercedes. She wouldn't return for Volume 48.

The new afterparty location at Paisans Pizzeria and Restaurant was a lot of fun. Much more space that the previous locations. The only issue was that they closed early on Sunday, so there was less time for partying.

I have full galleries from the shows available at these links: