By Anthony Beckingham, Women's Wrestling Specialist

SHIMMER Vol. 3 DVD review
February 12, 2006
Berwyn, Ill.

The SHIMMER Volume 3 DVD began suddenly, with both entrants in the ring and no entrance music for the opening match. The crowd was much larger than at the first two shows, probably more than doubled. That should tell you what you need to know about Shimmer’s reputation after only two DVDs were produced. Commentator Dave Prazak said Allison Danger took the night off from commentary to prepare for her big match against the debuting Nikki Roxx.

(1) Rain (0-2) beat Nikki Roxx (1-0) at 9:13. A surprising opener that set a high standard with two of Shimmer’s bigger names. During ring introductions, Rain demanded to be billed as half of the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew to help promote Lacey’s name, as she was absent. The two exchanged wrist holds, which allowed Roxx to exhibit her luchadora skills. Rain hit a lungblower early on to no avail. After Roxx got in some Flair chops, Rain took advantage with some neck holds. Rain complained about the referee’s count, which allowed Roxx to reset the match. “Yay/Boo” chops followed, then Roxx hit another Northern Lights suplex. Rain took Roxx from the top rope into an electric chair, but Roxx rolled her up, but only for a two cout. Roxx tried the Barbie Crusher, but Rain spun around for the Acid Rain straight jacket electric chair drop with a bridge pin. (**1/2)

(2) Cindy Rogers (1-0) beat Amber O’Neal (0-1) and Tiana Ringer (0-1) in a three-way elimination match at 7:22. A rare three-way dance for Shimmer, but it mostly avoided the trap of two wrestling while one rested. O’Neal refused to get involved in the match while Prazak reminded viewers of Rogers’s history with Team Blondage. But, the team is no more as O’Neal’s partner, Krissy Vaine signed with WWE, along with Beth Phoenix. Rogers took it to both heels and reversed some double-team moves. They did a sequence where one wrestler schoolboy-pinned another and the third schoolboyed the one pinning. Ringer and O’Neal double-teamed Rogers again, but Ringer slipped out of the ring, and O’Neal turned into a jumping faceplant from Rogers and was eliminated at 5:02. The remaining two tussled and Ringer hit a big spinebuster, but Rogers took her down with a tackle, then made her submit with the excellent looking TCB rear-naked dragon choke. (**1/2)

(3) Lorelei Lee (0-0) beat Malia Hosaka (0-0) at 11:53. A delicious variety of submissions in this match. It felt like they were treating it like a tryout match. They went at it straight away with hammerlock reversals and went down to the mat where Hosaka used the ropes for height advantage. Prazak introduced their background: Lee is an 18-month rookie and Hosaka, a former NWA Women's Champion, has 18 years and appeared in WCW. Lee used her legs to stretch Hosaka’s arms, but Hosaka reapplied with brute force (emphasis on brute). Hosaka kicked Lee in the face a few times, then tossed her corner to corner by her hair. Lee put her knees up to block a splash and took control with a Camel Clutch, then surfboard. Lee transitioned a toehold into the figure four, which made me realize how stylish Ric Flair makes it look. Hosaka realized she needed more force and tried additional holds, but Lee executed a perfect Oklahoma Roll for the pin. (***1/2)

Hosaka called to the back and Lexie Fyfe came to help with a beat down, then Rogers ran in to rescue Lee. After being separated, Hosaka went to the back while Fyfe stayed and told the two faces to shoo. She then cut a brief promo saying people should take note of her and she wanted her match now. Cue "Your Soul’s Tormentor" from The Inferno to bring out MsChif.

(4) Lexie Fyfe (1-1) beat MsChif (1-1) at 10:40. Fyfe stalled when MsChif refused to be checked by the referee while Prazak told us that Melissa has been unable to contact MsChif for a re-match. Early on, MsChif used her flexibility, which has to be seen to be believed, to bend all around Fyfe and use an octopus stretch. Fyfe sat out of the hold to slam Chif then put her in a pendulum. (The problem is they showed how flexible MsChif is, so I didn’t buy it hurting her. It’s the same as Melina in WWE, who bases herself on MsChif to an unbelievable amount.) MsChif stretched Fyfe on the ropes, but Cheerleader Melissa came out to distract her. MsChif reversed a TKO into a reverse DDT. Melissa pulled at Chif’s feet allowing Fyfe to launch a less-than-graceful Attitude Adjustment TKO. (***)

(5) Cheerleader Melissa (0-1) beat Shantelle Taylor (1-0) at 17:39. Prazak noted Melissa beat Taylor (Wilde of TNA) in a tag match on Vol. 2. Melissa came out in a cool jacket and was wolf-whistled when it came off, but didn’t appreciate it as she stared down the fan. Shimmer makes viewers appreciate how creative and colorful ring attire can help differentiate wrestlers quickly. Taylor controlled Melissa with headlocks for the opening minutes. Melissa escaped, but Taylor re-applied. Melissa eventually took control with a hammerlock and continued to work Taylor’s arm and wrist. Taylor used a lucha libre arm drag and Melissa escaped the ring, selling her shoulder. Melissa failed in another attempt for a back-to-back Kudo Driver. Just as Taylor picked up more momentum, Melissa reversed Taylor’s wheelbarrow and dumped her with a German Suplex. Melissa still couldn’t land the Kudo Driver, though. Melissa locked in a high-angle Texas Cloverleaf, reminiscent of her match with MsChif, but Taylor refused to tap. Melissa tried a superplex but, failing at that, carried Taylor into an Air Raid Crash for the win. (***1/2)

(6) Rebecca Knoxx (0-0) beat Allison Danger (2-0) at 22:43. A superb, wonderful match of two halves that began as pure wrestling, then, at the volta, became a series of big move, pin, kick-out, and repeat. Both wrestlers played to the crowd and shook hands. The match began with complete chain wrestling, four minutes went by before one wrestler completely let go of the other and after Knoxx’s failed pin they went straight back to clean grappling. Among the various beautiful holds, Knoxx mixed a sort of upside down figure-four/sharpshooter and the two rolled from one side of the ring to the other as Danger tried to roll her over. Danger tried to keep things standing, but Knoxx flipped her to the mat and stretched her knee. Danger flipped her over successfully, but not for long thanks to a rope break. Both sold leg pains.

At 11:40, Knoxx went down in the corner with an ankle injury and the crowd went silent as the referees helped her out. As Danger sat on the rope to help her out, Knoxx kicked her out. It seemed as if the whole crowd was fooled, which brought Knoxx lots of heat as she started stretching in the ring and doing ankle rotations. Knoxx brought Danger back in and took her apart with slams and suplexes. As she mouthed off to the crowd, Danger tried a schoolgirl, but to no avail. Danger got a second wind, but Knoxx reversed an Irish Whip into a quick T-bone suplex. Danger missed the Shimmering Warlock and Knoxx won with the Hard Knox leg hook sitout suplex pin. (****)

(7) Sara Del Rey (1-0-1) beat Daizee Haze (1-1) at 19:51. During the ring entrances, replays of both women’s previous matches were shown sans commentary, highlighting their big moves. The two felt each other out and tied up to begin the match. They had a test of strength with armlocks until Haze held Del Rey down. The match stopped for Del Rey to answer the crowd, which accused her of being unable to kip-up. She tried and failed, at which point referee Bryce Remsburg tried and succeeded; Del Rey faked leaving in protest. Very amusingly play.

The match was back on and Del Rey snapped Haze to the floor. Haze reversed the momentum with a leaping headscissor takedown, which quickened the pace of the match and a flurry of nearfalls occurred. Haze had her neck slingshot into the bottom rope, but kicked out. Del Rey applied a Camel Clutch until Haze bit Sara’s hand. Both faces were using heel tactics to put over how hard the competition was. Del Rey hit two big boots and caught Haze’s own attempt, delivering a fallaway slam instead. The story became Haze’s pluckiness finding a move among Del Rey’s dominance. Haze hit a missile dropkick, but was too tired to pin. Haze’s snapmare was reversed into a bridging German for the win. (***1/2)

Backstage, a tired Del Rey put over Haze as having taken her to the limit, but she talked herself up as the best in the world. To emphatically prove she is, though, she knows she will have to beat Martinez, who couldn’t be there at the taping. After this, highlights were shown of Melissa and MsChif brawling outside the ring from Volume 1 and Prazak announced that their re-match had been signed for Volume 4, with Falls Count Anywhere rules. Also backstage, Haze laid down the gauntlet to Rebecca Knox for the next volume.

Overall thoughts: 8.0 Wow, something clicked on this show. I don’t know if it was starting the show with two big players or the improved crowd size, but this show had the intangible "it" factor. The three debutantes on the show, particularly Knox and her self-loving heel reveal, added a spark to be sure. The spattering of simple, yet intriguing storylines are not rushed, sowing seeds for several volumes ahead.

There were some technical problems with the crowd microphone during the show, so there was static instead of crowd noise sometimes. At one point, the ringside noise was completely lost, which reminded me how much a hot crowd can turn up the intensity. Thankfully, there were only a few incidents.

FYI: Volume 3 is sadly sold out indefinitely, but occasionally, volumes crop up from the wrestlers to be sold on the ShimmerWrestling.com forum or often on eBay. Individual matches can be bought on ClickWrestle.com and all in-print Shimmer Volumes can be found at ROHStore.com.

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