This past weekend I made my way to Chicago to attend the Shimmer DVD tapings. If you don’t know what that is, twice a year Dave Prazak and his crew bring the best womens wrestlers from around the world, from places like England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and of course the USA.
Many women wrestlers in WWE and NXT have made stops in Shimmer over the years and if you think NXT as great women matches you can see 60 to 70 match’s as or better over the weekend. The tapings are usually held at the Berwyn Eagles Club but this year they added a Friday night show. There was a location conflict, so both Friday and Saturday’s show were held at Logan Square. I got to Logan square, and if I have one complaint from the weekend, it’s that it was goddamn hot waiting in line to get in to the show. It didn’t help that the show was running a little late. And let me tell you how hot it was waiting in the hallway; I’m from Texas and I’m complaining about it! Thankfully when we got inside and it felt fine. No sooner did I walk in that I happen to bump into Dr. Keith Lipinski of the WrestlingObserver.Com website, and then right after that Dave Prazak. Then I made my way to my front row center seat.
Veda Scott defeats Nixon Newell
Veda is the perfect person to start the show with as the fans here hate her with a passion, and she plays it up big time. This was Nixon’s first time at Shimmer and she did not disappoint, she did a great job and is a very attractive girl.
Shayna Baszler defeats Rhia O’Reilly
Shayna made a great debut here and won with a TKO that caused me to text Lance Storm and tell him that Shayna just killed his girl! Rhia is awesome by the way and has one of the best intros with kick ass ring music and she circles the ring carrying her Irish flag.
Kellie Skater defeats Vanessa Kraven, Shazza McKenzie, LuFisto in a 4 way match
Skater over the past couple years has become one of the best womens workers in the world. Kraven is a monster, and Shazza is really good and has one of the cutest faces you will ever see. LuFisto is a legend and is still as good as she ever was.
Viper defeats Jessica Havok
This was one hell of a Mean guy match, or should I say Mean women’s match. Viper from the UK, also made her debut here and she reminds me of The Earthquake, only better. Havok was good in the match as well.
Mia Yim & Kay Lee Ray Defeat Yumi Ohka and Melanie Cruise
This was the debut of Team WDSS (Mia & Ray) We Do Stupid Shit, and they make one hell of an awesome team. Cruise was taking the place of Cheerleader Melissa and kind of looks like she is Melissa’s big older sister, Ohka is always good.
Arisa Nakajima defeats Nicole Matthews
Arisa brought her JPW title with her and had a great match with the former Shimmer champ Nicole. Matthews is one of the best heels in wrestling.
Ruo Mizunami defeats KC Spinelli
Ruo is a veteran of the ring and is still going strong. KC danced to Ruo’s music and was having a great time. No one has more fun at a show then her. (Peach’s note: I’m leaving this error in to punish all of you fucking imbeciles who consistently make this error. It’s motherfucking THAN if you’re trying to say “except” or “apart.” Then implies a time frame. THEY’RE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE! THEY HAVE DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS. Just because they sound similar is not a fucking good excuse. Let’s go people. Get a hand in. Grab a knee. Get a splash. We can do this!)
Heart of Shimmer Champion Nicole Savoy defeats Crazy Mary Dobson
Nicole has become one of the top workers in a very short time and like Shayna because she uses a lot of BJJ, almost likes she has a counter into a submission for everything. I love Crazy Mary and she is awesome but how do you get a title shot when you are 1-4 in your last Shimmer match? I guess its about heart and not win-loss records for this title.
Shimmer Tag Team Champions The Kimber Bombs (Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb) defeat Team Slap Happy (Evie and Heidi Lovelace)
This is the match I really came to see and it is also the match where I wanted to kick Dave Prazak in the balls after. This match was built up from the past tapings and it looked like it was time for new champs, but sadly it wasn’t as the Kimber Bombs cheated to win using the title belts. The bombs are incredible heels and Heidi is one of the top women in the US. Evie is one of my favorites. This girls is just amazing in every way. Her offense is incredible, but her kicks are the best, and she is such a great baby face in peril. I love this women.
Shimmer Champion Madison Eagles defeats Courtney “The Demon” Rush
Last taping, Rush started to change into a vampire or something, and she has since become a possessed demon from Hell. This match featured an attempted exorcism, as Eagles used to forks to make a cross and then started yelling, “The power of Christ compels you…” Sadly this did not work, so Eagles then poured salt all along the ring to keep the Demon from getting back in. It worked until Rush grabbed the ref pulled him out moving the salt in that area away and was able to get back in the ring, after Eagles won Arisa come out to challenge Madison and we have a main event for the next tapings.
SUMMARY: After the show the girls come out to sell their gimmicks and take pics with the fans. I always make it a point to buy stuff as this is a big part of their pay so I bought Mia Yim’s newest T-shirt and 8×10’s of some of the other girls. Some of the workers I talked to that night were Mia (who’s been a friend of mine for awhile now), Solo darling who didn’t wrestle on this show but was going to on the next ones, and Shazza, who I’ve heard kind of hides during these but was very accessible. This time, Kellyanne who was not able to wrestle because of an injury, which is sad because she stole the show last year and became one of my favorites. I then walked to a corner store to buy some 3 liter sodas because the Hyatt charges an arm and a leg for a can. I walked back to the venue cause that was where I had an Uber drop me off so it would be easier to have them come back to the same spot. There was a grill there so I got an order to go and while I was waiting KC Spinelli walked in and I had mentioned about buying her dinner on her Facebook page before the trip, so I kept my promise and bought her diner before Ubering back to the hotel. Night one was awesome.
