By Anthony Beckingham, Women's Wrestling Specialist

SHIMMER DVD Review Series
SHIMMER Vol. 4 DVD review
February 12, 2006
Berwyn, Ill.

Overall thoughts: (7.0). Not as many standout performances as the previous volume, but the two final matches alone make this DVD worth the watch. Anything involving Sarah Del Rey can usually be relied on to impress, especially when working with Rain, who is experienced at engaging the crowd.

The Falls Count Anywhere match between Cheerleader Melissa and MsChif terrifically built on spots from their previous match and was notably longer than anything else so far to really make those two seem brutal, although Melissa’s reputation precedes her. Also, Knox continues to impress with such confidence and innovation with very few years of experience. The formation of The Experience tag team also adds variety to break up the abundance of singles matches, even though they rightly should be the focus.

Match Reviews

(1) Nikki Roxx (1-1) beat Amber O’Neal (0-2) at 9:22. Solid, unspectacular opening bout. Prazak noted O’Neal’s only win was in a tag team match and was hungry for a singles win. O’Neal kept Roxx on the mat by yanking her hair until Roxx displayed her lucha skills and O’Neal ran outside. O’Neal continued to use Roxx’s hair to stop her picking up speed, while the crowd started dueling chants of Nikki and Roxx/rocks, which will become a mainstay. Roxx reversed an Irish whip to land a spinebuster then hit a Barbie Crusher for the pin. (**)

(2) Shantelle Taylor (1-1) beat Ann Brookstone (0-0) at 5:57. No ring entrances here, but Brookstone, from Green Bay, must have worked over the crowd because she was soundly booed. Taylor (Taylor Wilde in TNA) hit some harsh-sounding kicks, but Brookstone locked in a pendulum hold, then swung Taylor’s head into the bottom turnbuckle. Taylor went up top, but Brookstone caught her crossbody for a scoop slam. Allison Danger noted Brookstone’s lackadaisical covers. Wow, Taylor scored the pin apropos of nothing with an inventive roll, reversing an Irish whip, sliding under her legs holding the arm, rolling her forward and bridging over. Shame the pin was the only good thing here. (*)

(3) The Experience (Lexie Fyfe & Malia Hosaka) (0-0) beat Cindy Rogers & Lorelei Lee (0-0) at 16:00. A quick replay of Hosaka and Fyfe beating down Lee after their Vol. 3 match aired, including Rogers making the save. The Experience, though they weren’t named that yet, jumped the gun and attacked the faces. The faces reversed the Irish whip with a dosey-doe and knocked down The Experience, then did a four-way leg stretch on the mat. The Experience tried isolating Lee to no avail and Rogers locked in an arm-trap leg scissors hold on Fyfe. The Experience isolated Rogers by using typical referee distraction tactics. About seven minutes of isolation worked the crowd into a stupor until Rogers reversed a suplex to get the hot tag. Cowgirl Lee hit tandem clotheslines, dropkicks, and bodlyslams then both faces hit duel sunset flips for pins that don’t come. Rogers was thrown to the outside and Experience hit a Double Gordbuster suplex slam on Lee to win. (*1/2)

(4) Allison Danger (2-1) beat Tiana Ringer (0-2) at 11:08. Well-orchestrated match let down by Ringer’s soft strikes and a sudden ending. Prazak noted both women were coming off a loss and needed victory, Ringer having only won a tag match. They felt each other out and started with test of strength waistlocks. Danger managed to ground Ringer, but could not lock on any hold and the match reset. They went back to the mat and exchanged headscissors until Ringer took a break outside. Danger pulled her back up, but Ringer guillotined her. Ringer then landed some soft dropkicks to a seated Danger. Danger tried but failed to reverse a suplex as she sold being dazed. Ringer postured to the crowd and Danger hit an arrant kneelift to reset things again. Danger then reversed a suplex into an inside cradle for the win. (**1/2)

The cameras followed Rebecca Knox at a local pizza place where she triumphantly called victory for K-Nox over Danger. In her thick, agricultural Irish accent, she threatened that Daizee Haze wouldn’t make it past the curtain and she was “cruisin’ for a bruisin.’”

(5) Sara Del Rey (2-0-1) beat Rain (1-2) at 14:05. They both went straight at each other with Del Rey stretching Rain’s wrist and lots of ground work ensued. Del Rey, by increments, built her wristhold until she had Rain in a self-imposed Camel Clutch, which Rain constantly sold. Rain Irish-whipped Del Rey, who jumped onto the turnbuckle but was dragged and slammed down by Rain who resorted to choking her on the rope. They ended up on their knees trading slaps and strikes, then Del Rey suddenly stood up and kicked Rain in the face, but a gutwrench suplex couldn’t finish her. Rain hit a lungblower, but Del Rey kicked out just in time. Del Rey tried a German suplex, but her back gave out for the bridging pin. Nevertheless, she followed up with a Royal Butterfly Suplex straight after. (***)

(6) Cheerleader Melissa (1-1) beat MsChif (1-2) at 26:16 in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Highlights of their Vol. 1 bout were shown, mostly of them outside the ring and also MsChif reversing the Kudo Driver (which Melissa hasn’t successfully executed yet) into the Desecrator DDT. Also shown was MsChif losing to Fyfe thanks to a distraction. Melissa elicited a mixed reaction: she’s very hard to boo, as she is just so good, but everyone was on-board with MsChif. Even more cheers after MsChif screamed at the referee for checking her, “This is no DQ!” MsChif cornered Melissa with chops, and Melissa answered in kind and added kicks that made me wince. Chif rolled out of a surfboard and put Melissa into a straightjacket. Oh wow, MsChif had one leg normal while Melissa pulled the other over Chif’s head, strangling Chif with her own leg. Chif then took a curb stomp, but it wasn’t enough and she still resisted the cloverleaf by kicking Melissa out the ring at 9:30.

MsChif bit Melissa’s forehead and she escaped into the crowd. MsChif choked her on a chair. Melissa yanked Chif’s hair to free herself, then took Chif around and slammed her into the walls, busting her open. They went outside and Melissa bodyslammed her onto the pavement, but Chif threw Melissa into some poles. They went back inside and Melissa was thrown down stairs, but Chif was too groggy from blood loss to hold a tight pin. Melissa found a board with wheels and scooped MsChif on it, then slid her under a stage and held her inside, taking a break. Melissa then went inside just as MsChif crawled out elsewhere, perfectly timed comedy. Melissa grabbed a chair and ran it to Chif, who slid underneath then spat the green mist, but Melissa blocked it with the chair, again with perfect timing. MsChif ended up on a stack of tables and Melissa finally locked in the inverted cloverleaf. She then put the chair from earlier on MsChif’s head and made Chif kick herself in the head through the chair to make her submit! (****)

(7) Daizee Haze (1-2) beat Rebecca Knox (1-0) at 20:13. A really gripping technical match that contrasted completely with the previous brawl but it was too one-sided to believe Haze would win, though. Knox’s injury fakeout was shown before the ring entrances. Knox and Haze spend a while getting pops and heat; Knox even checked the referee for objects, probably all to let the crowd recover from the previous bout. Knox reversed a headlock into a dragon sleeper and immediately went for a pin, but it was only good for a one count. (Wrestling should have more one counts.) Knox wouldn’t let Haze out of the headlock as they exchanged fast-paced holds, chokes, and pins. Knox locked on a lay-down Sharpshooter and used the ropes for leverage, then added a chinlock, too, keeping Haze’s speed locked down. Haze occasionally escaped, but never for long.

At 9:30, Haze built up a flurry of take downs and Knox escaped to the floor. After a couple of minutes of stalling, Haze dived after her, but crashed onto the floor. In the ring, Knox locked her legs through Haze’s arms then bridged backwards and did press-ups to stretch Haze, followed with a pump handle suplex. Haze briefly replied with a headscissor hold, but missed the heart punch and got dumped with a high-angle German. After a T-Bone suplex, Knox tried a double springboard leg drop only to miss and be hit with a missile dropkick. Haze delivered the heart punch, then a Mindtrip snapmare driver to win it. (***1/2)

After the show, Danger was shown backstage talking through her three wins and one loss to the cheating Rebecca Knox. She noted that Cheerleader Melissa also got back a win on this volume and that the two of them have never met anywhere in a singles match. Afterward, a graphic appeared showing what will presumably be Volume 5’s main event: Sara Del Rey vs. Mercedes Martinez in a re-match with no time limit.

FYI: Volume 4 is sadly sold out indefinitely, but occasionally volumes crop up from the wrestlers to be sold on the ShimmerWrestling.com forum or 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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