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Missy's Manor: Review of SHIMMER Volume 22

Posted: Jul 13th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Recently Pro Wrestling Illustrated contacted me to help them out by giving them my input to their PWI Top 50 Women Wrestlers. I was very flattered to be asked, since I never really worked a match in my career. I did a bunch of mix tag team matches in World Class, I worked against Paul Heyman during the Great American Bash '91 tour, & Sensational Sherri carried me to my only decent match in '01 in Canada. Minus being a participant in mud matches, cat fights, and mixed tags. I would never consider myself a wrestler, despite actually owning wrestling boots and gear.

I realized I wanted to take this task very seriously on helping PWI compile a list of women workers. Luckily I work for WSU and have done the announcing for a bunch of all women shows since '07 to the present. I still felt that I needed to view more women's wrestling to give me exposure to the wrestlers that I have never seen before. I decided to contact Dave Prazak to send me some Shimmer DVD's. I was very pleased to see that Dave Prazak and Shimmer are very proud of their product to accommodate me on my request.

I checked out Shimmer Volume #22 over the weekend. I know I should be very bias, since I work for WSU. But I was very impressed with the Shimmer product. I enjoyed their presentation on being the women's version of ROH. The announcing by Dave Prazak was top notch and made a first time viewer in myself to be up to date on the storylines.

WSU and Shimmer draw roughly the same in attendance and share similar talent. Luckily both products are different enough to appeal to the same audience. I was very impressed that the roster puts together matches that had psychology, told a story, and knew how to build finishes. This DVD had their workers utilize crowd interaction, facial mannerisms, and they knew the concept on how to put a match together. This promotion rules!

I don't want to bore everybody with a move by move recap of the matches. Here is my synopsis on the matches and the personalities. My only gripe is the product needs more interviews in order to give a viewer time to recover from a match. The interviews can also help establish the character and build up storylines.

Daffney VS. Rain:
Daffney has come along way from her annoying WCW Scream Queen days. I haven't seen Daffney in person since she did several photo shoots for my site and when I saw her work a decent match against Talia Madison [Velvet Sky] on the first WSU DVD. I was very impressed that she has developed to become a decent wrestler. Plus it would be hard for me not to mention that she got new boobs.

Rain is one of the most underrated women in the business. She got a great look and is such a great heel. I was very impressed that they did some chain wrestling and Daffney performed some wacky submissions. Daffney is such a great baby face and I enjoy the contrast to her being a dark character in TNA. Hey, it beats playing that stupid Sarah Palin character. Rain got decent heat with her wacky dance off against Daffney. Rain picked up the win. Mark my words, Rain will make it to one of the big two in the next year.

Amazing Kong VS. Rachel Summerlyn:
It's no secret that I?m a big fan of Kong. I saw her tear buildings up against Amy Lee. I saw her put a dent in Kathy Fitzpatrick's van by being slammed by Amy Lee in to it. I saw Kong have a four star brawl after literally finding out that one of her friends died a few minutes before her match. Needless to say that Kong will always receive high praise from myself. I seen her bust her ass in Japan, TNA, WSU, and now in Shimmer. This girl always got her working shoes on and has a great grasp on her character [hopefully nobody will ever be stupid enough to use her in a comedy role]. Kong did a great job by going all "Vader" on Rachel. Rachel got some flurries of comebacks and sold great for Kong. Rachel actually got over, despite the loss and Kong dominating the match.

Mercedez Martinez VS. Amber O'Neal:
Mercedes is one of the best indy women out there. I saw her have awesome 35 minute match against Portia Perez, a kick-ass bull rope match against Angel Orsini, and a 70 minute match against Orsini. Needless to say, Angel is one of the most under publicized woman in the business. This was my first time in watching Amber. She got a great look and is a great heel. This was the classic pretty girl VS. serious wrestler. Mercedez picked up the win and had a decent match [no surprise to me]. I was impressed with the charisma of Amber.

Cheerleader Melissa VS. Jennifer Blake:

I hope TNA uses the Cheerleader Melissa character when the Raisha Saed characters run its course. She works harder than you would expect from her pretty looks. She blew me a way with this match. She brawled with Jennifer and sandwiched her between two metal guard rails. She slammed the hell out of Jennifer with the guard rails. Melissa's wrestling style had shades of Samoa Joe. I was so impressed with Jennifer being the young girl in peril to the stiff brawling style of Melissa. Melissa picked up the win. I am now a big Cheerleader Melissa fan.

Lufisto VS. Wesna Busic:
I was a fan of Lufisto for quite some time. I saw her have a match against Necro Butcher that was ultra stiff. I even seen Lufisto work in death matches and thought that this girl is talented enough that she doesn't need to go the blood and guts route.

This match was stiff and had psychology. I was popping for Lufisto using burning hammers, reverse frankensteiners, emerald frosion, and some brawling. Wesna who I?m not familiar with at all was impressive enough to leave an impression on me. Lufisto won with a burning hammer that had me cringing for Wesna's neck.

Portia Perez & Nicole Matthews VS. Ashley Lane & Nevaeh:
I saw Portia & Nicole last year for WSU & NWS. I was very impressed that the small-cute girl like Portia can be such a great heel. I saw her have a match with Mercedes Martinez that earns her the highest praise from me. I once contacted another women's promotion to give them my highest recommendation on Portia. I'm not that familiar with Nicole.

Ashley Lane [AKA Madison Rayne] & Navaeh have matching ring attire & decent team work. I like Ashley, but I don't find her a great fit with the Beautiful People. They have too much personality and charisma that over shadows Ashley. I wish TNA would have brought in Naveah & Ashley as a tag team. They could have had a decent tag team feud with The Beautiful People. Hopefully Ashley/Madison will eventually break out and get noticed as an individual.

This match was decent. Ashley & Navaeh looked decent as a tag team and got the win. Portia is such a great pip squeak heel. Her mic work against a pregnant Allison Danger earlier on the show got her mega heat. Nothing like cutting a promo by challenging a pregnant woman to rile a crowd up.

Tags: Missy Hyatt, WCCW, TNA, Vader, Cheerleader Melissa