SHIMMER tapings
Berwyn, Ill.
Report by Jason Detrick

Allison Danger defeated Cat Power in a pre-show match. Danger lifted a few things from her brother (Steve Corino) tonight. First she came out to her usual "A to Z Theme" but then the song turned into that "Fire" song that Corino used to come out to in his earlier ROH days. Then she used his Old School Expulsion neckbreaker for the win. Cat Power, as I remarked at the time, sounds like the name of a She-Ra villain. She actually looks quite a bit like Rain. This match will be available exclusively at shimmerwrestling.com soon.

Volume 17 taping results

1. Rain & Jetta defeated Jennifer Blake & Danyah. Good comedy and heelness from Rain & the newest member of the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew (UK Edition?) Jetta. Jennifer "Girl Dynamite" Blake was solid in her debut.

2. Shark Girl defeated Nicole Matthews. Shark Girl (who was apparently played by Daffney Unger) was quite over with the fans in the gimmick's debut in SHIMMER. Nicole Matthews is Portia Perez's tag team partner and she, like Portia, plays the young tantrum-throwing girl gimmick quite well. Plus she came out to Local H's cover of "Toxic", which immediately made her a favorite of mine.

Total comedy match with Shark Girl bitting Nicole's ass, even though there is no mouth hole on the mask. I've never seen a Shark Boy match but I am guessing he probably uses similar spots. Shark Girl's entrance music was very catchy.

3. "The Experience" of Lexie Fyfe and Malia Hosaka defeated Ashley & Nevaeh Lane. Lots of "Hillary" chants for Lexie, who played Hillary Clinton on Raw last week. Ashley and Nevaeh proved to be perfectly capable, and Ashley was much better here than her performance on the ROH show one week prior. Must've been nerves for ROH. The Experience finisher is very nice, like an assisted pedigree. Lexie has a hair style now that improves her look quite a bit.

4. Amber Oneal defeated Lorelei Lee.

5. Daizee Haze defeated Cindy Rogers. Pretty good back and forth match. The Haze got the biggest pop of the night to that point, though there were a few noticeable boos for her tonight, perhaps from people who think the stuffed flowers are a little too cutesy. Rogers didn't like them as she swiped them from Haze before the match. Haze responded by stealing Cindy's leather jacket and putting it on. There was lots of thievery amongst the wrestlers going on as the show progressed.

6. Ariel "the Portuguese Princess" defeated Amazing Kong via disqualification. Huge ovation for Kong. A comparable reaction for the lovable Ariel. It didn't appear Ariel had much of a chance and looks were not deceiving. Kong dominated her but then she got tired of being bossed around by referee Laura Mattano and powerbombed her. This was an immediate DQ and the refs emptied from the back. Senior official Bryce Remsberg warned Kong that if she touched another official she would be suspended.

7. Mercedes Martinez defeated Wesna Busic. This was a good match that I was hoping for slightly more out of after seeing Wesna destroy a whole bunch of wrestlers on her Youtube highlight video. I think she may have taken it a little easy on Mercedes who is reportedly nursing a hurt back. Mercedes did a great job too, because there were no signs of nursing any injury. Mercedes got a gigantic pop for her return and an even bigger welcome back chant. I thought for sure she would be the one to dethrone Del Ray after that promo. She seemed to enjoy the scattered "Booty Vulture" shouts she got. Wesna was still great in her debut.

After the match, Martinez was interviewed by Rebecca Bayless and said she's so glad to be back after being on the shelf for over a year and that the only reason she's not SHIMMER champion right now is because she was hurt for the title tournament. She vowed to win the title.

8. "Dark Angel" Sarah Stock defeated Lacey. Great match. Beautiful Tiger Driver to end it. Lots of crowd heat, which would be the exact opposite of Stock's match later on.

9. Cheerleader Melissa & MsChif defeated The Dangerous Angels of Allison Danger and Sara Del Ray. Another great match. I didn't notice that it was any particularly bad landing on the Air Raid Crash, but apparently Danger broke her collarbone on it, or did as part of a storyline. I heard she couldn't move her arm during intermission and had an ice pack on it. MsChif had a visual three count on Del Ray at one point with the ref's back turned. It was more like a seven or eight count, and there was huge heat on it. Danger & Del Ray were actually getting booed and played subtle heels in this babyface vs babyface match.

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