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DVD REVIEW: SHIMMER VOLUME 11 - SHIMMER TITLE TOURNAMENT

The Cynical DVD View

Shimmer Volume 11:Title Tournament Night One

Straight into this one to open up the DVD. Crowd looks about your normal Shimmer crowd, and Prazak’s on commentary. Match starts out slow, with some basic, but nice grappling and holds. Hosaka plays up to the crowd with her typical heel tendencies, and gains the advantage. The fans are really behind Danger, and she throws in a couple of innovative spots amidst the beat-down, that don’t always work, but are the very least, intriguing. Danger sells the leg fairly effectively, and I find myself hoping she advances, with that perhaps increasingly becoming a factor. Eventually, Danger attempts a Shining Wizard (which Prazak calls a “Shimmering Warlock”. that has to be the silliest thing I’ve heard in absolutely ages), but her knee buckles. Hosaka takes advantage by applying a spinning toe-hold for the victory by stoppage, when Danger passes out. Decent match, not memorable, but a nice way for Hosaka to advance, and it was interesting to have Alison eliminated so early from the title tournament. The way in which they elected to do this , was very impressive. Crowd were shocked too.

Becky Bayless comes to the ring, and introduces Alicia to the Shimmer roster. Crowd boo her immediately. Cuts an average promo.

Fans are obviously enthusiastic about Daizee, who has won me over a little more in recent times. They pop for Portia too, purely because she’s pretty hot. Straightforward action to kick this off, with Haze getting into a position to work the back a little, which she does really well, but doesn’t stay on it. The story here is that in their previous encounter, Perez was new, and was chucked about like a rag doll. Here, she’s much more experienced, and matches up pretty well, but eventually succumbs to the Heart-Punch/Mind Trip combo. Basic opening round bout.

Cindy Rogers’ entrance music of “Push it” by Garbage is a big improvement over her previous choice, but I’m not sure that wearing Bret Hart’s leather jacket fits so good. Sarah is of course one of, if not the favourite in the overall tourney. On her way to the ring a fan gives her a toy “Rey” gun, which is pretty funny. The crowd chant “next world Champ” at Sarah, although the title won’t be a “World” title at this point. Sarah is in control real early, and comically tugs at Roger’s top-knot. Lot’s of arm bars and stretches her, which they work fairly well. When Cindy has the advantage, she works the shoulder which plays to the strengths of these girls, with Del Rey having to make a powerful comeback despite the shoulder. Some nice mat-work, and they do a good job of teasing the Straight-jacket suplex, before Sarah finally hits it. She appears to injure her hand in the process though. Good action.

Portuguese Princess Ariel vs. Alicia

Ariel still has the worst entrance music I’ve ever heard, anywhere. She’d be better off coming out to Rob Conway’s old tune. Serena Deeb was Ariel’s scheduled opponent, but at the beginning of this bout, It’s announced that she hasn’t made it to the building (car accident), and Ariel advances via forfeit. But Alicia returns to the ring, and makes the challenge, in her horrendously whingy tone, which Ariel, as the babyface accepts, and we have a match!

Basic match, but Ariel throws some mean chops, and drags believable near falls out of a Fisherman’s Suplex, and a tornado bulldog. After the latter, she complains to the referee, and is promptly Michinoku Drivered, and pinned with a handful of tights. Interesting advancement, but Alicia will now have to face Del Rey, which should be fun as I’m confident she’ll tear her to pieces.

Daffney comes to the ring with MsChif, and looks oddly hot in her green and black attire. I imagine this will be a stiff battle, which starts out err, logically, with MsChif squealing at everyone. Fyfe isn’t as flexible as some of MsChif’s opponents, so things work out better when MsChif is being stretched. A pendulum looks particularly revolting. MsChif attempts a comeback, but is on caught out on a baseball slide, and dumped across the guard-rail, ouch. MsChif picks up the win with a desecrator. Pretty good, though occasionally sloppy. These two didn’t click as well as I’d imagined here, but they’re still two of the better characters on the roster.

As best as I can recall, this is possibly my first time seeing Stock, who makes her Shimmer debut as the International Wildcard in the brackets. She makes a good impression right off the bat. Her offence is inventive and unpredictable, which neatly conflicts with Melissa’s passionate striking and hard-hitting stuff. This is good, flowing action. Sarah hit’s a mean dive off the apron to the outside, and has a couple of neat cradles in her arsenal. The two eventually are reduced to a stiff kicking exchange, which fits in fairly well, before Stock gets the upset win with a victory roll. It’s not nearly the upset it’s billed as though, because Stock’s work is so impressive, it’s hard to perceive her that way. Will be great to see her take on MsChif.

Duelling chant at the beginning of this, which I think most people know Lacey is going to win. The usual cocky heel antics from Lacey follow, as Black plays the underdog hero. Lacey complains when Black doesn’t “allow” her to kip up, which is funny. Some sloppy sequences her, especially a head scissors that Black doesn’t rotate fully, dropping Lacey at a dangerous angle. Prazak and Danger take the piss a bit out of “The Jezebel” on commentary, calling her Indy-riffic, and likening her to a wannabe Homicide. But an English version. And uh, a woman. I’m sure Homicide would love that comparison. The match improves considerably when Lacey slows it down, and in the closing minute or two. Lacey wins clean with the Implant DDT. This was sloppy at times, but picked up towards the end. Black’s biggest asset remains her fire, but some of those typically Indy spots have to go.

I can’t perceive seeing Rain vs. Lacey in Round 2, so I assume Nikki is going through here, even though Danger and Prazak build up the possibility of a tag team clash. Not a great match by any means, but serviceable, with the focus being on Roxx’s spirited attempts to come back from the Rain beat down. There’s a few nice spots in there, Rain hit’s a tough second rope lung-blower, and Roxx’s finisher is impressive, but that’s all there really was here. Short, but inoffensive. Roxx remains extremely over with the live crowd. Her ill-fitting pants probably help.

-Serena Deeb comes to the ring for an interview with Becky Bayless. Basically just says she’s ok following her car accident on the way, and disappointed not to wrestle tonight, but will be in competition on the following night’s card. I didn’t think enough was made of the fact that she was supposedly disappointed at not getting a shot at being Shimmer Champion. Sure, after Becky prompts her, she says she’ll be coming after the belt. But it’s kind of glossed over and ineffectual.

This is the first of the second round encounters. Nice mat work in the early going, with Daizee gaining the advantage using some groovy combinations. Some really nice stuff here, with Daizee seemingly more focused than normal. A couple of idiots in the crowd chant “USA”, which is pretty offensive actually. Malia targets the throat, which helps to reinforce Haze as the sympathetic baby face. At one point Hosaka bites Haze’s knee. Tasty. Moments later, Daizee hit’s the worst Lou Thesz Press I’ve ever seen. They also botch a bridge from a pinfall, but cleverly move on without skipping a beat. Daizee picks up the victory soon thereafter with the Heart Punch. She didn’t look particularly happy afterwards. I felt that this match started out well, but fell apart a little.

Death Rey has her, err, Death Ray that was given to her by that dashing fan earlier. She stuns Alicia who sells it, then rolls out and runs away for a bit. The fans are not going to buy Sarah being eliminated anywhere before the final. She uh, kicks this off, with a running kick to Alicia, which floors the lass. Most of this is semi-comical, as Del Rey dishes out a prolonged beating. In one spot, she Irish Whips Alicia into a fan’s outstretched fist, which surely can’t be legal. Fairly short, and very dominant from Sarah showcasing her strength at the end.

This is easily the most appealing bout to take place thus far. Different outfit for Stock’s second round encounter, and it looks good. She goes for the arm at the beginning, and dishes out some fine manoeuvres. MsChif comes back with a wobbly looking hurracanrana, but also a great karate chop. Daffney is distracting at ringside, not in a positive manner though. Great back-and forth action, with both girls gaining brief periods of advantage. Stock is fabulous when applying submission holds, which also just happens to play up to MsChif’s flexibility. Some fine high-flying transpires too, and I think the variety of quality from Stock earns her a substantial portion of the crowd’s support. Stock gets the clean win with a sweet Tiger Driver. Holy crap! That was something of a surprise I thought, but now sets up the mouth-watering prospect of Del Rey/Stock! Easily the best match thus far. Crisp, entertaining, and unpredictable action throughout this, which could probably have been worked as a main event of a non-tournament show.

Lacey spends much time jawing with the fans at ringside, for hitting on her. Both girls are in different outfits, and Nikki’s ass is no longer approximately 90% exposed. Lots and lots of stalling, with Lacey drawing the crowd’s ire. Good heat for Lacey as always. On commentary, I’m convinced Prazak says “Shimmer, whimmer athletes”. I certainly hope so. Nikki has control of proceedings until they take it to the outside, where Lacey chops the crap out of her. Thus begins Lacey’s dominance, which is surprisingly prolonged. Both girls exhibit great timing here with the hope spots being very good, and while the flow of the match is slow, it’s never meandering. The finish is oddly rapid, with Nikki making a brief comeback, but is cut off following an attempt at the Barbie Crusher. Lacey then hit’s the Implant DDT to progress to the next round. While I felt that it was great to see them further build her finisher (it’s gonna be a big deal when someone kicks out…), I did expect more of a comeback from Roxx. Still a good match, however not on a par with Shimmer’s usual main events.

This was far from a must-see show, it has to be said. Whilst all the action was good, very little was memorable or stood out. Only the Sarah Stock versus MsChif battle really approached Shimmer’s usual Main Event standard. However, that one was a doozy, and part of what was a fantastic night for Stock, who stole the show with two superb performances. Of the rest, Lacey and Del Rey stood out as usual. But at the end of the day, as far as being a first half of a tournament, it’s hard to quibble. This show is overall an impressive set-up for the conclusion, setting up the absolutely fascinating prospect of Del Rey vs. Stock.

If you’re a fan of Shimmer, or someone who just can’t watch the second part of the tournament without first seeing this, then I recommend Shimmer Volume 11. To follow the tournament, you don’t necessarily need to see this disc, but it would certainly make the finale much more satisfying. If you’re thinking of picking the tournament up as an intro to Shimmer, I would actually suggest popping your hard-earned cash on volume 8 or 9 first, then pick this up once your familiar with the wrestlers and the storylines. Not essential, but not let-down either.

That’s it for now! I’ll be back with the review of Night two ASAP. Thanks for taking the time to read this wacky review/rant/gibberish. I would hope it had at least as much depth as a Repo Man match, and entertainment value as New Jack’s police record. If you have any comments, I welcome and encourage all feedback. please get in touch at bazilalfonso@hotmail.com Until bell-time, thanks again.