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Thoughts from the Top Rope 11.20.07: The Ultimate SHIMMER Starter Guide (Part 2)

November 20, 2007 | Posted by Ryan Byers

This is Thoughts from the Top Rope, and I am NOT Daniel Wilcox. For those of you who may have missed last week’s column, I am Ryan Byers, and I am doing Danny boy a bit of a favor by filling in for him while he takes care of some schoolwork. In his absence, I have turned the column in to a look at my favorite wrestling promotion, SHIMMER: Women Athletes.

This is week two of what I call the “Ultimate SHIMMER Starter Guide.” Last week, I listed five of my favorite aspects of the promotion and provided information about them in hopes that some new fans could be lured towards the product. Anybody who missed that column can check it out here. This week, I’m back to do the same thing. Below are five more reasons why I love SHIMMER, and they’re five more reasons that you should also love it. Next week I will be checking in with the third and final installment of the Guide, in which I’ll be counting down what I consider to be the promotion’s greatest matches and greatest DVDs in addition to providing some more interesting insights in to the product.

Before we move any further, I did want to take a second and do a brief bit of shilling. The next two DVDs in the SHIMMER series, Volumes 11 and 12, are going to be released this Monday, November 26 at ROHwrestling.com. Those two DVDs contain all of the action from the tournament to crown the first SHIMMER Champion, which took place in June of this year. Volume 11 consists of the first and second round matches, while Volume 12 consists of the semi-finals and finals as well as several non-tournament matches. If you don’t want to go for the new stuff right away but instead want to stock up on some of the older SHIMMER releases, I would suggest checking out the ROH site this coming Friday, as the store will be running its “Black Friday Sale,” which traditionally has featured the biggest savings of the year and has been an excellent opportunity for fans to grab numerous DVDs at once.

With the plugs out of the way, let’s head in to the meat of the column. Let’s head in to five more reasons why I support SHIMMER.


Perez & Thatcher: Names to Watch

Though more casual viewers of SHIMMER will sing the praises of established stars such as Allison Danger, Lacey, and Daizee Haze, one of the best parts of the promotion for more seasoned fans is the opportunity to see the next generation of women’s wrestlers shine on the biggest stage available to them. As will be discussed later in this column, Nikki Roxx (currently Roxxi LaVeaux of TNA) rose to prominence while in SHIMMER, and now her heel counterpart Cindy Rogers looks to do the same. However, the company is already preparing the next generations of wrestlers, the ladies who will be up-and-comers when the likes of Rogers and Roxx have solidified themselves on the a-list of independent talent.

High on the list of potential breakout stars for SHIMMER is Alexa Thatcher, whose good looks and humble, girl next door charisma garnered her a positive reaction from the second that she walked out to the ring for her debut on Volume 9 of the promotion’s DVD series. After that march to the ring, Thatcher proved that she is far more than just a pretty face. The New Jersey native took the fight right to indy veteran Ariel, and, though Alexa came up on the wrong end of the fall that night, she managed to gain a following in eight short minutes of action. Thatcher has continued to impress on more recent SHIMMER events, including going toe-to-toe with Cheerleader Melissa on Volume 15 before ultimately falling to Melissa’s Kudoh Driver (vertebreaker). Then, faced with the possibility of being forced from the promotion if she did not earn a victory, Alexa finally pulled out a pinfall of her own, using her patented “heart kick” to put away rookie Ashley Lane on Volume 16. Now that Alexa has tasted success in a SHIMMER ring, many followers of the promotion are speculating that she will be the next in line to climb the card . . .

. . . but, in order to do that, she’ll most likely have to answer the challenge of an evil export from the Great White North, Portia Perez. Portia, who has gained experience in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe despite only being a part of the wrestling business for three short years, began her SHIMMER career in much the same way that Alexa Thatcher did. She was the cute, plucky girl who hung around the undercard and couldn’t buy a win. Yet, instead of slowly developing her technique, Perez decided that there was only one way to make an impact in the promotion. She was going to develop a mean streak. She gained her first win on Volume 9, pulling a chain from underneath the ring and using it to pop opponent Josie in the mouth. Since that time, Perez has been all attitude, regularly using cheap tactics to score the upper hand on her opponents and keeping the crowd in line with her acid tongue. Though the audience regularly taunts her with chants based on the fact that, in their opinion, she “looks twelve,” Perez’s recent change of heart and dirty tricks are far from kids’ stuff. The scary thing is that, despite her recent success, SHIMMER may not have seen the best of what Perez is capable of accomplishing. She is still actively attempting to gain as much wrestling experience as possible, as indicated by her recent effort to gain bookings in India. On top of that, the company has yet to see her oddly-named yet deadly “Kosher Pickle,” the bastard child of a tornado DDT and a tomikaze, capable of caving in the head of any opponent unlucky enough to taste it.

Both Thatcher and Perez have shown ability in the ring well beyond their years, and it will only be a matter of time before they find themselves in the hunt for the SHIMMER Title. However, many battles await before they reach that level, and, though the promotion has yet to hint that this is the case, the two women’s paths to the top may intersect sooner rather than later.

Ariel: Portuguese Princess Packs a Punch

“The Portuguese Princess” Ariel isn’t one of the most heavily pushed members of the SHIMMER roster, nor has she been involved in any major storylines. Hell, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything that she’s done in the promotion that would begin to resemble an angle. However, there’s a reason that I’ve still decided to list her as one of my highlights of the promotion. It’s because, regardless of how heavily she’s featured, she is one of the most consistent performers in the company.

Ariel has been with SHIMMER since its beginning, scoring an upset victory against Rain on Volume 1. After that, an effort was made to move her in to the company’s tag team division, as she first paired up with Shantelle Taylor, only for that unit to be abruptly ripped apart by Taylor signing a WWE developmental deal. Shantelle’s replacement on the team was Josie, though the new pairing was not that successful, dropping a tag team match to the Experience on Volume 5 and then coming up on the losing end of a Volume 6 six woman match that saw them team with Cindy Rogers against the Experience and the Amazing Kong. With Josie on the sidelines for the next event, Ariel returned to singles action and perhaps proved that she should have been there all along, defeating former partner Cindy Rogers in a very even contest and moving on to wrestle Nattie Neidhart on Volume 8. Though the Princess came out on the losing end of that contest, it was her best match to date on the DVD series, complete with a BRUTAL German suplex being delivered by Neidhart. It was this match that opened a lot of fans’ eyes to Ariel’s in-ring talents, and she had an impressive amount of crowd support heading in to her Volume 9 and 10 matches against Alexa Thatcher and Portia Perez. Ariel handily won both of those contests against younger talent, but her string of success in singles action was about to come to an end. Two months later, in the first round of the SHIMMER Title tournament, she was about to receive a first round bye due to an injury to her scheduled opponent. Before this could happen, debuting wrestler Alicia appeared and challenged Ariel to a tournament match. The Portuguese powerhouse accepted but ultimately fell to the New Jersey native. The rest of that weekend was also not kind to Ariel, as she dropped a fall to Cheerleader Melissa and failed to get the job done in a four corner survival match. On the most recent SHIMMER taping, the Ariel/Josie duo reformed to mixed results, as they lost a match to the Minnesota Homewrecking Crew of Lacey and Rain but also picked up their first victory as a team against Portia Perez and Nicole Matthews.

In short, Ariel hasn’t exactly had a main event caliber career in SHIMMER. However, I like to think of her as the group’s answer to Tito Santana. For those of you who remember Santana’s WWF career in the 1980’s, he was the extremely talented guy who hung around the midcard and never got a big push. Despite that fact, he could always be counted on for a good match and was, in a way, the measuring stick for new talent coming in to the promotion. If a wrestler could have an excellent match with Santana, he was probably worth keeping around. If a wrestler couldn’t manage to even have a passable match with somebody as talented as Santana, chances were good that he needed to be shown the door. Keeping a performer like this on the roster and continuing to use her in such a role shows the commitment that SHIMMER has not just to producing quality main events but also to producing quality top to bottom cards. It’s rare that you read a review of a SHIMMER DVD and hear “This was a one match show” or “This show was utter crap until they got to the main event.” Talented mid and lower card wrestlers like Ariel are the glue that holds the promotion together, and they deserve far more credit than they usually get.

Nikki Roxx: Rising Star

Though signing a contract with TNA and becoming the “Voodoo Queen” Roxxi LaVeaux seems to have put an end to her time in the promotion, the rise of Nikki Roxx from virtual unknown to SHIMMER superstar is one of the greatest reasons to go back and check out some of the company’s earlier DVDs. One Volumes 1-4, Nikki appeared to be nothing more than your generic, run of the mill babyface, taking on the likes of Lexie Fyfe, Rain, and Amber O’ Neal with mixed success. Then, something happened.

To be more specific, Kong happened. As was discussed here last week, the Amazing Kong made her debut on SHIMMER Volume 5 in a singles match against Nikki Roxx. While the majority of fans expected Roxx to be squashed like a bug, she gave everything that she had against the Japanese star and came close to pulling out the upset victory. Even in defeat, both fans and wrestlers had a newfound respect for the blonde from Massachusetts, and it seemed as though Nikki even had a newfound respect for herself. It was not long after this match that she cut a promo, letting it be known that her goal was to work her way in to SHIMMER main events and that she wanted to get there by facing the toughest competition that the promotion had to offer. The powers that be in the company were more than happy to comply, booking Roxx in a series of three matches against Lacey, Malia Hosaka, and Tiana Ringer. Most observers thought that Nikki would be outmatched in the first of those bouts, as Lacey was by far one of the most experienced and well-traveled female wrestlers on the independent scene. However, Nikki managed to pull off the upset that she could not against Kong, pinning Lacey clean in the middle of the ring with her finisher the Barbie Crusher. After that, the near-twenty year veteran Malia Hosaka fell to Nikki on Volume 8. Once she put away up and coming Floridian wrestler Tiana Ringer on Volume 9, Nikki knew that she was ready for the next step. She was ready for that main event. As such, she issued a challenge to the winner of the main event of Volume 9, which pitted Cheerleader Melissa against Sara Del Rey.

It was Del Rey who won that match, and it was Del Rey who accepted the challenge of Roxx. Sara had only been pinned once in SHIMMER competition up to this point, so if Nikki wanted competition she was definitely in the right place. The two women went at it tooth and nail, slamming in to each other with brutal big boots and with Roxx tapping in to the skills she had developed in Mexio, planting the “Death Rey” with a huge huricanrana. At the end of the night, the once-beaten American Angel used her Royal Butterfly to make sure that Roxx was not successful in her main event debut. However, a new relationship based on mutual respect was forged between the two women, and this would certainly not be the last time that we would see them in the ring together. First, though, Roxx would enter the SHIMMER Title tournament, where she met two competitors with whom she was also very familiar. A first round victory for Nikki in her match against Rain was fairly elementary, but she wound up being taken out of contention in round two by Lacey. The next night Roxx did rebound a bit by winning a four corner survival match against Eden Black, Ariel, and Portia Perez. Volume 13 would see Nikki Roxx gain her final SHIMMER victory, as she teamed with former opponent Sara Del Rey to defeat the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew of Lacey and Rain in tag team action.

It was not long after this that Total Nonstop Action came calling and added Nikki Roxx to their roster. Though this move was unfortunate for those SHIMMER fans who were enjoying seeing Roxx hit her stride as a main eventer, it is great to see such a talented individual receive an opportunity to finally ply her trade on a national level.

Sarah Stock: Luchadora the Explorer

One of the most recent additions to the SHIMMER roster is “The Dark Angel” Sarah Stock, a Canadian born wrestler who has spent the majority of her career training and wrestling in CMLL, one of the two major wrestling promotions in Mexico. As a matter of fact, Stock has become such an integral part of the women’s lucha libre scene that she’s taken up residence south of the border. For quite some time, individuals in the U.S. who followed lucha libre wondered why Stock almost never appeared in America, with some going as far as to speculate that visa problems barred her from showing up in the States.

Ultimately these rumors proved to be false when Stock made her SHIMMER debut in the Volume 11 title tournament, in which she was revealed as the mystery “international wildcard” entrant that had been hyped for weeks leading in to the big show. The Dark Angel not only debuted but was also put right in to the thick of SHIMMER competition, facing and defeating Cheerleader Melissa in the first round. This match was not only burned in to the minds of SHIMMER fans but was also burned in to Melissa’s body, as Stock repeatedly kicked her so hard that the cheerleader developed bruises on her arm which took the shape of Stock’s boot laces. With one impressive victory in hand, the Dark Angel moved on to Melissa’s tag team partner MsChif in round number two. In another match considered to be an epic by fans, Stock got her second victory of the evening and moved on to the semi-final round, which would be held the next day. That bout saw a battle of the Angels, as “American Angel” Sara Del Rey locked it up with “Dark Angel” Sarah Stock. In what many individuals labeled as being the best match of the entire tournament, Del Rey barely eked out the victory and moved on to the finals, where she would eventually be crowned the first SHIMMER Champion. Stock quickly rebounded from the defeat, though, going up against Daizee Haze on Volume 13 and earning herself the duke.

When the Dark Angel did not appear on Volume 14, many fans figured that her time in SHIMMER was going to be limited to one weekend. There was no mention of her returning to the promotion until Volume 15 was taped in Berwyn, Illinois, and Daizee Haze was announced as coming out to the ring for a number one contender match. Given that it had been four months since the title tournament weekend, almost nobody in the crowd recognized the music that began to play after Daizee came down to the ring. However, when Sarah Stock emerged from the entranceway, the crowd went wild. They may not have remembered her music, but they certainly remembered her performances, and they were hyped to see another one. Stock did not disappoint, as many observers considered the singles encounter against Haze to be the best match on Volume 15, even edging out the highly anticipated main event of Sara Del Rey vs. The Amazing Kong. In addition to putting on an entertaining encounter, Stock also pulled out her second consecutive victory against Daizee Haze, this time earning herself a shot at the SHIMMER Title. That contest took place on Volume 16, and it was decided that the match should be two out of three falls. Though Sara Del Rey once again won out over Sarah Stock and walked away with her belt, Stock earned an important distinction during the match. In the second fall, she became only the second performer in the two year history of SHIMMER to pin the American Angel, joining an elite group founded by Mercedes Martinez. It is true that Stock lost the match, but the simple fact that she did earn a fall over Del Rey while so many others have failed makes her a perpetual contender for the championship, and fans would no doubt be interested in seeing this pairing one more time.

It is a rare performer who assembles such a body of work that fans can expect an excellent match every time he or she sets foot in the ring. In SHIMMER, Sarah Stock has definitely put herself on that level. Though many may view such a claim as putting too much pressure on a performer, the Dark Angel has already proven that she can live up to the hype.

Del Rey vs. Martinez: Defining a Promotion

When SHIMMER Volume 1 first went up for sale on ROHwrestling.com, fans were drawn to it for one of two reasons. The first was simply the novelty of watching an all-women’s show which featured some of the top talent in the country. The second was a main event between Daizee Haze and Lacey, two women with whom Ring of Honor’s fanbase were well-acquainted. Yet, when people got the DVD and viewed it, they weren’t talking about the show as though it were a novelty. Also, far fewer of them than expected were talking about the Haze/Lacey match. The vast majority of fans were discussing the twenty minute draw between Mercedes Martinez and Sara Del Rey, two women that many wrestling fans had not heard of prior to that encounter.

Del Rey vs. Martinez went on to become the premier feud of the promotion. They interacted again on Volume 2, with Del Rey winning a four-way elimination match which also featured Daizee Haze and Lacey. Mercedes’ inability to get a win over the American Angel slowly began to eat away at her. Unfortunately, inclimate weather kept Martinez off of Volumes 3 and 4, meaning that it would be several months before the two rivals could lock horns again. The much-anticipated Del Rey/Martinez matchup eventually took place on Volume 5, with Sara taking home the win. However, many observers noted that Martinez may have inadvertently beaten herself, as she slapped on a painful submission hold in mid-ring, only for Del Rey to shift her weight in such a way that the Latina Sensation wound up with her shoulders pinned to the mat. Fans were getting behind Mercedes and wanted to see her pull off a victory against her rival, but the fans were not the only ones watching the tension mount between Del Rey and Martinez.

Also looking on were the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew of Lacey and Rain. SHIMMER’s notorious troublemakers saw an opportunity, and they challenged Del Rey and Martinez to meet them in tag team action on Volume 6. The match was an excellent encounter between four polished athletes, but the ending wound up being a little bit tainted, as an errant kick from Del Rey caught Martinez in the head and allowed the Home Wreckers to pick up the victory. After the bell, it was clear that the accidental boot had put Mercedes in a foul mood, and it was also clear that she wanted to lock up with Del Rey one more time. After both women won important tune up matches on Volume 7 (Del Rey against Nattie Neidhart and Martinez against LuFisto), the third singles match in their series took place on Volume 8. It was an all-out war from the opening bell, as Del Rey hurled her body off of the ring apron and flattened Martinez with a somersault body block. The hard hitting affair raged on for quite some time, with each woman pulling out all of the stops in her quest for victory. Ultimately, Mercedes Martinez did what many thought was unthinkable. After hitting a series of four dangerous Saito suplexes, she dealt Sara Del Rey her first singles loss in the history of SHIMMER. Yet the victory did not come without price. During the course of the match, Martinez suffered an injury to her shoulder which forced her to the sidelines for an extended period of time. As a matter of fact, Volume 8 took place on October 22, 2006. Over one year later, Martinez still has not made a return to the ring and does not plan to make that return until February 2008 at the earliest.

So, despite the fact that Mercedes Martinez finally got her victory, there are many other factors which observers believe will allow fans to see Martinez/Del Rey IV sometime in 2008. Obviously, Mercedes will want to get a measure of revenge for the damage inflicted on her shoulder. Additionally, it should be noted that the series between the two women now stands at a dead heat, with each competitor having one win apiece in singles competition. Announcer Dave Prazak was also quick to note after the Volume 8 match that neither woman had ever beaten the other with her own trademark finish maneuver (the Royal Butterfly in Del Rey’s case and the fisherman buster in Martinez’s case). Finally, since Mercedes has vanished, Del Rey has proven unstoppable. She has gone on a second undefeated streak, not losing one singles match since Volume 8 and becoming the first ever SHIMMER Champion in June of 2007. Some of the best female athletes in the world have tried to wrest that title away from the American Angel and failed, leaving many to speculate that Mercedes Martinez, Del Rey’s greatest opponent, may be the only one capable of getting the job done.

In many ways, Del Rey vs. Martinez was the rivalry on which SHIMMER was built. More than any other pairing in the history of the promotion, it took fans’ preconceived notions about women’s wrestling in the United States and shattered them. It showed that women could display every bit the technical prowess that men could. It showed that women could throw big forearms and brawl on the floor. It showed that women could suplex each other out of their boots. It produced three matches that are well worth going out of your way to see if you in any way consider yourself a fan of wrestling’s in-ring aspect. Yet, for the reasons listed in the preceding paragraph, it is not only the past of SHIMMER and the foundation on which the promotion was built. In many ways, it is also the company’s future . . . a very bright future indeed.


And, there you have it, my top ten reasons for keeping up with SHIMMER: Women Athletes. Be sure to keep an eye out for the title tournament DVDs on ROHwrestling.com this coming Monday, and remember that I will be back in seven days with the third and final installment of the Ultimate SHIMMER Starter Guide.

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Ryan Byers

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