Tremendous Tirades 7.12.13: SHINE 11 iPPV

Bracket A Fatal Four Way Qualifier – Winner Faces Rain in the First Round: Mercedes Martinez vs. Nikki Roxx w/Daffney vs. Lu Fisto vs. Su Yung: Martinez, Roxx and Lu Fisto are a winning combo for me, and I have heard good things about Su Yung, so this looks to be a good start for the show. We’re using tag rules, two in at a time for these four way matches. There was a sweet stretch of about a minute where Martinez and Lu Fisto hit the ring and beat the shit out of each other and it was fantastic. Roxx and Martinez then had a similar exchange, which was also awesome. I am still amazing that TNA has Roxx and couldn’t use her properly. Lu Fisto almost killed Martinez, putting her in a tree of woe and hitting a double foot stomp from the top. It looked brutally awesome. Late in the match Martinez went after Daffney, Roxx made the save and they brawled, which allowed Lu Fisto to hit the BURNING HAMMER on Yung and score the victory in about 9 minutes. The match had a good layout, good flow; it had fun spots and was a strong way to kick off the show. Yung came off a bit clunky at times, which was the only real negative criticism.

Match Rating: ***

Bracket B Fatal Four Way Qualifier – Winner Faces Santana in the First Round: Amazing Kong vs. Angelina Love vs. Ivelisse w/April Hunter vs. Kimberly: I completely dig Ivelisse in her black gear. The shredded tights, black bikini top and black bandanna make her look completely bad ass. Kimberly, who is apparently insane, gave out Thing dolls (as in Thing 1 and Thing 2) to all of the competitors. Ivelisse and Kimberly foolishly attacked Kong to start, and they paid for it. Kong took a spill over the ropes off of a charge, which looked awesome, to take her out of a few minutes in the middle of the bout, allowing the other three to work. I liked it because it made it different from the first four way, and it is a proven formula to take out the monster for the hot return later in the bout. Fun finish as Ivelisse raked the eyes of Kong, and threw Angelina into her. Kong then hit an implant buster on her by accident, due to being blinded. Ivelisse superkicked Kong and then hit a code red on Kimberly and scored the win in around 8-mnutes. Not quite as good as the first match, but it was a solid match to help get the show started, and you had to figure that the four ways would be short.

Match Rating: **¾

Bracket A First Round Match: Sweet Saraya Knight vs. Jessicka Havok: Sweet Saraya Knight is the former SHIMMER Champion, and the mother of WWE NXT Diva Paige. Jessicka Havok was on last week’s FIP iPPV, and had an impressive performance there. Shit got real quickly as Saraya dove to the floor and attacked Havok and they brawled. Knowing what I know about these ladies, this was exactly what I expected, it was brutal, hard-hitting and they had a big brawl on the floor. They used chairs and brawled through the crowd and onto the stage, and then to the bar and then back to ringside. I felt that the crowd brawl went a bit long, and at times has issues seeing the action. There was also no less than 15 kicks to the lady junk in this match. They again brawled to the floor, which led to Havok hitting a nasty looking piledriver in the stage. Havok carried her back to the ring for a near fall. Saraya then used a chair and got DQ’d at about 15-minutes. She then beat down Havok with the chair, targeting the knee, possibly setting up a Cinderella story for Havok. Not a huge fan of that, they kept discussing the count when they brawled, and then we saw a piledriver on the stage, and nothing. Saraya used a steel pipe on the floor, and nothing. But then a chair is used and we get a DQ. I like the style they worked, but the long crowd brawl and bad finish took me out of it a lot. Unfortunately the overall package didn’t translate to me.

Match Rating: **

Bracket B First Round Match: Leva vs. Mia Yim: Leva came out dressed as Venom from Spider-Man. At the beginning the first thing you noticed about the match was that it was a completely different style from the other matches, which is a plus in my eyes. It had a very athletic lucha feel, with the Japanese feel from Yim added in. They played up the fact that they were friends, and that they train together and date the former FIP Tag Champions Los Ben Dejos (Jay Rios & Eddie Cruz). They also discussed the “darker side” of Leva, due to a feud with Kimberly, which played perfectly into the Venom outfit. Leva was also using some of Yim’s moves, which was played up as them knowing each other so well. This was a really good, athletic match, with some good near falls down the line. The crowd was dead to begin, but picked up really well down the line, especially when Leva hit a Pepsi Plunge for a super close near fall. Yim then snagged Leva off the ropes and connected with a release German suplex for the win in about 14-minutes. Best match of the card thus far, started slowly due to the crowd, but they continued to work hard and delivered some awesome near falls. Some brutal stuff for sure, and the friends hugged it out afterwards.

Match Rating: ***¾

Bracket A First Round Match: Rain w/April Hunter vs. Lu Fisto: This is Lu Fisto’s second match of the night, Rain qualified back at SHINE 9. Lu Fisto controlled early, but shenanigans by April Hunter (attacking the knee of Lu Fisto) turned the tide. Lu Fisto had a severe knee injury at WrestleCon, and had one match back prior to tonight’s event. For the second time in the first four minutes Hunter gets involved. Typical heel stable playbook stuff, but if used too much completely takes away from things. Another knock on things was that Hunter attacked the knee, which they have been selling was badly injured for real, and then Lu Fisto makes her comeback and completely no sells the bad wheel. Hunter distracted Lu Fisto after a series of good near falls, and Rain scored the roll up with the tights in about 8-minutes. This was solid stuff, but the shenanigans by Hunter was a bit too much and would have meant more if there was less. Also, the whole attack the knee and then completely forget about it also annoyed me. Overall disappointing because I like both ladies work a lot.

Match Rating: **

Bracket B First Round Match: Santana w/Amber O’Neal vs. Ivelisse w/April Hunter: And this is where we get our first iPPV issue of the evening as there was freezing during the introductions and then we lost the steam all together. I will say that the nice thing is that the WWNLive people were in the chat and commented on the issue right away, and after about two minutes we had things back and running. Hunter got involved, as expected, but O’Neal stopped it before it got out of hand, but it was enough to allow Ivelisse to take control. I had a very difficult time getting into this match. The crowd seemed to have the same issue. It felt slow and felt long until the final 90-seconds, where it picked up. Ivelisse won in 13-mnutes with a sick kick to the head. The final stretch helped things along, and it wasn’t bad, it just felt there if you get what I am saying. One thing I noticed is that Ivelisse is basically winning on her own, without help from Hunter, and even showed some respect to Santana after the match. Could be a face turn slowly in the works to break away from Valkyrie.

Match Rating: **

Bracket A Finals: Jessicka Havok vs. Rain: Havok limped her way to the ring, but Sweet Saraya Knight came back once again to get her some with a chair and destroyed the leg of Kavok. Security took out Sweet Saraya Knight, and the ref started the official count on orders of VP of Talent Relations Lexie Fyfe. Havok struggled, but could not make it into the ring. Rain advanced to the finals. Havok and Knight will obviously feud and have some form of brutal blow off (last woman standing), but I am not a fan of this booking in a tournament, and the crowd chanting bullshit seems to agree with me. It feels like they did it for time purposes as well, which shouldn’t have been an issue if you do not book so many matches in one night.

Match Rating: NR

Bracket B Finals: Mia Yim vs. Ivelisse w/April Hunter: I wonder if April Hunter is getting paid by the appearance, because if so, god on her. Mia Yim had a hard match with Leva earlier in the evening, and Ivelisse is now working her third match of the night. These two faced off at EVOLVE 22 in what was a fine, but unspectacular match. Mia Yim went for a suicide dive about two-minutes in, caught her feet on the ropes and crashed and burned big time. Thankfully she was ok, because she was up moments later trading chops with Ivelisse. Ivelisse slowed things down and worked her submission game, which was smart to allow Yim to fully recover. Ivelisse was in full control, but of course Hunter had to get involved again. Remember that less is more thing? Anyway, a bit slow at times, but considering Yim’s crash and burn and the point of selling the tournament, I was ok with it because it was smartly done. It never felt as if it was dragging, just not a rapid fire pace. Both ladies use their strikes well, and Yim had a near fall off of a lionsault. Another Hunter distraction, Rain did a run in and accidentally hit Ivelisse with her cast, causing Yim to score a roll up and the victory at 11-minutes. Rain was NOT happy about her mistake. Too much shenanigans though to be honest with you.

Match Rating: **½

SHINE Championship Tournament Finals: Rain w/April Hunter and Ivelisse vs. Mia Yim: VP of Talent Relations Lexie Fyfe took the mic and said they are celebrating their anniversary and will crown their first champion, but is sick of the cheating and shenanigans. She bars April Hunter and Ivelisse from the match so that things will be on the up and up. Of note she only barred Hunter and Ivelisse, and not “Valkyrie” or anyone else. So Rain, the heel, had the easy path to the finals in traditional tournament booking, and Yim had two hard fought matches and nearly dies on a dive in the last match, so is at a disadvantage. As I expected, a slow paced match with the heel dominating the weakened babyface. It was a good match overall, but got a bit sloppy down the stretch. Rain won clean with the rain drop in 15-minutes, after countering the lionsault and getting knees into the face of Yim. That worked due to the crash and burn in the previous match. April Hunter and Ivelisse returned to the ring to celebrate the victory.

Match Rating: **½