And so it’s come to this.

The little promotion that wowed me and re-awakened my love for pro-wrestling finally reaches maturity with the crowning of its first champion, some year and a half after its inception. Promoter Dave Prazak and his head cohort Allison Danger had often said that SHIMMER wouldn’t crown its first champion until such times as the company had developed its performers and storylines to the point where a title would actually matter – and there’s no doubt that in the ten preceding volumes, SHIMMER has taken the viewer on a wonderful ride. From my own perspective, I bought Vol 1 on a whim, having only ever seen two, maybe three of the competitors before. In fact, I only really bought Vol 1 so I could see Beth Phoenix wrestle (having watched her for so long as purely a valet in OVW). In the time since then, I’ve grown to live and die with these competitors, share in their triumphs and wince at their defeats… and the fantastic thing is – there’s nothing particularly cutting edge about it at all. Sure, treating women as competitors rather than eye candy is pretty cutting edge even in the enlightened 21st century – but the booking of the promotion is as old as wrestling itself. Of course there are heels and faces and personal rivalries, but the central tenet of everything has been the athletic competition and the desire to prove yourself to be the best. And now, as the competitors gathered in the now traditional Eagles Club in Berwyn, IL on June 1 & 2, 2007, there was finally a symbol to strive towards.

The sixteen strong field was an interesting mix of regular SHIMMER topline talent, some of the younger talent and a couple of debuts.

Round One: Malia Hosaka vs Allison Danger

Allison is rocking her emotionless white kabuki mask during her entrance. I still have no idea what the point of it is – but I do know that I find it damn cool. Hosaka is the veteran of the SHIMMER promotion with nearly 20 years of ring experience. She debuted on Vol 3 and spent most of her time since then teaming with fellow veteran Lexie Fyfe as “The Experience” and humbling the youngsters on the roster. At her best, Hosaka is a bad tempered harpy, and Danger is eminently likeable. That likeability means that you can’t help but get pulled in when she’s getting her leg assaulted by Hosaka in the early going. Danger comes back with her leg based offence, but hurts herself when she tries the Lovelace Choker and quite simply she can’t perform the Shimmering Warlock (Shining Wizard), so Hosaka clamps on a figure four leglock. Danger struggles, before the pain is so much that she ends up getting her shoulders counted down on the mat. Er… what?? I knew Danger crashed out early, but I would have at least expected her loss to come via some form of chicanery from her current rival Cindy Rogers. But no – this was simply Danger doing the unselfish thing and putting over someone else. I can’t complain about that, but at the same time, it’s a real shame that we didn’t have more of her in the tournament. The fans let her know, with a generous round of applause. Short match, good for what it was. Hosaka progresses to face the winner of Haze/Perez.

Rebecca Bayless comes out to the ring to introduce SHIMMER debutante Alicia, who has been a longtime regular around a number of East Coast indies for a while. She comes out and bitches for a while about not an awful lot. Whatever.

Round One: Portia Perez vs Daizee Haze

This is a rematch from a dark match that opened the Vols 5 & 6 taping. That match (Portia’s debut) was essentially a squash in favour of The Haze for online viewing via YouTube. I expect something much longer and better here. Not only is Haze arguably one of the top two or three talents in the company, but the widely travelled Perez has developed into her new heel persona beautifully – now coming across very much like Randy Orton’s kid sister. Allison Danger joins Dave Prazak on commentary from here on out, and it doesn’t take too long before Danger cracks her first joke about Portia’s age. It’s worth pointing out how much nicer it’s been on commentary for the last couple of volumes with Danger and Prazak allowing some of their wacky chemistry to come through a bit more than they did on the earlier volumes. On that earlier match between these two, Daizee finished Portia with a heart punch/mind trip combination, and before long, the same combination finishes Perez again. Wow. That did last longer than their first match, but still relatively short. Perez didn’t get much of a chance to show how “frickin’ awesome” she now is. I suppose with being first round matches in the tourney, I shouldn’t really expect particularly long matches at this juncture. Enjoyable, if short.

Round One: Cindy Rogers vs Sara Del Rey

If you couldn’t tell it by the pink & black outfit, the leather jacket and the “definition of technician” nickname, Cindy Rogers is a huge Bret Hart fan. Unfortunately, she has found the same problem that Bret had early in his career – and that’s getting anybody to care about her. For the longest time, I couldn’t have cared less about Cindy, but I believe she just about started to turn the corner with her heel turn on Allison Danger. Unfortunately, she’s not facing Danger here. In fact, she’s facing the nigh on unbeatable Sara Del Rey. Poor, poor Cindy. The fans know too, as they greet Del Rey with enthusiastic “Next World Champ” chants, not to mention gifts. No really – a fan presents Del Rey (affectionately known as Death Rey) with her own ray gun, which SDR promptly uses to ‘shoot’ the gift giver. The match is technically sound enough, and Rogers even tries to mix it up with a little heelish offence. The thing is – for all the push that Rogers has gotten, and the fact that she was in control for the vast majority of this bout, I never for one second bought that she was even close to the level of Sara Del Rey. And indeed, Sara hits a straightjacket suplex and it’s all over. Simple as that. Cue the “Next World Champ” chants again. Del Rey advances to face the winner of the next match.

Round One: Portuguese Princess Ariel vs Alicia

It was supposed to have been Ariel vs OVW standout Serena Deeb, but Deeb had been involved in a car wreck earlier in the evening, delaying her attendance at the venue. Ariel had hear hand raised by the referee as a forfeit winner before Alicia returned to goad Ariel into letting her substitute for Serena. Ariel has long been a fun part of the SHIMMER undercard (and capable of the odd cracking match too). Alicia didn’t particularly impress me as being anything special (she’s certainly not as good as Amber O’Neal when it comes to doing the “blond diva” gimmick), and actually angered me when she dropped Ariel with an A Bomb (Michinoku Driver) for the pin – with a handful of tights. I take solace that Alicia will die at the hands of Sara Del Rey in the Quarter Finals.

Round One: Lexie Fyfe vs MsChif

This is also a rematch, as MsChif fell to Lexie on Vol 3 due to the distraction of her longtime rival (and now associate) Cheerleader Melissa. Tonight, ‘Chif is accompanied by her fellow scream queen Daffney, who acts as her manager. Lexie is – in the nicest possible terms – a real bruiser, and spends most of the match stretching MsChif in (to quote Danger) “painful and ridiculous fashions”. Eventually, MsChif comes back and hits a Desecrator DDT for the pinfall to avenge her loss and advance. Quite honestly there was very little else to comment on as far as that match went. Very formulaic.

Round One: Cheerleader Melissa vs Sarah Stock

Melissa’s opponent was scheduled to be a “mystery international wildcard” – and the wildcard ended up being Sarah Stock, who works regularly in Mexico as the Dark Angel. Dave Prazak had said in the past that although the Canadian had visa problems which stopped her working in the US for a while, Stock had an open invitation to come to SHIMMER as soon as she was able to appear… and lo and behold, she’s finally made it just in time for the tourney. Talk about a baptism of fire though, as she’s immediately thrown in there with one of SHIMMER’s MVPs. Immediately they bring a totally new level of physicality to proceedings, and it strikes me that I have very little idea of what to expect from Stock. I’ve seen a little bit of Dark Angel in lucha, but she’ll have to work a pretty different style if she’s to combat Melissa. That being said, Stock does bring some lucha-riffic armdrags, which Melissa follows up with by devastating Stock with strikes. It’s interesting seeing these two work together for the first time ever, and indeed the match develops into quite an engrossing one, highlighted by a kick battle and then Stock’s reversal of the Kudo Driver into a victory roll for the shock upset and to send one of the pre-tourney favourites crashing out in round one. She seemed to win the fans over with that performance too, since despite Melissa’s position as respected babyface, Stock gets a great reaction. She goes on to face the winner of the next match.

Round One: Lacey vs Eden Black

I had the pleasure of seeing these two fight live in the quarter final round of the ChickFight 7 tournament which was staged in the UK in January, and they had a really good match there, so I have little doubt that we will get a good one here. Lacey has already started insulting the “ignorant Republicans” at ringside by the time “The Jezebel” Eden Blak makes her appearance. Jez won their encounter at ChickFight, although Lacey inadvertently gave Jez a broken toe as Jez jackknifed on a belly to back suplex. I think these two have had the best chemistry of any of the first round matchups so far, as Lacey’s bitchy prissy routine contrasts beautifully with Black’s fiery temperament. The fans get behind Jez (who wears an Atlanta Braves top) by engaging in some Tomahawk chopping. The finishing sequence is good, with Black getting some close decisions before Lacey edges her out with an Impant DDT. Best match of the opening round so far, in my opinion.

Round One: Nikki Roxx vs Rain

Hey, it’s all gone TNA… kinda. Nikki Roxx, for the uninitiated, is the “Voodoo Queen” Roxxy Laveaux (and who looks like a million bucks when out of the wacky voodoo gear and is probably SHIMMER’s biggest rising star in the first ten volumes) and Rain is the woman who has to date only been referred to as “Robert Roode’s Biggest Fan” – here rocking her traditional brunette look, as opposed to her blond TNA style. Rain is APPALLED at the “Nikki… ROXX, Rain… SUCKS” chants as we begin the final first round match. They wrestle a fairly standard match, highlighted by Rain’s tornado lung blower, which should really be a finish – however, not too long later, Roxx hits the Barbie Crusher for a fairly easy pin. I didn’t have a clock on it, but this match seemed to last like three minutes.

Rebecca Bayless comes out to introduce Serena Deeb, freshly arrived at the arena, but not in time for her first round match. Alicia, of course, advanced in her place. She’ll be in action on the next volume, but disappointed that she missed the tournament.

Now it’s on to the second round, which is also the quarter finals.

Round Two: Malia Hosaka vs Daizee Haze

This is probably the biggest contrast of personalities in SHIMMER, with the bad tempered harpy vs the ever happy flower child. Technically it’s very interesting also. Haze is so good at what she does considering she never saw wrestling pre-2001, and with her experience, Hosaka is as sound as anybody when it comes to the in ring product. It’s very slow paced, with Hosaka playing bully against Haze, and in fact it continues that way until out of nowhere, Haze hits a heart punch for a three count out of literally nowhere. Horrible finish just because it was so out of the blue. One moment they were jockeying for position on the mat, the next, Haze hits a heart punch (which the camera gets a really poor angle of) and then it’s over. Was the match truncated for some reason? I fear that was a bit of a missed opportunity, but at least it was nice to see Haze progress again.

Round Two: Alicia vs Sara Del Rey Sara Del Rey underlines her application to be “greatest woman alive” by shooting Alicia with her Ray Gun before the bell (which Alicia sells with utter shock) and then starting the match by kicking Alicia right in the chest. On commentary, Prazak and Danger are essentially marking out for Del Rey too. This was fantastic fun, with Del Rey working at half speed compared to what she can do, and yet still coming across like she was the female Kenta Kobashi against the hopelessly overmatched Alicia. Alicia got moments of offence, and did kick out of a few moves, but the result was inevitable. So beloved is Death Rey that the fans jumped to their feet and pumped their hands in the air along with the 1-2-3 after the Royal Butterfly.

Round Two: Sarah Stock vs MsChif

After having taken out Melissa in R1, Stock now gets the chance to take out Melissa’s sometime tag partner, MsChif. Stock is looking resplendent in her silver and red jumpsuit for this one, and it’s only fair to also note Daffney’s harlequin outfit too. Stock also tries to bend MsChif (this time in several lucha inspired ways), but I fear that Ms Chif matches are starting to become a tad too formulaic for my taste. Her feud with Cheerleader Melissa (which highlighted SHIMMER’s first year, in my opinion) was fantastic because it was so brutal and innovative. I’d never seen a move as vicious as Melissa’s cloverleaf where she forced MsChif to kick her head with her own foot, and the matches went all over the Eagles Club (and even to the street) in a battle for dominance. Since that, MsChif matches have featured every opponent exploiting her flexibility by performing all manner of back stretch manoeuvres, interspersed with ‘Chif’s regular comeback moves and a “scream” spot, then add a finisher of some kind either for or against. This time, the fall goes against MsChif as Stock hits a pretty sweet Tiger Driver for the pinfall and to advance to the semi final. Stock again looked good as she eliminated both Melissa and MsChif in the same night, and she’s getting enthusiastic applause from the Berwyn faithful already. I am interested to see where MsChif goes from here. She seems to be involved in a feud with The Experience, which I fear may be more of the same. We’ll see.

Round Two: Lacey vs Nikki Roxx

The parade of rematches continue, as this is a rematch from one of the marquee matches from Volume 7 where Nikki made the leap to the top level in SHIMMER, defeating Lacey. One of the fans at ringside appears to give Lacey his number, which, as you might expect, resulted in a torrent of abuse in his direction. The match began, and interestingly, it became an All-Lacey masterclass for the longest time, with the Minnesota Home Wrecker dominating her opponent with all manner of techniques. Quite surprising, actually, as I remember the Vol 7 match being very competitive – not to mention the fact that Nikki actually won that one. The inevitable comeback ensues, with Roxx getting a near fall from a faceplant off a submission. Roxx then tries a Barbie Crusher, but gets reversed into the Implant DDT for the win. Lacey advances to face her old rival Daizee Haze in the semi finals tomorrow. I’d say that I didn’t like Roxx getting beaten so relatively easy, but needs must. Lacey is (and has been) one of the top heels in the company and as such has an important role to play in the rest of the tournament – especially with all three of the other semi finalists being babyface, so it makes good sense to put her over very strong. Besides, with Roxx’s TNA commitments, it remains to be seen just how much of a role she will get to have in future volumes.

With the semi finals set, that concludes Volume 11. Let’s put in Vol 12 and see what happens, shall we?

Vol 12 starts with comments from both Lacey and Daizee Haze about their semi final encounter. Lacey’s promo was good, but Daizee’s promo was surely the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen as she sings about how much she wants the title to the melody of her entrance music. I love that girl.

Alicia vs Josie

Chicago’s own Josie appears to have a new body since last I saw her, and looks great for it. She’s currently working out down in Derby City Wrestling with Rip Rogers trying to win a developmental deal, which I’m sure will do wonders for her ability level. I’m not sure that Alicia adds anything to SHIMMER that they can’t get elsewhere (she’s certainly no Amber O’Neal), but she at least entertaining in short bursts and gives Dave Prazak the chance to mention that she’s “weight unknown – just like The Barbarian”. Nice. Josie has been around since Vol 5 and is winless to date, so this match exists for the sole purpose of giving Josie that first win. Amber tries the A-Bomb and handful of tights that worked on Vol 11, but referee Laura Mattano doesn’t count the three. Josie gets the win eventually with a schoolgirl.

We get comments from Sarah Stock and Sara Del Rey prior to their semi final later. Del Rey is relegated to a single line, which is probably enough.

Semi Final: Lacey vs Daizee Haze

This match has got loads of background as it was Prazak’s top feud during his time booking IWA Mid South’s women’s division and the match that was chosen to main event Volume 1 of the SHIMMER series – not to mention their renewed hostilities in ROH a while back. They waste NO time taking the match to the outside where Haze is dumped into the front row and essentially hog tied to a guard rail. Back inside, Haze gets choked by her own flower, and within five minutes this is already the best match of the tournament. The chemistry these two have is incredible, and Haze is so damn likeable that I can’t help but get sucked in. This is such a damned good FIGHT. Eventually the lung blower and a devastating looking Implant DDT from Lacey advances her to the finals. By far the best match of the set so far.

Semi Final: Sarah Stock vs Sara Del Rey

The Del Rey fans are out in force with their “Best In The World” chants. Prazak points out that not only is this a battle of the Sara(h)s, this is also a battle between the Angels – The “American Angel” Sara Del Rey and the “Dark Angel” Sarah Stock. No kidding. This could easily be the start of a long term rivalry between the two. Both girls are heavily lucha influenced, which accounts for some wacky submissions and armdrags, but apart from that, it’s competed more puro style with the wear down moves working towards the big high impact stuff and near falls. Quite simply, it’s great stuff. Even when Stock slips off the top rope at one point, it wasn’t able to take me out of the struggle. Suddenly we get the “one minute to time limit” call, which shocked the hell out of me… and the powerbombs and suplexes give way to desperate cradles and roll ups… then we’re within 30 seconds, and Del Rey blocks a rana attempt and turns it into a piledriver for the climactic three. That was reminiscent of Del Rey’s battles with Mercedes Martinez just for the sheer physicality of the bout. Only criticism, they didn’t explain what would have happened had they reached the twenty minute draw. Would Lacey have been awarded the belt by forfeit?

Street Fight: Cindy Rogers vs Allison Danger

This has been building up for several volumes since Rogers turned on Danger during a tag match. It’s “come as you are” as both Danger and Rogers are wearing jeans and T-Shirts. This is a FIGHT, and a nice change of pace from the last two really great athletic contests. They circumnavigate the ring, using barriers and ring posts as they go. Rogers even tries a ringpost figure four (which failed epically) and introduces a stop sign. For her part, Danger brings a chair (which turns out to be an awful idea as Rogers ended up using it on her). As a BATTLE, this was fantastic. You never got the impression that Danger didn’t absolutely HATE Rogers at all times – which means that when the end came with Danger hitting Rogers with the STO after a chain tug-o-war, it actually mattered. That’s pro-wrestling, folks. Rogers attacks Danger post match with a chain to the knee, leading to Danger’s post match challenge for a Dog Collar match on Vol 13. Eep!

Eden Black vs Portia Perez vs Nikki Roxx vs Portuguese Princess Ariel

Wacky four way alert! If the semi finals brought the competition and the Street Fight brought the brawling and the hatred, this match was basically your “catch your breath” match. Nothing of any great importance happened here, other than it was a fun four way built around Portia Perez being the only heel of the match. Once Perez was disposed of outside the ring by Ariel, Roxx and Black wrapped up the match with Roxx hitting the Barbie Crusher for the three. Just an inconsequential, fun little match.

Rain vs Serena Deeb

Rain has INEXCUSABLY changed her entrance music from “Celebrity Skin” by Hole to what I’m reliably informed is a song called “Red Eye Fly” by Ouija Radio. Speaking of music, Danger notes the irony of Deeb being in a car crash yesterday and using “Crash” by Gwen Stefani as her entrance music. I like the contrast of characters here, as Deeb is your girl next door, while Rain… well, she presents a more altogether more sleazy image. Turns out this is quite the little sleeper of a contest, as although I may not have expected great things from it, it ended up pretty exciting. The finish came when Rain cut off Deeb as she went upstairs, allowing her to hit the Acid Rain (Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex) for the uncontested three count. Fun match.

Cheerleader Melissa & MsChif vs The Experience

Quite a tag team match this, featuring colour-coordinated teams with the Green/Black team of MelisChif taking on the Black/Blue team of Hosaka & Fyfe, although quite frankly, knowing that this is the semi-main before the finals of the Title Tournament meant that all I could do is wish it was over so I could get to the main event. Knowing this, I actually turned off the DVD at this point and came back to the show after a break, and my God, I’m glad I did. While I may not have been in the mood to enjoy it when it began last time, it actually turns out to be a hell of a good tag team match. While “MelissChif” may come across as a female Road Warriors with their chains and attitude, it is The Experience who take the lead, working over MsChif. Although I may have had a moan earlier about MsChif’s repetitive style of match in singles competition (unless facing Melissa), she looked totally fine here – even going so far as to borrow Melissa’s curb stomp. Finish came when Melissa saved MsChif from the double team Gourdbuster, laid out Hosaka with an Air Raid Crash, and MsChif hit the quebrada for the uncontested three count. Quite the match, and The Experience’s first loss as a tandem.

SHIMMER Title Tournament Final: Lacey vs Sara Del Rey

Main event time, and while I do read the results of tapings, I generally forget who wins in a lot of cases by the time I get round to watching the DVDs. Obviously in the case of this match – the biggest match in company history, and the fact that the champ has been defending her belt since then – I know who’s winning here… but the thing that struck me and remained with me was how everyone who saw the match live swore that the match was the greatest match they’d seen in the promotion’s history. With the Martinez/Del Rey and Melissa/MsChif trilogies still vivid in my brain, not to mention Rebecca Knox’s matches with Allison Danger & Daizee Haze, that’s a very high compliment. While I don’t know that it’s the absolute best, it certainly belongs in that bracket. The ref bump was effective, as it allowed Nikki Roxx and Allison Danger to run off Lacey’s tag team partner Rain, setting the scene for the pissed off Del Rey to wipe the floor with Lacey via Royal Butterfly and a completely unnecessary (but wonderfully vicious) piledriver for the three count. While I have now grown to expect Sara Del Rey to produce absolute crackers on every show, it was the fact that Lacey was able to live with Del Rey at top gear that was really the fun part of the match for me Her stock was raised tenfold with this tournament, as she underlined how good she can be… and as for Del Rey? The fans call her “Best In The World”, and they’re right, quite frankly. As an in-ring performer, she’s phenomenal. Oh, and it’s worth pointing out that even though practically every fan in attendance across these two tapings fully expected Del Rey to run through the field, it didn’t diminish from the greatness of seeing it happen. They came to see the coronation of company ace Sara Del Rey as the inaugural champion, and that’s exactly what they got. Wonderful.

So where to from here?

Since Vol 1, we’ve looked forward to the inception of the SHIMMER Title, and now it’s here, what’s the next thing to look forward to? While some booking philosophies would say that the money is in the top babyface’s chase for the belt, they’ve gone straight for Del Rey as the first champ… so you’ve got to start looking at who they’ve got lined up as challengers. On the heel side (admittedly the lighter side right now), there is an inevitable rematch with Lacey, and the impending return of Amazing KONG from Japan, but apart from that you’re looking at a number of babyface/babyface challenges as the likes of Cheerleader Melissa, Sarah Stock and Daizee Haze get their chances at the belt… and then the big one – the return of Mercedes Martinez. Going 1-1-1 in their series so far, Martinez is the only woman to have defeated SDR in SHIMMER competition. Apart from that, might 2008 see the return of Rebecca Knox? Perhaps doubtful, but I often said that when they eventually crowned their champ, the best match they could do (and one that has never been done before) would have been ultra babyace Del Rey vs ultra heel Knox.

While there isn’t necessarily any clamour for it yet, when SHIMMER introduce tag team titles, that too is going to be a strong division with The Experience, Melisschif, The Dangerous Angels (Danger & Del Rey) and – depending on Rain’s upcoming TNA commitments – The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew all playing big roles.

But this is all conjecture – one thing that can be said for certain is that the tournament was a rip-roaring success, once again selling out the Eagles Club in Berwyn and if there is any justice, the DVDs finding their way to the DVD shelves of everybody who is finding themselves bored by the current product offered by the mainstream. While Vol 11 is only really recommended so that the viewer can enjoy the entire 16 woman tournament, Vol 12 offers some truly great stuff. More please, Mr Prazak. {plug}