Shine 1: A Review

 

Time to Shine!

Welcome to my exciting foray into the world of iPPV and the debut of Shine Wrestling.

As a proud fanboy of SHIMMER: Women Athletes, to be a little happy over an extension of that on a monthly basis is an understatement. I love the concept of mixing some established talent with some people looking for their break. Fantastic!

As I said, I’ve never actually gotten an iPPV before. With the horror stories of the Ring of Honor shows, but the relative smoothness of CHIKARA, Evolve, and DGUSA…I have no idea what I’m getting and this is more or less going to be a running journal of my experience.

For $10, lets give this a try!

Buying the show was easy. Standard PayPal stuff. They started the stream with random highlights. Some footage from old SHIMMER shows in a highlight reel with the footage of Daffney, Santana Garrett and Christina Von Eerie on the Daytime TV show. I’m impressed they were able to get a TV spot like this for their debut show.

Daffney kicks off the show in the ring with a little hype duty. Less talking, more wrestling and out comes Kimberly. No idea,but I LOVE the pink ring. Fantastic! Her opponent in the opener is Veda Scott.  I guess the hosting job Daffney is doing means ring announcing. She’s ok, but she’s no Joey Eastman.

Veda starts with an armbar, but its broken into a hammerlock from Kimberly. A takeover into a headlock, into a crab, into a rope break. Wow. Wrestling indeed!

The way these two are trading holds and submissions is just amazing. Veda Scott just keeps getting better every time I see her. Some of this is really good, some of this you can tell is the result of them both being somewhat new. Just seems a little awkward.

Veda reverses an irish whip and goes a little retro with her version of Daizee Haze’s mind trip to get the win. Decent opener. Seemed to drag a little bit and the crowd really didn’t know who to get behind.

Wonderful moment of technology here as my feed freezes in a fantastic derp face from Veda. Yay!

Two refreshes and just a loading screen. Not good…

At least they have an online chat which tells me they’re restarting the streaming computer.

We’re back mid-match with Santana and Tina San Antonio. She’s working over Santana’s back with some squat drops and a nice little submission hold. Santana breaks it up and they trade some forearms in the center of the ring before she drops Tina  with a clothesline for a 2 count.

Santana went for a handspring elbow in the corner that was cut to at the absolute perfect time by the corner camera for a great shot. Impressive. Santana reversed Tina’s finisher into a roll up for the three count. Decent for what I saw, I suppose.

Shine 2 is going to be on August 17th. That works. Friday theme, it seems. Daffney is back out to announce a tag match. Allysin Kay and Taylor Made are the first two out. I’ve heard things, but have never actually seem them in action.

Their opponents are Tracy Taylor and Su Young. I’ve seen Su Young a few times before working some Sparkle action before SHIMMER. Former WWE Developmental talent, for those that may be unaware.

While Allysin and and Taylor stall, I can’t help but look around the building and notice…it looks a little drab. AAW made huge strides with the black curtain trick. Hope that’s something they’ll think about. They’re working out the bugs. All in good time.

I missed who is doing the commentary for this, but I want him dead. “Berwyn Eagles Center”…sigh…it’s the little things, folks.

Taylor and Tracy start it off with a headlock takedown. Tracy tags out to Su Young who locks in a waistlock and into a full nelson. There’s something you don’t see often. Quick tag back out to Tracy who locks in another headlock. Taylor backs her into the corner and tags out to Allysin Kay. She’s officially the first talent announced for the upcoming SHIMMER tapings in mid headlock. Kinda neat.

Allysin has a nice hammerlock on on Su Young and we get a little shoulder biting. Interesting. And at this point my feed freezes up again. Blips back for a second, freezes, then comes back.

Then freezes.

Then comes back for a second.

Then freezes again.

Back to live action and now both have tagged out and we have Su Young coming back in and Taylor Made getting worked over with a headlock. Su Young dropkicks her out to the floor. Sets up for a running dive to the floor, but Allysin cut her off and dropped her with a wicked kick. Taylor goes back into the ring to distract the ref while Allysin slams Su Young into the ring post and rolls her back in for a 2 count.

Ok, I’m not looking to stir the pot here. But a “japanese strangle hold” on Su Young?

Just sayin’

Allysin and Taylor spend a good 3-4 minutes taking turns beating on Su Young. She counters with a stunner out of nowhere and makes the tag….but the referee was distracted.

Su hits another jawbreaker/stunner/something and makes the tag to Tracy. She clears Allysin out and gets Taylor down for a two. Su Young gets the tag back and hits a missile dropkick that…wow…was just one of her feet hitting Allysin’s shin. Interesting. Allysin pretty much gets right back up and hits Su Young with..I don’t know what that was either…and gets a three.

Post match interview with Allysin and Taylor. They’re a match made in heaven, the fans are all “pathetic losers,” and that’s about it.

What an awkward couple of segments. It just seems like everyone so far has been really tentative in the ring. No chemistry. Everyone seems to be a step slower than you’d think.

Daffney is back in for some more hype duty. The word of the show is wow. I agree…but not for the same reason she thinks. Someone in the crowd agrees with me and Daffney holds the ropes open for him to express it a little closer to the ring.

Out comes Cherry Bomb. She’s looking snazzy. Like the longer hair, for sure. Speaking of hair, she’ll be taking on “The Queen of Oi” Christina Von Eerie. This should be good!

I love this announcer. He drinks stuff as loud as anyone I’ve ever heard. The bell rings and my feed freezes.  God damn it!

Come back and both are in a lock up. They get to the far corner before the feed freezes again. Man, guess my 22 Mbps speed isn’t fast enough for the low def feed. This one is particularly bad.

Back to live action and Cherry Bomb takes Christina over with a belly to back suplex. She keeps the waist lock on as they get back to their feet, but Christina reverses into an irish whip she follows with a knee.

Christina went for a springboard but slipped. Her knee bent in a very interesting way, but the match continues. Christina was draped over the bottom rope while Cherry went outside and hit an impressive near 619 from the floor. That gets her a couple of two counts before settling into a rear chin lock.

Oh boy.

Christina went for a whip but…just…slipped and fell again.  Cherry tried to come back with a dropkick, but the timing and contact just weren’t there. Ouch.

We’ve got a Flair chopfest in the corner. Each woman take a couple. Christina gets Cherry down and goes for a surfboard but…just…kind of ends up dropping her.  Cherry gets away and goes up top and hits a dropkick from the top and gets a two count.

Cherry locks in her version of Cattle Mutilation.  Christina slides out after a few. She goes on the top rope and I’m really concerned. She misses the ax handle, Cherry charges in, Christina picks her up for a tilt-a-whirl slam and picks up the three and the win.

Another awkward match. Man, this is a rough one. They tried, but everything just seemed off after the first slip.

We’re going right into the next match. Jayme Jameson is out first. She looks like the lovechild of Tara and Jessie McKay wearing John Morrison’s fuzzy boots.

…..and we’ve just lost cabin pressure.

Here’s Reby Sky.

Interesting. Jayme backs Reby into the corner and just kind of fondles her. Reby lands a couple good looking kicks that take Jayme down for a two count. The announcer is doing a good job hyping these two and their modeling careers. Man…

More bad timing. Reby was going for a rocker dropper, Jayme went down first and Reby tried to turn it into a legdrop. Good idea, maybe, but looked pretty bad. She recovered and went up to the second rope. Cross body attempt resulted in a catch and slam from Jayme for a two count.

Jayme wraps Reby around the ring post for some more work on the back and side area. She drags her into the ring and gets a two count.  Jayme grabs Reby and hits the Three Amigos for another two count. Jayme turns that into a camel clutch for all of a few seconds before both are back to their feet.

Impressive head scissors by Reby. Running leg lariat into the corner into a bulldog gets her a two count. Not bad, kid! Jayme tried to scoop her for a slam, but Reby slipped out into a nice scorpion death drop. Yes, I’m still a little Stinger.

And then the feed freezes.

I come back and Jayme has taken control and hits something called “the double D drop” for a two.

And then we freeze again.

Blips for a second.

Then freezes.

Comes back to live action and Reby is on top and the ref is in mid three count. God damn it. See, the REALLY annoying part is when the feed comes back from the frozen screen, it jumps forward. Really, really irritating.

We have a really special presentation coming up now…which ends up being the Shine graphic and a frozen screen. Screen reloads and it looks like that’s Lenny Leonard or possibly a shaven, really fat Joel Gertner in the ring. My feed keeps freezing badly here so I have no clue what’s going on.

Ooooooh! It’s the Diva Dirt Legacy Award presentation. My feed keeps going long enough for Daffney to say that, before it freezes again. I hear “HWE Hall of Fame” and it freezes again. “Two time WWE Women’s Champion” and it freezes again. “In wrestling today” and it freezes again.

When my screen finally unfreezes, we’re back with an extreme closeup of Jazz. My feed goes for about two seconds and freezes again.

Jazz is in the ring with her award and the microphone. A few seconds of applause and then the feed freezes again as we rapidly approach refund territory.

Alright, let’s try the support guys again to see what’s going on…

Well, that’s helpful. Let’s reload the page and see what happens.

The feed comes back a little for some of Jazz’s speech. I perk up a little with Mercedes Martinez being out here suddenly…but then I keep freezing again. This is literally every couple of seconds. Mercedes is getting in the ring when my feed freezes, and Jazz is leaving with her award when it comes back. Fantastic.

I would love to see that match. Just…not on iPPV.

Mercedes against Leva Bates. YES!

Mercedes with an IMPRESSIVELY long standing suplex on Leva. That was Bulldog levels of impressive. Not something I’ve seen her break out before. Leva reverses a bodyslam attempt into sliced bread number #2. Leva goes for a body scissor move, but Mercedes counters into a german suplex for a two.

More power from Mercedes with the two handed chokeslam. I really like this power moveset and I’m pretty sure she just chopped Leva’s spidey senses off her chest. Viscous sounding chop. Mercedes was trying for a powerbomb off the top which Leva countered into a sunset flip powerbomb. She climbs up to the top and she hits a doublestomp (Not a dropkick, announcer guy) for a close two.

Leva tried for a superkick, but got caught a slammed on her back. AA would be proud. Mercedes picked her up and hit the fisherman buster for the win. Easily the best match on the card so far. Good try, Spidergirl!

More looped loading screen with the intro graphics and no live picture during a ring intro. Technical side of things counts too, people.

We’re back to live picture with Rain coming out. Been forever since I’ve seen her. She gets a 60 minute time limit in her match. Hmmm…Rain versus Nikki Roxx. This has potential. Poor Nikki. She’s pretty damn good, but no one knows how to use her. TNA, SHIMMER fans get bored with her, and Daffney tries to scream “Roxx” so loud the microphone cuts out.

I really wonder what the hell the announcer is doing. The amount of weird groans that are coming through are just creepy at this point.

Interesting beginning to the match with both women trying a series of different rollups and small packages before slowing it down into some punches in the corner.

Bonus points to Rain for working over the cravat. She loses them rather quickly though when trying to turn it into a bulldog and having Nikki land on top of her. Tries the pin anyway for a two.

The last few minutes have just been a combination of a submission hold, a move, and a pin. Rain breaks this up with a codebreaker for a two count and then right back into the cravat. She must owe Kassius money.

Nikki throws Rain across the ring with a release belly to back and gets a two. Both women get to their knees and trade punches. They make their way to their feet and the “yay”s and “boo”s are in full effect. Nikki gets the upperhand with an axhandle shot and an introduction to each of the turnbuckles. Nikki follows 10 punches in the corner with a chop and big boot for two.

Nikki gets caught on the top rope and launched off. Rain goes for the pin, but only gets two.  Quick exchange that Rain gets the upperhand in with a thumb to the eye. She sneaks behind her and grabs a rollup and handful of tights for the win.

Rain is trying to cut a promo after the match, but I can’t understand what she’s saying. Nikki chases her to the back and we’re back to the loading graphic. Daffney is in the background announcing that we’re onto the main event.

This should be good.

The Queen of Wrestling Sara Del Rey is the first one out and is thankfully not wearing the gear that looks like a diaper. She gets a very nice welcome from one guy in the crowd that stood up and clapped.

Sounds like Jazz raps her own entrance music. I’m sure R-Truth and Power Uti are both very, very jealous.

Holy hell. Death Rey is always in great shape, but Jazz is just scary. Wow. Way more tone from her WWE run. These two are going to beat the hell out of each other. Can’t help but wonder at this point who goes over. Jazz may be a one off, but Del Rey is off to the WWE. Hmmm…

A lot of feeling out to start. Headlocks, wristlocks, the announcer forgetting the name of Portia Perez’s tag team partner. All standard stuff. Jazz takes Del Rey down with a side headlock, but Death Rey powers out into a head scissor. She even has the time to talk trash to someone in the crowd that yells “the ugly white girl is cheating.”

Jazz gets on top of Del Rey’s back similar to a camel clutch and proceeds to forearm the bejesus out of her. Wow. Del Rey is able to counter out into a delayed suplex to get the upperhand. They’re both up to their feet and Jazz looked like she froze up for a moment. She was going to try to elbow Del Rey, but hunched over and stood there waiting to take a shot from Sara. Weird.

They take the fight to the outside where Jazz throws Del Rey into the barricade. They must not be tied or hooked to anything as it almost fell over and landed on a couple of kids in the front row. Oops.

Del Rey goes for the Royal Butterfly, but Jazz takes her back into the corner and nails some shoulders to her stomach. Del Rey whips her across and hits the rolling kick in the corner. She lays in a few more kicks and chokes her with her boot.  She whips Jazz across again, but Jazz catches her with an elbow. Sara is slow to get up and is greeted by several left jabs and a big right one to floor her. Jazz gets a very close two count.

…wait a second.

Jazz has a move called the “bitch clamp?” Nice.

Three butterfly suplexes from Jazz gets her a two count. Del Rey kicks out and is able to roll over on Jazz for a two count. Del Rey steps over and rolls through for an armbreaker on Jazz. She breaks it up quickly by getting to the ropes.  Del Rey delivers some kicks to the face and is able to fully lock in the armbreaker, but Jazz is able to get back to the ropes.

I feel like I’m playing EWR when I keep thinking that the match would be better if it weren’t for the dead crowd. Del Rey locks in the Royal Butterfly. Just when Jazz starts to break it, Del Rey takes her over into the suplex but only for a two count. The announcer has completely checked out at this point and is barely speaking. Technical difficulty or wishful thinking? Probably both.

Jazz springs up from a nearfall and takes Del Rey over into a full blown STF. There’s a sight.  Del Rey keeps inching toward the ropes and makes it after quite the long crawl. Jazz pulls her away from the ropes and locks it right back in. Del Rey crawls again and gets to the ropes.

They get back to their feet and trade a few punches. Jazz kicks Del Rey and dusts off the ol X-Factor….for the three count! Well, that was sudden. Wow.

The complete lack of commentary makes catching the “fuck that” lyric of Jazz’s entrance music that much better. Jazz and Del Rey hug and that’s it. Lenny Leonard makes it back on the air for half a sentence before his microphone dies again. Daffney thanks everyone for watching and that’s all, folks!

Overall, you could definitely tell this was their first show. The majority of the matches just seemed…off. Everyone was a second slower than normal and it really hurt some of the matches. On top of that, this crowd was absolutely miserable. They did nothing the entire night except for a couple assholes during the main event trying to get over. I also really hope that they dress up the venue more. I shouldn’t be able to see ESPN on a TV in the background during a match. Their arcade looks pretty dismal, too.

I also now understand why iPPV is such a crapshoot. Incredibly frustrating.

Lenny Leonard was pretty bad tonight. Not from an annoying perspective, but he just seemed lost and completely unfamiliar with the product at times. Minor gripe, but it didn’t help a show that I thought was already struggling.

My hopes for the next show would just be improvement. It’s all we can ask for. I also hope they start to lay groundwork for some more storylines. We got the tease of a Jazz/Mercedes Martinez feud, probably a Nikki/Rain rematch, and the focus being put on Allysin Kay and Taylor Made as a tag team. That was pretty much it. This works for an introduction to the talent, which was pretty much the purpose of this show, but going forward I hope they don’t shy away from it.

Will I get the next show? Maybe. I had planned on getting at least a few of these to start. The bar is definitely lower, though, and that’s a little disappointing. Here’s hoping this is the foundation for a great place for up and coming female talent to make a new for themselves.

Shine Wrestling returns to iPPV on August 17th. To keep up with all the latest happenings, you can follow Shine Wrestling online over at ShineWrestling.com or on Twitter @ShineWrestling .