Last
year in San Jose during WrestleMania
Weekend, SHIMMER held the ChickFight Tournament, with the winner getting a
future shot at the SHIMMER Title. This year in Dallas, they decided to hold
another tournament, but this time, it would be for a newly created title called
the Heart of SHIMMER Title, which is essentially a mid-card title for the
SHIMMER roster. I thought this was a good idea on multiple fronts. As I
mentioned in my review of SHIMMER 71: The
ChickFight Tournament, I think having a single-show tournament is a very
smart move for a big weekend like this. For people who don’t follow SHIMMER
regularly (both fans in attendance and those who order the iPPV), it’s easy
show to digest because you really don’t need to know anything about what’s
going on in the promotion from a storyline perspective. You can just jump right
in a get into the tournament. I’m also like the idea that they’re creating a
secondary title. I don’t follow SHIMMER regularly, but I do notice that
whenever they have one of their DVD Tapings, they use a TON of talent. I think
adding a secondary title like this gives more of those talents in the mid-card,
who aren’t necessarily in contention for the SHIMMER Title or the SHIMMER Tag
Team Titles, something to do.
SHIMMER 80
Dallas,
Texas 4/2/16
1.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – First Round – Cheerleader Melissa vs. Leva
Bates: **1/4
The
first match of the opening round saw Cheerleader Melissa, a SHIMMER original,
taking on Leva Bates, who came out dressed like Sora from Kingdom Hearts (I
think she even had a Keyblade!). For the most part, I thought the match was
fine. It wasn’t spectacular by any means, but as an opener, it was perfectly
solid. The match felt a little slow at certain points, but that’s my only real
complaint. Cheerleader Melissa gets the win here to advance to the next round.
2.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – First Round – Candice LeRae vs. SHIMMER Tag
Team Champion Cherry Bomb: ***
Candice
LeRae appeared in the ChickFight Tournament last year at SHIMMER 71, but was shockingly eliminated in the first round by
Nicole Savoy. This year, she was successfully able to avoid a repeat, as she
defeated Cherry Bomb, one-half of the SHIMMER Tag Team Champions, to advance to
the next round. I thought this was a much better match, compared to the opener.
It had a quicker pace, and as a whole, was a little more entertaining. Candice
LeRae is just so good, but I think credit has to go to Cherry Bomb here as
well. Her heel persona is great (including her high-pitched screaming), and I
think she played a good opposite to LeRae’s babyface role. The finish was
actually pretty interesting, as Cherry Bomb went for a cover after hitting a
Death Valley Driver, but LeRae reversed it into a cradle pin for the victory.
3.) Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – First
Round – LuFisto vs. Nicole Savoy: ***3/4
LuFisto is easily one of the biggest names in
the tournament, while Savoy has seemingly been on the rise since having an
impressive outing in the ChickFight Tournament at SHIMMER 71. This match was totally different than the two matches
that preceded it. These two went at each other right from the opening bell, and
from start to finish, this was a pretty aggressive match. It was a really good
match that had a ton of action. It was easily the best match of the first
round, without question. Savoy would end up getting the victory after getting
LuFisto to tap out. She moves on to the next round.
4.) Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – First
Round – Jessicka Havok vs. SHIMMER Tag Team Champion Kimber Lee: **
Jessicka
Havok was arguably the low point of the ChickFight Tournament at SHIMMER 71, having some less-than-stellar
matches, while also being involved in a botched-interference attempt. Here’s
she taking on Kimber Lee, who is the other half of the SHIMMER Tag Team
Champions alongside Cherry Bomb. Kimber Lee has been making some headlines over
the last year, particular in December 2015, when she won the CHIKARA Grand
Championship. This wasn’t one of her best outings, however. I’d say this was
the worst match of the first round, and probably the worst match of the
tournament. That’s not to say it was necessarily a “stinker”. The match was ok,
but pretty forgettable. There was also a bit of weird dynamic to this one as,
with regards to size, you had a monster babyface in Havoc taking on a smaller
heel in Kimber Lee. In the end, interference from Cherry Bomb would lead to
Kimber Lee getting the win to advance the next round.
5.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – First Round – Heidi Lovelace vs. Veda
Scott: ***1/4
I
believe Heidi Lovelace missed the ChickFight Tournament at SHIMMER 71 because she was still on her several month long tour of
Japan. Here, she defeated Veda Scott (a regular for ROH in their women’s
division) to advance to the next round in a relatively good match. Heidi
Lovelace is so great that it’s hard to imagine her being involved in anything
less than a good match. As far as Veda Scott goes, I know she tends to get a
lot slack for not being very good, but she more than held her own here against
Lovelace. I think this one of the best Veda Scott matches I’ve seen in recent
memory (certainly better than most of her ROH work). She definitely
over-delivered here. It wasn’t the best of the match of the first round, but it
was certainly one of the better ones.
6.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – First Round – Nicole Matthews vs. “Crazy”
Mary Dobson: **1/2
A
lot has changed for Nicole Matthews in the last year. For starters, she wasn’t
even in the ChickFight Tournament at SHIMMER
71, as she was in a non-tournament match defending her SHIMMER Title
against Tomoka Nakagawa. Since then, not only has she lost the SHIMMER Title
(to Madison Eagles at the SHIMMER Tapings in October 2015), but she also lost
her longtime Canadian Ninjas tag team partner Portia Perez, who had to retire
due to a number of different injuries. Here, she defeated “Crazy” Mary Dobson in
the final match of the first round. This was a relatively decent match. It
wasn’t the worst match of the first round, but it was nowhere near some of the
best matches in the first round.
7.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – Semi-Finals – Cheerleader Melissa vs.
Candice LeRae: ***3/4
The
opening match of the second round, or essentially the Semi-Finals, saw Candice
LaRae picking up a bit of an upset over the SHIMMER stalwart Cheerleader
Melissa to advance to the Finals. I really liked this match. There was some
really solid action between these two. It was right on par with Nicole
Savoy/LuFisto from earlier in the night, but it had to pick, I would say that
this match was a tad bit below that first round encounter. Both are really good
performers, so nobody should be surprised that this was really good. LeRae
getting the win here was certainly a nice surprise.
8.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – Semi-Finals – Nicole Savoy vs. SHIMMER Tag
Team Champion Kimber Lee: ***1/4
Cherry
Bomb came down to the ring with Kimber Lee, but thankfully, the referee quickly
sent her to the back. As for the match, it was pretty good. It wasn’t nearly as
good as the match that preceded it, but it was still very enjoyable. Both women
are incredibly talented workers, and we certainly got to see why in this match,
which had some nice back & forth action throughout. In the end, Nicole
Savoy would get the win, once again via submission, to advance the Finals.
9.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – Semi-Finals – Heidi Lovelace vs. Nicole
Matthews: ****
The
winner of this match would join Candice LeRae & Nicole Savoy in the Finals.
I thought this match was great! It was first match on the card, for me at
least, to crack the **** mark. While the match was a little slow to get going,
it definitely picked up. Not only was the action really good for most of the
match, but they also had a great face vs. heel dynamic, with Matthews being the
heel, while Lovelace was awesome as the babyface who kept fighting and just
wouldn’t quit. Eventually, Lovelace was able to put away Matthews to secure the
victory, advancing to the Finals. Awesome stuff from these two.
While
there were no non-tournament matches on this show, we thankfully (for Heidi
Lovelace’s sake) got a break before the finals, in the form of an in-ring
segment with Lenny Leonard & Shayna Baszler. For those who don’t know,
Baszler is, or was (I guess she’s not doing MMA anymore?) an MMA fighter who’s
best known for being part of Ronda Rousey’s Four Horsewomen. She’s also a big
wrestling fan, as she’s been spotted in the front row at several PWG shows, and
also made an appearance on a ROH PPV in the corner of reDRagon. She talked
about some of her background and training, before announced that she would be
making her SHIMMER debut in June.
10.)
Heart of SHIMMER Title Tournament – Finals – Triple-Threat Elimination Match –
Candice LeRae vs. Nicole Savoy vs. Heidi Lovelace: ****
Much
like the ChickFight Tournament at SHIMMER
71 the year prior, the Finals was a Triple Threat Elimination Match.
Candice LeRae was eliminated by first by Nicole Savoy, about five or so minutes
into the match (also, in a nice bit of continuity, when Savoy make LeRae tap
out, she went after the leg that had been targeted by Cheerleader Melissa
earlier in the night). This meant the match came down to Nicole Savoy &
Heidi Lovelace. They had a great back & forth match, and in the end, Savoy
got Lovelace to tap out, becoming the first-ever Heart of SHIMMER Champion in
the process. I thought this was a great match. Personally, I’d say it’s a
tossup between this one and Heidi Lovelace vs. Nicole Matthews for the best
match on the show. I was a little disappointed that Candice LeRae got
eliminated so quickly from the match, but obviously she had been weakened from
her matches earlier in the night, so that’s understandable. The last portion of
that match between Lovelace & Savoy was particularly awesome. I really
liked how they were able to kick out and/or escape from finishers that had put
other opponents away earlier in the night. They did a really nice job building up
those finishers. It’s really cool to see Nicole Savoy get this title on a big
weekend like this. She seemingly came from relative obscurity to one of the
best women’s prospects on the independent scene.
Overall: 8.25/10
Compared
to SHIMMER 71 from the year prior,
this year’s WrestleMania Weekend
showing from SHIMMER was significantly better. I haven’t watched a lot of
SHIMMER, but from start to finish, this was a really enjoyable show. The matches,
for the most part, ranged from average to good to great, and most of the
matches were in that good to great range. Nicole Savoy/LuFisto, Cheerleader
Melissa/Candice LeRae, Heidi Lovelace/Nicole Matthews, and the Triple Threat
Elimination Finals are all worth checking out. The booking of this tournament
was also really good as well. Pretty much everyone who should have won their
matches, did so, and I think the three women who made the Finals were the
perfect picks to go with. Like I said earlier, Nicole Savoy came out of this
looking like a new star for SHIMMER, and was a great pick to be the first-ever
Heart of SHIMMER Champion. As a whole, this was an incredibly easy show to
watch, and I would definitely recommend checking it out.
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