Shine 1 Review

Shine1

This is Fight Season. October 1 is the start of one of the craziest months in the history of women’s wrestling. Between WSU, AIW, Bellatrix, and of course Shimmer, this is an epic opportunity for the best females to show they’re equal to their male counterparts. Here at PWP, we haven’t done the best job of covering women’s wrestling. Today is an attempt to rectify that. Beginning with Shine 1, every single review I write will concern a women’s fed. I will attempt to catch up with the first 13 Shine events and also begin reviewing all Shimmer shows beginning with Volume 53. I will also tap into Highspots TV for some additional footage. For right now, let’s talk Shine.

Shine is a sister promotion (not just because it’s an all-women’s federation) to Shimmer. Much of the same talent is featured, and their continuity is somewhat observed. They run monthly shows in Ybor City, Florida, and some have referred to it as the best booked company in the WWN Universe (Based on what I’ve watched so far, this is definitely possible).

In an attempt to troll me no doubt, Veda Scott wrestled in the very first Shine match against Kimberly. Not to be confused with Kimber Lee, Kimberly is a very different wrestler in that she incorporates a lot of MMA and mat wrestling. As was the story of a number of matches, there were some notoriously awkward moments and botched spots. Thankfully, because this was the opening match on the first show, they kept things basic. Lots of submissions and holds but Scott proved to be too much as she won with the Mind Trip (Snapmare Driver). Not much to say about this except it was a match.

Next up, Santana defeated Tina San Antonio with a modified roll-up. Some decent back and forth with Santana playing the underdog babyface. She’s got the type of personality and look that will garner her a lot of sympathy. I can see why WWE and TNA have both taken looks at her. She’s definitely a good athlete but really didn’t get to showcase that aspect of her game in this match. San Antonio was okay but didn’t exactly have a memorable performance.

Up next was the first tag team match in Shine history as the debuting Made in Sin of Allysin Kay and Taylor Made went over Su Yung and Tracy Taylor. I was shocked to learn Kay and Made had never teamed because they go perfectly together. Their heel characters are excellent, and if there are ever tag team titles in this federation, Made in Sin should absolutely be the first titleholders. Kay is an impressive singles wrestler, but given some of the main eventers, I can understand her being put in a team so she doesn’t get lost in the shuffle and have to job out to the bigger stars. Yung and Taylor looked pretty incompetent in the end as babyfaces. Heels worked over Yung during the heat segment. Taylor gets the hot tag and does reasonably well only to tag in Yung too soon. This almost leads directly to the finish and a Made in Sin victory. At least it was clean, but there was some awkwardness.

In a battle of two more well known women, Christina Von Eerie had a match with Cherry Bomb. Because of the babyface versus babyface dynamic, the crowd couldn’t really decide who to cheer for, and the match quality wasn’t there. Von Eerie won an okayish match with her 138 finish. The next match was very similar in quality with Reby Sky defeating Jayme Jameson in a battle of “model vs. model.” It’s easy to give Sky guff given who she’s dating and her background, but she’s got solid presence and honestly looked as good as anyone else on the undercard of this show. She showed some athleticism while Jameson was more focused on slowing the match down and using more power based offense. Other than a horrendous looking rocker dropper, this was a perfectly acceptable match.

Even though there wasn’t anything inherently awful on the show, I can’t say anything wowed me either up to this point. Mercedes Martinez certainly picked up the pace and gave the show some teeth by interrupting a ceremony honoring Jazz. This naturally set up the Shine 2 main event and gave us our first angle/feud. Some might see what they did here as simple, but given this was the first show, simple is usually better. In building up to their match, Martinez and Jazz each had matches to wrestle. Martinez had a very fun little contest with Leva Bates. Bates identifies herself with fans on every show by dressing up as various characters from films/comics. On this show, she dressed up as Spider-Man and echoed the first Sam Raimi film by kissing the referee while hanging upside down. Unfortunately she was dropkicked in the face just as the bell rang. Martinez and Bates picked up the intensity and were able to keep the issues to a minimum. Bates even incorporated a little bit of comedy by using silly string (meant to be webs), but the comedy has to stop. Martinez eventually won with her fishermen’s suplex to establish herself as a top singles threat.

The good vibes continued with the semi-main event as two veterans wrestled. Rain, who used be in TNA and ROH, took on Nikki Roxx. Roxx participates in fitness competitions, so her presence in the promotion won’t be as pronounced as others. The story was a good long wrestling match gone bad when Rain decided to hold the tights and pick up the win. I appreciated what these girls were trying to do and enjoyed the back and forth.

Given some of the undercard matches were more okay than good, a lot was left for the main event to really deliver. Jazz and Sara Del Rey wrestled a 20 minute match that could have fit in on any card across the independent scene. This wasn’t a good women’s wrestling match. This was a purely awesome technical battle. Del Rey was on her farewell tour of the indies and was literally just weeks away from heading to WWE at this point. Del Rey had called Jazz out at Evolve 14 weeks earlier to help build up the first Shine event. Del Rey focused her attack on the left arm while Jazz wrestled primarily from behind. The crowd, which was comatose at times, woke up just in time for some of the best sequences of the entire night. Jazz finally won with a series of boots and the Jazz Stinger. A great great main event to end the show and really leave viewers with a positive feeling about the show.

I can’t say the first half impressed me all that much, but the final three set up future events really well and were worthwhile professional wrestling matches worth watching. Some solid set-up and wrestling throughout. It’s also really sad to say this in 2013, but all clean finishes and endings which didn’t insult my intelligence also have to be taken into account as a positive for Shine 1 too. Strong booking plus everything else I’ve discussed makes this a good start.

Grade: B-

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-Taped from Ybor City, Florida

-Commentator: Lenny Leonard

-Veda Scott defeats Kimberly by pinfall after a snapmare driver/7:15/**

-Santana defeats Tina San Antonio by pinfall after a modified roll-up/5:29/*

-Allysin Kay and Taylor Made defeat Su Yung and Tracy Taylor by pinfall after an acecrusher out of the wheelbarrow position./13:29/**1/4

-Christina Von Eerie defeats Cherry Bomb with the 138./8:04/**

.-Reby Sky defeats Jayme Jameson by pinfall after a Twist of Fate/9:11/**1/4

-Mercedes Martinez defeats Leva Bates by pinfall after the fishermen’s buster/8:09/***1/4

-Rain defeats Nikki Roxx via pinfall after a roll-up/15:18/***1/4

-Jazz defeats Sara Del Rey by pinfall after the Jazz Stinger/21:28/***3/4