While the first two Shine events felt like set-ups for future shows, Shine 3 felt like a more complete wrestling show with solid, quality matches throughout the card and another fine main event featuring two veterans of the women’s wrestling world.
The show opened up with Santana picking up her second win by defeating a debuting Sienna Duvall. Similar to her first two matches, it’s tough to really evaluate Santana’s work because she’s only getting 4-6 minutes per show. She was perfectly acceptable in the ring while Duvall didn’t look as comfortable. Santana won a short match with a handspring moonsault. Speaking of underrated talents on the first three shows, Kimberly lost once again, this time to Leva Bates. This only went eight minutes, but man, did they get a lot in. Leva Bates was dressed like Rick Grimes. If she was dressed like a showrunner, she would have been fired already. Double boots and an awkward looking superkick got Bates a win. The finishing sequence wasn’t nearly as smooth as I would have hoped, so I have to ding the match a bit, but this was solid.
Maybe it was because my expectations were monumentally low, but I found the West Coast Connection/Rainbow Brite match to be perfectly acceptable and dangerously close to a really good match. This wasn’t a formula match as all four babyfaces took turns getting beat up. What prevented this from being even better was the dynamic of not having any heels. Double Soul Foods from Yung and Taylor on Gilbert led to a WCC win.
The first of two singles matches involving members of Made in Sin saw Taylor Made go over the debuting Greek Barbie. Barbie was making her debut, so it made sense for her to almost be cannon fodder for the heel duo. Kay and Hunter being around ringside and interfering seemed unnecessary given the context. If every one of their matches is going to feature interference, then their match formula will get old very quickly. Made couldn’t even get the pin after hitting a move on her own. Kay had to hit a samoan drop on Barbie, which led to the pinfall. A borderline passable match made worse by the finish.
At Shine 1, there was a ceremony honoring Jazz. On this show, some of the legendary female performers of the past were honored. Mercedes Martinez apparently doesn’t like ceremonies of any sort as she came out to interrupt once again. Hostess Daffney protected the women as Martinez taunted them in a nice moment. Jayme Jameson came out for her match with Martinez. She looked significantly better than in her match with Reby Sky (and she wasn’t necessarily bad against Reby Sky). Jazz came out toward the end of the match, and Jameson used the distraction to pick up the win. Not as annoying as other distraction finishes, but if you’re trying to put forward an issue among two main eventers, why job out one of them in a fluke? No offense to Jameson, but Martinez shouldn’t be losing in this fashion.
Jessica Havok broke Reby Sky at Shine 2. This time, she almost broke Mia Yim. Given the quality of wrestlers, this was a very good and almost great match. Havok wrestled a similar style match, and Yim was able to keep up even better than Sky was with her high-flying offense. Yim attempted one move too many, and Havok was able to eventually hit the Air Raid Crash to win her second match in a row in dominating fashion. Afterward, she tried pulling off the same type of beatdown with a chair, but Yim quickly departed. Great build-up of Havok here.
Allysin Kay kept Made in Sin undefeated by beating Christina Von Eerie. Good match here but again there was a lot of gaga on the outside that took away from the in-ring work. I did appreciate the consistency of having Von Eerie continue a rivalry with Made in Sin in some way. A Cuthroat Driver got Kay the win, and it will be interesting if this issue continues. Tough to really say much else.
The main event saw Jazz win over Rain and earn herself a chance at the Shimmer title for Shine 4. Rain spent much of the match working Jazz’s arm. When she got frustrated, she tried cheating again. Foot on the ropes. Hold of the tights. Jazz was too much and made her come back. Martinez came out to try and distract Jazz, but it didn’t work. Jazz applied the STF and caused Rain to tap out. This was a very good match and probably my second favorite Shine match. Just some good wrestling that also made sense.
This was a slightly better show than Shine 2. I liked the in-ring action a lot more, but there were definitely some finishes that left me flat. If nothing else, I’m certainly having a better time watching Shine shows as opposed to what was going in in C4.
Grade: B-
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-Taped from Ybor City, Florida
-Commentator: Lenny Leonard
– Santana defeats Sienna Duvall by pinfall after a handspring moonsault/5:41/*1/2
– Leva Bates defeats Kimberly by pinfall after a superkick/8:22/**3/4
– The West Coast Connection (Tracy Taylor and Su Yung) defeat Rainbow Brite (Gabby Gilbert and Luscious Latasha). Gilbert gets pinned after Soul Foods from both Taylor and Yung/10:00/**3/4
-Taylor Made (w/Allysin Kay and April Hunter) defeats Greek Barbie by pinfall/6:42/**
– Jayme Jameson defeats Mercedes Martinez with a small package/10:48/***
-Jessica Havok defeats Mia Yim by pinfall after raid crash/11:12/***1/4
-Allysin Kay (w/Taylor Made and April Hunter) defeats Christina Von Eerie by pinfall after a Cuthroat Driver/9:04/***
-Jazz defeats Rain by submission with the STF/15:39/***1/2
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