After two straight strong Shine shows, including the ending to two of their best early feuds ever, it was time to focus on the tournament to crown the first ever Shine champion. There’s definitely some re-shuffling of the roster and who the babyfaces/heels are based on this show in particular. I think it’s important for a company to begin settling down right around that one year mark and really make decisions about who can contribute in a positive way toward the promotion. Not every female worker fits in with what Shine is looking around. Funny enough, Shine has become WWN’s most consistent (they run every month) and most solidly booked federation. It’s almost like bizarro world.
Before the matches, Lenny Leonard brought out Daffney for an interview. Daffney has been annoyed at all the interference going on in Valkyrie matches as well as everything that went down with the roster trying to give Nikki Roxx a simple birthday cake. Now instead of being the live event hostess, she’s going to serve as manager and put an end to the Shineanigans. She brings out Chastity Taylor as the new ring announcer. Ms. Taylor is from the North Carolina area and has done a lot of work with CWF Mid-Atlantic. I believe she has also done work for Shimmer and Sparkle.
Shine qualifier number five kicked off the event as another member of Valkyrie advanced into the tournament. Allysin Kay defeated Nikki Roxx in just over seven minutes. If given more time, I could have seen this being a better match. As is, it felt fragmented and a bit disjointed. It wasn’t a bad match by any means but given the talent level, I was hoping for a bit more. Taylor Made tried stepping in the ring first so Kay could attack Roxx right from the start. Roxx actually worked over the pinkie for part of the match in a rather amusing moment. Kay actually won relatively clean (ironic given what happens later) with a big boot and discus lariat.
The last time I saw Amber O’Neal wrestle, it was as a heel against Saturyne in Chikara, and boy was it not good. Maybe it was the company. Maybe it was the opponent. Maybe it was her being a babyface, but man was Shine 10 a better indication of her skill set. Ivelisse lost at Shine 9 in a qualifying match, so this served as a rebound win for her. O’Neal started right away with a spear and right hand. She went over for early submissions. There was a whole lot of slapping butts in this match. This is a thing that happened everyone. Ivelisse did not use any submissions, perhaps because of the early positioning on the card, but she eventually won with the Disdain to get the victory. This was slightly better than I would have hoped. After the match, Santana came out to help O’Neal fend off Valkyrie and hit a Russian legsweep on Allysin Kay just for being at ringside. O’Neal and Santana are regular partners in other places, so it will be interesting to see if they become a team and feud with Made in Sin now.
Santana stayed in the ring for a tournament qualifier as she went over Kimberly clean with the Shining Star Press. It’s a fairly familiar pattern at this point, but she performs it well. Good to see Kimberly still being involved in important matches despite losing her feud ender with Leva Bates. I almost would have preferred she get a squash on this show to reestablish herself, but I also understand having her try to qualify as well. Kimberly continues to be a psychotic and borderline “off” character. Some good heel versus babyface work. I’m not sure the right person won given how hard Kimberly has worked in Shine’s best feud, but there seem to be a great deal of heels advancing, so I see the logic too.
Shine 9 saw six of the best perform in an all-star type match. This time, six of the undercard wrestlers had a chance to showcase themselves similarly. Jesse Belle, Sassy Stephie, and Sojo belt defeated Heidi Lovelace, Solo Darling, and Luscious Latasha. Overall, the match was okay, but I don’t think anyone really stood out. I’m not sure if this is a byproduct of the match, but these women have all done a reasonably decent job on other shows. This could have been a real break-out, and I feel like it was a missed opportunity. Stephie hit Kiss My Sass on Lovelace to get the win for her team.
After coming away the winner of a feud with Kimberly, Leva Bates was a slam dunk choice for being in the Shine Championship tournament. The idea is that the feud has changed her from being a happy go lucky comic book nerd to being more dark. She’s still a babyface but now has an edge. Taylor Made is the least impressive performer of Valkyrie, but she was fine against the beloved Bates. Shineanigans as April Hunter got into it with Bates while Allysin Kay handed Made a chair. Bates superkicked the chair back into Made’s face and got the win. Pretty basic match that served its purpose and allowed the winner to look strong overcoming the dastardly Valkyrie.
After Nikki Roxx lost earlier in the show, I wondered how Shine would approach Mercedes Martinez with how well she’s done in competition and being such a major focus of the company. I’d have to say seeing Mia Yim winning here was a major upset and a big deal. I’m usually not a fan of roll-up finishes but when used sparingly, they can be an effective way to get someone a win without burying the other person. I think this was one of those occasions since Martinez has looked so strong. Yim went for roll-ups right from the start. This was a good back and forth match-up. Sky Yim missed, and I thought for sure Martinez was going over. She set up for the fishermen buster but got small packaged and lost. Very interesting turn of events as Martinez and Roxx were taken out of the championship competition and I’m assuming an extended feud, or at the very least a blow-off match, is forthcoming.
Portia Perez has a reputation for being one of the most annoying human beings on the planet as a heel in places like Shimmer and Femme Fetales (That’s a compliment by the way). Therefore, it made sense to wrestle someone who straddles the line between heel and babyface in Jessica Havok. The idea was that if Perez won, she would get slotted into the Shine title tournament instead of her opponent. Interesting concept but also made it clear who would win. No way, unless Havok was going to Japan or WWE land, would she job out here. Havok maintained almost every aspect of her character but was being cheered by the fans. Decent enough match but even with the stipulation, it didn’t feel consequential enough to be the semi main.
One of my biggest critiques about Shine has been the main events not living up to the rest of the show. While I think the steel cage match at Shine 9 elevated everything else, Rain and Angelina Love were a huge disappointment. The match didn’t work on a number of levels. Interference was banned, yet Rain was still allowed in the tournament even if she win despite the fact she won the first match against Love because of… interference. The match itself was only just mediocre. These two certainly have minimal chemistry, and I’m hoping this feud resolves itself quickly. The irony of the match came in the ending as Allysin Kay, the one person in Valkyrie who won clean, was suspended for 90 days and tossed out of the tournament because she interfered in the bout. I’m happy to see this happen because I think the interference trope has been used as a crutch lately, but there also needs to be more consistency. Why does Kay interfering here matter more than her interfering in an actual qualifier our tournament match? I will be looking out for the consistency on future shows.
After three very solid shows in a row, Shine 10 felt like a bit of a step back with a so so main event and some booking issues. There were still some solid matches throughout the card, and the pattern of Shine shows doesn’t feel as pronounced as it did with the first few. We’re getting better and more important matches at the beginning of shows, making the shows feel more significant. With Shine 11 being the entire championship tournament, I’m hoping Shine makes a huge stand and crowns a champion to make both the title and promotion feel more significant.
Grade: C+
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-Taped from Ybor City, Florida
Commentators: Lenny Leonard, Mercedes Martinez, Nikki Roxx and Dave Prazak
-Shine Championship Qualifer: Allysin Kay (w/April Hunter and Taylor Made) defeats Nikki Roxx by pinfall after a discus lariat/7:23/**1/2
-Ivelisse (w/April Hunter) defeats Amber O’Neal by pinfall after Disdain/8:03/**3/4
-Shine Championship Qualifer: Santana defeats Kimberly by pinfall after the Shining Star Press/8:41/**3/4
-Jesse Belle, Sassy Stephie, and Sojo Bolt defeat Luscious Latasha, Heidi Lovelace, and Solo Darling. Stephie pins Lovelace after Kiss My Sass/10:48/**1/2
-Shine Championship Qualifier: Leva Bates defeats Taylor Made(w/April Hunter and Allysin Kay) by pinfall after a superhero kick to a chair being held by Made/10:03/***
-Shine Championship Qualifier: Mia Yim defeats Mercedes Martinez with a small package/9:35/***-
-Jessica Havok defeats Portia Perez by pinfall after the Air Raid Crash/11:37/***
– Angelina Love defeats Rain by pinfall after the Botox Injection/11:32 total/**1/2
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