DVD Review:SHIMMER Vol. 1

SHIMMER Vol. 1
Cost:$14.95US
http://www.rohwrestling.com/




Lets face facts. When most wrestling fans think of womens wrestling they think of the pathetic excuse for eye candy that is on every Monday night's WWE RAW. You've got girls who are hired for their ability to pose in Playboy. Ring skills mean nothing. Not to mention the trained chimp fans yelling for "puppies". There are some very attractive girls wrestling in indy feds. But buying indy fed videos for a womens match is an expensive proposition and sometimes the production quality is poor. You also have companies that sell womens wrestling videos in private rings at ridiculously inflated prices. Sorry guys. I'm a cheapskate. I can get plenty of joshi puroresu at reasonable prices, professional production quality and the kind of hard hitting action I want to see.




Dave Prazak is attempting to change this perception with SHIMMER and he's off to a pretty good start with SHIMMER Vol. 1. Dave has wisely hooked up with Ring Of Honor to produce and sell DVDs of womens wrestling with the women sold as athletes and they're in front of a live audience. It's not perfect but for 2 1/2 hours of action for $14.95 you get a lot of bang for your buck. And it doesn't look like it was shot by some kid who got a video camera for his bar mitzvah.




So is every match on this DVD a four star classic? Well that's not very realistic but that's what some fans want. Let's just say that there are two bonafide great matches on this show and the rest are pretty good. Let's get the criticism out of the way and then I'll get to the good stuff. In the long run, Dave needs to be very careful about over emphasizing the ROH regulars because they're not his best wrestlers. This becomes a bit of a problem with the main event on this DVD. I will discuss this in the proper context a little later. It's not a bad match but there is a problem with it. Also, he has to mix up the wrestlers a little better. I assume he does that on future shows. For example, Shantelle Taylor & Tiana Ringer train together constantly. They may be a little too familiar with each other and their match comes across as over choreographed.




Team Blondage (Krissy Vaine & Amber O'Neal) win their match over Cindy Rogers & Nikki Roxx by cheating mainly to set up a Rogers/O'Neal match on Vol. 2. And I like Rogers better as a heel anyway. The other prelim matches are OK except that Allison Danger vs Beth Phoenix is too high up on the card for a comedy match. I know Danger is an ROH regular. Phoenix has sure changed since I used to see her on AWF shows here in Toronto a few years ago. She's a comedy wrestler now. She even kissed the ref. This shtick got her a WWE developmental contract. She did what she had to do. I don't like it though.




There are two really great matches on this show. The first is Cheerleader Melissa vs Ms. Chif. I had never seen Ms. Chif before. she has a kind of goth look. What she does is try to intimidate her opponent with aggressiveness. Melissa may look like the girl next door but her reaction to Ms. Chif is to give her a whuppin' and that's exactly what she does. It was a hard hitting match with a bit of a twist at the end and I want to see more of Ms. Chif. She takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. I've been a Melissa fan for several years.




Sara Del Rey vs Mercedes Martinez simply tore the house down. The complaint I always hear about women wrestlers is they are more interested in looking good than having a good match. These two decided to go out and prove that they can hit as hard as anyone. And I don't think they had ever faced each other before. I am familiar with Sara of course but I had never seen Mercedes before. Both are double tough and very impressive. It was a twenty minute draw and was good enough to be a main event anywhere in the world.




But it wasn't the main event on this show. That was saved for ROH regulars Lacey vs Daizee Haze who have been feuding. It was an OK match but somewhat anti-climactic. The crowd really deflated after the previous match. Daizee Haze is popular with her flower power shtick. She weighs 110lbs. and I think she needs to put on some weight. Her flying mare DDT finisher is one of those moves where the wrestler being given the move is working harder than the wrestler performing the move. And it's hard to believe that someone as slight as Daizee could create the kind of torque to perform that move. So I wasn't crazy about Daizee and she was the one being showcased here. Though I did like her offense out of the "tree of woe". There's also a bonus match from a Nov. ROH show with Lacey vs Sara Del Rey. It was OK.




The SHIMMER DVD is definitely worth $14.95 and it does support quality womens wrestling. There's no T & A here. A couple of suggestions. Maybe improve the lighting especially on the arena floor. I would recommend adding wrestler profiles as one of the extras on the DVDs and maybe wrestler interviews too. I'd like to see SHIMMER have a belt in the future. Dave Prazak & Allison Danger did the commentary. Dave did his homework. Allison didn't add much to it. At the end of the DVD Allison Danger described SHIMMER as "American joshi". Well, not yet but you're off to a good start. Keep up the good work.