PHOTO CREDIT TO FALCON JOSHI BLOG
This was a No Disqualification match for Eagles’ SHIMMER Title.
Two years ago, these two had one of the more charming matches in company history and of the decade, in which best in the world Madison Eagles took Nicole exactly lightly enough to allow a time limit draw that accidentally legitimized her as a top level wrestler. They spent a year buddying up to each other, but constantly also quietly insulting each other, before a rematch happened. In that match, there was still no conclusion, this time because they went to the classic simultaneous pin and tap out draw. The next show, at the end of a four way elimination match for the belt, they executed a perfect turn when Matthews used a fireball, of all things, to beat Eagles definitively while also becoming SHIMMER Champion, as Eagles focused on proving something while Matthews gave up after the second draw and focused on pure careerism. A third match in the spring of 2015 saw Eagles absolutely beat Matthews’ ass, only to now lose definitively one on one because she got too caught up in delivering a beating and nothing else.
After two years, SHIMMER’S greatest feud comes to an end. Given that this match, I think, works best with a lot of context, it’s worth saying that and worth discussing that for newer readers (especially given SHIMMER’s schedule).
Once again, these two deliver.
In discussing their last match, I wrote about Eagles and Matthews that, “these are the two who I always make time for over the course of this 2010s project when it comes to SHIMMER because they always have matches like this, that are always grounded and understandable” (HANDWERK, 2021). Once again, they have the perfect match for the moment and this time, the moment calls for them to knock everything off the table that they’ve spent the last seven hundred and twenty one days setting up. If not the endearing and novel concept of that first match, it is a blowaway great finale. Something more common, but no less admirable and in many senses, a more difficult landing as a result.
As always, Matthews and Eagles display a gift for getting immediately to the heart of the matter and for never straying.
The match never loses sight of the story of the matter and it’s here where the match really succeeds. Nicole Matthews deserves a beating, and Madison Eagles badly wants to give one out. It’s simple enough, but the devil is in the details, as always. Eagles is always just on the edge of once again getting too comfortable and getting caught like she did in April, but the match offers a new story in the end as well. As Nicole is more able to trap Eagles and outsmart her as a result of the occasional overzealous nature of the beating, her schemes also get too complex and fall apart. Being unable to best Eagles now that she a.) 100% sees her coming & b.) everything is legal causes Matthews to revert back to the place of insecurity that this all started from, giving Eagles the exact specific opening that she needs to finally get her.
To their credit, the match more than holds up the other end of that too. It’s just just the stellar execution of the story, it’s a genuinely brutal and violent match that’s spent years earning all of that. Eagles’ offense on Matthews early on when she’s beating her around the building is all incredibly nasty and interesting, even going to the back to find the first woman she can (Kay Lee Ray) and hurling her into Nicole as a weapon. Matthews’ offense is similarly fitting, bordering between desperate and nasty. At every moment, the story is told through offense that she’s not as good and has to resort to either lower lows (trying to use her sash belt to tie Eagles to the ropes for a fireball) or riskier attacks (a dive), almost all of which either fail or take as much out of her. At all points, there is a sense of struggle present that’s so important in a match like this.
Following a clear and firm advantage after an absolute God damner of an apron brainbuster to Eagles, Matthews finally has the clear advantage. Fittingly and naturally, she blows it trying to prove a point. She tries to make a show of hitting Eagles with the title while she sits in a chair to win, adapts to do something else when Eagles blocks it, only for Eagles to get out and hit a flash Hellbound onto the title belt on the seat of the chair to both finally beat Nicole Matthews and also finally win her title back after four years.
It’s the perfect ending for the feud. Nicole eventually gets there, even if it takes her way more effort than Eagles, but insists on getting dirty with it. The schemes finally fail and Matthews takes the loss she’s spent two years avoiding. Questions initially raised by those two draws are answered, and the answers benefit each of them. Yes, Nicole Matthews can be as great as a top level talent. At the same time, she hung on against Eagles because of plots, schemes, and plans. Without any of that, the truth becomes clearer and clearer. Madison Eagles is the best in the world.
SHIMMER doesn’t often deliver the big great match to go with the quality of stories and performances in the ring, but this time they did. The result is one of the company’s crowning moments and a finale as brutal and satisfying as their initial match was charming. A wonderful and fitting end to one of the best and more underappreciated stories of the decade.
HANDWERK 