Madison Eagles vs. Cheerleader Melissa, SHIMMER Volume 33 (9/11/2010)

This was for Eagles’ SHIMMER Title.

It’s a little weird, to have already experienced the end of a great story, and to go back for the earlier parts you skipped over before.

Going back for a lot of this 2010 stuff, from back before I decided to really make as much of this project as possible, is weird a lot of times in this way. Seeing the start or the middle parts of stories that I already watched and wrote about the later chapters and endings for. It can hurt matches or segments of a story like this some, the drama being removed by knowing how it all ends up, that’s a risk of watching things out of order sometimes. Thankfully, at least with this series, that is not the case.

The match works great anyways.

A large amount of the credit for how much this works, despite watching it out of order, has to go to how well Eagles and Melissa work together.

Were it not for another Eagles match up a few years later that was even better and even more natural, I would say these two were born to wrestle each other. It feels that easy. The early grappling in the first third of the match flows so so easy, easier than most womens grappling in the English speaking world at this point. On top of how clean it is, it always communicates the same things as the more action heavy parts of this match, the idea that Eagles is the absolute best at this and that Melissa is one of the rare wrestlers who can keep up, but she’s a little less ruthless and with worse luck.

Something SHIMMER die hards always said about Madison Eagles was that she was Danielson-esque, and while I always thought that was something of an oversimplification (in the same way as calling 2006 Danielson Flair-esque was also an oversimplification), something about the easy and casual way she slides into control in this match genuinely does feel like the best of Danielson. No flashy transition, just a focused attack on the back of Melissa until enough time has passed that it strikes you that this is what’s happening. It’s both an interesting intellectual exercise for anyone watching, but in a “well, if this is real” sort of way, the sort of thing that feels like real sports, one side kind of slowly and casually inflicting their will to the point that somewhere near the end of the first quarter, you realize someone is up by like thirteen.

Eagles in general is incredible here. Mean holds, but also inventive ones. Small little things that always make the match just a little more interesting, like grabbing onto the hand of Melissa that’s closest to the ropes in a Boston Crab to delay her getting the break, or stepping on the bottom of the perpendicular railing section to step up and kick Melissa just a little higher on the chest when attacking her outside. Eagles is maybe not the best female wrestler in the Western speaking world yet, Sara Del Rey still has her CHIKARA work to point to, but chronologically speaking, a performance like this feels like the first time that you can say it might also be Madison Eagles too.

The match is also just really well assembled.

Cheerleader Melissa makes her comeback, and again on this particular SHIMMER show, they do a better job with nearfalls than usual for this company earlier on. Melissa comes closer and closer, only for the champion to find trickier and trickier escapes not only from her big pieces of offense (Air Raid Crash, Kudo Driver), but from defeat in general, as the hurt back of the challenger also just barely manages to bail her out and buy her time.

Madison is finally able to get the space to land a kick, and she follows with the Hellbound to hold onto the title.

It’s a genuinely crushing defeat in the best possible way, totally clean, but because of the attitude of Eagles and the meanness of her attack, also managing to feel just cruel enough to leave the lions share of the sympathy and sentiment with Cheerleader Melissa. Our Hero finally gets the chance, but is exactly unlucky enough against a wrestler just great enough to take advantage of the slightest opening. Given that, a year later as previously linked at the start here, they go all the way through with the thing and live up to the promise of this match, I have zero problem paying this match one of the ultimate complements.

Pro wrestling ass pro wrestling.

***

Nicole Savoy vs. Mercedes Martinez, SHIMMER Volume 100 (4/7/2018)

(photo credit to @cynthiavance on Twitter.)

This was for Savoy’s SHIMMER Title.

Sometimes, it’s nice to be surprised. A match or even just an individual performance is great in a way you didn’t expect, or a match and/or performance within a match is way better than you came into it expecting. It’s a good feeling, something delivering in a way you would not have anticipated beforehand. Take it outside of wrestling, few things feel better than a positive surprise, outside of like a great burger or sex or winning some complex eight-leg parlay dependent on an NBA role player getting over 15 points.

Other times, you know, I just kind of know what I want out of something already, and it feels good to just get the thing you paid for. I fire up some Scott Adkins or JCVD movie at 11:55 pm on a Friday night, I know what I want, right? The great thing about it, and people like that in any of their fields, is that a lot of the times, they just give it to you.

This is great in all of the ways this match up was probably always going to be great, as Nicole Savoy and Mercedes Martinez do all of the stuff they’re really great at.

It’s not to say this is just a lot of hitting and violence from two phenomenal ass kickers, as there are other elements here.

Savoy dethroned Martinez in, according to commentary, something of an upset on the last set of tapings following Savoy dissolving their team after Martinez went too far to try and injure somebody. There is also a nice little thing pointed out by Prazak on commentary, of this being the 100th show and the main event is between a new star and one of the originals around for those first tapings in November 2005, and it’s a cool little story. SHIMMER being SHIMMER, I don’t think it’s quite the ideological or moral quandary they’re in here like DDT on its twenty fifth anniversary a little over a year before this when faced with a very similar choice, as they’ve always been very good about facing forward, but it’s an interesting set of ideas behind this.

Mostly though, yeah man, Mercedes Martinez and Nicole Savoy have the exact sort of a match you’d want them to have.

Real hard shots, sick and inventive holds, cool counters, and a whole lot of spirit. If not for commentary, I wouldn’t assume much of anything about this narratively, but it is a match that gets nasty and mean here and there too in ways that really benefit the entire thing. No surprises here, for sure, but a lot of thrills.

Savoy hangs onto the title and gets the submission with a double armbar.

Incredibly fun, in all of the most predictable and thrilling ways.

***

Madison Eagles vs. Arisa Nakajima, SHIMMER Volume 82 (6/25/2016)

This was for Eagles’ SHIMMER Title.

It feels almost too obvious to say this was great.

Like, of course.

You’re not idiots, you know that. (the people who only read WWE/NJPW/AEW reviews? well, jury’s out there, but if you’re reading this stuff, I like to think you’re reading more than just the big ones, and I like that. or you’re one of those obsessive womens wrestling specific fans, which has always felt weird to me.)

Eagles and Nakajima have an easy sort of a dream match and it absolutely rocks.

Good matwork, great offense, and ideal construction. Nobody gets all that fancy with it and aims for something that might not work, it just gets to naturally unfold. Two of the best in the world and of the decade throw their offense out at each other, and correctly trust that it’s enough. The match gets to a wonderful point near the end, where Nakajima throws enough out there, survives enough, and keeps Eagles on her toes and stepping back enough that there’s a doubt about the defense in the way that there isn’t in a lot of other Madison Eagles title work. There’s enough grit to make the quieter parts work and enough substance in between the big moments to give this a more fleshed out feeling. It’s about the big highlights, of course, but like with any other match like this that reaches a certain level and becomes great, it succeeds just as much because of those quieter moments.

Sadly, it’s cut off before we can get any real conclusion or before it can get to the next level that it so obviously can, as Viper attacks Eagles for the disqualification to set up the next volume’s main event.

One has to imagine it’s political. SHIMMER often puts stories first, but it seems so obvious that Viper could have just done that after the match to the same result, without pissing everybody off and also while probably giving the company an even stronger sell for the DVD/VOD than just an Eagles/Nakajima match (an Eagles/Nakajima classic, theoretically). It would be a bone-headed call from a promotion that tends to not make those sorts of unforced errors, especially not in main events. So, in that case, it kind of just is what it is. Throw your hands up, what’s there is there, and we move on.

Still, a pretty great match.

I imagine if you’re in deep enough to salivate at “Madison Eagles vs. Arisa Nakajima” on your screen, you can find a way to enjoy this for what it is, as it really is worth your time.

***

 

Madison Eagles vs. Courtney Rush, SHIMMER Volume 81 (6/24/2016)

(photo credit to Falcon Joshi Blog.)

This was for Eagles’ SHIMMER Title.

I usually don’t cover matches solely because I thought one aspect of them was really good or really funny, unless it matters long term or it’s a way to talk about some larger trend. It’s not a hard rule, I just tend to think that it doesn’t make for the best sort of review or piece of writing to say “I thought [x] was good”.

However, there are always exceptions, and this is one of them.

Courtney Rush is now on TNA television as Rosemary, the demon character. In the obvious thing to do, she’s adapted parts of that into her independent wrestling persona, and is also a demon in SHIMMER.

As such, Madison Eagles develops two tremendous bits early on in an attempt to combat this demonic presence (this fiend, if you will). Firstly, she adapts her classical bit of hiding forks in her knee pads or boots in a modernization of the old heel spot where a ref finds brass knuckles hidden there (SHIMMER’s most enduringly good bit), now getting caught with two forks, but tying them together with a piece of string to form a cross. She keeps Rush at bay by shouting that the power of Christ compels her. When that fails, Eagles gets Rush outside for a moment off of a kick, and then pours lines of salt all around the edges of the ring, to make it impossible for Rush to come in, which works until Rush has the brilliant idea to drag the referee out under the bottom rope, creating a break in the salt where she can enter and/or exit the ring, but only in this one spot.

It is as good to me as any famous 2000s CHIKARA bit, a total commitment to the act taken to a logical extreme, but one that the match is able to move on from without it being too sudden of a shift. It sounds easy, but there really is a skill to walking that line exactly right, and it’s one this match displays.

The match is good otherwise. Rush is fine, especially when she breaks free of the gimmick and they can just huck some bombs out there, and Eagles is one of the best wrestlers of the world, no qualifiers attached. It’s something of a gimme defense and as is the custom in SHIMMER, they don’t go too far to try and stretch credibility just for some nearfall pops. It is what it is, and it’s real good for what it is. A solid chunk of pro wrestling, bell to bell.

Mostly though, I wanted to let you know about the bits.

It’s not a great match, but I will probably remember the salt around the ring bit for years to come, and maybe sometimes, that is more important.

Madison Eagles vs. Nicole Savoy, SHIMMER Volume 78 (10/11/2015)

This was for Eagles’ SHIMMER Title.

A day after finally regaining the title and putting the period at the end of a two year long story, Eagles now does something both entirely different and very comfortable at the same time. Savoy is a very different kind of wrestler from most of the SHIMMER locker room as more legitimate shitkicker, but also still an incredibly rude and ambitious up and comer with a chip on her shoulder and a point to prove against the best in the world. The best of all worlds.

Once again, it’s one of those lovely sorts of Eagles matches. Nothing complex to it, a wonderful economy of movement, the story of the match told at every possible moment and through the majority of motions made. Savoy is still a little new sometimes, but they take such a different approach with a more grappling focused match that it doesn’t matter all that much.

Savoy’s greatest quality is her spirit, which is to say that at every possible moment, she is as disrespectful as possible. The way she goes about it also fits in perfectly with her more legitimate leaning style and the grounded nature of the match, feeling disrespectful more in a sports way than a pro wrestling way. The new kid wants the crown, not so much constantly spitting or saying mean things about someone as a person. The competitive aspect of the thing always takes precedent. It’s unfortunately not the smoothest match in the world and maybe goes a hair too long for where Savoy is at this point, but it’s that spirit and the difference from every other SHIMMER match around this time that does so much for them.

After Savoy countered the Hellbound once into a cross armbreaker, Eagles is scared away from it somewhat, but doesn’t lack for ways to win a wrestling match, as Savoy seemed to think. She lacks Savoy’s speed and accuracy on her strikes, but makes up for it in power at the end. She gets her back with a high one to the back of the neck and upper back, and then puts a little modification on a Northern Lights Bomb, grabbing the calf instead of the back of the leg and folding the leg like a Fisherman’s Buster before the lift, and it’s enough to hold onto the title.

Exactly great enough to be a really interesting match, and exactly interesting enough to be a great match. While imperfect, a match with enough snap and novelty to it that it has a way of standing out in the memory. Something of a breakout for Savoy, and yet another hit out of Madison Eagles, who just does not miss at this point when given an opportunity like this. `

three girl

Nicole Matthews vs. Madison Eagles, SHIMMER Volume 77 (10/10/2015)

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.

***1/2

Nicole Matthews vs. Candice LeRae, SHIMMER Volume 76 (10/10/2015)

This was for Matthews’ SHIMMER Title, following LeRae winning a battle royal earlier in the show.

While far from mechanically perfect, it’s yet another match from the Matthews reign that gets every other bit completely correct. A natural easy match up between SHIMMER’s best and most unscrupulous villain and one of the most natural and sympathetic babyfaces of the decade. A lot of taunting, a little bullshit, and it’s no surprise that it works out in the end when paired with great action down the stretch. As always, there’s a great sense of how to use the nonsense to fake people out, given that they expect it will always happen.

Following a phantom submission for the Gargano Escape by Candice with the referee down, a title belt across the head fails to steal Matthews the win, bringing the people out of their chairs. It’s an impressive thing for such a gimme win (as Matthews/Eagles IV is booked for the taping after this), and then doubly so when they’re able to break everyone’s hearts just a moment later. LeRae gets the hold on a second time, only now for Matthews to roll her way into a pin with a foot on the ropes to steal it in a way that’s both more impressive in its resourcefulness and also all the more crushing given the swiftness by which it comes.

If not all it can be, a perfect reminder going into Matthews/Eagles IV of why you should want to see Nicole Matthews finally get what’s coming to her.

 

Nicole Matthews vs. Madison Eagles, SHIMMER Volume 74 (4/12/2015)

This was for Matthews’ SHIMMER Title.

It doesn’t quite have the same bite as the two draws did, but that’s less the fault of anything that happens here and more that a great classic style title match with a villainous champions trying to fend off a superior challenger is far less interesting than two great versions of a heel/heel draw. That’s just down to simple economics, there’s far less of the latter than the former, one is more special than the other.

However, it is a wonderful continuation of all previous meetings, and a great match all on its own.

Eagles’ quest for revenge largely works out early on, since she is actually better than Matthews, but it makes her sloppy in a way she usually isn’t. Matthews takes advantage and spends the match attacking the head and neck. It’s a simple point of focus that anchors the match at all times. 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, even if they don’t result in great matches every single time, and this is no exception. They commit to the bit in the same way they’ve committed to every bit over the course of the match.

The offense is all wonderful and interesting, and for as good as Eagles has been in the past as a dominant heel champion, she’s even better now as someone on a mission. She’s better than anyone else in SHIMMER at this point and maybe ever (the only competition is perhaps Del Rey) at conveying anger while kicking ass, and also at doing so from a position of total strength. On her end, Nicole Matthews is one of the great chickenshit heels of the decade in her time around the top of the card as a singles act here. Everything about her that was endearing and charming about their first draw, such as Nicole being in over her head and hanging on through wits alone, is turned around and repurposed to make her as loathsome as possible, and it absolutely works.

After a series of genuinely gnarly throws onto Matthews’ neck, Eagles hits the Hellbound to win, only to have Nicole’s foot on the ropes. They make a big show out of it with Eagles even wearing the title again before Portia Perez brings other referees down to point it out. The match is restarted, as it ought to be. A lesser mind might have her put the foot on the rope after or even have Portia come down and do it for her, but there’s something even more frustrating about it being an entirely legitimate reason to take it back away from Eagles.

In her frustration, Eagles turns her back on Matthews, who goes right to the neck again and hits the Vancouver Maneuver to just barely hang on one more time.

It’s no longer about being better. It’s about being smarter, and with Eagles is still mad as hell, it’s finally a fight that Nicole can win.

A wonderful stopgap in the middle of one of the best stories in wrestling over the last several years.

***

Nicole Matthews vs. Kay Lee Ray, SHIMMER Volume 72 (4/11/2015)

This was for Matthews’ SHIMMER Title.

It’s genuinely a blast.

This is pure formula through and through, but like the Rollins/Neville match on a recent episode of Raw, the formula just plain works. Daredevil throwing it out there against a more experienced and devious champion and going for broke. It’s easy, it’s a hell of a time, and it’s exactly the sort of match that a fan can parachute into and immediately get.

Kay Lee Ray’s initial burst of offense is thrilling, as is her bumping in transition, but the real standout is this one great little transition spot from Nicole back inside the ring:

Like most great new transitions that blow me away, it’s both super cool and brings up this thought that it’s so god damned simple and beautiful, and it’s stunning more people don’t do something like that. It’s the perfect little spot to get over the experience advantage and how the craftiness of Matthews is the hardest thing for a challenger to get past.

The offense itself is all really good. Neither is remarkably smooth and there’s a rough spot or two, but they’re very good at covering up and moving on. The key is just immediately adjusting to what actually happened, as opposed to pretending it didn’t or even worse, just trying to do it again. More than that, the offense they do is all INTERESTING. It’s diverse and cool, and it always feels like something is happening. Nicole’s shots aren’t all perfect, but it sort of fits with the character. Being petty and mean occasionally leads to one real nasty shot for every three or four thrown out in a mean-spirited fury. KLR’s offense is all wonderful too. Desperate and frenzied, real out of control stuff. The match is about trying to stop the leaking in a small canoe and eventually, there are too many leaks to plug up, and she can begin to go wild again.

It’s not exactly some epic, because that’s not SHIMMER and it’s not these two, but they have one of the better and more impactful endings in recent memory too (outside of the fireball). Nicole is a little better and avoids the big senton bomb, but Kay Lee Ray takes her pound of flesh on the way out with a beautifully meaningless and defiant one count kickout on the Vancouver Maneuver.

A second one keeps the title for Nicole, but having to hit two of them to begin with is exactly the sort of little win that does a lot for the challenger.

One of the more fun SHIMMER matches in recent memory, and a very easy recommendation.

***

Cheerleader Melissa vs. Madison Eagles vs. Athena vs. Nicole Matthews, SHIMMER Volume 68 (10/18/2014)

(photo credit to Falcon Joshi Blog)

This was an elimination match for Melissa’s SHIMMER Title.

It’s far from the best match possible. It’s not really even a great match. Stunningly, it’s the rare SHIMMER match that may have benefited from five more minutes, as the first segment with all four in winds up lasting too long, as opposed to the more dramatic sections following it. There’s a lot of those quirks that always bother me, beyond just sloppiness, the insistence on numerous elbow exchanges when nobody in this throws a reliably good elbow during it. The match just sort of goes a long for a while there, before the booking begins.

Uncommonly for independent wrestling, it’s there that the match becomes a lot more interesting and worthwhile. You get the classic sort of Anarchy Rulz ’99 ending with the challengers teaming up and Athena eliminating Melissa with the O Face, forcing a new champion no matter what. Unfortunately, they then sort of rush through the section with her on offense against the other two, with Melissa blaming Athena and distracting her for a cradle with the tights by Nicole.

The final segment with Nicole and Eagles is the absolute best and most correct choice. It’s not on the level of either singles match, lacking the foundation that both of those matches built up with better and more focused first halves, but there’s still a chemistry here. It’s also the home to a great payoff, as Nicole now stops trying to prove anything and gets back to good old fashioned thievery. She manipulates three different referee bumps, each resulting in a phantom pin or submission by Eagles, answering all those questions. In a situation where preparation was a lot harder and with luck maybe not purely on Nicole’s side this time, Eagles is so obviously and clearly better.

Fortunately, it doesn’t matter in the slightest.

After their last two matches and after not being beaten in SHIMMER for the last three years, Eagles is comfortable doing it on her own while Nicole has a thousand different tricks up her sleeves. Portia Perez comes out to help after the third straight visual fall, and with help, Matthews throws a whole ass god damned FIREBALL at Eagles and covers her for the win. As someone watching these shows relatively blind, it didn’t come out of NOWHERE because it’s one of the things friends had told me about, but it’s still just so great. Building the thing up for a year, then not only giving out a big payoff for the title, but doing it in this way was so great. Beyond just the old idea that a great heel denies you of something, that thing being a clean finish between them finally, it also makes all the sense in the world. Eagles got caught up in the questions Nicole’s draws brought up in people, but Nicole only ever wanted to advance her career. It’s the difference between wanting to win in a certain way and wanting just to win period. Employing the greatest illegal tactic in wrestling history to do that didn’t hurt either.

The match isn’t great, but again, credit to SHIMMER for advancing the Eagles/Matthews story in an unexpected way like this. One of the finest pieces of booking in company history.