Last year I wrote about my favorite wrestler’s impending signing with WWE in NXT Step for a Legend. A year and a half later and I’m back to look back on her impressive initial period during this new phase of her career.
At NXT Takeover Brooklyn in August 2015, somewhat in the shadow of the great Sasha vs Bayley NXT Women’s Title match that was about to start, the camera cut to show superstars in the front row and next to Ric Flair was the “World Famous” Kana. There had been speculation that her announced “hiatus” from wrestling could be foreshadowing a move the the WWE, but surprisingly there had been no real information or clues, so seeing her on camera at a NXT/WWE event was a legitimate shock to most.
At the September 10 NXT tapings Kana made her debut (air date September 23), and took the name Asuka. Interestingly while WWE announcers themselves have repeatedly pushed the fan speculated theory that the name is an homage to Lioness Asuka, Kana herself stated on Twitter that it wasn’t the case. She said she chose the name for its meaning of “tomorrow/future” and it had nothing to do with the legendary Crush Girl.
Asuka’s trademark kabuki masks worn during her entrances have become a huge part of WWE’s merchandise efforts for her, with three worn so far and subsequently turned into plastic masks for the fans.
Dana Brooke and Emma crashed her initial interview, leading to Asuka’s in ring debut for NXT against the former on October 7. She pretty well destroyed Brooke, with a surprising amount of her pre-WWE look, character, and style kept intact which allowed her to make an immediate strong impression on the crowd.
From that strong start Asuka’s continued to dominate and never looked back. About 50 matches and 6 months after her debut match the undefeated Asuka defeated likewise fan favorite Bayley to claim the NXT Women’s Championship. During her title reign she’s continued her string of impressive victories, including a rematch against Bayley and defenses against Nia Jax, Micke James, etc.
She’s excellent at playing up her mystique, and the choice to keep her undefeated (at over 140 matches and counting) has amplified that advantage considerably. Long term some care will need to be taken to make sure she keeps getting her opponents over as well as herself. In that respect there has been talk among some fans of her as a “division killer,” but I personally haven’t felt that to be the case thus far. People don’t necessarily look bad getting dominated because she’s portrayed as such a insurmountable obstacle, and often her opponents get to hang in with her just enough to look impressive despite the defeat.
Also, there’s potential in varying the formula, such as when Mickie James returned to challenge Asuka at NXT Takeover Toronto and was portrayed as one of the first real threats to the champion to great effect. And whenever someone does finally get a pinfall on her an instant star will be made (as long as it’s not booked in a flukeish manner).
A sample of the WWE trading and “relic” cards available featuring Asuka.
Having been a big fan of Kana before she signed with WWE (particularly in Shimmer, where among other accomplishments her match with Ayako Hamada was the best in the promotion’s history), it’s been intriguing to watch her evolution in NXT. From things like her improving English to the effect on her ring style.
In interviews and other public statements she’s shared significant insight into the challenges and personal growth that has come with it, such as needing to engage American crowds more fully faster when pacing a match than with Japanese crowds. She’s also talked about her initial reluctance to speak in Japanese at all during matches, only to later realize conveying emotion was more important and even if the crowd couldn’t understand her words yelling at her opponent in Japanese could still be a useful tool to connect with the crowd and tell the needed story.
I was lucky enough to see her wrestle live at NXT Takeover Brooklyn II and later at an NXT show at Madison Square Garden. Takeover was almost two years after the last time I had seen her live at Shimmer, and in addition to just having the opportunity in general it was a treat to see how things have changed for her during her time in NXT.
It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for the Empress of Tomorrow, as the WWE’s eventual direction with her could go several ways. Her mastery of her craft and uniqueness as an attraction begs a spot on the main roster, but there are huge benefits to having her in NXT to expand the breadth of training of others in addition to the general advantages of having her on those shows.
Although whatever Asuka’s path holds going forward one thing’s for sure: for her opponents, “tomorrow brings danger.” 😉
Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I was lucky enough to see three Christmas shows, all with some celebratory elements. First was Gatoh Move at Itabashi Green Hall at 1 pm on Christmas Eve, and later that night was Ice Ribbon at the IR dojo in Warabi. On Christmas day I headed to Shin-Kiba First Ring for the last of the three, from Chigusa Nagayo’s Marvelous promotion.
The show started off in festive fashion, with Chigusa coming out dressed as Santa and her core roster joining her in various costumes. The highlight was Takumi Iroha as a Christmas Tree (which I sadly didn’t get a good pic of). My meager Japanese skills didn’t catch the meaning of the longish promo / exchanges between the wrestlers, but it seemed well received.
The opener, Mio Momono vs MikaShirahime, was great, and if not the match of the night certainly neck and neck with the main event. Incredible instincts and craft shown by both rookies, who built drama expertly through the 15 minutes encounter and had the crowd going crazy at the end. There were a couple awkward spots, such as an instance from each where they essentially forgot to roll up their opponent, forcing the other to kind of roll herself up and wait for the other to get in proper position. But otherwise this was smooth and well executed. And even in the places I mentioned the ability of the other wrestler to adapt and keep things on track was impressive, particularly given their experience.
I was at Mio Momono’s debut in New York, and it’s wonderful to see her capitalizing on the potential she showed even then. Can’t wait to see what the future holds for this extremely talented youngster.
The show slowed down quite a bit from there. Another Marvelous rookie, Rin Kadokura, wrestled freelancer Konami in the second match. While Konami has a fair amount of experience from wrestling in several different promotions, she’s only been in the business a couple of years herself. Both were fine here, leading to the perhaps expected decent but basic match.
Aki Shizuku came to the ring festively attired to the crowd’s delight, which I unfortunately have to admit was probably the best thing about her match with Yuiga. I understand the style they were using, but there was just way too much stalling that made this match seem much longer than it was. While nothing was really wrong from a technical standpoint, the pacing was way off and it didn’t come together for me.
.
Kaoru vs Yako Fujigasaki vs Chikayo Nagashima vs Hamuko Hoshi vs Mochi Miyagiwas a reasonably fun match, with lighthearted taunting and antics early on giving way to more competitive sequences as the match progressed. Ice Ribbon’s Lovely Butchers looked good here, and mostly worked together despite the 5-way format. Yako was the target of the other combatants for most of the match, and a specific underlying rivalry between her and Kaoru got a strong focus towards the end. Kaoru’s favorite foreign object, the wooden board of doom, of course became involved. Felt like the underdog should have gone over here, but it appears the feud is still building / ongoing.
Tomoko Watanabe didn’t know quite what to make of the eccentric Cassandra Miyagi as their match began, and I don’t think things were any clearer for her by the end. This was my first time seeing Miyagi, who I’d heard a bit about, and she certainly has a unique and rather captivating charisma to her. The match was fine, but did feel like it could have been better and the structure led to an anticlimactic feeling when Miyagi lost.
I’d been extremely impressed with Takumi Iroha in her appearances at Marvelous USA’s New York shows, and was happy to see her get this main event opportunity against veteran Kyoko Kimura. I’d seen them interact before as part of an intergender tag team match at Marvelous USA’s third show, so this encounter was a nice followup to that.
This played out as would be expected, with Kimura largely dominating and Iroha toughing it out and fighting from behind. The formula worked well, and Iroha got to show some of her incredible power at points. Solid main and a nice spotlight for the up and comer.
Chigusa and the core roster came back out after the main to thank Kimura, talk some more, and raffle off a few things to the audience as part of the Christmas celebration.
Middle of the road show overall I think. It had a different feel from the rest of the promotions I saw, with a somewhat more traditional sense of build throughout the card and in the matches. It was great when it worked and cooled the crowd significantly when it didn’t. The things that didn’t excel here were more bland than bad, but it was half the card. That said, the high points were great and they started and ended with the best of the night.
Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I was lucky enough to see three Christmas shows, all with some celebratory elements. First was Gatoh Move at Itabashi Green Hall at 1pm on Christmas Eve. That evening I headed over to the Ice Ribbon Dojo for their Christmas show.
During the opening Maya Yukihi sang a (rather spectacular) rendition of “All I Want For Christmas” before the usual welcoming comments by various roster members.
The first match was Uno Matsuya & Kyuri vs Tequila Saya & Maika Ozaki. Everyone except Kyuri was new to me here. As I wrote about in The Future is Now 4, Kyuri really impressed me last year and I’m hoping to see her get more chances to advance. Here she showed even more of the instincts and skill I noticed last year, along with clearly being the veteran lead of the match among the three relative rookies.
All of the newer wrestlers looked good, despite getting a little lost at times (which with Kyuri’s help they recovered from nicely). Uno and Saya are already showing disctinctive styles and personalities, and seemed to be solid additions to the roster. Ozaki showed great flashes of power and has a ton of potential as a wrecking ball style wrestler. She was made to look strong defeating Kyuri for the win.
On the first show I saw during last year’s trip I was introduced to Miyako Matsumoto by seeing her team unsuccessfully and hilariously with Maruko Nagasaki, so I was extremely amused to find them teaming again here on my first IR show of this trip. Given their opponents were International Tag Ribbon Championship #1 contenders The Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi), there seemed little chance of the former team’s record improving.
Sure enough this unfolded exactly as expected, with some self serving antics from the Dancing Queen and and eventual victory for Hoshi & Miyagi. Miyako predictably hit at her opponent in frustration after the loss. The Butchers looked good as a team, keep their own playing around to a minimum and focusing on hard hitting tag team wrestling (which is where I think their strength is). Their performance here definitely increased my excitement for their upcoming title match against my personal favorite team, Avid Rival.
Tsukasa Fujimoto & Maya Yuhiki vs Kurumi & 235 was an intense tag encounter built entirely around the undercurrents of ICE Cross Infinity Championship semi-finalists Tsukka and Kurumi facing off. Their tense staredowns, one upmanship games, etc all worked well to crank up anticipation for RibbonMania and actually seemed to be teasing a Tsukka vs Kurumi final. Kurumi got to look like a bit of a beast here, using her power to get the better of Tsukka on quite a few occasions. Maya and (the rather underrated) 235 were on here as well, leading to a strong, compelling tag match.
Rabbit Miu’s last match at Ice Ribbon was the main event, where she faced Tsukushi.Decent main event and a fitting send off for Rabbit. She was clearly having fun out there wrestling a friend. Both are accomplished wrestlers so action was good too.
After the matches there was an extended roundtable with Tsukushi giving a goodbye speech to Rabbit in addition to the usual promos/comments.
Seemed to be some bluster from the remaining tourney participants, and that along with the semi-main tag provided good build for RibbonMania. Although the absence of one of the four semifinalists due to Risa performing in a play did hamper that momentum a little.
Overall this was one of the stronger top to bottom dojo shows I’ve seen, with great action and a lot of intriguing underlying stories.
Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I was lucky enough to see three Christmas shows, all with some celebratory elements.
First up on Christmas Eve was Gatoh Move at Itabashi Green Hall, where the first show of theirs I saw was at in 2015. Still one of my favorite venues. Unlike Gatoh Move’s home base shows their bigger events (like this one) are more traditional in some respect because they take place in a wrestling ring instead of the mats only environment at Ichigaya Chocolate Square. But Gatoh Move is still unique in it’s presentation, with opening and closing dance numbers by the core roster and a mix of comedy and competitive matches up and down the card. As appropriate for the holiday theme the wrestlers came out in different colored Christmas outfits for the dancing.
The opening match was a mixed tag pitting Hikaru Shida & Madoka against Kaori Yoneyama & Hikaru Sato. This was largely a straight up contest, although there were … “comedic” I guess …. overtones mixed in between Shida and Sato, with Sato creeping on Shida and her wanting nothing to do with him. He tried to refuse to tag in against Madoka but force tagged in whenever she entered the match, stalked around her and bent over to check out her behind instead of hitting her when Kaori held Shida for a double team, climbed on top of her instead of applying submission holds, etc. It did lead to a couple of funny moments, like Shida hitting Kaori with her flying butt attack, him asking for the same, then Shida kneeing him in the face instead. But mostly I personally found it creepy and unnecessary rather than funny. Also, Shida cowering away from him at points seemed really odd for her character, who I thought generally more likely to just haul off and knee him in the first place.
Past that the match was good. In particular when the men did actually face off they absolutely lit into each other with hard strike exchanges. Strong finishing exchanges as time expired too. The Sato / Shida stuff is obviously an ongoing angle, but not one I care for from what I saw here.
Next was a special stipulation “Drunk Match” between DJ Nira and Masahiro Takanashi, during which the competitors had to stop wrestling to imbibe at random times. Beverages escalated from beer to shochu to champagne. Gags included Nira sneaking more than he was required to drink, both wrestlers getting increasingly wobbly as time progressed, etc. Takanashi begging off from the required drink at one point while Nira ran up to down his was a great little touch. Near the end Takanashi kept trying for a superkick, but Nira couldn’t stand long enough to be hit with it. Nira eventually decided to call a bunch of people out from the back to form a human pyramid, and once he made his way to the top Takanashi finally had Nira in position to hit the superkick for the win. Absolutely ridiculous from start to finish, but that was the point here and it was amusing.
Team Reina (Makoto, Mari Sakamoto, & Hirori) faced Team Gatoh Move (Emi Sakura, Aasa, & Mitsuru) in a 6-woman elimination tag (with over-the-top rules in addition to pin/submission). Interesting set up here, with Gatoh Move’s founder and two of her trainees against Reina’s reigning Champion (who also holds GM’s IWA Triple Crown Championship) and two of hers. I’d of course seen Emi and Makoto last trip, and also saw Mari when she came to New York with Syuuri last year. Hirori, Aasa, and Mitsuru were all new to me.
The story of the match was phenomenal, with both teams showing real desire to prevail in the inter-promotional contest. The seconds on the outside for each team were visibly engaged and cheering their promotion, which really added to the atmosphere and the sense of something important being at stake here, even if it was just bragging rights.
The action was great too, with everyone looking sharp, things going back and forth nicely, building drama around the eliminations, etc. Makoto’s presence and mannerisms as a cocky heel were several levels better than what I saw of her in a babyface role last year. Aasa got a nice spotlight at the end being the last member of her team left trying to topple Makoto before coming up just short, and her ring style as a pint-sized powerhouse suits her extremely well. I’d like to see more of Mitsuru too in the future, as she looked quite good in the little time she had before being the first elimination.
Antonio Honda, who I saw several times last year and is always good for a chuckle, had a special “Christmas Deathmatch” against Cho-un Shiryu. This was VERY strange, surprisingly even more so than the drunk match, but still pretty humorous somehow. I do feel it ran long though and would have benefitted from a few less sequences/gags.
Santa made repeated appearances to bring Honda gifts such as a dirty magazine, nunchaku, and a coal miner’s glove, all of which factored into the match eventually. Kaori Yoneyama and DJ Nira were sitting near the “stage” seats and whenever Honda or Cho-un would go up to the top rope one of them had some sort of medical emergency they needed assistance with, forcing the combatant to nobly chose to give up his advantage over his opponent to leave the ring and assist the person in “jeopardy.” Nothing even remotely serious about this match, and the crowd ate it up.
The main event featured Riho & Kotori challenging Aoi Kizuki & Sayaka Obihiro for the Gatoh Move Tag Team Championships. Aoi is a personal favorite of mine, and this was unfortunately the only chance I’ll have to see her wrestle this trip. Thankfully though it was a main event match in with three other excellent wrestlers, and as such was great.
Both teams were sharp and this was exactly the quick paced, hard hitting main event it should have been. Kotori having a bit of a chip on her shoulder and something to prove was a nice undercurrent, and Riho and Aoi had some fantastic exchanges down the stretch.
It was a shame to see Aoi and Obi lose (I somehow only seem to get to see Aoi drop titles in big matches live) but it wasn’t a surprise the way the buildup was going and with Riho’s role as ace of Gatoh Move. Also, Riho and Kotori are a great team and deserving champions themselves.
.
Afterwards there was another song and wrestlers went around the venue shaking hands with the fans and thanking everyone for coming.
I really liked the feel and flow staggering the comedy matches with the more serious ones gave the show, and when it was time for action everyone gave it their all. As I generally find in Gatoh Move I loved the humor in the straight up comedy matches, and found it fell flatter when they tried to integrate it into a regular contest. The fully competitive matches here (6-woman tag and main event) both had a fantastic sense of urgency and stakes and were simply great.
I was lucky enough to also be at Stardom’s big year end show in 2015, which was quite unique as it featured Act Yasukawa’s retirement. I was curious to see how this year’s would be different being perhaps a more “typical” year end show for them.
The show started just a couple hours after my arrival in Japan, so while I made decent time from the airport I still unfortunately missed the first two matches of Azumi vs Arisu Nanase vs Ruaka and Konami vs Hiromi Mimura.
So the first match I saw was a three way tag between Oedo Tai (Kris Wolf & Hana Kimura), Jungle Kyouna & Natsuko Tora, and Kaori Yoneyama & Saori Anou. One member of each team (Hana, Tora, and Saori) was new to me.
There was some comedy early on as the teams taunted each other, then things progressed into back and forth between the three teams and some multiple person spots. Wolf is so charismatic the crowd popped for her surprise win despite her heel status.They kept it short and energetic here, leading to a decent, if unremarkable, triple tag.
The NWA Western States Tag Team Titles were on the line next as Twisted Sisterz(Thunder Rosa and Holidead) (c) defended against Queens Quest (HZK and Momo Watanabe). With Queen’s Quest being a new big heel faction associated with Io, I was honestly was hoping for more from them. All four wrestlers were clearly giving good effort and there were some bright spots, but the chemistry between the teams as opponents just generally seemed poor and there was a lot of awkwardness and things not connecting / coming across quite right. I feel like these teams are capable of more. The heel vs heel dynamic also kept the crowd rather tepid, and QQ’s puzzling loss seems to cut off the relatively new team’s momentum.
A pair of dark matches featuring models/actresses against career professional wrestlers were next.
In her debut match Nana Suzuki got to get in the ring against one of Stardom’s aces, Kairi Hojo, in a singles contest. Nana actually played her role as an overmatched but determined underdog quite well and the match was good. Kairi rightly dominated most of this, but the story was well told and Nana got the crowd behind her comeback spots. Nana seems like she could make the transition and wrestle regularly if she wants to.
Stardom’s reigning champion Io Shirai teamed with the other visitor, Mariko Seyama,to face Hiroyo Matsumoto & Jungle Kyouna. To be honest, Mariko did not come across nearly as good as Nana did, seeming awkward in the ring. The vets held it together well enough, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the previous match. Also, dark match or not, it was odd seeing Io try to play face here and her normal heel character later. The result was the crowd just cheered her in both matches, which perhaps took a little away from the story she was telling with Mayu.
In the semi-main Oedo Tai (Kyoko Kimura & Kagetsu) defended their Goddesses of Stardom Titles against former champions Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito. There was a lot of interference from the Oedo Tai entourage outside the ring, which generated quite the conquering hero reception for Hojo & Bito when they finally overcame it all and took their belts back. Really good match.
In the main event of last year’s Climax Io Shirai claimed the World of Stardom title from Meiko Satomura in one of the top five matches I saw my entire trip. In this year’s main she defended that same title against her former Thunder Rock partner Mayu Iwatani.
This was a great, pedal-to-the-floor main event with tons of jaw dropping exchanges from two pros extremely familiar with one another. Highlights include Mayu hitting dragon suplexes on the apron and floor (ouch!), trying for one from the top rope only to have Io flip out and LAND ON HER FEET, and a trio of rolling Germans from Io that has to be seen to be believed. Strong back and forth contest and an excellent main event.
I was slightly surprised at the outcome, as once Queen’s Quest lost earlier in the evening I figured we’d get Mayu victorious here to culminate her redemption / revenge story before the heels regrouped and established dominance at a later date. Of course, cocky Io seeming unbeatable is also a compelling story hook.
This was an interesting show for Stardom. There were some issues with storytelling, blurry face-heel dynamics, and occasional missed spots and clunky ringwork. Yet there was also some excellent action and overall things came together and I found the show fun and entertaining despite those weaknesses, which is what really matters. Top two matches in particular are well worth seeking out.
In addition to excellent matches and an incredible number of highly talented wrestlers, I love watching independent wrestling to see people develop and grow and get a glimpse of tomorrow’s stars today. I’ve previously featured Timothy Thatcher, Dalton Castle, and Nicole Savoy in my first The Future is Now blog, Su Yung, Leah Vaughn (then Leah von Dutch) and Takumi Iroha in my second, and Courtney Rush, Matt Riddle, Shayna Baszler, and Rhia O’Reilly in my third.
This time I’m going to narrow the focus a bit, doing a feature on some of the young Joshi stars that made huge impressions on me during my trip to Japan at the beginning of this year.
Professional wrestlers can start (much) younger in Japan than the US, leading to some interesting situations with standout young talent already being established and accomplished veterans while still in their teens, in addition to young rookie talent getting an early chance to develop into fully rounded performers. All of the wrestlers in this column are 20 years old or younger.
This column is long overdue and in some ways outdated, but I decided it’s still worth it to share my impressions as they were when I saw these athletes live. I’ve added some further context where needed, but for the most part the following information and opinions are rooted in the beginning of 2016.
Kyuri
It’s easy to tell that the (seemingly) diminutive Kyuri already has an extensive understanding of her craft. She’s an amazingly smooth, masterful submission wrestler who always seems the equal to her often larger and more experienced opponents. Even in her frilly, bright green gear (that reminds my niece of Tinkerbell) Kyuri conveys a sense of being a competent threat to her opponents in a way beyond several wrestlers I’ve seen with far more time in the business. If she continues to acclimate and excel as much as she has so far in her 3 years in wrestling, this 18 year old is easily going to be a huge star by her mid-twenties despite her size. An ICE Cross Infinity Championship reign for her sooner rather than later would be entirely justified.
Yuuka
Yuuka is another young star whose instincts far outshone her 2 years of experience and 17 years of age. She carried herself in a way that made an immediate impact, including a ring style that showcased hard strikes and fierce determination in a thoroughly compelling manner.
Unfortunately Yuuka has spent the latter half of this year on hiatus for undisclosed reasons. But is still listed as part of the Ice Ribbon roster on their webpage, so here’s hoping she will return at some point. Of the wrestlers I was previously unfamiliar with she left perhaps the greatest impression, and she certainly has the potential for a big career ahead of her if she continues.
Kotori
Kotori is a 18 year old wrestler based in the Gatoh Move promotion who has an exuberance and enthusiasm to her wrestling that’s downright contagious. She’s a captivating performer and more than held her own in all the matches I saw, usually against opponents with a great deal more experience. Her unique charisma and already well honed skills and instincts will certainly only continue to develop and expand as her career goes on beyond its current 3 years.
Riho
I’d like to finish this feature talking about two wrestlers who are on the other end of what I mentioned in the opening than those discussed so far. In contrast to showing poise and skill beyond their experience, these wrestlers already HAVE an incredible amount of experience at an extremely young age.
First is Riho, who like Kotori currently works for the Gatoh Move promotion. She began wrestling an the age of 9 and thus has an astonishing 10+ years in the business at only 19. A natural, likable underdog, Riho effortlessly rallies the crowd behind her with a bright personality and expert timing and execution in her wrestling. She is so masterful at her role I actually get the impression branching out a bit in terms of style and opponents would be good for her, as she comes across as someone who has all the tools to succeed at anything she wanted to.
Tsukushi
Finally we have Tsukushi , another example of the unique situations in which a very young wrestler can already be a long established veteran. At 19 years old she’s already been wrestling for over 6 years, and it shows in her instincts, polish, and overall performance.
Tsukushi’s extremely smooth in the ring and knows how to make her offense look believable, even though she’s usually smaller than her opponents (often quite significantly). Her ring style is generally strike and high-flying based, so she approaches the size disadvantage in a distinctly different way than what I mentioned about Kyuri. She comes across as a threat even when at first glance it seems she should be horribly outmatched, which is both a result of and a testament to her experience and devotion to her craft.
She’s always a stone’s throw from Ice Ribbon’s main title and is an invaluable utility player that can help the less experienced wrestlers, elevate others into title contention, or challenge the reigning champion herself to establish their worthiness. Tsukasa Fujimoto is the ace of Ice Ribbon, but Tsukushi is just as important to the promotion at present. And given her age they could build the promotion around her (and others mentioned here) for a long time to come.
Honorable mentions:
Narrowing this list was tough, as I saw numerous young talents with bright futures.
Maruko Nagasaki might have been the most surprisingly impressive wrestler I saw relative to her experience. She was clearly still “earning her stripes” so to speak, but was solid in the ring and held up her end of matches so well I was shocked to learn she had debuted only 3 months prior to my seeing her wrestle. Also, Kurumi was recovering from injury during my trip, so I haven’t seen her wrestle yet. From what I understand if I had she would have been a certain inclusion in this list.
There are some excellent young wrestlers outside of my favorite promotions that I didn’t get to see as much of as I would have liked, so hopefully my path will cross more with wrestlers such as Sareee, Meiko Tanaka, etc going forward.
——-
That all for now. Hope I’ve brought a new wrestler or two to attention, and everyone mentioned is well worth checking out.
Lot of anticipation going into this one, with DIY’s last shot at the Rivial and the NXT Tag Team Championships, Mickie James’ return to WWE to face Asuka for the NXT Women’s Championship, and a huge rematch between Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT Championship.
Bobby Roode continues to get amazing entrances (that aren’t exactly discouraging the crowd from cheering him, at least on the way to the ring) and a here a full choir sings along with his theme (and the crowd) live. Once the song ends about half the crowd remembers he’s a heel and is firmly behind “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger as he comes out for his grudge match with Roode.
Crowd’s certainly hot, as Tye and Bobby get an “this is awesome” chant for their opening staredown. Roode circles Dillinger as the latter just stares a hole through the Glorious one. Finally Roode approaches and Dillinger unloads on him, getting the better of an exchange of punches and taking things outside the ring. Tye showing an appropriate edge here given the story and totally controls the match in the early going.
Roode eventually takes advantage of Tye’s aggressiveness and catches him charging with a backdrop to the outside, and then just grinds at him for a while. Towards the end they go back and forth until Roode decides to mock his opponent too much (like a good heel) leading to a surge for Dillinger. Lots of teases of a Tye victory – ref catching Roode’s feet on the ropes during a pin, Tye with a superkick, finisher teases, a Sharpshooter spot, small package exchange, etc.
Solid win for Bobby after sending Tye into a ringpost and then hitting an implant DDT (nice change from pump handle slam – still no nonsense finisher & appropriate for heel, but has more oomph).
This went much longer than I expected, to good effect. It dragged only a little during Bobby’s initial heat segment, and overall was a great opener and elevated Tye to where he looked like he was on Bobby’s level even in defeat.
In the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament, TM61 (Shane Thorne & Nick Miller)faced The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar). The old school stipulation of having AoP’s manager suspended in a cage above the ring is mixed with a strange supporting scaffolding in one corner of the ring (which has already been revealed as a new toy inspiration). The scaffolding seemed to be there primarily for someone to dive off of, and sure enough TM61 made use of it for that purpose.
Both teams tried and there were some nice moments, like TM61’s dual headscissors counter out of AoP’s double powerbomb, but these were two of the more bland teams in the tournament and the crowd was tepid for this outside of the big spots. I wonder if the ending was botched. The heels tried to cheat in the classic, expected fashion given the stip (with Elering dropping a chain to help them from the very cage meant to prevent his interference), but the chain went flying into crowd on the first attempted hit. It looked like it might have been planned, but if so it was an unnecessary and pointless swerve with the heels winning cleanly with their finish moments later.
The AoP victory was unsurprising, but did make me second guess my expectation of DIY losing and imploding during the tag title match.
Speaking of which, next we would find out if DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomaso Ciampa) finally unseat The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) for the NXT Tag Team Championships in a 2 out of 3 falls match or if they’d come up short leading to Ciampa going nuts and turning on Gargano in emphatic fashion.
Nice showcase here for DIY in the early going, until Revival cheats for the advantage. Classic formulas are classic for a reason. Speaking of classic formulas, the heels get the first fall with their finisher (Shatter Machine in a beautiful reversal of Gargano’s slingshot spear) to put faces behind the 8-ball.
During the second fall Johnny and the Revival just played the crowd like a fiddle building up to a false tag that had the arena ready to riot. Later a smooth back and forth sequence lead to a Heart Attack and a believable “Revival could sweep” moment.
After Ciampa finally got the hot tag he fought the Revival off by himself for an extended time, further teasing a possible DIY loss at the end with him blaming Gargano. Eventually DIY hit their double strike combo to even things up.
The third fall was just a non-stop parade of believable false finishes and callbacks to the two teams’ previous encounter. The excellent work from all four throughout the match combined with a few totally plausible reasons for the match going either way led to a dramatic finish with the crowd ERUPTING for DIY’s win. Two of the best teams in the business putting on an instant classic. Seek this one out right away.
Asuka’s a favorite of mine and after seeing Mickie James wrestle in Shimmer the previous weekend I was quite excited to see how her return against NXT’s wrecking ball for the NXT Women’s Title would turn out.
During the introductions Mickie did a good job of selling confidence mixed with caution in her expressions. The pace built nicely, with some mind games and Mickie actually putting Asuka on the defensive a bit in the early going. James’ matches at Shimmer certainly helped her eliminate any potential ring rust issues. There were some great exchanges of both holds and explosive strikes early on, a great choice to help re-engage the crowd after the roller coaster ride of the Tag Title match.
It felt more even than I expected to start, which I thought was a good way to portray James as a legitimate threat before Asuka destroyed her. The longer the match went however, it became more and more clear Mickie was being shown as Asuka’s equal and challenging her in ways the Empress of Tomorrow hadn’t been during her time in NXT.
Both wrestlers are extremely charismatic and the match was structured to play to Mickie’s strengths. They kept this reasonably brisk and exciting, and after Mickie having Asuka on the ropes a few times and having unexpected answers to a lot of the champ’s offense, Asuka persevered in fighting for the Asukalock and forcing Mickie to tap.
Asuka’s building delight in dominating opponents is a nice direction to allow her to take the character. She’s always at her best when allowing almost heelish, bullying mannerisms into her ringwork. The taunting refusal of Mickie’s handshake offer after the match not only continues in that vein nicely, but also gives Mickie a storyline reason of disrespect to stick around if that’s what she decides to do.
Several live violins for NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance for his defense against Samoa Joe, which was awesome. This was built as a bitter grudge match, and both combatants sold it perfectly. Each brought great intensity during the staredown, and really conveyed the idea that they just wanted to get their hands on each other.
Joe was unexpectedly dominant early on, and I adored the psychology of him going after Nakamura’s knee. They really laid into each other as things built up throughout the match. Great match for Joe to pull out the tope, and on the other side of things seeing someone give Joe a German is always amazing. The STRAIGHTJACKET GERMAN made me pop big time, although I do question Joe starting to make regular use of it now considering Akira Tozawa’s in talks and it’s his centerpiece finisher.
Joe’s cheapshot low blow and subsequent Muscle Buster to retake the title just STUNNED the crowd. No one was really expecting the invasion of 50-50 booking here, but it does make a certain amount of sense in that Nakamura’s first loss is now out of the way, meaning they aren’t telling the same undefeated champion story with both him and Asuka, and it seems they’re setting up for a big win and retaking of the title for him in Japan.
Overall
Great show, with everything really being exceptional outside the tourney finals, and a tag title match that could be a match of the year contender.
After a Friday night show featuring the debuts of Mickie James and Hudson Envy and a Saturday that saw a new Shimmer Champion as well as the debut of Dulce Garcia, Shimmer weekend wrapped up with the taping of Volumes 89 and 90 on Sunday.
I had seen Sonya Strong before at Marvelous USA in Queens, and it was nice to see her get a spot on the pre-show via Rise against Heather Monroe. This was a basic, by-the-numbers encounter with Monroe in the heel role and Strong as a face. Strong was slightly more impressive and I was happy to see here on the main card later.
In a second Rise pre-show match, Angie SkyefacedKate Carney. This was honestly a bit of a train wreck, with Skye looking a little rusty compared to the last time I saw here and Carney’s timing being extremely off.
Volume 89
The main shows started off with Solo Darling vs Cherry Bomb and the Thunderkitty vs Taeler Hendrix rematch stemming from events on Volumes 87 & 88. Cherry stealing Solo’s drink and have a hyper reaction to it (a la Veda Scott on Volume 88) was amusing.
Thunderkitty vs Taeler was similar to their first match, and Thunderkitty’s retribution victory for Taeler’s cheating fell flat due to TK applying her finisher while in the ropes and never breaking as Taeler stumbled out to the center of the ring. Considering, like Dulce and Mickie, Taeler only had two matches for her debut weekend I would have liked different opponents between the two shows.
Nixon Newell upset LuFisto in a well deserved victory for the youngster. Good dynamic, with LuFisto getting more and more aggressive as her march towards a heel turn continued.
Another Rise participant got a main card showing as Kennadi BrinkfacedMia Yim in a good, back and forth encounter.
Kimber Lee defeated Samantha Heights in a solid match and a good return for Heights. She had appeared in Shimmer once before as Crazy Mary Dobson’s partner, and returned this time via the Rise seminar. Great to see her back and she was a big crowd favorite here and in her Volume 90 match, which will hopefully lead to her becoming a regular part of the roster.
BaleSpin (Xandra Bale & KC Spinelli) once again faced The Rejected (Christina Von Eerie & Hudson Envy). This was likely meant to be another chance for the faces to get their hands on the heels who had thus far always gotten the better of them, but as it started with none of the intensity of their first encounter it came off a little less meaningful than it could have been. The rapid fire nature of Rejected’s tag title match followed by this rematch heavily foreshadowed BaleSpin’s victory as well as the result of the tag title defense later on this volume and BaleSpin’s title shot on Volume 90. Another team used here against Rejected would have preserved a lot of unpredictability and made the tag division seem much less shallow.
Was happy to see Jessicka HavokandAllysin Kay matched up in a singles contest, as they have great chemistry and their styles are extremely complimentary.
I am totally in favor of Shimmer continuing to have 4-ways on (nearly) every show considering how good they always are. This one featuring Nicole Matthews, Kay Lee Ray, Candice LeRae, and Rhia O’Reilly was no exception, and after good period of back and forth between the four Matthews stole a victory at Rhia’s expense, leading to Saraya storming the ring again to continue her issue with Matthews.
Also building off of a weekend-long story, Shazza McKenzie and Shayna Baszler had a rematch under no DQ rules. In the early going more use of the stipulation would have been nice, but it picked up as it went along and ended with Shazza overcoming the odds due to mistimed interference by Baszler’s Trifecta teammate Nicole Savoy. As only Shayna’s second loss in Shimmer, this would seem to be aimed towards elevating Shazza in the direction of a Shimmer title shot. Shazza again no sold a lot of leg work done by her MMA star opponent, but while still frustrating it was slightly less noticeable in the context of this match.
This was heated and well worked overall by both competitors leading to a strong finish to their story for the weekend. Shazza also showed incredible heart finishing the match after smacking the back of her head in what looked like a powerbomb reversal gone wrong. Blood was visible in a line down the back of her hair. She required seven staples afterwards and obviously did not wrestle later in the day on Volume 90. Gusty performance and I’m very glad to have heard since that she’s ok.
Mount Tessa (Vanessa Kraven & Tessa Blanchard with significantly timed new team name) challenged Slap Happy (Evie & Heidi Lovelace) for the SHIMMER Tag Team Championships. I was honestly hoping for the implosion of Kraven and Tessa’s alliance and the beginning of the implied feud to come, but given the earlier signs I wasn’t shocked to see them unseat Slap Happy. I feel things have been drawn out with Tessa and Kraven perhaps a touch too long, but there are great comedic touches in pairing and Tessa doing the “I’M the tag team champions” shtick is pouring fuel on the fire for the crowd turning Kraven face. Good title match.
Dulce Garcia (Sexy Star) finished up her Shimmer debut weekend with a dream match of sorts against Mercedes Martinez. This was honestly a bit of a styles clash, but still extremely good. Early on Mercedes commented a bit about how fast Garcia was and made “slow down” comments that while in character might have been a legit request. It would have been nice to see Garcia against someone in a similar style that could match her speed (like Kay Lee Ray, etc), but no real complaints about the two opponents chosen for her and the matches produced. Dulce did not get a “please come back” chant, but that was likely due to the crowd not realizing she wouldn’t be wrestling on Volume 90.
Cat Power had her last match of a strong return weekend challenging Kellie Skater for the SHIMMER Championship in Volume 89’s main event. The pacing felt a little off early on, but it built nicely and ended up another good showing for Cat and solid defense for Kellie.
Volume 90
Sonya Strong, perhaps due to her performance during the pre-show, faced Marti Belle to open the second taping of the day.
In the second match Samantha HeightsupsetNevaeh to a nice pop from the crowd. Nevaeh continued to perform in a face role here, but showed some touches of her heel persona. Nevaeh’s well established enough that the losses this weekend won’t hurt her, and in contrast the win was huge for Heights.
Melanie Cruise continued her seemingly designated role for the weekend of crushing Rise talent against Kiera Hogan. Pretty much a squash. “Hogan” is not a name that needs to be used by anyone in Shimmer.
Leva Bates came out for her match with Cherry Bomb with an E.T. doll and dressed as Eliot to most of the crowd’s delight. The humor and interactions were awkward at first, but smoothed out a lot once Cherry Bomb established control , spoke with the doll, and declared “E.T. wants me to kick his ass!” Her combination of goofiness with a dangerous edge elevated this considerably.
LuFistodefeatedSolo Darling, showing reluctance the longer the match went as she had to get more and more vicious to keep Solo down. After she finally chose to hit the Burning Hammer and pinned Solo she snapped, and just decimated the Sugar Creature to a 50-50 reaction from the crowd. Big payoff to the slow building heel tendencies of Lufisto’s been showing / fighting.
In what very well might have been the best match of the weekend, Kay Lee RayandNixon Newell tore down the house in a FANTASTIC contest. Nixon has looked great in her Shimmer appearances, and KLR is always in the running for MVP of all the Shimmer weekends she’s been a part of. Great pairing and I’d love to see a rematch sometime.
Mount Tessa (Vanessa Kraven & Tessa Blanchard) defended their newly won SHIMMER Tag Team Championships against BaleSpin (Xandra Bale & KC Spinelli). Would have preferred a different team in the challenger role, as Rejected and BaleSpin trading wins over the course of the weekend being enough to propel each into title contention highlights the current lack of depth in tag division. Match was primarily a backdrop for Kraven & Tessa’s interactions and an establishment victory for the new champs.
The streak of great 4-ways continued as Mia Yim picked up a win against Allysin Kay, Kimber Lee, and Evie. Allysin and Kimber’s on and off alliance during the match was highly amusing, as was Kimber’s delight in the crowd cheering her by default when chanting “everyone but Allysin.” I personally did not partake – PINKIES UP!
Shayna Baszler bounced back emphatically from her no-DQ loss to Shazza by besting Heidi Lovelace in singles action. Heidi’s a high level competitor to keep Shayna’s continued threat clear, and she always looks strong in defeat. Very good match.
The weekend long issue between Saraya KnightandNicole Matthews came to an appropriate climax in a Berwyn Bunkhouse Brawl. This was the expected crazy brawl all over the Eagles Club, which ended by TKO when Saraya was hanging Matthews over the ropes and the refs declared the latter couldn’t continue. Shimmer wisely doesn’t do matches like this too often, but they’re very effective when used sparingly. The feud between these two was very well done, with ups and downs over the course of the five shows and a satisfying ending.
Warning bells of a possible 3S style title reign for Kellie Skater started going off when it became clear Mercedes Martinez would be getting a rematch for the Shimmer Championship to finish Shimmer weekend. Trifecta played the crowd like a fiddle, executing traditional heel interference behind the ref’s back with flawless execution. Obviously Shazza wasn’t available to counter them, but having someone else take issue with Trifecta’s cheating and attempt to come to Kellie’s aid at some point would have been nice. Strong, appropriate main event regardless though, and indeed Mercedes eventually hit the Fisherman’s Buster and regained the title to a chorus of boos.
I’ve actually seen more criticism of Kellie losing the title “so quickly” than of Mercedes losing it in her first defense. Hazards of being a heel I guess. 😉 But after the match Kellie gave an usual speech that felt like a farewell, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this booking was a way to make sure Kellie received her well deserved reign with the Shimmer belt (as well as underscoring unpredictability in Shimmer and giving Trifecta nuclear heel heat). If this was Skater’s goodbye, it was a hell of a run.
——-
Impressive finish to this Shimmer trip, with Volume 90 the best show of the weekend. Fun time as always.
Coming off a Friday night show featuring the debuts of Mickie James and Hudson Envy as well as Kellie Skater gaining a pinfall over reigning Shimmer Champion Mercedes Martinez in tag team competition, Shimmer weekend continued with the taping of Volumes 87 and 88 on Saturday.
Before the main shows began there was a dark match involving participants of the previous Thursday’s Rise seminar. Kikyo Nakamura & Roni Nicole defeated Arianna & Savannah Evans in a fine match. Kikyo & Roni showed good chemistry as a team and could help flesh out Shimmer’s currently shallow tag division.
Volume 87
Veda Scott‘s first match of the weekend opened Volume 87 as she faced one half of the Shimmer Tag Team Champions in Evie. Amusing pre-match moment saw Veda taking one look at returning referee Bryce Remsburg and asking “where’s Andy?” Good opener with Evie firing up the crowd in a win over Veda. I feel Veda’s improved a lot in the ring over the last couple of years and she held her own with Evie nicely here.
Jessica Havok came out to talk about her tainted loss to Tessa Blanchard on Shimmer 86. Tessa once again over-exaggerated her lack of need of Vanessa Kraven’s help and agreed to a rematch with Kraven banned from ringside for Volume 88.
Taeler Hendrix made her Shimmer debut against Thunderkitty, defeating the wrestler with “over 50 years experience” through nefarious methods. Taeler has a striking look and gear and carries herself such that she was immediately established as a heel. I honestly didn’t think this match came together particularly well, but they told the story they needed to and set up for a rematch with Taeler’s cheating.
Leva Bates‘ match with Candice LeRae suffered a bit from a large portion of the crowd (including me) not getting the reference to Stranger Things of the character Leva was cosplaying. The telekinesis jokes were understandable regardless though, and with both wrestlers being fan favorites this was fairly well received.
The Rejected (Christina Von Eerie & Hudson Envy) faced BaleSpin (KC Spinelli & Xandra Bale) as a result of the post-match events following Envy vs Bale from Volume 86. As appropriate for the issues between the two teams BaleSpin forwent their usual entrance to rush the ring and start brawling. Rejected look good as a team and got a definitive victory here to seemingly start to establish them in Shimmer’s tag ranks.
Rhia O’Reilly continued her momentum from Volume 87 by defeating Cherry Bomb. Rhia and Cherry are two of the most consistent, and perhaps underrated, members of the Shimmer roster. They played off each other well for a solid match.
Cat Power also built off of her victory the previous night with a hard fought win over Mia Yim. This was one of the best of the day. Mia was impressive as always and Cat really knows how to work against quicker opponents.
Another big debut for the weekend saw Dulce Garcia (Sexy Star) wrestle in a Shimmer ring for the first time against mainstay LuFisto. Dulce was welcomed by the crowd and an increasingly aggressive Lufisto was a good choice for her initial opponent.
Shimmer has been doing a good job of putting fun mixes of wrestlers together into 4-way matches, and the first of the weekend saw Shayna Baszler (w/ Nicole Savoy) vs Vanessa Kraven (w/ Tessa Blanchard) vs Kay Lee Ray vs Heidi Lovelace. Amusing prematch moment saw one of MMA’s “Four Horsewomen” Baszler eyeball Tessa over her “Four Horsemen” association via her father. Tessa shied away from Baszler a bit and hid behind Kraven.
Good action all around here, with KLR and Heidi working together at times to counter their larger opponents and Kraven and Baszler showing having a fun “anything you can do…” competition in the middle of the match. In the end Tessa helped Kraven to victory to both continue to highlight the various elements of their ongoing alliance and also to set up Kraven as a title challenger.
The crowd was chomping at the bit for unlikely face Saraya Knight to get her hands on Nicole Matthews, and their match here was simply and effectively set up to increase that emotion and build anticipation. This was short and the audience was given just a couple of moments to cheer before the Kimber Bombs interfered to hand Matthews an opening and the victory. An effective tease of what was to come.
Matthews and the Bombs continue the assault after the match, which prompts Rhia to try the save. Numbers are still against them until Mickie James runs out. While Mickie, Saraya, and Rhia are perhaps the most unlikely alliance in Shimmer history, it’s a nice play off of her match the previous night with Matthews and sets up a big six-woman match for the next volume.
In the main event of Volume 87, Mercedes Martinez defended her Shimmer Championship against Kellie Skater. Kellie earned this shot by pinning the champ in tag action at Shimmer 87. As expected from two athletes of their caliber, this was a solid match, but to be honest the crowd was a bit tepid since this really seemed like a foregone conclusion match to establish Mercedes reign. NO ONE expected her to lose the belt in her first defense, regardless of the opponent.
Things did pick up near the end as Shazza McKenzie came out to counter Trifecta’s interference and chased Baszler off with a pipe (swinging it in Baszler’s direction would have been better, but it played well enough). Left alone, Mercedes and Kellie traded finisher attempts until they became intertwined in a small package and rolled around for a LONG time as the crowd waited to see who would get control. Fantastic spot. It ended and a three count was made with some teasing of a double pin, but from my angle Kellie’s shoulders were clearly up and sure enough a NEW Shimmer Champion is announced!
The Shimmer faithful ADORE Kellie Skater and combined with the shock of ending Mercedes’ reign in her first defense the crowd explodes. Huge moment.
During intermission the roster photo was taken for the weekend, then the wrestler’s all went out to the merchandise tables as usual to meet the fans and sell t-shirts and photos. Always a great atmosphere.
WDSS!
Volume 88
Marti Belle returned to Shimmer after missing the June tapings and defeated KC Spinelli in the opening match of Volume 88.
Jessicka Havok’s rematch with Tessa Blanchard was next, and as expected it came down to the “banned from ringside” Kraven sneaking out anyway to give Tessa the victory (in this case by hitting Havok with a spare turnbuckle part). I like the dynamic between Tessa and Kraven, but that particular part of it is honestly getting old. Match was fine though and got the point across.
The middle of the show featured Mia Yim vs a returning Nevaeh, Allysin Kay vs Candice LeRae, and Veda Scott vs Solo Darling. All were fine for what they were, with reasonable action and obvious outcomes. Nevaeh got an unusual face reaction for her return, and credit to both her and Mia for going with it and doing a mutual respect handshake after the match. Allysin Kay has become so crisp and smooth in the ring and is fully in command of her character, so it’s great to see her remaining a regular participant in Shimmer. Solo Darling’s act isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it amuses most of the audience and her hiding from Veda in the front row here got a good reaction.
Mercedes Martinez snapped back after her title loss to Skater by defeating Nixon Newell in an excellent match. Mercedes did a good job playing off the crowd’s taunting chants of “where’s your title?” “Kellie’s got it.” Great showing for Newell, who plays the underdog role wonderfully. This may have been my favorite of the day.
The Rejected’s (Christina Von Eerie & Hudson Envy) victory over BaleSpin was apparently enough to earn them a shot at Slap Happy (Evie & Heidi Lovelace) for the SHIMMER Tag Team Championships. Really wish they had at least one more victory first. Just seemed way too soon for this as one win (over a team with only one win in Shimmer none-the-less) shouldn’t earn a title match.
That said, either way I was happy to see these teams face off, and this was a very good match with the Rejected given the champs a lot of trouble before Slap Happy persevered and retained.
Building off of Shazza McKenzie chasing Shayna Baszler away during Mercedes’ title defense on Volume 87, the two faced off in a grudge match of sorts. Baszler is amazing for her level of experience. Shazza looked good against her until the end, which I’ll have to talk about in some detail.
Baszler lost her temper while battling Shazza on the outside, wrapped the latter’s leg around the guardrail, and refused to let go until the ref was forced to disqualify her.
I was fine with this finish to continue their issue and set up a future match. The problem was as soon as the ref DQ’d Baszler and a bevy of officials pulled her off, Shazza sat up from her position on the rail and perched herself on the rail making “come and get me” hand motions at Baszler. Again – she BALANCED herself on the GUARDRAIL on her bad knee SECONDS after Baszler got DQ’d in uncontrolled rage showing a preference to do DAMAGE to Shazza’s knee rather than win.
They then did an admittedly intense pull apart brawl, but again Shazza ignored the leg. No limping, nothing. Look, credit where credit is due – Shazza’s good, showed appropriate intensity, and rose to the level the match needed (and just wait until we get to her gutsy performance on Volume 89). But to properly sell the story she shouldn’t have been standing/walking on the leg (at least not without showing difficulty), let alone perching on the guardrail. It made MMA trained Baszler’s offense look ineffective, and honestly made her look a bit stupid for getting DQ’d to do exactly ZERO damage.
Hot and well done angle otherwise, but if Shimmer’s going to continue to push Shazza at the upper-card level she really needs to pay better attention to her selling.
Next Cat Power continued her clear march to a Shimmer title shot by defeating Kay Lee Ray, and having Cat face another established, high energy opponent was a fantastic choice and led to another great match. Getting to see her face Nixon on Volume 87, Mia on Volume 88 and Kay Lee Ray here was a treat. Kay Lee Ray continues to be a workhorse for Shimmer, with this match being among the day’s best as well as being involved in the best from Friday and Sunday.
Mickie James had her second and final match of the weekend as she teamed with Saraya Knight & Rhia O’Reilly against TheKimber Bombs (Cherry Bomb & Kimber Lee) & Nicole Matthews. Saraya started off with some great comedy moments involving her scaring the daylights out of the Bombs.
Once the match settled down Rhia worked the majority for the “faces” and later Mickie ended up picking up the win for a crowd pleasing moment to see see her off with. Mickie’s two matches formed a decent little story and, while not being a weekend of dream matches per se, were a fine use of her in her Shimmer debut.
Also, things were set up well to again give a little taste of the Saraya / Matthews conflict without blowing it off yet.
In the main event Vanessa Kraven (w/Tessa Blanchard) challenged Kellie Skater for the SHIMMER Championship in a good first defense for Kellie. Kraven is of course physically imposing as well as a dominating wrestler which allowed Kellie to play a slight underdog role even as champion. Tessa eventually gets caught trying to interfere and ejected, and Kellie defeats Kraven to retain.
Decent shows overall from Shimmer on day 2 including a big, surprising development.
Day 3 thoughts to follow. 🙂
Always great to see Heart of Shimmer Champion Nicole Savoy and nice to meet the Queen of Spades Shayna Baszler.
November 16, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY
In addition to the general high quality of NXT’s in ring action, it is currently populated with numerous wrestlers I’ve followed for years before they came to NXT. Add in the fact that in all my time in the NYC area I’ve never been to a show at MSG, and I was beyond excited for NXT’s debut at The Theater at MSG.
Just days away from NXT Takeover Toronto, WWE presented an NXT show that foreshadowed that event nicely and had great matchups that built throughout the night. The Theater is a good venue, with no bad seats and a fun feel.
The show opened with crowd favorite No Way Jose against Roderick Strong. As I’ll say about several others on this show, the crowd was obviously quite familiar with Roddy from his time at ROH, Evolve, etc. Jose has improved quite a bit since I first saw him, and had the crowd suitably fired up all match. These two had good chemistry and put on a fun opener leading to a feel good win for the crowd by Jose. Shane McMahon (who was watching from the front row) danced with Jose on his way out to a big pop.
Tag action from the women’s division was next as Peyton Royce & Billie Kay faced Liv Morgan & Daria. I think the heel gimmick / persona is really working well for the former Jessie McKay. The Jersey team got a hometown-like reception (including to Liv coming out eating pizza), leading to good crowd involvement for this one. The more established heel duo picked up the win.
Elias Samson came out to sing and man did he get booed. Hard to tell if it was entirely “we want someone to come out and shut you up” heat or “we just want you to go away” heat, but I can see why NXT is trying to run with it. After a couple of verses insulting NY, he’s interrupted by Oney Lorcan to a big reaction. In addition to just wanting Samson shut down I again bet a good portion of the crowd was familiar with Lorcan from his indie days as Biff Busick. Best match I’ve seen from Samson, as he and Lorcan had a decent, hard hitting encounter which the later come out on top of to please the crowd.
TM61 vs SAnitY (Alexander Wolfe and Sawyer Fulton). The SAnitY gimmick certainly has impact and presence.Not really familliar with Sawyer and Fulton, but they looked fine here as slightly psychotic bruisers. TM61 did some of their trademark high flying to keep the energy high here, and got a quick rollup in the end for the expected victory given they’re in the Dusty Classic finals.
Eric Young joined his proteges for a beatdown of TM61 after the match, but was interrupted byTye Dillinger making the save. The members of the tag match all bailed to the back while Young warned Tye about getting into their business and challenged him for “later tonight.” As the advertised lineup order would have it, Tye instead insisted it happen immediately.
Dillinger’s really coming along in refinement of both his ringwork and character and the audience was strongly behind him against SAnitY’s demented leader. The “10” chants were in full effect, including the audience taking over every count the ref did with “10” in place of whatever number was appropriate. I felt it was fine/amusing for this match, but when it continued later in the crowd it was wearing out its welcome. Like Daniel Bryan’s “Yes!” chants, when the crowd chants “10” when Tye’s not involved it could make it seem like the crowd likes only the chant, not Tye. Another feel good victory for the house show attendance here with Tye beating Eric.
After intermission the show resumed with a surprise appearance by NXT General Manager William Regal who made a short statement thanking everyone for coming.
Cedric Alexander is a fantastic wrestler and received quite the ovation coming out, but it was admittedly dwarfed by the crowd’s explosion when the first notes of BobbyRoode’s theme hit. Roode’s act is odd, as he’s fantastic at making people boo during certain spots in his match with his commitment to his heel work, but at all other points in time the audience just eats his act up and cheers him like crazy. A loud accompanying serenade of his theme from the crowd brought him to the ring, then in a … ahem… glorious moment when the song cut out just before the third repetition of the verses the crowd SANG THEM ANYWAY without the music. Roode was just looking around in wonder as our voices echoed through the venue.
The match itself was great, and right up with the two title matches for potential match of the night. Roode’s at his best with a fast, explosive babyface to play off of, and Cedric certainly fits the bill. Roode sneaks in a low blow before hitting his finisher to put away the upstart. Would love to see an extended program between these two at some point.
Photo by David Powers.
Asuka (c) defended her NXT Women’s Championship in a triple threat against Ember Moon and Nikki Cross. Always a joy to see my favorite wrestler ply her craft, and this was a particular treat as she faced two other Shimmer alumni in Athena (Moon) and Nikki Storm (Cross). Weird seeing Cross in a gimmick where she doesn’t speak much given her incredible promo skills, but she’s doing well giving an unhinged, dangerous vibe for her character. This was the expected solid work from the exceptional level of talent involved.
The champion triumphant. Photo by David Powers.
Speaking of Shimmer, I coincidentally saw Asuka’s Takeover Toronto opponent Mickie James’ return to the ring the weekend right before this show at Shimmer 86. It will be an awesome end to the week to watch them face off after getting to see each live in preparation.
The main event was a star studded 6-man tag featuring Shinsuke Nakamura & DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa) vs Samoa Joe & The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson). NYC loves it some Samoa Joe. Once the match started the crowd was firmly behind the babyfaces, but during entrances Joe got a pop equal to DIY and Nakamura. Speaking of entrances and Shinsuke, the audience did the Bobby Roode trick again and hummed Nakamura’s theme for another round after the music stopped.
All six men are excellent in their roles, and with “Johnny Wrestling’s” firm fanbase and Nakamura’s one of a kind presence this was an electric main event. Both pairs of Joe and Shinsuke and DIY and Revival interacted in ways that whet appetites for their big matches this Sat. The faces prevailed here to cap off the night on a high note. DIY doing Nakamura’s pose with him afterwards was highly amusing.
Overall
Really good, fun show from top to bottom. Hope they did well enough to run The Theater again sometime, because it provided a great atmosphere.
*Thanks to David Powers for additional photos as marked.
Derailments of Thought 