Welcome to the first Rival Angels break ever! That’s about 5 years and 750 pages. We’ll be back on Wednesday, January 2nd I thought I would fill the time with some great art and articles from friends and readers alike. Our first break-blog-guest post is from my friend Michelle Timian. I invited Michelle to her first wrestling show ever, which happened to be this fall’s SHIMMER show and below are her thoughts on it. Thanks Michelle and to everyone else, enjoy!- Alan
Thunderkitty armbars Nikki St. John
I was pretty surprisedwith Alan asked my during the summer if I would like to attend the annual SHIMMER show in October. I have been on a complete attend-everything swing this year and with my curiosity for new things in full bloom, I took Alan up on his offer.
I had no idea what to expect, being a complete newbie in the pro-wrestling scene. Except for what I’ve read in Rival Angels, I know nothing, so it was a completely new experience for me! My first impression walking into the building was the…um, arena? Help me out here, Alan! The thing with the ropes. Because it was so typical, so very expected! We sat pretty close, which made me nervous…plus, it was before Halloween, so there were a lot of people in costumes (the best going for the banana suit guy getting harassed all day long by the man wearing an orangutan mask).
The first show/battle/help-me-out-here-Alan was a bunch of dudes. It was high time for a bathroom break so I didn’t see much of the action, except that the banging around on the mat was loud enough for me to hear it one floor up, and it was not a subtle sound. Yikes, what a way to start my day!
But the real fun started with the ladies showed up, who were true athletes! Nearly all of them were able to do some sort of wild acrobatic move and the amount of punishment, punches, holds, flips, etc. they held up was astonishing. Acting or not, those gals WORKED out there and I was just about as breathless as they were then the fight was done.
Watching just a few matches made me understand why Alan started Rival Angels. There is so much drama and heart out there, so much story happening, that it was addicting. It was like theatre, but with pain involved (which is totally fine by me). During any breaks in the action, when Alan wasn’t cluing me in to what was going on, I had ideas of my own characters…it was simply fun, exciting to watch and instantly engaging.
What I didn’t like were the amount of matches where 1) the villain wasn’t clear cut and 2) the villain won. Some villains were amazing (see below for more) but when I didn’t know who to root for…I felt lose, not sure what to do, disengaged. So that was my only complaint about the show.
Allison Kay and Taylor Made
My absolute favorite part of the whole event though was…the refs. Boy, were those guys hilarious! I loved watching them, I loved their dedication to the role…in fact, it took me a while to realize they were as much a part of the show and not, ya know, actual refs. (newbie alert!) As for the girls, there were two villains at the very beginning who totally impressed me! They were exactly who you’d want as a villain: they were sinisterly sexy, sneered at everyone and were bitchy enough that when their asses got handed to them, it was incredibly satisfying!
So thanks to Alan for being a great guide and recommending a totally new experience for me! Definitely upped my appreciation for and understanding of Rival Angels!
The SHIMMER roster
Great stuff! By the way, I love the pic of Thunderkitty!
Thunderkitty is WAY cool.
She’s done very well creating an old school, old Hollywood look for herself.
Regarding the who to root for thing: I had the same experience in the first live show I attended. I was already familiar with wrestling in general, just not this particular outfit. You kind of follow along with the crowd a bit, but it’s not always clear at first.
By the end of the match, you can usually tell, though. 😀
Right on. 😉
Great point. Some of the women in SHIMMER may be heels in other companies while being faces or tweeners for them, so it can change.
Here’s the key: ALWAYS root for Portia Perez. Good or bad, root for Portia Perez. Is she not in the match? Still root for her, in the hopes that she’ll come liven up the event. 🙂
Wise, wise words.
Actually, I’m a big fan of that other Canadian Ninja. XD
Sorry to disagree with you, boss, but there is none greater than Portia. She is the best there is. The best there was and the best… there ever will be.
Good article and a fun one. Wish they had a SHIMMER show around here.
WORD. More SHIMMER equals only goodness, though I’ve also heard good things about SHINE.
MsChif and Alysin Kay did an ROH TV appearance not long ago. Best match on the program I feel but the idiot announcers still talked over most of it – about nothing no one cared about.
Man, that’s just like TNA or (BRA, XD) where one of the highest rated bits of the show are the ladies. It’s not even a question of whether you like it or not, but the actual ratings can’t be disputed.
But to be fair, I haven’t watched TNA in a while so that could’ve well changed.
Watching either WWE or TNA with an eye towards women’s wrestling is very nearly equally infuriating. WWE has at least stopped the one-minute matches, but the angles and out of the ring treatment of their women is still insulting.
With TNA, the problem is that I usually find my intelligence insulted long before I can even make it to a women’s match.
Lets just face it guys, women in mainstream wrestling will NEVER get the same respect, treatment or any creative advantages that they do otherwise in the indies….its best to stick with the indies for the time being to be honest as this is not a great era in mainstream womens wrestling to actually get into womens wrestling you know?
Yep, I feel the same way and that’s what I’ve set up Battling Ring Angels to emulate that. They only exist as part of the MWA but their matches are constantly at the top of the ratings despite Atlas and Matsumoto not giving them more time. I’m just glad to have SHIMMER, SHINE and other great avenues until mainstream gets hip.