Volume 61Nevaeh vs Santana
Both women finished up their good weekends with a nice solid opener. I was glad to see Nevaeh get a singles match over the weekend. I was quite shocked while watching Volume 53 when Dave said on commentary that "Nevaeh isn't even on the roster!" I was like "She's not?! I thought she was just in rotation-out mode." Well if she wasn't on the roster, then hopefully she will be now. Perhaps not on every weekend, but at least one of the two weekends a year. The fact she's in an established tag team should help with that. Santana wins here which was just deserves after her match with MM last show.
Jessicka Havok vs Crazy Mary Dobson
Jessicka Havok is an amazing talent. I just wanted to start with that before I gush over Mary Dobson as she was freaking fantastic here! I know you are going to call me stupid, but I genuinely for a while thought Dobson would shock the world here! I was getting serious 123 Kid vs Razor Ramon vibes from this. Alas she lost, but damn did she look like a star here! Dobson got a standing ovation and a "please come back!" chant and Id be shocked if she doesn't. For Havok it was a weekend where not a lot happened for her. Brief glimpse of a face turn against Eagles, but nothing came of it. Hopefully in the Spring she'll have more to get her teeth into, but this was a textbook example of how to beat someone and still make them look superb.
Angie Skye vs Mia Yim
Skye came out to a great reception, which was possibly due to people like me being happy to see her on the main shows at last. Any chance of her being the crowd favourite ended as soon as Mia Yim's music started though. (I was doing my best to get "Mia" chants going whenever I could! lol) The had a great little match here with Yim winning with the 450 again. I'm constantly worried she's going to bang her head on these high-risk moves! Nice to see Skye get on a DVD and Yim's reactions all weekend could not have gone unnoticed.
Taylor Made vs Thunderkitty
Thunderkitty is a great babyface. Her replying to Made making the ref check her with "Okay. Trailer Made!" got one of the loudest pops of the weekend it seemed. Thunder, THUNDER,
THUNDER KITTY kept doing stuff like that too, which turned what could have been a meaningless match into an enjoyable contest and you need to give Taylor Made credit for her reactions to the digs too.
Nicole Matthews vs Heidi Lovelace
Good fight from Lovelace, but there was little doubt that Matthews had to win this one! Hopefully we have more Heidi next time. I want to see more of her. I've also got to mention Matthews pouring coffee onto Eagle's shirt during her entrance. Excellent stuff and I look forwards to their next match. Oh and again Matthews whispered something into Harvey's ear who then shockingly said "I'M NOT SAYING THAT!" Haha
Nikki Storm vs Leva Bates
Something that I only got a couple of days after the show was that Storm was calling herself the best in the universe... so it makes sense that she would lose to someone from a galaxy far, far away, Han Solo Leva Bates. Bates being hailed from a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" and winking as Harvey said that was amazing. Sigh, Leva's just perfect. Storm destroying Bate's Chewbacca teddy was brilliant. I was confused by Bate's using a pedigree as I thought that was one of CVE's finishers. The Pepsi Plunge was wow!!!! Damn that was a great ending. I'm not sure I would have ended Storm's streak so early, but that was a great way to do it and the fact Storm kicked out of so much (I thought she was beat 3 or 4 times!) made her look strong. 3-1
MsChif vs MsNatural
This was the show with insane finishers! Following up from the Pepsi Plunge in the last match we had MsChif's Obliteration, which looked deadly! The match was entertaining with MsChif changing up her moveset by doing her jumping corner stomps on the other side of the ropes was a nice spot.
Portia Perez vs Hiroyo Matsumoto
Earlier in the show was the cutest promo ever by Hiroyo saying she can not go back to Japan without her Godzilla mask and her sad face when she came out for the match made me go "awww". Portia's entrance though was one of the greatest things ever! I kind of wish she stole Shida's kendo stick after the Matthews match to make it even better lol. The match was a lot of fun and ended as it should Portia hitting the turnbuckle she exposed and MsChif and Thunderkitty running out to reclaim their stuff. Sometimes the obvious booking really is the best way forward!
3G vs Kimber Bomb
Great match. I think I may have even preferred this to 3G vs Lukana. Following on from the two crazy finishes this one ended in a tower of doom with poor Cherry Bomb being the victim thanks to Kimber Lee's stupid Dick Dastardly plan and like Dick Dastardly there was no need to even try the high spot, they were already on top of the match! Hilarious
After the match I said to Cherry on the outside that in future that she should ignore Kimber Lee's advice and that she was the brains of the outfit and I had a laugh with them both at the after party about that- it was funny seeing Cherry ribbing Kimber about it in characters. For a while I thought we were going to have new tag team champions once Kimber Bomb nailed their tag finisher but Skater made the save at the last minute. Really good.
Saraya Knigt vs Cristina Von Eerie
Sadly we were really running out of time time I assume as the last three matches all suffered from not being long enough. Now Saraya did say on the last volume that the 3 Stages of Hell match was going to be done British style, so maybe the 5 minute time limits were planned from the start, but it was an odd way of doing the match. The 2nd fall was hurt too because they seemed to be waiting for the time to expire for 40 seconds or so. It was announced that you had to win 2 matches to be declared the winner, but surely if you just win the last one and draw the first two then that's good enough? Sadly due to the time constraints, the complex rules (so Saraya can only tie the match after losing the 2nd fall?) and Christina Von Eerie's belts falling apart (seriously where did those brass knuckles come from?) it was hard to get excited until the final fall. On the forum a few months back we discussed blood and most of us didn't want any, so I'm sure some were put off by this. A family show where someone staples dollars and Shimmer tickets to someone's head? I didn't mind it so much, I hope it doesn't happen again anytime soon though that's for sure. In hindsight this match would have worked better if it was no holds barred from the very start, but hindsight's a wonderful thing and hey at least we got a cool visual out of it.
Madison Eagles vs Hikaru Shida vs Kana
I'm guessing we had a last minute change here with Kana thrown in. This was phenomenal while it lasted and got the only "this is awesome" chant all weekend. The fork vs the kendo stick vs Kana's spoon spot was so funny. Never seen Kana do comedy before. She does it well. Really wish this had at least an extra five minutes. In hindight again perhaps making it a five way with Lufisto and Mercedes too as they still could have ended the show the same way no doubt, but had a much longer match. Anyway this was great while it lasted and Eagles wins once more!
Lufisto vs Mercedes Martinez
The second time these two faced off this weekend. I'm assuming that's part of the reason they changed this up and had them brawl through the crowd, or maybe it was to make up for the length of the match. Either way I approve. It was great fun seeing my first crowd brawl after watching so many on DVD. The ending with Melissa returning (keeping her DVD appearance record, if not her DVD match streak alive) and attacking Lufisto had me angry in a 'I can't wait to see these two get their arses kicked' way, so the booking worked here.
Overall I had a blast. There were some real breakout performances by Mia Yim, Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb. Su Yung looked great in her two matches also. Great debuts by Shida, Storm and Dobson while the regulars like Eagles, Matthews, Melissa, Lufisto, 3G, Kana, Matsuoto, Perez, Saraya, Mercedes etc were all great as expected. I also wanted to say how great all the wrestlers were at the after parties. I didn't speak to a lot of them, but the ones I did interact with like Lisa Marie Vachon, Kimber Lee, Cherry Bomb, Nikki Storm, the Joshis were all lovely. Su Yung especially coming to the after party Saturday and staying to the end, taking dozens of photographs despite being injured AND still being the nicest person in the world was a class act and impressed me as much as her wrestling did. All four volumes had matches that I loved, so here's my top 15 of the weekend.
1. Cheerleader Melissa vs Lufisto- Volume 60
2. Madison Eagles vs Nicole Matthews- Volume 58
3. Madison Eagles vs Kana vs Hikaru Shida- Volume 61
4. Hikaru Shida vs Nicole Matthews- Volume 59
5. Kana vs Kimber Lee- Volume 59
6. Mia Yim vs Hikaru Shida- Volume 58
7. 3G vs Kimber Bomb- Volume 61
8. Madison Eagles vs Mia Yim- Volume 59
9. Cheerleader Melissa vs Hiroyo Matsumoto- Volume 59
10. Hikaru Shida vs Nicole Matthews- Volume 60
11. 3G vs LuKana- Volume 58
12. Jessicka Havok vs Madison Eagles- Volume 60
13. Jessicka Havok vs Crazy Mary Dobson- Volume 61
14. Nikki Storm vs Leva Bates- Volume 61
15. Mercedes Martinez vs Lufisto- Volume 61
Honorable mentions would be CVE vs Saraya (61), Perez vs Matsumoto (61) and Angie Skye vs Mary Dobson (Sparkle).
I now need to save up money for the next tapings!