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Post by capricornscott on Feb 2, 2013 22:01:06 GMT -6
Does anyone know why the Glamour Gym vs April Davids and a Mystery Partner turned out to be a handicap match?
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Post by SHIMMER office on Feb 2, 2013 22:10:13 GMT -6
It was the debut of The Invisible Woman~!
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Post by capricornscott on Feb 2, 2013 22:20:20 GMT -6
Oh okay...that makes sense. I think April and Lexie should compare notes. It appears that their most recent tag team partners were equally as useful.
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Post by freaky on Feb 3, 2013 5:21:13 GMT -6
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Post by scarletspider on Feb 3, 2013 6:26:50 GMT -6
No Mans Land 2 was not Eve's best show. Naturally, some of this can be attributed to bad luck, Nikita's accident taking one of the matches off the card for example. But even taking that into account, there were still some odd booking choices and a slightly rushed feel to much of the event.
The show kicked off about half an hour late. Granted, that's not especially unusual for an Eve show, but whereas normally that would just mean the show would finish a little later, the subsequent PCW show after NML2 meant Eve were on a clock. And it showed.
As we've established, the first match came about out of neccessity. It was OK for what it was, but I'm not a fan of three way matches. And as much as I like Alpha, when you've got Shanna and KLR in a ring together, personally, that's the match I wanna see. All three women did a fantastic job in the match, but whenever you add a powerhouse wrestler to a match, it's always going to get a little formulaic and that's what happened. It was also pretty inevitable that Alpha would take the win, which again seemed a shame given that Shanna and KLR are both short of victories in Eve (KLR, ridiculously so).
Next up was She-X vs Rhia and Ayesha. On paper, that's a potentially great match. But what we got was a few minutes of brawling outside the ring. It's always disappointing when you don't see wrestlers wrestling, but in the case of Rhia and Ayesha, it's now getting a bit silly. Since their formation as a team three show's ago, we've seen them beat the Blossoms in a short impromptu match that maybe went a few minutes; walk out of a match at the last show, after barely gettting involved; and now, not even get in the ring before having the 'match' declared a no-contest.
And I'm not sure where this leaves both She-X and AmaReilly in the tag tourny? Are both teams now out? Or will there be a rematch? Outside of the Owens and the Glamour Gym, and despite only being formed a few shows ago in both cases, they're the only other established tag teams in Eve, so eliminating both teams from the tournament would seem a little strange.
The tournament continued with the Owens vs Pollyana Peppers and Kirsty Love. This was a good match, with both teams playing to their strengths. Whilst they were the heels in this bout (as basically anyone facing the Lovely Peppers would be!), I'm still not sure the Owens are outright heels. For now, their status seems to change depending on who they're wrestling.
I don't know if April's 'mystery' tag partner really was a no show, or if it was always the intent that said partner wouldn't show and April would face the Glamour Gym alone. Another decent match. April's good enough that she could hold her own against Carmel and Sara Marie without it looking too implausible. Had she won, that might have suspended disbelief a bit too much, so the result was the right one.
Nikki vs Emi was, unsurprisingly, the match of the show. For one thing, it was the only (standard) singles match on the entire card, which was unusual in itself. And it goes without saying with Emi and Nikki in the ring, it's always going to be special. From a purely personal perspective, I would have like to see more Nikki in the match; for the bulk of the action, she was on the receiving end. But I was more than happy with the result.
That said, Nikki's second title win did feel considerably more muted than her victory at the last show. Whilst this match was obviously a lot more technical than Nikki's encounter with Alpha, it lacked a lot of the intensity and history of her first title win. And that's not simply due to the absence of any car doors. When Nikki won in Sudbury, it was something you could tangibly feel (It's still real to me dammit!). It was a proper fist-punching, there's-something-in-my-eye moment. That feeling just wasn't there yesterday. In part, perhaps, cos this was a largely PCW audience who weren't as invested in Nikki's story. But also, as a regular, as happy as I was to see the title back in Nikki's hands, it simply felt like it shouldn't have left them in the first place.
Only Eve can know if putting the belt on Emi did reap the intended rewards. People here have said it raised Eve's profile in Japan, but I'm not sure if the benefits of that outweigh the loss of momentum for Nikki. And what does that 'raised profile' in Japan actually mean for Eve in the long term? With the absence of DVD's, Eve's income right now is all about ticket sales and iPPV orders. And in terms of a Japanese audience, the latter is obviously the main target. But given that Emi has now lost the title, and with the next PPV not being until May(?), I don't know if we'll see an increased level of interest by that time.
Back to yesterday's show and the last match of the afternoon was the 15 minute warning match. By now, time definitely seemed to be working against Eve cos this seemed very rushed indeed. Kay Lee and Carmel opened the match and proceeded to wrestle around the venue. In the meantime, people came and went in very rapid succession. One of the odder moments was AmaReilly in the ring (with Shanna) triple teaming Bete, naturally leading people to assume Viper would be out next to make the save. Instead, Bete was beat down and eliminated, and THEN Viper came out to suffer much the same fate.
As for the finish, whilst KLR getting cheated by Sara Marie was not an unusual outcome in terms of how Rumble matches often play out, having another heel as Nikki's first title-challenger seems like an odd decision. Unless the plan is turn Nikki face, but that seems even odder.
So, there you go. Between late running, time constraints and some strange booking choices, this was not a classic. The actual wrestling itself was very good from everyone in (and often out!) of the ring. But the show itself often felt rushed, disjointed and sometimes a little messy.
On a final note, I would like to say that if yesterday proved anything, it proved that Kay Lee Ray is harder than David Haye!
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Post by indymark75 on Feb 3, 2013 21:03:44 GMT -6
EVE, no DVD's? *gulp*
As for Nikki Storm, she seems a pretty tough lass, hope she'll make it to the U.S. someday.
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Post by JenniferL134 on Feb 4, 2013 1:03:08 GMT -6
Dann can't find a reliable person to produce the DVDs. However he has started putting up matches for download, kinda like ClickWrestle does. Well worth the money to support them until/if he does find someone to produce them again.
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Post by scarletspider on Feb 4, 2013 4:22:37 GMT -6
Dann can't find a reliable person to produce the DVDs. However he has started putting up matches for download, kinda like ClickWrestle does. Well worth the money to support them until/if he does find someone to produce them again. They do have some DVD's out. But they stopped midway through their title tournament (and No Man's Land also seems to be available too) www.evewrestling.com/shopThe downloads are only currently available (as far as I know) via their Facebook page. www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.455297057839259.93307.118503628185272&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.455297057839259.93307.118503628185272&type=3 I'm really hoping the Britani/Nikki tournament final sees the light of day soon. For some reason, every match from that second tournament show has been put up except for that one. |
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Post by themib on Feb 4, 2013 11:18:25 GMT -6
Emi Sakura has been announced for the Queen of the Ring show on May 25th in Nottingham.
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Post by scarletspider on Feb 5, 2013 6:42:53 GMT -6
From Kay Lee Ray's Facebook page...  Okay so a broken baby toe seems to be the funniest part of this weekend but unfortunately while I was at a&e yesterday getting my ankle looked at they notice, what they think is a pre existing fracture in the metatarsal bone in my left foot. Which they reckon by my symptoms has been there for a good few month. At the moment I am unsure how this will effect my wrestling but I will be making an appointment with a physio today and hopefully they will be able to advise the best way around this. Fingers crossed !! Kay Lee was due to face Shanna at an AAW show on Sunday night, but Emi subbed for her (in a match that apparently got a standing ovation). Hopefully she won't be out of action too long. |
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Post by themib on Feb 5, 2013 7:22:32 GMT -6
If that whole David Beckham thing hadn't happened many years ago, KLR could have got credit for people knowing what a metatarsal was.
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Post by freaky on Feb 5, 2013 9:24:07 GMT -6
Kay Lee was due to face Shanna at an AAW show on Sunday night, but Emi subbed for her (in a match that apparently got a standing ovation). I was there. You've never seen perceptions change so quickly or strongly in support of women's wrestling. It was utterly brilliant. |
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Post by gregorycameltrunk on Feb 5, 2013 10:55:32 GMT -6
Great to hear. Shanna is fantastic and deserves to be seen on an international scale in my opinion. I would love to have seen that match.
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Post by themib on Feb 6, 2013 14:38:12 GMT -6
EVE confirmed that three of the entrants for Queen of the Ring are international wrestlers. Looks like Emi Sakura and Leah von Dutch are two of them.
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Post by SHIMMER office on Feb 6, 2013 16:58:00 GMT -6
Kay Lee was due to face Shanna at an AAW show on Sunday night, but Emi subbed for her (in a match that apparently got a standing ovation). I was there. You've never seen perceptions change so quickly or strongly in support of women's wrestling. It was utterly brilliant. Awesome. It's funny how sometimes one match can sell an entire crowd on the concept of women as pro wrestlers. In the Chicago area, it was a six way match in Highland, IN that sort of "got things started" with the IWA women's division and eventually SHIMMER, because the match got over to the extent that it got both a standing ovation and fans asking for more women on the shows from that point forward. For those wondering, it was Lacey vs. MsChif vs. Daizee Haze vs. Mickie Knuckles vs. ODB vs. Rain. Kinda sucks that it was one of the few shows during that time frame that Smart Mark Video didn't shoot themselves, and the only two existing versions of it on video look terrible due to the cameras used. |
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