To everybody who came out to Berwyn over the weekend to be a part of SHIMMER, from all of the fans who bought tickets, to all of our miscellaneous crew members who helped out with the production of the live events, to the wrestlers themselves who worked so hard over the course of those two days to give everyone the best shows they can... THANK YOU! These weekends would not be possible without a true team effort from everyone involved with SHIMMER in any way.
This was our biggest weekend of live events in every aspect. We had our largest weekend live gate in the history of the company, filling the venue on two consecutive days with fans paying $70 & $30 per day to financially support what we are doing and keep us in business. It was also, obviously, the largest roster of talent we've ever had on a given weekend, so thus it was also the most expensive shows we've ever put together.
Including SPARKLE, there were 49 women who wrestled on these shows. In hindsight, if there's one thing I would change about the weekend, it would be booking fewer wrestlers to appear. I guess one of my biggest faults is trying to give opportunities to too many wrestlers, but in the future, it will absolutely never be that big of a talent list again. All four of the DVDs from this past weekend are going to be well over three hours in length. It was just overkill, and made for too many matches to attempt fit everyone in. The shows will flow better with a smaller crew. We're just going to have to do more of a rotation of some of the talent from one taping to the next in order to keep everything more reasonable.
It was an absolute pleasure to begin working with both Kana and Yumi Ohka this past weekend. We are already discussing their respective returns to SHIMMER next year. If you have the chance this coming weekend to see either Kana at CHIKARA (along with Sara Del Rey, Madison Eagles, and Jessie McKay), or Ohka at nCw Femmes Fatales (along with Tomoka Nakagawa and the rest of the FF crew), go out of your way to do so.
Saraya and Britani Knight once again brought their "A game" to the Berwyn Eagles Club and made for some unforgettable moments and matches for Volumes 41-44. It has been an honor to have both of the Knights as part of SHIMMER during the eight DVDs we filmed during 2011. The Knight family as a whole should be given all the credit in the world for their contributions to women's wrestling.
A lot of relatively newer talent to the SHIMMER roster stood out over the weekend as well, putting in solid performances and giving us all just a glimpse of what they might be capable of going forward. Both Courtney Rush and Mia Yim continue to develop into stronger all around wrestlers. Davina Rose did an excellent job when given the ball to run with. Despite injury, Athena caught everyone's attention once again with her fantastic athleticism. Hailey Hatred and Kalamity both came through in their debuts as well, which should be no surprise given their success in other parts of the world.
Women like Sara Del Rey, Allison Danger, Cheerleader Melissa, Mercedes Martinez, MsChif, Daizee Haze, Nikki Roxx, Ariel, and Lexie Fyfe, who have all been a part of this project for the past six years, are such an integral part of these events. I couldn't ask for a stronger foundation than that. All three of the PWWA girls have become just as essential to our product ever since 2008 as well. Madison was such a great representative of our promotion during her time as SHIMMER Champion, and will always be one of the most important parts of our locker room. The S-Ovation crew, Ayako, the Ninjas... I could go on and on, but I would just have to list everybody. So, I'll list everybody. Thank you to all of the wrestlers who made this past weekend possible! In no particular order, 49...
1. Tomoka Nakagawa
2. Daizee Haze
3. Madison Eagles
4. Cheerleader Melissa
5. Sara Del Rey
6. Nikki Roxx
7. Mia Yim
8. Mercedes Martinez
9. Ashley Lane
10. Athena
11. LuFisto
12. MsChif
13. Kalamity
14. Portia Perez
15. Nicole Matthews
16. Kana
17. Melanie Cruise
18. Courtney Rush
19. Christina Von Eerie
20. Allison Danger
21. Jessie McKay
22. Kellie Skater
23. Mena Libra
24. Leva Bates
25. Saraya Knight
26. Serena Deeb
27. Nevaeh
28. Yumi Ohka
29. Hiroyo Matsumoto
30. Ayako Hamada
31. Sassy Stephie
32. Ayumi Kurihara
33. Hailey Hatred
34. Taylor Made
35. Ariel
36. Britani Knight
37. Davina Rose
38. KC Spinelli
39. Mia Svensson
40. She-Nay-Nay
41. Kimberly Maddox
42. Veda Scott
43. Buggy
44. Bonesaw
45. Cherry Bomb
46. Allysin Kay
47. Su Yung
48. Jett Riley
49. December
Special thanks also to Sal Hamaoui, David Puente, Buddy LaMantia, Gilda Pasquil, and our whole production crew who will make these DVD releases possible. We're beginning work on them right away to get these out as soon as we can. Also thank you to everyone at AAW who made a triple shot weekend at the Eagles Club a reality, the TNA, ROH, WWE, SMASH and WAVE offices for allowing the talent list to be as complete as it was, Michael Anthony's Restaurant & Bar for bailing us out when our initial sponsor flaked, Kevin Harvey, Pat Creed, Bryce Remsburg, Andy Long, PJ Drummond, Hachiro Suzuki, Matt Nordstrom, Shiori Yamaki, Yoshitake Hatada, and everyone else I'm forgetting... thanks for all of your hard work! And finally, once again, thank you to all of the fans for supporting what we're trying to do to contribute to the 2011 wrestling scene in our own small way.