Stardom Birth of Nova Shinsei Tanjou! 1.23.11 music video

Ayako v Ayumi: SHIMMER 38 Wrestling Wally's photos

One of my favorite matches of the SHIMMER weekend in march was the marquee match-up between the great Ayako Hamada and wildly popular Ayumi Kurihara.  The match was the capstone of Saturday, March 26, the opening day at the Eagles Club in Berwyn.  The match did not disappoint.  A back and forth affair with wild high spots and top drawer Joshi stiffness between two Joshi all-time greats! 


I celebrate this match through the incomparable ring photographer, Wrestling Wally, who now makes his home in Kentucky and shoots midwest action now.  We miss Wally here on the East Coast, but it's great to know that he will still be a fixture in documenting the action at SHIMMER.  Enjoy these fine action shots!

ACW Women's Title Match: Kacee Carlisle v Mia Yim

April 16, 2011.  ACW (MD) Goldrush 2. 

Mia Yim, the challenger

Mia Yim comes out in her new green gear with a new Joshi "babyface" attitude.  The crowd loves her.  A cake is brought out and the announcer leads the crowd in singing happy 22nd birthday to Mia.  halfway through the song, Kacee Carlisle has heard enough, she comes storming out of the locker room and destroys the party atmosphere.  The ladies lock up and someone rings the bell.  Mia ends up on top of Kacee and gives her a fireman's carry into an arm bar.  It's going to take a lot more than an arm bar to strip the championship belt off of Kacee Carlisle.  Mia realizes that Kacee won't tap so she goes for the cover.  Kacee kicks out.  Mia gives Kacee some forearms to the chin and then whips her off the ropes.  The champ reverses the move into a Somoan Drop.  At this point both women are heated and things get really stiff.  Kacee begins to choke Mia, then chops her once, twice.  Mia retaliates with a forearm smash.  Kacee is now pissed -- she lights Mia up with a series of lightening fast chops that sting like a belly flop off the high dive.  As if that's not enough, Kacee returns to the choking and finally punctuates this beating with a vicious clothesline.  She goes for the cover, but Mia kicks out.

Kacee Carlisle, ACW Women's Champion

Kacee climbs to the second rope to "end this thing right here" and goes for a massive leg drop, but Mia rolls out from under it.  Mia then goes into a high-aerobic series of drop kicks, at least five or six of them, and ends with her patented missle drop kick.  The momentum has shifted and now Mia climbs to the top rope and unleashes a withering missle drop kick.  She goes for the cover 1...2... but Kacee kicks out in the nick of time.  Mia now gets exorcised and starts firing at the champion.  Kacee responds with a jaw-rocking forearm smash and then they start exchanging blows in the middle of the ring.  Mia is screaming with each blow she delivers to Carlisle as if bent on burying her.

Kacee gives Mia a stiff kick in 2010

Mia finally gains control and whips Kacee off the ropes, but Kacee reverses and tries to deliver the "coup de grace" with a tree-limb sized forearm.  But Mia ducks it, waits for Kacee to turn around, and then pounds her with more forearms.  Yim drives Carlisle back into the corner and the beating continues.  When she has softened her up adequately, Mia whips her across the ring to the opposite corner and goes charging after her with a pounding body slam, but with the deftness of a matador, Kacee steps aside and Mia crashes into the corner, stunned.  Kacee seizes the opportunity to roll Mia up and get the 3-count (though she had her feet up on the ropes for leverage).  Ironically this was exactly the way she defeated a much more limited Mia Yim in EWE one year ago (4/24/10), Mia's first match back after surgery.  The same roll-up and the same cheating finish -- legs on the rope for illegal added leverage on the pin.  In neither case did the ref catch the infraction and the pin stood up for the win.  By my reckoning, Mia is owed a good ref at the next meeting between these two.  I don't believe Kacee can beat her fair-and-square.

What a Difference a Year Makes: Yim v Carlisle

Kacee bullies Mia in ACW

Sometimes taking a look at history can be instructive.  It's my opinion that Mia Yim is the best young wrestler never to have won a title.  Mia has been wrestling professionally for just over 20 months (beginning in August of 2009).  Now, one day shy of her 22nd birthday, she will be in contention for a championship belt for only the third time.  Mia is a girl who has always had big dreams and is one of the smartest and most talented young wrestlers on the indy scene today.  Why do I say that?  Consider these points:

1) She trained for nearly a year before setting foot in a professional ring.  Why?  She wanted to be prepared.  She wanted to get it right.  All aspiring young wrestlers should learn from Mia's example on how to prepare yourself for the ring.

Mia v Mickie in NEW, fall 2010

2) She worked locally with good people; took what work was available; became committed to strong companies with excellent mentors.  She worked in the Chesapeake Bay area with VCW, ACW, and smaller companies in Virgina and West Virginia.  But when she got her break with JAPW, she hit a home run and endeared herself to Sara Del Rey who was one of her fierce advocates when she was only six months into the business.

3) She made the decision to get breast aumentation surgery in order to keep her options open for top TV promotions like WWE and TNA. 

4) She continued to train with men and desired to work with men in training and in the ring.  This shows that she acknowledges where the expertise and money is in the sport and wants to learn from the best so as to be a more dominant competitor against female opponents (and not intimidated by male opponents).

5) She became known as a hard worker and a fan favorite on the indy scene between D.C. and NY.  Therefore she got gigs with RCW and NEW and eventually CZW, SHIMMER, and ROH.  In these affiliations, Mia has worked Daizee Haze, MsChif, Mickie James, Sara Del Rey, Annie Social, and recently the likes of Allison Danger, Leva Bates, and Tomoka Nakagawa.  There are few 22-year-old wrestlers that can post an opponent list like that!

6) She is willing to manage/valet with CZW and ROH in order to keep her options open for ring work and in order to make strong wrestling world connections with promoters and wrestlers.

7) Apart from a TNA tryout last June, she has resisted the temptation of the two big promotions due to her desire to finish college and get her degree.  I admire this greatly and think she has her priorities exactly right. 

Kacee chokes Mia in EWE 4.24.2010

For all these reasons and more, Mia Yim has catapulted herself to the first rank of challenger who can legitimately contend for the JAPW, RCW, ACW, or SHIMMER title.  At this point all of these would be a reach except the ACW title that she challenges for tomorrow night in Baltimore, MD, versus Kacee Carlisle. 

Back to our history lesson.  The only time that Mia has faced Kacee in a 1 v 1 match was nearly one year ago, on April 24, 2010, when she was just coming off her implant surgery and had a tender chest and plenty of ring-rust.  They battled in EWE and Kacee squashed Mia who looked great but could not put up much of a fight.  The match would have been lucky to last 5 minutes.  Tomorrow will be a whole different matter.  Mia is in top physical condition and has faced more high-profile opponents in the last year that the highly experienced Kacee has.  Mia is poised to battle an indy icon for 10 minutes or even 15 minutes and take home her first title belt.  it's not guaranteed to happen, but mia has never been better situated to take a championship, or more well prepared to do so.  I believe she is due to win and I predict that on her birthday, Mia will be the ACW Women's Champion.

Mia makes her entrance vs. Kacee (EWE)

It's a big moment for both women -- it's Kacee's first title defense -- and I wish I could be there in person to see the action.  Congratualtions to ACW who have a great card!  not only do they have a mouth-watering women's championship match, they also have a phenomenal main event with Sabian taking on Shelton Benjamin -- Bam!

Mia taking and delivering a bump after her surgery

Kana vs. Kyoko Kimura (Part 1)

This was a defining match for Kana and the toughness that is her trademark today. She met her tough-girl match in Kyoko Kimura!

Kana vs. Kyoko Kimura (Part 2)

Daizee Haze and Tomoka Nakagawa defend SHIMMER tag belts at ROH

SHIMMER Tag Team Title Match:
Daizee Haze & Tomoka Nakagawa vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ayumi Kurihara

Story Credit: The Temp

Ayumi brings double knees to face of Nakagawa

Nakagawa and Matsumoto start off and Matsumoto runs over Nakagawa with a series of shoulderblocks, but Daizee comes in and nails Matsumoto from behind. Matsumoto bowls through a double clothesline attempt and hits a double crossbody for 2. Kurihara tags in and nails Nakagawa with a clothesline and locks in a kneeling figure four, but Daizee comes in and boots Kurihara in the chest and then Nakagawa goes to the eyes.

Team of Hiroyo Matsumoto and Ayumi Kurihara

Daizee tags in and does a fast paced sequence with Kurihara, who locks Daizee into the cross armbreaker in the ropes that actually drags Daizee over the top to the floor. Kurihara goes to the top and Nakagawa runs over and sprays water in her eyes, allowing Daizee to dump her off the top rope and cover for 2. Nakagawa snapmares Kurihara, rakes her boots across the face, and dropkicks her in the face for 2. Nakagawa gets caught with a running victory roll from Kurihara for 2, but Daizee runs across the ring and nails Matsumoto and they follow it up with a double baseball slide to Kurihara for 2. Nakagawa comes back in and gets caught with a dropkick, and Kurihara makes the hot tag to Matsumoto, who comes in and runs over both girls with shoulderblocks.

Ayumi hits Serena with German Suplex

Matsumoto went for the backdrop driver, Makagawa tries to counter to a victory roll, but Matsumoto hangs on and hits the suplex anyway. Daizee tries a sleeper on Matsumoto and hangs on her back, but Kurihara jumps onto Matsumoto's front and she carries them both over for a double kneedrop on Nakagawa. Kurihara and Matsumoto hit a series of running knees to Nakagawa and then Kurihara hits a running dropkick to send Nakagawa through the ropes. Nakagawa manages to make the tag to Daizee, but Kurihara gets a lungblower and tags Matsumoto and then all hell breaks loose with all four girls in the ring. Kurihara hits an overhead uranage on Daizee and then Matsumoto hits a backdrop driver on Daizee but Nakagawa pulls the referee out of the ring before he can count 3. Daizee recovers and hits a heart punch and running Yakuza Kick on Matsumoto, Nakagawa hits a leaping enziguiri, and Daizee finishes with a Tiger Suplex.

Triple body drop on Nakagawa

Winners: Daizee Haze & Tomoka Nakagawa

Tomoka Nakagawa and Daizee Haze

That was awesome, great match and the SHIMMER crew had a great overall showing this weekend!!