SHIMMER Women Athletes (SHIMMER)

[8.0] "One of the best things to happen to North American women's wrestling in the past 20 years. Spearheaded by Dave Prazak, along with help from Alison Danger, SHIMMER initially started life having a working relationship with ROH. It helped raise the bar for women, showcasing them as serious and talented competitors and not just 5 minute exhibition matches. Over the years, it has attracted some of the best talent from America, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. Some of its earliest pioneers like Mercedes Martinez, Sara Del Rey and Cheerleader Melissa were instrumental in this movement. They film shows in volumes. The quality is never poor, with even weaker matches being watchable. The top of the card is truly outstanding with some remarkable talents walking through its doors over the years. In its early days, a certain young wrestler by the name of Rebecca Knox arrived and tore the house down as an exceptional heel. Little did I know that she'd go onto the become one of the biggest names in wrestling today as Becky Lynch! SHIMMER has been a vital pipeline for women wrestlers to get scouted and signed by companies like WWE, AEW and Impact. Tapings have become less frequent in recent times (partly down to the pandemic) and I think there's a backlog of volumes still to be released. With Prazak now focused on building the MLW women's division, I'm not sure what the future holds for SHIMMER. It helped break down a lot of barriers for women's wrestling on both national and indie level. A fantastic legacy!"

[7.0] "SHIMMER Women Athletes played a huge role in the development of American women's wrestling. Thanks to SHIMMER, women's wrestlers who wanted to be taken seriously as wrestlers and not seen as divas, found a home to show their wrestling skills. Once SHIMMER brought in more international talent, SHIMMER caught the attention of fans from all over the world and of promotions from all over the world. SHIMMER also booked some of the most talented Japanese women's wrestlers, which helped American wrestling fans become more aware of joshi puroresu. Without SHIMMER, the current American wrestling scene wouldn't look as good as it looks now. Pre-SHIMMER, American women's wrestling was seen as a joke, but these days, American women's wrestling is taken seriously, and this wouldn't have been possible without SHIMMER. Thank you Dave Prazak for all the hard work you and your team have done."

[9.0] "Since I last rated SHIMMER, they've fallen into a funk with their DVD releases, still not got past 2016's shows at last check, and their online streaming service only goes as far as the DVDs they've released, so much of the last few years hasn't been seen other than by those who attended the shows. However, it's been an incredible gathering point for the world's best female wrestlers for over 15 years, initially bringing wrestlers from either side of the United States together, and then bringing in Joshi talent, European stars and even the best from Australia and New Zealand. The track record of those who have made national TV with WWE, Impact or AEW is remarkable, earmarking Dave Prazak and his team as among the world's best talent scouts."

[8.0] "This rating reflects the SHIMMER I know, which is 2015-2016. I kind of just stopped watching after that; I don't know why. But back when I did watch it, it was a great women's wrestling promotion with some of the best matches in North America at the time."

[6.0] "Honestly it is a great thing to have an all women's promotion and it has indeed brought on great talent but the crowd is awful for the most part, almost dead especially at the beginning. Really need the ladies to pick things up and put on better matches."

[8.0] "Some crazy good wrestling, and a devotion to treating woman's wrestling with respect, SHIMMERs events are always great, but there price tags can be a bit of a pain when you want to follow the promotion."

[9.0] "Best female wrestling in America and some of the best in the world (only Japanese women wrestling beats it out)"