Rival Angels

Welcome to the first Rival Angels break ever! That’s about 5 years and 750 pages. We’ll be back on Wednesday, January 2nd I thought I would fill the time with some great art and articles from friends and readers alike. Our first break-blog-guest post is from my friend Michelle Timian. I invited Michelle to her first wrestling show ever, which happened to be this fall’s SHIMMER show and below are her thoughts on it. Thanks Michelle and to everyone else, enjoy!- Alan

Thunderkitty armbars Nikki St. John

I was pretty surprisedwith Alan asked my during the summer if I would like to attend the annual SHIMMER show in October.  I have been on a complete attend-everything swing this year and with my curiosity for new things in full bloom, I took Alan up on his offer.

I had no idea what to expect, being a complete newbie in the pro-wrestling scene.  Except for what I’ve read in Rival Angels, I know nothing, so it was a completely new experience for me!  My first impression walking into the building was the…um, arena? Help me out here, Alan!  The thing with the ropes.  Because it was so typical, so very expected!  We sat pretty close, which made me nervous…plus, it was before Halloween, so there were a lot of people in costumes (the best going for the banana suit guy getting harassed all day long by the man wearing an orangutan mask).

The first show/battle/help-me-out-here-Alan was a bunch of dudes.  It was high time for a bathroom break so I didn’t see much of the action, except that the banging around on the mat was loud enough for me to hear it one floor up, and it was not a subtle sound.  Yikes, what a way to start my day!

But the real fun started with the ladies showed up, who were true athletes!  Nearly all of them were able to do some sort of wild acrobatic move and the amount of punishment, punches, holds, flips, etc. they held up was astonishing.  Acting or not, those gals WORKED out there and I was just about as breathless as they were then the fight was done.

Watching just a few matches made me understand why Alan started Rival Angels.  There is so much drama and heart out there, so much story happening, that it was addicting.  It was like theatre, but with pain involved (which is totally fine by me).  During any breaks in the action, when Alan wasn’t cluing me in to what was going on, I had ideas of my own characters…it was simply fun, exciting to watch and instantly engaging.

What I didn’t like were the amount of matches where 1) the villain wasn’t clear cut and 2) the villain won.  Some villains were amazing (see below for more) but when I didn’t know who to root for…I felt lose, not sure what to do, disengaged.  So that was my only complaint about the show.

Allison Kay and Taylor Made

My absolute favorite part of the whole event though was…the refs.  Boy, were those guys hilarious!  I loved watching them, I loved their dedication to the role…in fact, it took me a while to realize they were as much a part of the show and not, ya know, actual refs. (newbie alert!)  As for the girls, there were two villains at the very beginning who totally impressed me!  They were exactly who you’d want as a villain: they were sinisterly sexy, sneered at everyone and were bitchy enough that when their asses got handed to them, it was incredibly satisfying!

So thanks to Alan for being a great guide and recommending a totally new experience for me!  Definitely upped my appreciation for and understanding of Rival Angels!

The SHIMMER roster