User blog:CEDJunior/SHINE Championship @ SHINE 20

With Slammiversary officially in the books, the next stop for prominent women's wrestling is Ybor City, FL for SHINE 20. Hard to believe that it's the twentieth show for Shine Wrestling; the promotion has come a long way in almost two years of existence. The event will take place in less than two weeks, and the card is stacked and quite salivating, but this blog is only about the main event of SHINE 20, which will finally see Ivelisse defend the SHINE Championship against Serena Deeb in a dream match that is several months in the making.

To properly tell how this match came to be, we must turn the calendar all the way back to December 13, 2013; the very end of SHINE 15. After then-Valkyrie leader Rain retained the SHINE Championship against Amazing Kong via countout (thanks to Rain's Valkyrie sisters getting involved), Shine VP Lexie Fyfe ended the event that announcing that Ivelisse, who was one of Rain's cohorts, would be the next #1 Contender for the SHINE Championship, making for an interesting main event for the first show of 2014.

The rest of Valkyrie tried to convince Ivelisse not to accept the opportunity, stating that it's a plot to cause dissention in the group, but after careful consideration, Ivelisse accepted the challenge. The two Valkyrie members competed in a terrific match in front of not only the fans, but the rest of Valkyrie, who watched at ringside. The end result would see Ivelisse victorious and capture the SHINE Championship from her faction leader, but to the surprise of no one, Rain responded by siccing her Valkyrie cohorts on Ivelisse out of clear spite. The group was rushed out by a group of babyfaces, one of them being Serena Deeb.

At the end of SHINE 15, Lexie also announced the promotion debut of the former WWE Diva, and in her debut match, Serena defeated Santana Garrett. At the tail end of the event, Serena decided to make a bold statement by becoming a villainess and attacking Ivelisse, and then later revealing herself as the newest member of Valkyrie. With Rain officially retiring from wrestling after the event, Serena became the new leader of the Valkyrie faction.

Serena's motive for her actions was quite clear:  she wanted the SHINE Championship. In her first bout as Valkyrie's leader, the evil Serena defeated Angelina Love at SHINE 17 and would defeat Mercedes Martinez at SHINE 18 in April. Meanwhile, Ivelisse had successful title defenses against Mercedes and Saraya Knight at the respective aformentioned events. After both matches, she was attacked by Serena and the rest of Valkyrie, who were continuing to send a message that the wanted the SHINE Championship back in their possession. To help Serena in her quest, the faction added a new member at SHINE 18 in the form of Su Yung, who underwent her own villainous transformation at the event.

The result of the main event of SHINE 19 is the reason why this long awaited SHINE 20 match was made. The main event pitted Valkyrie against Ivelisse, The Lucha Sisters, Jessicka Havok, and Tracy Taylor in a 10-woman elimination match, and the bout would see Serena pick up the final two eliminations to get the victory for Valkyrie. The first of the two:  the SHINE Champion herself, Ivelisse.

So at long last, Ivelisse and Serena will battle it out for the SHINE Championship on June 27. As to who will win, well, the easy answer is Serena, but I have a feeling that this rivalry may be dragged out some more. As a matter of fact, I think it should be. I could see a scenario where a DQ finish happens, and then they duke it out at least one more time in some sort of gimmick match. This should not be their only championship encounter at Shine. As I said before, the whole card is terrific, but I will review the rest of the show at a later date.