At long last, that time has finally arrived; the women of Shine Wrestling will return to Ybor City in just a few short days for their final IPPV of 2014, SHINE 23! And not only that, but the roster will bring a couple of changes; one of them being immensely monumental!
In case you haven't heard, a brand new SHINE Champion was crowned just over two weeks ago! On November 16, Mia Yim defeated Ivelisse to capture the SHINE Championship in a phenomenal match that took place in Beijing, China as part of WWNLive's overseas tour. During the tour, Ivelisse had successfully defended her title against Valkyrie members Su Yung and Allysin Kay before losing the title to Mia on the final day. The SHINE 23 poster was unveiled before the tour took place, and it teased the possibility of a new SHINE Champion with six women posed in front of a graphic of the SHINE Championship.
For Mia, becoming SHINE Champion caps off a momunental 2014 that has seen her make history as one half of the first-ever SHINE Tag Team Champions with Leva Bates, debut for Women Superstars Uncensored and NCW Femmes Fatales , and compete in TNA and WWE; in fact, Mia's match (which was taped in October) will air one day before her appearance at SHINE 23.
Not only is Mia the third-ever SHINE Champion in history (joining Rain and Ivelisse on that short list), she is the first woman to have held the SHINE Championship and the SHINE Tag Team Championship. So what's next for Mia Yim? Well, she will defend her newly won title for the first time this Friday, and she will do so against the phenomenal Nevaeh. Nevaeh came within a hair of becoming SHINE Champion against Ivelisse back at SHINE 21, and she actually pinned the future champion in a six-woman tag team match at SHINE 22. It was at the last event that Nevaeh was established as one of the members of SoCal Val's new Valifornia stable, and Val announced at the end of the event that Nevaeh is the #1 Contender and will face the SHINE Champion at Friday's event. This is a true dream match, not only because both women are such terrific in-ring performers, but this will be the first time that I will get to see Mia and Nevaeh face each other in a one-on-one match.
Other than the main event, Shine Wrestling announced that Legendary will defend the SHINE Tag Team Championship against The Kimber Bombs (Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb), who have been racking up victories since teaming together in Shine as well as SHIMMER. And how about Kimber Lee? She is actually in line for not one, but two tag team championships, as she and her WSU partner, Annie Social, will get another shot at the WSU Tag Team Championship at the Uncensored Rumble event on February 21, 2015. Speaking of tag teams, Valifornia's other two members, Jayme Jameson and Marti Belle, also known as BTY, will face off against The Buddy System (Solo Darling and Heidi Lovelace) in a grudge match stemming from the last event, when BTY interfered and cost the System the tag titles.
The question on my mind for the past two and a half weeks was, "What about Ivelisse?" There is no doubt that Ivelisse's SHINE Championship reign was phenomenal. It was the longest in the promotion's two year history, beginning all the way in January when she defeated Rain at SHINE 16, and falling eight days short of the 10-month mark. On Friday, Ivelisse will compete at Ybor City for the first time since losing the SHINE Championship, and she will do so against one of my new favorites, Amanda Rodriguez, who will be making her third straight appearance for Shine Wrestling. It's obvious that Mia Yim will retain her title against Nevaeh, which will open the door for Ivelisse to get her rematch (most likely) at SHINE 24, the first Shine event of 2015. I do think that the title loss will lead to Ivelisse becoming a villainess in some form or fashion. Lately, Ivelisse has been seen on Lucha Underground doing a great job as a ruda (heel/villainess) on the program, and I do see her reverting back to her heel ways now that she is no longer the SHINE Champion. I watched the title match from that day and it was a terrific bout, but I couldn't help but notice Ivelisse attempting to clutch the SHINE Championship just minutes after she lost it to Mia. I see a scenario where Nevaeh attacks Mia after failing (again) to win the title, which could bring out Ivelisse to run Nevaeh off. However, at that moment, the evil Ivelisse could make her villainous turn and attack Mia, preferably by using the SHINE Championship belt as a weapon.
SHINE 24 will see yet another new face on the roster--in the form of Vanessa Kraven. Vanessa is basically a regular in NCW Femmes Fatales in her native Canada as well as SHIMMER Women Athletes, and in her Shine debut, she will face off against the aforementioned Leva Bates, or if you're an NXT fan, "Blue Pants." Allysin Kay and Taylor Made (along with April Hunter) will represent Valkyrie at the event, but oddly, Su Yung is not billed to appear. Allysin will face off against Crazy Mary Dobson, who has been seen on Monday Night Raw on a couple of occasions; first as The Miz's makeup artist and later as Kane's concession stand boss. Taylor Made will once again face off against La Rosa Negra as part of what appears to be a budding rivalry.
Speaking of Crazy Mary Dobson, when I read that both she and Amber O'Neal would be at the event, I immediately thought that they'd face each other again. It was at SHINE 20 that Amber turned into a villainess and attacked Crazy Mary with a steel chair, but it clearly looks like a rematch will not happen on Friday. While Crazy Mary deals with Allysin Kay, the evil Amber will face off against the returning Luscious Latasha. Lastly, Leah Von Dutch will be back at Ybor City this Friday, as she will face off against Thunderkitty, who has been aligned with Legendary for just a few months.
I have a sinking feeling that SHINE 23 will be immensely explosive. After all, this is the last Shine event of 2014, and I would think that the promotion would end the year with a bang; it definitely started the year with one!