This Friday night at 7pm EST on FloSlam, WWN’s SHINE presents SHINE 41, live from the Orpheum in Ybor City, Florida. Last month the hardcore icon LuFisto finally captured her first SHINE Championship in her 4-year SHINE career, after capturing many before in her previous 16 years. But it was a controversial match-up, as she won it in a Triple Threat against Allysin Kay (Sienna on Impact Wrestling) and Mercedes Martinez for the vacant title – a title vacated because of an injury that forced reigning SHINE Champion Ivelisse to relinquish. But there’s other great stories and matches on this Friday’s card.
Four Way Fray
Leva Bates vs. ACR vs. Jayme Jameson vs. Dynamite DiDi
Should be a fun opener for the event, featuring the Queen of Cosplay herself, Leva Bates (best known to NXT fans as Blue Pants). Her entrances and costumes are always a spectacle unto themself. She’s facing some solid performers in this one, with Ivelisse’ Sergeant-at-Arms ACR (or is she? She turned on her partner last month and allied with C4), former SHINE Tag Team Champion Jayme Jameson, and 2-time WXW Women’s Champion Dynamite Didi (WXW, the Wild Samoans’ promotion in Pennsylvania, not the German promotion). Probably won’t be a lot of major storyline implications, but it’s a great quartet of talent to put on an exciting and fun four way contest. Jameson was part of SHINE 40’s opening Fray and that match damn near stole the show.
Aerial Monroe vs. Priscilla Kelly
Aerial Monroe had a fun match at SHINE 40 against Xandra Bale, picking up the win, and now faces SHINE’s Goth Princess, Priscilla Kelly. Kelly is picking up momentum, as she’s been wandering amongst WWN’s shows, popping up as part of Uncle John’s Friends in Full Impact Pro, then showing up in Evolve with no rhyme or reason. They’re bound to connect Uncle John’s Friends together eventually, so it’s only a matter of time. But Monroe is a rising star and she’s been gaining her own momentum in Shine, following her time in Queens of Combat and her squash appearance on Monday Night Raw against Nia Jax. Either one could take the win on this. Hopefully even a small feud.
Malia Hosaka vs. Angel Rose
The veteran Hosaka has been great in her recent outings with SHINE, with a character like if you combined the current Mickie James character to Old Man Logan. Malia Hosaka is a women’s indie legend, debuting in 1987 after being trained by WWE Hall of Famer Killer Kowalski. She was one of the first women to wrestle in ECW in 1993 (against Sherri Martel and Madusa/Alundra Blayze), headed to WCW in 1996 to help start the Women’s Division, joined the WWF briefly in 1999-2000, and TNA in it’s first year. She joined the fledgling promotion SHIMMER in 2006 before retiring in 2012. But in 2014, she returned to SHINE where she’s been the bad ass veteran determined to put down any new challenger that steps in her way. Angel Rose made her SHINE debut last month at SHINE 40, as part of the amazing opening Fray match. She also just taped matches for Impact Wrestling the past weekend and NXT the week before that. To say she’s on a lot of people’s radars is an understatement. This will be a classic fight between a staunch traditionalist who can hurt people against a brash and confident young sparkplug with loads of potential. As JR would say, this will be a slobberknocker.
Su Yung vs. Candy Cartwright
Candy Cartwright has really come into her own of late. What on the surface appears like a pretty generic Heathers/Mean Girls gimmick, has grown some real layers lately. Her win last month at SHINE 40 against Leva Bates was a bit of a surprise, so perhaps we’re seeing Candy get a bit of momentum. She’ll need it against Su Yung, who has become one of wrestling’s great characters. She was Sonia in FCW (just before it became NXT), where she was a good girl type almost like Bayley. She lasted a year before heading to SHIMMER in 2011, bringing a similar character as Su Yung. But over the years, she grew darker and darker, until she’s become a poisoned twisted satire noire of her former self. If Impact Wrestling‘s Rosemary was a horror movie, Su Yung would be the Korean film it was based on. A real Beauty vs. The Beast match-up, this has the makings of a classic story.
Tessa Blanchard vs. Thea Trinidad
When people name the top women wrestlers from the US, Tessa Blanchard is nearly always on their lists. A third generation grappler, she’s the real life daughter of Four Horseman Tully Blanchard, and a Blanchard through and through. She’s as tough as her grandfather Joe and as cunning as her old man, but she’s more athletic than either one of them. She’s also the Angelina Jolie to Ricochet‘s Brad Pitt as one of those wrestling power couples that are too talented and pretty to exist. But thank the wrestling gods they do. Thea Trinidad has been making mainstream headlines lately as news broke she was portraying AJ Lee in the upcoming biopic ‘Wrestling With My Family’ about Paige‘s family. Come to think of it, Trinidad is in another super hot couple, as she’s engaged to Austin Aries, “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”. Joking aside, Trinidad is another top notch talent whose somewhat underrated. Her TNA stint (as Rosita) wasn’t great, but that was hardly her fault. But she did have a decent little run as the Knockouts Tag Champion with Sarah Stock. She’s been a real gem on the indies though. Paired with Tessa, this should be a slick battle that will try and steal the show.
Top Contenders Challenge Match
Allysin Kay vs. Mercedes Martinez
The two losers from last month’s SHINE Championship Triple Threat will now duke it out to determine the top contender for the title. Allysin Kay has become a phenomenal talent this past year. Her work with Impact Wrestling (as Sienna) has sharpened her abilities with the camera, but her best ringwork is still in SHINE (she’s a SHINE Original from SHINE 1) and the indies. She’s fierce, powerful and athletic and she can take as good as she gives. Mercedes Martinez is also a SHINE Original (she beat Leva Bates at SHINE 1 back in 2012) and has matured into a true ring general. Intense and full of fire, Martinez is not going to back down to Kay and these two have shared the SHINE ring for five years. This could be a headliner on any other SHINE event.
SHINE Tag Team Championship Match
Santana & Chelsea Green defend vs. Kennadi Brink & Vanessa Kraven w/ Amber O’Neal
An odd situation, as both teams are sporting substitute members. Santana Garrett‘s Tag Team Champion partner Raquel is injured, as is C4’s Amber O’Neal. Santana has picked her Stardom tourmate Chelsea Green (aka Laurel Van Ness on Impact Wrestling) to cover for Raquel (ironically both former Tough Enough castmates), while C4 went big. Since they lost Andrea The Amazon at SHINE 39 to a Loser Must Leave Shine stipulation, they were short on size and muscle. So for Friday’s match-up, they’ve enlisted a monster of a hitter in 6-ft Vanessa Kraven, to pair with the Pillmanesque Kennadi Brink. She had some battles with Su Yung lately that were beat downs, so Kraven fits in with C4’s mentality quite well. ACR seemingly joined C4 at SHINE 40 when she turned on her Las Sicarias team mate Thea Trinidad after Trinidad took the loss. Whether she comes to C4’s aid or if Ivelisse has talked her back into the fold, leaves to be seen. Regardless, these teams have been feuding for a while now and it’s now been whittled down to two on two. Expect a lot of high energy, mixed with some real power from Kraven.
SHINE Championship Match
LuFisto defends vs. Ivelisse
The main event of the evening sees a returning Ivelisse attempt to reclaim the SHINE Championship she never lost as she faces off against current SHINE Champion LuFisto. Ivelisse has been a Superstar on the independent circuit after a stalled stint in NXT. She’s competing in intergender matches in Lucha Underground with ease, and dominating the indies, where she’s a 2-time SHINE Champion. Her opponent is a 20-year veteran of the indies, from CZW to Shimmer, and she’s as cerebral as Triple H and as bruising as Brody. These two have a history of violence and warfare, going back to the early days of SHINE, when they first matched up at SHINE 7 in 2013. While there will be plenty of in-ring action, keep in mind that LuFisto is also a part of C4, so there’s a fair chance that Kennadi Brink, Amber O’Neal, and perhaps Vanessa Kraven will be ringside at some point to make sure the Championship stays with C4. Ivelisse had a squad, Las Sicarias, before she was injured, but since then they’ve split. It will be interesting to see if Trinidad comes out with Ivelisse should ACR continue to stand with C4.
If you haven’t caught on to SHINE yet, now’s as good a time as any. If you get FloSlam, you can catch up even easier. They’ve got nearly all previous 40 events up in archive on-demand. Either way, SHINE continues to push the boundaries with American women’s independent wrestling and SHINE 41 showcases some of North America’s best.
Main Photo: FloSlam.tv
