YMMV / SHIMMER

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Super hardcore Anime (AKA Lufisto): A woman who is master of mind games who lures in opponents with a soft girly image or a woman lost in her own little world that somehow learned to wrestle? You decide.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Portia Perez didn't even get sympathy cheers when her injuries were announced but a third of the crowds are vocally supportive of the other Canadian Ninja, Nicole Matthews.
• Ensemble Dark Horse
  • Senior referee Bryce Remsburg is exceptionally popular given the fact that he's well...a referee. He did have a Big Damn Heroes moment during Portia Perez's Moral Event Horizon...
  • Rayna Von Tosh got quite the fan following despite only wrestling on four tapings. It helped that she played her gimmick VERY well.
  • The Seven Star Sisters were the most over tag team in the promotion's history and had the potential to be the promotion's biggest draw. Unfortunately for SHIMMER, Misaki Ohata didn't like to travel.
  • The Knight Dynasty would then be 3S's Evil Counterpart, being the most over heel tag team the promotion had ever seen, getting the kind of heat after only a single day that others with years of buildup couldn't (though manager Rebecca Knox was a returning unfavorite).
  • Athena got an overwhelmingly positive reception upon her debut, despite playing a heel. She was so impressive that she was immediately turned face at the following tapings.
  • Madison Eagles benefited from this in 2011 when she won the SHIMMER Championship. PWI voted her the number 1 wrestler on their Female 50, the first time an indie wrestler had topped the list.
  • A story on SHIMMER volumes 52 and 53 involved Kellie Skater learning from Tomoka Nakagawa after being kicked back to the bottom following an unsuccessful shot in a four corners survival for Sweet Saraya's title belt. Had anyone guessed just how over that Skate and Destroy three count on Hiroyo Matsumoto would get her, they'd have probably bent over backwards to keep Skater in the main event instead, but The Global Green Gangsters did end up being a popular tag team.
• Fandom Rivalry: SHIMMER vs WSU vs SHINE, the three most prominent women's wrestling promotions in the USA. In this case it's that the other two have been booked much differently than SHIMMER, especially when WSU became attached to other independent shows and during SHINE's first five years. And all of them hold women's wrestling fans who only watch WWE in disdain.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The World Famous Kana wasn't especially popular among Japan's wrestling community and was also a heel, which is something SHIMMER wasn't in desperate need of. The only reason she's in the promotion is because fans campaigned for it, which also happened to make her a huge baby face when she finally showed up.
• Heartwarming Moments: Savoy might be a dirty cheat, but it's kind of hard to boo her, especially after seeing stuff like this.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • On the first taping since Britani Knight was signed to WWE, her mother Saraya faced Davina Rose in a Squash Match. Davina Rose would soon be signed to WWE - and her first match for NXT was a squash against...you guessed it...Britani Knight (or Paige ). And even more hilarious that Davina Rose would become an even bigger star than Paige as Bayley - main eventing a PPV and wrestling in WWE's only women Iron Man match to that point.
  • Athena's debut was as a heel in a losing effort to face Jessie McKay. Fast forward to 2016 where she debuts in WWE as Ember Moon - now in a radically different role as Dark Magical Girl Ember Moon. Who's her first match against? Jessie - now as Billie Kay also doing a radically different gimmick as a Femme Fatale.
  • In the Q&A on Volume 78, Kimber Lee is asked who her favourite wrestler is, and replies "Triple H", prompting a fan to call out "Somebody wants to be hired!". Kimber Lee has now been contracted to WWE, under the name Abbey Laith.
• Ho Yay
  • Again Lacey and Rain. They've also been known to invoke this with their merchandise in past occasions.
  • Hiroyo Matsumoto is a walking Ho Yay...even by the standards of professional wrestling, her match with Lufisto was...shall we say...wonderfully homoerotic.
• Moral Event Horizon: Portia Perez attacking the very visibly pregnant Allison Danger.
• More Popular Replacement: Daizee Haze's first student Rayna von Tosh was popular but only wrestled on four volumes, and eventually quit wrestling to become a singer. Her second student Jamilia Craft (later Jenny Rose) had a full on program with Daizee, and has become a fixture on the indie circuit.
• Nightmare Fuel: Cat Power licking Amber Gertner's cheek following a backstage interview. Something usually erotic was instead just flat out scary, enough so that the commentators were shuddering following it.
• Once Original, Now Common: SHIMMER's popularity might seem strange to some fans who didn't come into wrestling during the mid-2000s when both WWE and TNA had non-existent women's divisions. Although TNA did give prominence to its Knockouts during the 2007-2008 period, it soon became better known for terrible booking and storylines - making SHIMMER seem like a healthy alternative. SHIMMER was an independent promotion that made a life entirely through DVD sales, with no TV deal in the days before internet PPV. The renewed focus on women's wrestling in WWE in The New '10s has had this effect on some of the older SHIMMER volumes. SHIMMER essentially offered a healthy alternative to people who wanted to see legitimate women's wrestling without Fanservice or Camp.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap
  • Taylor Made as a baby face never took, and was a little confusing considering her usual cohort Melanie Cruise was around but not involved with her and used as a heel. Made got a much better response when she teamed with Allysin Kay as sleazy cheat whose ego far exceeded her abilities.
  • For that matter, Cruise got more unlikable in the best way when she started using more domineering giant psychology.
• Retroactive Recognition: A lot of the SHIMMER women went onto have very big careers in WWE - such as Beth Phoenix, Natalya Neidhart, Becky Lynch, Bayley and Paige.
• Rooting for the Empire: Athena, until she took up a more sympathetic role following Mercedes Martinez breaking her leg. Then Nikki Storm became the bad guy people wanted to win.
• The Scrappy: Andy Long (who is a referee) is booed so much he's been called the most over heel in the company.
• The Un-Twist: When Mia Yim vs Jessie McKay on volume 45 was billed as a friendly match, Stew of Ringbelles called it an Ass Pull when it turned out to be true.
• Viewers in Mourning: Semi-example, a number of fans reacted like this to MsChif's title loss to Madison Eagles.
• X-Pac Heat: After Sara Del Rey turned heel, SHIMMER brought in "Sweet and Sour" Larry Sweeney as her manager. Fans reacted so badly to the idea of a man being involved in the action as anything other than a referee that he was dropped after one appearance.

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