Variety Pack Reviews: Recent Women's Wrestling

Hi there! Last night I started watching a couple matches. And then I watched some more matches. And then today I watched more matches. And somewhere in there I decided to get on a theme of watching some recent women’s indie matches, so that’s what this post is about.

We’ll keep this one free, usually this would be behind the paywall. If you like it, please consider a paid subscription! The yearly deal is definitely the most bang for your buck and you’d basically be set for all of 2025, but I truly appreciate anyone who subscribes for any amount of time, it’s a tremendous help and greatly encouraging. If you already subscribe, thank you! If you have even considered a paid sub, thank you for that, too!

What we’ve got on tap:

• Emersyn Jayne vs Millie McKenzie (RISE, 10-26)

• Nina Samuels vs Millie McKenzie (RISE, 11-22)

• Marina Shafir vs Allie Katch (DEFY x PROGRESS, 11-29)

• Rhio vs Zayda Steel (DEFY x PROGRESS, 11-29)

• Karmen Petrovic vs Sumie Sakai (Bloodsport, 11-24)

• Marina Shafir vs Jody Threat (Bloodsport, 11-24)

• Masha Slamovich vs Lei Ying Lee (Bloodsport, 11-24)

• Anita Vaughan vs Stephanie Maze (wXw, 11-23)

• Ivy Malibu vs Gabby Forza vs Shazza McKenzie (Uprising, 12-6)

• Danni Bee vs Laynie Luck (New Texas Pro, 11-29)

• Maki Itoh & Miyu Yamashita vs Nicole Matthews & Vert Vixen (TJPW, 11-9)

• Marina Shafir vs Shoko Nakajima (DDT x TJPW x DEFY, 11-10)

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Emersyn Jayne vs Millie McKenzie

RISE Underground: Spooky Slam
October 26, 2024
Sheffield, England

A death match. McKenzie not normally a death match wrestler, which is part of the reason I decided to take the gander at it. The rest of the reason is that McKenzie is very good. Jayne is a regular death matcher. Some nice suplays and stuff early. The way the commentary is done is very annoying, as it just turns everything else down when someone speaks into the mic. The guy calling the match is fine, mind you. It’s not his fault. Chair used a bunch, and I don’t know if particularly well.

Both busted open pretty quickly. McKenzie starts throwing German suplays that are filthy as hell, including a release that sees Jayne land the back of her skull right on a chair and I am pumping my fists like a maniac. McKenzie’s offensive arsenal is so nasty and when you start adding chairs and light choobs and whatnot to it, you just have a hoot-level amount of violence. Jayne gets skewered but good, which just kinda fires her up. Hard elbow shots from Jayne, her strikes look tighter than Millie’s as they trade. That leads to Fighting Spirit and Jayne just crushing Millie on a German suplay of her own. Jayne’s attack ramps up from there, some good near falls.

Jayne lays McKenzie out on a couple tables with light choobs on her person, but McKenzie was playing possum on that and gets up to throw a very bad chair shot to the ass, but any disappointment there goes away fast as she hits a disgustingly good poison rana from the second rope, then spears Jayne through some choobs for the win. This was a blast. No idea if McKenzie is dying to do more death matches but definitely has a talent for it. ***¾

Nina Samuels vs Millie McKenzie

RISE Underground: 10th Anniversary Show
November 22, 2024
Leeds, England

The prior match set McKenzie up as No. 1 contender to Samuels’ women’s title, so might as well watch this, too, both are available on IWTV and I give them money, I should watch things for that money.

Samuels comes out for the defense in street clothes with her arm in a sling. She said she dislocated her shoulder about five weeks ago and thought she would be able to wrestle tonight, but when she tried it out today “it just didn’t feel right.” She says she does have a suitable replacement — but then just cracks Millie in the skull with the belt, and Millie is busted open to start this, Samuels wrestling in her street clothes.

It’s just Samuels stomping on McKenzie. She takes the ref out, too. Samuels gets a chair, but McKenzie blocks the jab to the gut and superkicks it into Samuels’ face. Spear hits, referee back over, and McKenzie wins the title. Now I don’t know for sure, but this seems like Samuels really does have a shoulder injury where she couldn’t work a proper full match, and they made a neat little thing out of that to pass the title to McKenzie after Samuels’ 475-day reign.

Marina Shafir vs Allie Katch

DEFY x PROGRESS: Onslaught - Brooklyn
November 29, 2024
Brooklyn, NY

Hey, look, it’s Marina Shafir having a wrestling match and not just standing around looking dangerous. She’s defending the DEFY women’s title against Allie Katch, who recently has had a change in attitude (at least in GCW) and a change in hair color (that follows her everywhere). I am mildly famously an Allie Katch defender over the last year or so, though it’s my firm belief that she does her best work outside of GCW, too, which happens to be her highest profile work.

Katch gets around Shafir a couple times, so Shafir just goes to her back and offers Katch the chance to approach. Marina doing the “toying with” deal when she gets hold of Allie, she’s always supremely confident she’ll out-wrestle opponents. Hits a nice suplay, Allie goes to the floor, and Marina follows her to kick away. Katch throwing some right hands, Marina just eating them to prove she can, then bobbing and weaving around them to prove she can do that, too. In short, she’s giving Allie doubt in two ways.

Katch has, potentially, two things she can do. She has to use her physicality, and she has to, basically, wrestle without fear, which Marina tries to take off the table early the way she’s psychologically playing with her. Marina does this sort of thing really well, and Allie is working nicely with it, playing around with familiar ideas. An example: When Allie races out of the corner shouting, “Marina!” for a clothesline or kick or whatever, Shafir just kicks her in the thigh, there’s no underdog fire seen through, Shafir just continues to do what she does.

Marina working a cravat, throwing some knees. Every little thing Allie gets in just doesn’t last, she can’t built any momentum, and Marina just keeps getting more aggressive.

Listen there is no way to put this other than to put it: Marina is landing some pretty violent kicks right to the tits. Allie gets a roll-up, then lands a hard slap, and Marina just sort of stops. Allie now begging off. So Marina slaps her self in the face repeatedly and just starts unloading on Allie, and Allie has no choice but to fight back, landing a solid kick that rocks Marina, but only for a moment before Shafir grabs onto the leg, and Allie grabs the hair. It’s basically anything she can do to defend and try to get offense in. Allie uses her size to mount and rain shots down, but Marina’s technique is too good, and more than that, Marina does not panic in those situations.

Katch is good selling Shafir’s submissions. Marina gets Allie locked in tight going for Mother’s Milk, so Allie bites her tit. “Fucking bitch!” Marina shouts, and a bit taken aback, she leaves herself open to a headbutt and the snappy, short piledriver from Katch, but Marina gets Mother’s Milk on and Allie has to tap out.

It’s a good, smartly-worked match. Yes, they both have limitations in their ring work, but they put this together to accentuate their positives, never tried to do more than what they could do well together. I do think I get why AEW aren’t rushing to use Marina in-ring, or at least maybe a reason. Her style is not one that’s really fit for big American TV wrestling, or I should stay it’s not one you really see on big American TV wrestling. In that way — and I don’t mean they’re mirrors or anything — she’s kinda like Timothy Thatcher, who is one of my favorite wrestlers on the last decade, or kinda like Chris Hero for so long. What she’s good at is not familiar to American TV wrestling fans. ***½

Rhio vs Zayda Steel

DEFY x PROGRESS: Onslaught - Brooklyn
November 29, 2024
Brooklyn, NY

Never seen Steel before other than clips. Know the name. Know she’s picking up some steam, has only wrestled for a couple years but has been WWE ID’d. Rhio defending her PROGRESS women’s title.

Not going to lie here: You can really see in certain moments that Zayda Steel has very little experience, BUT! You can also see the extremely obvious potential because there’s a lot she already does well, too, and you can tell just by her schedule that she’s very serious about this, wrestling where she can, getting notable matches and good experience, including three months with Marigold in the spring and summer. (Well, the American spring and summer.)

But yes, definitely some greenery, which is only natural. She is 21. Rhio is, as always, really solid, and doing her best to elevate the opponent. Zayda takes a suplay out on the floor; it’s on the patch of mats for suplaying, but it’s a floor bump all the same. Personality-wise, Zayda has a lot of confidence. When Rhio ragdolls her a little in a full nelson and Zayda gets the rope, she screams, “Bitch, back up!” which is the sort of thing that can only come from an “entitled” young wrestler, because it’s absolutely a mistake to piss Rhio off.

UshiGoroshi from Rhio gets two, she keeps on the offense but Zayda does rally a bit. There’s one fan who’s really leading an anti-Zayda movement in the crowd, and commentary says he’s bounced around all over the building and been vocal all night, right after which he screams, “Zayda, you suck! I’m up here now!” This would sound a little annoying to me normally, too, but he’s making it work.

Steel is good at interacting, too. “This is not awesome! I should be winning right now!” Again, there’s an entitlement she’s going with, which works to get across that she’s in a bit over her head here, which does two things:

1. Makes her an effectively simple Rulebreaker for an audience that doesn’t know her much at all, including me.

2. Makes her competitiveness against the PROGRESS champ impressive even as she’s headed to defeat.

In short, she comes off like a dickhead, super easy for anyone to identify as the heel to boo, and given that Rhio is the more experienced, more proven, defending champion, the fact that it’s not easy for Rhio says a lot about Steel’s talent. And Rhio does win it clean. Solid match, nothing amazing, but if you’re scouting potential, yes, Zayda has loads. ***

Karmen Petrovic vs Sumie Sakai

GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport
November 24, 2024
Jersey City, NJ

Josh Barnett is our current finest wrestling politician. This show had WWE talent (Petrovic, Charlie Dempsey, Myles Borne), AEW talent (Marina Shafir with Jon Moxley, MVP), and TNA talent (Josh Alexander, Mike Bailey, Masha Slamovich, Lei Ying Lee, Jody Threat) among others.

I wasn’t really planning to watch a Sumie Sakai match in 2024, but I do want to see Petrovic in this setting. This is actually about as much personality as I’ve ever seen Sakai show as she calls on Petrovic a few times. So it’s the same thing a few times. Petrovic’s strikes look pretty good, it’s not the smoothest work between the two of them, but I’m simply fascinated watching a WWE PC product do worked MMA with Sumie Sakai.

Karmen’s karate means fuck all when Sakai works for a submission, but she gets out and lands a high kick, then a belly-to-back suplay. Sumie was rocked bad from the kick but now she’s fine, thanks to the suplay. Wrestling has good logic. “I got my brain knocked back into place, actually.”

I like this style of wrestling and these shows, so I’m enjoying this. I don’t know that it’s particularly good for this. Karmen lands another hard kick, mounts for some hammer fists, and it’s stopped. Karmen has a real internal fire to her that suggests she’s got a lot more to her potential than just The WWE Way. She looked a lot more natural doing this style of wrestling, in some ways, than she does doing WWE style, like this triggered her actual combat background and the mindset of that in ways that WWE probably never will.

Marina Shafir vs Jody Threat

GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport
November 24, 2024
Jersey City, NJ

Shafir is 5-0 in Bloodsport, Threat is 0-1. Seems like kinda shitty matchmaking to me, honestly. Shafir suddenly gets a big rise in reaction during her entrance, and then you realize it’s because Jon Moxley is with her, so the people chant for Moxley.

“A member of the legendary Four Horsewomen.” The MMA Four Horsewomen are basically like if the original Four Horsemen had been Ric Flair, Ole Anderson, and the Mulkeys, we’ve spent years exaggerating this and I think we can stop. I get why it started, Ronda Rousey was very marketable at one point and she was helping her friends sound cool, but it’s 2024, we can let it go.

This one’s good. Marina is high-end at the style, basically the current Queen of the style at least in this setting, and Jody’s doing a good job looking like a good physical match — strong, smart, has her own skills, knows better than to give Marina openings if she can help it — even if you suspect it’s a matter of time here, other than maybe a home run strike, but that’s a fun thing about the idea of this style, a home run strike might just end it.

Marina’s also really good at selling moments for over-matched opponents, but like in the Allie Katch match, she has a particular way of staying so calm within herself. That may come from the fact that Marina doesn’t have a big personality, but she turns a potential weakness into a strength by making it look like a confidence and toughness, sort of like Dean Malenko as “The Iceman.”

When Shafir gets her footing and throws kicks, she throws them hard, but Threat also has her a little more emotional than usual, because Jody’s arguably presenting more of a challenge than maybe Marina expected. But Marina gathers herself, Marina gets Mother’s Milk on, and Jody has to tap. ***½

Masha Slamovich vs Lei Ying Lee

GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport
November 24, 2024
Jersey City, NJ

Lee — the former Xia Li — is making her Bloodsport debut, and since they’re both TNA contracted, this is also for Slamovich’s TNA Knockouts title, because why not? Masha’s gonna win, might as well add stakes.

Masha gets a great reaction. I say again that if Masha doesn’t wind up in WWE or AEW — if she wants it — within the next couple of years, both those companies are fucking up.

Masha offers to take it to the mat early, and Dan Barry reckons that Masha believes that’s Lee’s weakness, whereas her striking would be her strength.

This is worked around Lee having surprisingly strong defense, which largely comes from her literal physical strength, and she’s able to get some counter offense in with Slamovich unable to really find the openings. Masha’s struggling with her badly in the first five minutes, Masha really can’t get much done at all, and it’s not even so much that Lee is taking her to the woodshed or anything, Lee’s just hard to budge.

And then Masha absolutely destroys Lee with a cutthroat suplay, but Lee comes back with a wild little suplay that isn’t anything done technically right or whatever, and this is breaking down as Masha just starts throwing wild, somewhat exhausted shots. That almost felt like the opposite of Shafir, where Masha knocked Lee over, saw a chance while kinda panicking a bit, and went for it. The good news is she pulled the trigger and got the W, but you get the sense this was harder on Masha than she anticipated.

All that said, and while I thought the story of this match was alright, I still think Lee — who seems like a lovely person and all that — just doesn’t really have it. Kicks looked a little weak and overly cautious for someone being sold as a striking threat, and there remains after seven years a hesitance to her, she’s never truly taken to wrestling, and it’s been a while to get there, or more “there” than she has. I’m not saying she should quit or whatever, rosters need depth, but if you’re hoping for her to really break out still, I just don’t think it’s happening.¹

Anita Vaughan vs Stephanie Maze

wXw Broken Rules XXII
November 23, 2024
Hamburg, Germany

Have never seen either wrestle, have heard a bit about Vaughan. So I’m going to learn a little something new! This is for Vaughan’s Shotgun title.

Nice physical intensity from both pretty much immediately. Good crowd, as you always get with wXw. Vaughan — who is Irish, and I do know that Ireland is very much not in the UK, but hang with me here — has some of the UK craftiness in her approach. Maze has a bit more experience in terms of years, but they’re clearly both still in the process of really finding themselves.

You see the potential with both. Vaughan uses her size OK but could lean on that a bit more, too. Sells her back in a way that (1) actually affects the way she does her offense, and (2) doesn’t forget to include doing her offense as something that can hurt her back further, even when the move is successful. Maze throws a nice teardrop suplay. They get into some desperation offense late.

Not going to fib, there is a fair amount of clunk in this match. These two are not finished products and the finishing “sequence” is particularly iffy, but Vaughan finishes with a power bomb. As a match, it’s OK with some nice moments. For myself, a useful look at two new-to-me wrestlers, and now I have the starting reference points.

Ivy Malibu vs Gabby Forza vs Shazza McKenzie

Uprising Women Athletes 4
December 6, 2024
LaSalle, IL

I have no idea who Ivy Malibu is, she doesn’t have a Cagematch page yet. The other two I know. Shazza’s apparently losing to Deonna Purrazzo on Friday’s Rampage. I don’t mean this as a negative, but Ivy Malibu on a glance looks exactly like you’d imagine someone named “Ivy Malibu” would look on a show in LaSalle, Illinois. But then you see her with the others and you notice she’s quite short with a powerful build.. I note quite short because Shazza and Forza aren’t exactly Raquel Rodriguez.

We get a rundown of Malibu’s lifting stats and then Shazza and Ivy do arm wrestling. Ivy wins it easily.

Now they’re all doing push-ups. Now it’s Gabby vs Shazza in arm wrestling. Gabby wins fast again. Shazza steps aside so the winners can meet in arm wrestling. They’re about even and Shazza starts kicking them, but not very hard or very well, and it’s more of Shazza’s wild Australian comedy as she is used as weight for the others to do squats and stuff.

Now, listen, I am learning that Ivy Malibu is very strong. I would like to see a wrestling match sometime, but we’ll see! Forza and Malibu square off as McKenzie rolls out to the floor to be forgotten.

I mean, look, it’s one of these matches, it’s a midcard three-way that is meant to mix in some lighter-hearted fare. You get some great half-speed missed clotheslines — not on purpose to be funny, just that kind of match — plus Shazza working as a fly in the ointment. It is meant as a change of pace to be Fun, and they’re achieving that, they’re doing their job, they Understood the Assignment.²

And there are also some nice wrestling moves and what have you. I like Shazza’s stunner because it’s extra stupid. Malibu does a double-arm DDT so I’m quickly becoming a level one fan. Forza’s spear is strong as always, got that real football player drive in it. Shazza steals the match because she’s the craftiest and most annoying. In short, this was alright! Easy to watch. It’s definitely better than the match I hated so much that I deleted the review and replaced it with this.

Danni Bee vs Laynie Luck

New Texas Pro: 6th Year Anniversary
November 29, 2024
Houston, TX

For Danni Bee’s women’s title. Laynie I know pretty well, never seen Bee. Longest-reigning New Texas Pro women’s champion in history, apparently. “The Big Boss”! I like her jacket.

HEY! First off, Laynie Luck has made a lot of strides over the last couple years, her movement is quicker and more purposeful, her timing seems better — listen, I’m just some idiot, but I do have eyes and have looked at a lot of wrestling. I can’t tell you fuck about how to get it there, but I know it when I see it. She also shows some nice power, particularly on a spot where she’s meant to catch Danni for a backbreaker but almost loses her. Now the “almost” is saying a lot, because she doesn’t, and not losing her that way is some real grown strength.

AND! Danni Bee has something. Hits a great suicide dive early, takes shots nicely. Not the best clotheslines, and you see a little hesitation between things in this match here and there, but Danni is frankly probably better than I expected and someone definitely added to my radar just to keep up with more. Am zero percent surprised to find out Danni Bee trained at Booker T’s school. If I’d read that before the match, I would not be surprised by her quality. And only been at this four years!

Man, OK, Laynie’s power game has really come along, she’s doing some cool Raw Power type stuff in this match. Luck kicks out of Danni’s “Plan Bee” maneuver and gets hear own big near-fall on the Death Party Valley Driver, but then when she goes up, perhaps just trying to think of what to do now, Danni cuts her off, climbs up, and hits a SUPER Plan Bee, which I should probably say is a neckbreaker type deal. Then another Plan Bee regular-style for the win. This was hootable! 421 days and counting for the title reign. Wrestling loves long title reigns again. Circle of life. ***¼

121000000 vs Nicole Matthews & Vert Vixen

TJPW Bright Eyes
November 9, 2024
Seattle, WA

121000000, if you’re unawares, is the tag team of Maki Itoh and Miyu Yamashita, and they’re defending their Princess tag title. Matthews and Vert are not exactly pals, and Nicole is immediately an incredible dickhead on the entrance in a passive-aggressive sort of way.

That continues into the match, and before long, Nicole has made Maki Itoh cry by knocking her over on a shoulderblock. Maki outsmarts everyone as always. Veda Scott has all of the commentary inconsistency of Booker T but she never vomits so it’s not quite as good as his work.

Action goes to the floor with Matthews and Yamashita fighting, and Maki uses a pizza cutter fan sign to beat up Vert. Now, to be clear with what I’m saying, it’s a cardboard sign shaped like a huge pizza cutter. It is not a pizza cutter. This isn’t the GCW program or that time Tony Khan put Nick Gage on cable television.

I don’t know how to explain why Maki’s shtick works for me but other comedy-leaning stuff just doesn’t other than to say and mean that Maki Itoh is actually funny and some people aren’t. Up onto the stage where they get a “please be careful” chant from the overprotective parent fans. Matthews and Vixen are having a great time up there, dominating the action, which is all low-effort but it’s not in the ring so it seems unique.

Back to the ring where Matthews and Vixen continue to control, using solid Rulebreaker tag team tactics, but Matthews is still easily annoyed with anyone, including her partner.

Their lack of tag cohesion sees them fall victim to Maki’s dogged determination and a double Kokeshi before a tag to Miyu, her team’s killer, but Nicole and Vert turn it around again with some nice double-teamery.

Vert really does seem, like, only half-in on being a big asshole now. Matthews does not have this issue. She is who she is. But it leaves Vert sort of twisting in the wind, sometimes she’s good and mean in here, other times she seems a little reluctant to really be as nasty as she might stand to be.

Matthews cracks Miyu with some nice elbows, and eats the return fire, too. I dig this match, it’s worked proper main event style, paced really nicely to give the bigger offense some real weight, and I find the Matthews/Vixen dynamic really fun to watch, and it plays nicely with the true union of Itoh and Yamashita.

Nicole takes a great swinging DDT from Maki, then the camera misses Yamashita’s follow-up knee, but it doesn’t finish anyway. Itoh with a stunner on Vert and 121000000 are just destroying them down the stretch here, with Yamashita pinning Matthews on the skull kick. ***½

Just want to add real quick that Nicole Matthews is truly one of our funniest wrestlers:

Marina Shafir vs Shoko Nakajima

DDT x TJPW x DEFY: Triangler DTD
November 10, 2024
Seattle, WA

Well, if we’re here with these Seattle shows, add another Marina match I want to see and make it a clean dozen for the post. A Sixer x2.

Alright, even more than the other matches, you see here on the entrance, pre-match, all that, Marina may not have Big Personality, but she has aura to burn. She’s developed a great champ vibe, feels dangerous. She is a stone killer.

Marina offers the handshake, which Shoko takes but Marina uses it for intimidation. Doesn’t work, though, because Nakajima is not going to be easily intimidated, and takes the fight to Shafir. But we again see what Shafir is so good at, reeling and defensive but calm, focused, and searching for any opening. And she always finds it.

This rocks really quickly, because it’s a very different matchup for Marina compared to Allie Katch or the Bloodsport match with Jody Threat. Shoko is quick, experienced, and explosive, and she has her own great confidence. The dynamic she brings against Shafir means Marina has to be more aware of her opponent’s strengths, and Nakajima will not simply back off when Shafir pops her with chops to the chest, nor is Shoko terrified to go to the mat. She’s willing to test those waters.

Those waters are pretty choppy, though, because Marina is not just good on the mat, she’s mean. She transitions a quick stretch muffler grab into a hard power bomb.

Alright, this is extremely “my shit.” Marina really getting to showcase her style against a top tier opponent, and Shoko’s stuff makes for a great foil, both selling and hitting dives, changing the tempo on Marina, who usually controls the pace of her matches pretty much entirely.

Marina takes a missile dropkick and goes dead weight on the mat, forcing Shoko to try and roll her over, which is Shafir playing possum and making Nakajima get in close to her so she can grab an arm, gain control, and hit a nice suplay.

Marina with a fantastic bow-and-arrow, but transitions that right over to a rear naked choke, center of the ring, and then goes over trying for a cross armbreaker, but Nakajima locks her own hands to try and fight that off, and she’s able to roll it around with Marina, trying for pins, with Marina not letting go, but Nakajima grabs the ankle and has her own advantage into a waistlock, but Shafir winds up with another choke.

This is really great. Now to be fair in my assessment and all that, Shafir is not good at bumping — actually, she’s good at taking suplays and whatnot, but things like being smooth taking a dive (hey, at least she catches people) or taking a rana, that’s not her specialty. But like I talked about recently with the Mongolian Stomper and the fashionable clunkiness of the past, there’s a sort of style to that, too.

Shafir just starts unloading on offense, gets Mother’s Milk on, and Nakajima has to tap out. Shafir ends it with that look of cold control, but she knows this was a fight, too. I loved this match. This was everything you’d want it to be on paper, and this will only make Marina better. ****

1. For some of you, this will seem totally obvious, but there were still people waiting for Shelton Benjamin to win the WWE title in his last run when he was in his mid-to-late 40s, totally not recognizing that if it hadn’t happened by then, it was never going to even be considered. The obvious is not obvious to everyone. Although I doubt those people read things I say, so in some ways I probably didn’t need to say it, I guess.

2. I am too old to talk like this so I have officially killed this one for you all. You’re welcome.