Everyone at DDS has an abiding love for all things SHIMMER. It is an incredible promotion that captures everything we love about professional wrestling. Greg (@BigZ38) has attended SHIMMER events for the past four years and captured thousands upon thousands of fantastic shots. Here, we offer you photos from the first set of tapings he attended, Volumes 15 and 16. Ayzali (@AyzaliWali) has written her personal perspective on the recent Volumes 37-40 tapings, which were her first shows. We hope you enjoy reliving these memories, both recent and distant, with us.

I discovered SHIMMER at a time when I was phasing wrestling out my life. I remember my cousin stumbling into my room with a sense of urgency. She stated over and over that she has found someone and something to really believe in. She and I circled the T.V and there it was: volume 6 of SHIMMER. I watched overtly impressed and constantly trying to guess whom the woman she spoke of was. Each match I asked, “was it her?” seeing as I saw an overwhelming amount of talent in each performer. It was MsChif whom she spoke of, I immediately knew why as well. My cousin was able to see herself in MsChif, and that alone made this the greatest match she had ever seen.

Discovering SHIMMER meant rediscovering why I want to step in the ring myself. My cousin and I constantly rambled on about wrestling some day but we didn’t see women who looked like us. We were conditioned to talent who looked very similar to one another, rarely with alternative styles or builds. Every now and again we saw women with a different element, but they always seemed to be overlooked. In SHIMMER was a show where not only did all the women have different looks and styles, the equality among them was very apparent.

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