Shimmer is an all-women wrestling promotion that has made waves throughout the independent wrestling scene for well over 15 years now. The company was first announced via press release in October of 2005 and it held its first show in early November of the same year. The company was started by Dave Prazek and independent wrestling legend Allison Danger.

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Prior to the Women's Revolution in WWE, Shimmer set out to prove that women's wrestling could be more than it was seen to be. In the late '90s and early 2000s, professional wrestling had more of a focus on women's looks and less on their athletic ability. Shimmer would find some of the best women's wrestlers in the world and do what they could to spotlight them.

10 The Tapings

Shimmer Taping

Shimmer will hold events around every three months and from there they will produce their taped product. The tapings take place over the weekend and would help them get hours of footage to release.

They do what they can to avoid taping during the winter months due to a variety of reasons. So when they film, it will usually take place between March and November. They also hold an event every year the day before WrestleMania and book it as one of their bigger shows.

9 Places They Have Run Events

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The promotion started in the Chicago, Illinois area and has held a majority of its events in Berwyn. The events are usually on the weekends there, so they take up the venue for the entire weekend. Almost all of their events took place at this venue until June of 2013 when they started to regularly have at least one show a year in a different state.

Their 2014 show took place in Secaucus, New York, for their Volume 53 tapings. The following year, the tapings took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Other states that they have traveled to include Florida, New York, California, and Texas.

8 Iconic Stars

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A long list of women have made their way through the doors of the Shimmer promotion; many of which would become some of the biggest stars in wrestling. WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix is one of the stars that put Shimmer on the map. It was here where she and Natalya both worked and built their craft.

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Stars like multiple-time WWE Women's Champion Becky Lynch and the legendary Sara Del Ray both worked there. Former WWE star Paige and her mother Saraya Knight were a mainstay of the company at one point. AEW performers like Ruby Soho and Serena Deeb are also among many others that worked there at one point.

7 Stars Can Work For Major Companies While With Shimmer

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Certain Shimmer stars have turned out to be huge stars all over the world, but with that, they might have worked with major companies beforehand. Wrestlers for Shimmer are considered independent contractors, so they can appear anywhere else and still work for Shimmer.

This means that if a company like WWE or AEW were to need a star to work for a night, a star of Shimmer could appear due to them not having an exclusive contract. Fans may notice that these stars are jobbers in matches or working backstage segments to help boost one of their stars.

6 Connection to Ring of Honor

Ring of Honor Logo

AEW's Owner Tony Khan recently purchased the Ring of Honor wrestling promotion to be an extension of AEW. Ring of Honor has a history of working with Shimmer in the past and helped them build their model for the company.

Shimmer followed Ring of Honor's format when it came to DVDs and taping schedules. They actually helped them with the distribution of their product when they started out as well. Shimmer and Ring of Honor have maintained a relationship from the start, so hopefully, that continues with the AEW adaptation.

5 Women's Championship

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Much like every other promotion, Shimmer has its own championship belts. They crowned their first Women's Champion at an event in 2007, where Sara Del Ray won it. She held the title for a full year before losing it to MsChif. She held it for over two years before losing it to Madison Eagles in an exciting match-up.

In total, the championship has changed hands 14 times since its inception. AEW's Mercedes Martinez and Shimmer star Cheerleader Melissa are the only two women to hold the championship twice.

4 Tag Team Championship

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Shimmer's mid-card championship is called the Heart of Shimmer Championship, but they have prominently featured their Tag Team Championships since 2008. They have had those championships change hands exactly 14 times as well.

The inaugural champions were Neveah and Ashley Lane who now competes under the name Madison Rayne. Stars like Dakota Kai, Ruby Soho, Leva Bates, and The Bunny have all held the championships in Shimmer.

3 Sparkle

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Almost every wrestling promotion offers a pre-show-style event, and Shimmer is no different. In this case, theirs is called Sparkle, which is supposed to be a play on the Shimmer name. Both names actually play on the GLOW promotion, which was the first all-female wrestling promotion.

Sparkle is primarily used for training and dark match purposes. They do not advertise or market the matches for profit, but instead, it is treated as a special match for the fans that attend the shows. They do sometimes post matches from there on YouTube, but it just depends on the situation.

2 The DVDs

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They follow a model similar to the model that Ring of Honor would follow where they would release DVDs of their product. Now they also offer a streaming option in which fans can pay to watch newer or archival videos.

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Throughout the year, they usually film enough content to fill up to eight DVDs. The profits from the DVDs and streaming help pay for the talent and keep the company going. Their DVDs can be purchased directly on their website.

1 Sister Promotions

Though Shimmer's competitors can work anywhere that they want to, the company itself does have strong ties to many other promotions. Their most well-known sister promotion was considered Ring of Honor, but again, that relationship now depends on the AEW's ownership of the promotion.

Shine is another sister promotion of Shimmer, but instead of being filmed in Chicago, they are based out of New York. Rise is another promotion that partners with Shimmer, and all of them are part of the WWNLive streaming service.