Shimmer Women Athletes (often referred to and stylized as SHIMMER) was an American,

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called Professional wrestling promotion, promotions. Some prom ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

which held its first event on November 6, 2005. Established by

Dave Prazak Dave Prazak is an American professional wrestling promoter and commentator. He was the co-founder of Shimmer Women Athletes, one of the few women-only wrestling promotions in the United States in the 2000s and 2010s. Career Prazak entered the pro ...

and run by both him and

Allison Danger Cathy Allison Corino (born March 31, 1977) is a Canadians, Canadian retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and Manager (professional wrestling), professional wrestling manager, better known by her stage name, ring name, Allison Dang ...

, the promotion was created to give female wrestling talent from North America and beyond a serious, non-objectifying platform on which to display their skills. On November 1, 2021, the promotion was shut down.

History

The company took a unique approach to staging its live events: Shimmer ran one large show every three months (on average) at the Eagles Club in

Berwyn, Illinois Berwyn () is a suburban city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, Coterminous municipality, coterminous with Berwyn Township, Illinois, Berwyn Township, which was formed in 1908 after breaking off from Cicero Township, Cook County, Illinois, ...

. Two DVDs worth of material were taped at each of these super-shows, and were sold as single volumes (initially through

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011; the promotion was subs ...

's online store) before being nationally distributed through retail outlets. Due to Prazak's prior work with Ring of Honor, the two companies were closely affiliated, with ROH promoting Shimmer by periodically featuring its performers on ROH pre- and main-show cards. In September 2008, Shimmer announced it would start its own wrestling school for female athletes. Ring of Honor previously recognized the Shimmer Championship and the

Shimmer Tag Team Championship The Shimmer Tag Team Championship (stylized as SHIMMER Tag Team Championship) is a professional wrestling tag team professional wrestling championship, championship in Shimmer Women Athletes. The title is recognized nationally by Ring of Honor, a ...

; both of which were occasionally defended at ROH events. Its former sister promotion

Full Impact Pro Full Impact Pro (FIP) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is currently part of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) along with Shine Wrestling. Sal Hamaoui founded the company and serves as the president, while Trevin Adams is the ...

also recognized the titles and had defenses of them at its events. Shimmer's sister promotions include

Shine Wrestling Shine Wrestling (stylized as SHINE Wrestling and often referred to simply as SHINE) is an American, New York based independent women's professional wrestling promotion. It is the sister promotion to Shimmer Women Athletes and airs events on In ...

, a

WWNLive The World Wrestling Network is an American professional wrestling organization known for and branded after its video streaming service, WWNLive. WWNLive hosts content both from WWN's "brands", including Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestl ...

brand which debuted on July 20, 2012, and Rise Wrestling, which was originally founded in 2016 as a developmental program. On November 1, 2021, the company Shimmer Women's Athletes deactivated alongside the company's championship belts.

Championships

Final Champions

Volumes

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, , list1= {{Ring of Honor {{Professional wrestling in the United States {{Women's professional wrestling Independent professional wrestling promotions based in the Midwestern United States American women's professional wrestling promotions Ring of Honor 2005 establishments in Illinois Defunct professional wrestling promotions