Pro-Wrestling EVE: #SHEVolution Show Offered Something Special For Every Fan

KAY LEE RAY VS DASH CHISAKO

Harmony: Kay Lee! Kay Lee! Kay Lee F***** Ray!

I am struggling to describe this match with something other than a series of exclamation points. Dash Chisako is a joshi superstar from Sendai Girls, the “Hardcore Queen”, and an all-round consumate badass. Everybody knows and loves Kay Lee Ray! If you don’t, watch her SHIMMER stuff, or even check her out in the Mae Young Classic. When I heard Dash and Kay Lee were meeting in the ring, I assumed it would be a hardcore match. My suspicions were piqued when each entered with their own personalized steel chair.

Then they were confirmed when Kay Lee went for a handshake and Dash responded by kicking her in the stomach and tossing her out of the ring. And it’s on!

Dash took an early lead, beating the absolute hell out of Kay Lee with her chair. Then Kay Lee got the chair back and started beating the hell out of her. It’s at this point I gave up on taking coherent notes about the match. There was just too much awesome stuff happening too quickly to get it all down. A couple highlights:

• Dash tried to break Kay Lee’s fingers by snapping a chair shut on them, then propped Kay Lee up and drop-kicked a chair into her midsection
• Dash tied Kay Lee up in the ropes and ground her foot into the back of Kay Lee’s head while she screamed and flipped off the crowd
• Kay Lee dug a ladder out from under the ring and somehow 619-ed it into Dash’s face
• Dash intercepted a crossbody from Kay Lee midair with a chair, then hit her with more chairs
• Dash superplexed Kay Lee through a board and you could actually hear someone in the audience scream in terror

Finally, Kay Lee reclaims the momentum in the match when Dash attempts a splash from the top rope and gets some knees to the midsection for her trouble. Kay Lee glorybombs her into some chairs, knocking her out for good.

This match is what a main event match should be at a wrestling show: violent, beautiful, and technically perfect. Honestly there is nothing I can say that can really describe how great this match was. If you want to know why joshi is a big deal, or why the women’s wrestling stans in your life never shut up about Kay Lee Ray, watch it. If you’re a women’s wrestling fan, watch it. Just watch it already!

One last note- despite the fact she’d been thrown through a Home Depot worth of chairs and board, Kay Lee still had the energy to do a Wrestle Queendom promo. She reminded everyone that she’s going to be wrestling Meiko Satomura there. She reminded everyone that when it comes to Meiko, “She’s not the best female wrestler, she’s the best f***** wrestler, full stop”. (Which is true.) And then she said she was going to beat her, and basically dropped the mic. Perfect finish to an amazing match. I can’t wait for Wrestle Queendom!

Joe: I really, really want you all to check this match out, and Harmony summed it up perfectly. This was beautiful violence, and even my near-fall, highspot-criticizing self LOVED this match. Like, my face was basically a centimeter away from my laptop, and I really should not have watched this match in public because of the sounds that I made. The commentary team did a great job of calling this match and selling the big kick-outs, and The Hardcore Queen and Hardcore Daredevil easily lived up to their reputations here. Again, this match was NUTS.

After the match, Kay Lee Ray’s promo finally made something in my head click, and I realized that KLR is a damn good promo. It’s so easy to underrate how good a lot of wrestlers on the Independent scene are on the mic, and ProEVE does a fantastic job of showcasing the passion of every performer, heel or babyface. This was a great example of that, and I won’t shy away from proclaiming that Kay Lee Ray is a personal favorite of mine. I still have the “Kay Lee! Kay Lee! Kay Lee f*****g Ray!” chants stuck in my head.

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We had a comedy match, a chain wrestling-heavy match, a power-for-power match, an evil heel  vs. resilient babyface match, and a hardcore match all in the same night. Oh, and a side-splittingly entertaining intermission song. ProEVE’s #SHEVOLUTION offered a little bit of everything, and it was hands-down one of my favorite shows of the year. I think any wrestling fan could find something they enjoyed from this show, and that speaks volumes to this promotion’s ability to put together a great show from top to bottom.

The crowd deserves so much praise, too, because they honestly made me feel like I was sitting there with them, to the point where I would have to actively try not to chant along with them!