Hello my name is Iwan Mackenzie and its SHE-1 Season! That’s right its time for the third installment of EVE’s annual Round Robin Tournament entitled the She-1. To explain what She-1 is basically like a smaller scale G1 from NJPW.
It is contested over two days and four shows, there’s 12 wrestlers overall and Three Blocks consisting of four wrestlers each. You get 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 for a loss. The winner of the tournament is declared as the ACE of EVE, earn a shot at a title of there choosing at WrestleQueendom and win a tournament that looks like an Apple core. Now the SHE-1 Series has had two instalments so far with Charlie Morgan and Jamie Hayter as the winners and first two Ace’s of EVE with both of them going on to win the EVE and International titles respectively at both WrestleQueendom’s.
Now this year’s field is very stacked and very varied over the currently announced Ten competitors from Top international names like Mercedes Martinez and Mei Suruga; regulars of the UK Indy scene like Millie McKenzie, Kasey, Laura Di Matteo and more; Only one can walk away as the new ACE of EVE. What we do know though is that over the course of four shows your going to see some incredible Wrestling matches, so before the third instalment goes down on November 9th and 10th at the Resistance Gallery, let me take a look at my personal Top Ten matches in SHE-1 History.
* First of all quick disclaimer, I’ll only be looking at the best matches from the actual tournament itself no any non tournament matches from the She-1 will not be taken into consideration for this list.
*This list is complied with a list of EVE fans favourite SHE-1 matches as well as some of my personal favourites so don’t get mad if your favourite hasn’t made the list, instead tweet at me and let me know your favourites.
*Like most lists there are a few Honorable mentions that I couldn’t quite get on the list:
- Viper vs Madison Eagles – SHE-1 2018 Show 2
- Kris Wolf vs Erin Angel – SHE-1 2018 Show 3
- Charlie Morgan vs Charli Evans – SHE-1 2018 Show 3
- Toni Storm vs Jetta – SHE-1 2018 Show 2
- Laura Di Matteo vs Sammii Jayne – SHE-1 2017 Show 1
Right onto the list proper now:
10. Charlie Morgan vs Erin Angel – SHE-1 Show 2 2018
We start off with a match with that wasn’t originally organised as it was supposed to be Erin vs Rhia O’Reilly but Rhia had suffered an injury in the afternoon that ruled her out the rest of the tournament which led to her replacement of Charlie Morgan and we got this absolute sprint instead. This was only about five minutes long but they crammed a load of action into that time. Erin got to show here that she could go with the cream of the crop in British Women’s Graps and she passed with flying colours, this still remains my favourite Erin match to date.
9. Toni Storm vs Command Bolshoi – SHE-1 Show 3 2018
As my mate Dave said to me at the time: “Whenever you get Toni against a Joshi, it’s going to great” and that was very evident by this little cracker of a bout. The both women shared a great chemistry in their only match to date as they traded holds like the great World of Sport legends of old and threw down strikes like those of the All Japan era. I felt like I was transported to Japan whilst watching this match due to the overwhelming quality of it. One of Toni’s best Indy matches.
8. Charlie Morgan vs Sammii Jayne vs Meiko Satomura – SHE-1 Show 4 2017
The first ever final of the SHE-1 is notable for being the first crowning moment of Charlie Morgan’s EVE career as she would go onto become the first ever Ace of EVE. The story reads like this:
Sammii attacked Charlie before the match and put her through a table thus rendering Charlie out of the match, Sammii and Meiko face off against in each other for ages until Sammii takes Meiko out, that’s when Charlie returns and starts battling Sammii, she heads up to looking for a dive but instead climbs the balcony and swanton dives on to Sammii and a load of ring crew who were trying to prevent Charlie from diving.
A short while later, Charlie hits the elevated DDT and wins the SHE-1 which all lead to the first ever WrestleQueendom in York Hall and the main event of Charlie vs Sammii. For its historical significance alone this match deserves and needs to be on this list.
7. Nina Samuels vs Nicole Mathews – SHE-1 Show 2 2017
For me, this was the match where Nina broke out as a great performer, she had the character work down perfectly and all her matches were really good bu this was the match were everything come together for her and ultimately is the starting point for all the success that’s she’s enjoyed both in EVE and elsewhere since. Nicole deserves a lot of credit herself for being able to put Nina and herself over massively after this match, it was that good that I brought a t-shirt from Nicole that I still have to this day.
6. Viper vs Emi Sakara – SHE-1 Show 1 2017
I’d heard a lot of great things about Emi but never had seen her wrestle so she left a hell of an impression here against Viper, it was really funny in parts with Emi shouting a lot and Viper responding back with “She’s fucking Crazy Man!”. It was also super stiff, very much fought like a Strong Style match, this included a massive crossbody from Emi into the wall which Emi is still trying to break to this very day. What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
5. Kay Lee Ray vs Charlie Morgan – SHE-1 Show 2 2017
These two had a match back in the May of that year where Charlie actually made her debut and KLR beat her so Charlie was looking to avenge the loss and decided along with KLR to start the match off on the outside, they then proceeded to have an extended brawl on the outside including fighting on the bar and diving off the stairs by Charlie and a dive from the balcony area by KLR. Once inside they had a great fast paced bout that had a surprising finish. If you love no rocks thrill rides then this is the bout for you.
4. Meiko Satomura vs Viper – SHE-1 Show 2 2017
After defeating Joshi legend Emi Sakara in the afternoon, Viper had another daunting task as she faced another Joshi legend in Meiko Satomura in the main event of the Saturday evening. Much like the Sakara match, this was very much a strong style bout but this one had a different feel to it entirely, the kicks that Satomura dished out was brutal but Viper kept fighting back and looked incredible here.
3. Jetta vs Kasey – SHE-1 Show 3 2018
Here’s an underrated match in the wider UK scene that took place in 2018 and one of the best EVE matches in history. The story was simple going into this, both women hadn’t won a single match the whole weekend so this match was more for pride than anything else, Jetta hadn’t scored a single point over both her SHE-1 appearances as well.
Over the course of 20 minutes, these two had an excellent technical match that went back and forth and included Kasey torturing Jetta’s arm but Jetta kept kicking out and carrying on. Put aside 20 minutes of your time to watch this match because it will be worth it.
2. Jamie Hayter vs Madison Eagles – SHE-1 Show 1 2018
Much like how the Samuels vs Mathews match broke out Nina as a star, this was the match for Jamie Hayter where she broke out as an elite level performer in my opinion; her whole run in the SHE-1 series 2018 was a combination of brilliant in-ring skill and great character work. This match also served as a showcase for the brilliant Madison Eagles who I’d never seen before hand but instantly became one of my favourite wrestlers ever on the basis on this match alone.
If you love wrestlers like Zack Sabre Jr and such than this is the match for you, its one of my all-time favourite EVE matches ever and with good reason.
- Meiko Satomura vs Emi Sakara – SHE-1 Show 3 2017
At number one is a match that when I asked the EVE fans, they all came back agreeing that this was the best SHE-1 match ever and I whole heartily agree. Let me set the scene of this match:
It was a Sunday afternoon in a Railway arch in East London, where a rematch from 7 years ago between two of the most influential women’s wrestlers of all-time faced off in what co-owner Emily Read described as “A Personal Dream”.
For more than 15 minutes, these two transported the feeling of Japan to the UK as they faced each in a titanic clash of Joshi goodness. Fantastic technical wrestling, with hard striking and a flavour of both women’s style being included here. This is honestly one of the best matches I’ve ever seen live and I think that you the reader would love it as well.
So yeah that’s everything you need to know about the SHE-1 and the quality of matches that it produces; if you want to watch any of these matches they can be found here: https://eveondemand.pivotshare.com/home
Show 2 of the 2017 SHE-1 is actually available on YouTube here which includes three of the matches here from this list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2WXlT6Nswk
If you want to come to a SHE-1 show yourself then tickets are still available here: https://www.evewrestling.com/
Thank You for Reading
Iwan Mackenzie
@IwanMack
