April Hunter

Description: 2007 saw the unfortunate retirement of one of the few truly independent women's professional wrestlers in the world, everyone's favorite grappling red-head, the incomparable, the beautiful, and the big red ass-kicking machine, Miss April Hunter. April has been a wonderful friend of Online World of Wrestling since I can remember, which might have something to do with her strange fetish for Canadian men. So it goes without saying that I jumped at the opportunity to watch and review her latest self-produced DVD release featuring some of her best "International" matches. The DVD includes matches with some incredibly talented girl wrestlers, some you may recognize, and some you may not. Just one glance at the match list, for me, was enough to know that I was going to be entertained one hundred percent from beginning to end.

- Vs. Pandora (German Stampede Wrestling): The hilarious German commentary immediately transported me back in time, reliving the old Saturday Night Live "Sprockets" sketches made famous by Canadian actor Mike Myres. Pandora is an interesting character to say the least; possessing all the assets of a female version of Rikishi mixed with the trademark gut-exposure of the Blue Meanie. She wasn't as bad as most "big" girl wrestlers, having the best brought out of her by the crowd pleasing April Hunter.

- Vs. Blue Nikita (German Stampede Wrestling): This was my first opportunity to experience Blue Nikita in action, even though I had heard a lot of good things about her over the past year and a half. Turns out she is a total heel, spraying air-purifier around the ring and towards April Hunter before the match. Nikita looked really frail and clumsy at first but once she got her motor running she is damn impressive. The German commentary continued to amuse me, as they called the match in German but named some of the holds by their English name. The noticeably smaller Nikita stood toe-to-toe with April in an exchange of stiff forearms which ended with both women going down to a double clothesline. Nikita became frustrated and tried to cheat by using the spray-can, but April cleverly avoided it and scored the victory!

- Vs. The Lovely Lacey (German Stampede Wrestling): For some reason this match was not listed on the back cover, which is strange because everybody loves Lacey - even though she came out with her bottled water and spit it all over the 'disgusting males' in the front row! As if the fans needed another reason to cheer April Hunter. Both girls put in a tough performance for this match, but it was April Hunter who proved to be the better wrestler on this night. By the way these matches were apart of a tournament to crown the first ever GSW Women's champion, and this victory secured April's spot in the finals against Wesna.

- Vs. Wesna (GSW Women's Title Tournament Final): I have never seen Wesna wrestle, but just from all of the praise I have read about her across the Internet she had somehow climbed up the list of my favorite female wrestlers. So now I finally get to experience a Wesna match, and I was soon to realize that she was 100% worthy of the pedestal I had placed her on. Damn, Wesna is frickin' awesome! Cheap plug: Wesna is coming to America in April (2008) to work for SHIMMER. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...... April Hunter had her hands full with Wesna, who could easily take it to the mat, or kick your spine into pieces if that is what she desired. No commentary for this match, unless you count the referee calling the shots or the fans chanting for both ladies. After a dynamite match, Wesna stretched her American opponent into submission to claim the GSW Women's championship!

- Vs. Sexy Samantha (AWE): April Hunter invaded Canada with a bad attitude to take on Sexy Samantha. That's not just a gimmick either, Samantha is really SEXY!! Really athletic, too. Why have I never heard of her? I couldn't tell what promotion this was, but they had a Fight Network banner on the ring. April Hunter won the match but I was left extremely curious about Sexy Samantha!

- Vs. Christy Hemme (Queens of Chaos): I'm very familiar with the Queens of Chaos promotion in Paris, France - having reviewed a couple of their DVD's in the past. I totally admire Christy Hemme for going to challenging destinations to learn her craft. April was once again playing the bird-flipping heel, with the fans "solidly" in the corner of TNA Knockout Christy Hemme. If you like red-heads, you'll love this match. April manhandled (womanhandled?) poor little Christy for most of the match, and Hemme, God bless her, took it all like a badge of honor. April tied up Christy in a pretzel, awkwardly forcing Hemme's elbows to touch behind her - ouch! After a while, Hemme made her come-back, and botched a series of offensive moves that April was forced to sell even though they were horribly executed. Hemme never lost her confidence. April scored the pin while holding the ropes for leverage which should have been so unnecessary!

- Vs. Jazzy Bi (Queens of Chaos): I have seen a couple of Jazzy Bi matches in the past, and I was thoroughly impressed with her. Jazzy is one of about a handful of amazing European women's wrestlers whose talents have gone largely unnoticed outside of Germany and England. I hope this DVD review, and other DVD reviews here on Online World of Wrestling, can give these girls some of the exposure they deserve. The fight spilled out of the ring and up into the balcony, where April heartlessly tried to dump Jazzy over the rail! They instead decided to take the stairs down to the main floor, where April sneak-attacked Jazzy with a plastic chair! After that brutality, for no reason whatsoever, fans were treated to some illogical HLA - yes a girl-on-girl kiss in the ring which seemed terribly out of place but who am I to complain. Then they went right back to fighting. The video screwed up during what I assumed was the final pinfall, giving Hunter a well-earned victory.

- Vs. Tiana Ringer (PWX): Back in my home country of Canada, April faced off with cowardly heel Tiana Ringer. Here's some trivia; Tiana Ringer participated in the first match at the first ever SHIMMER event. Since debuting with SHIMMER, Tiana Ringer has blossomed into an incredible worker. This match was marred by the annoying sleazy comments of the idiot commentators talking over the sound system in the room. I don't know how any wrestler could work with those two geeks talking. April pulled down Tiana's shorts, exposing her beautifully shaped ass. Look Maw, no tan-lines! I've never seen girls do that spot. I like it. It boiled down to an old fashioned pro-wrestling match - a fearless battle to the finish.

w/Nikki Roxx Vs. The Outcast Killaz (Defiant Pro Wrestling): I really don't like inter-gender matches. The commentator remarked "Look at April Hunter, she has the healthiest set of lungs in pro-wrestling history." True that. Everybody has heard me express my opinion that Nikki Roxx has the best ass in the business. The "Killer Babes" are the perfect combination of T and A. This match wasn't special, but Nikki Roxx took a painful bump right on her face at the end of the match - which was won by the Outcast Killaz.

Six-Way Dress Match (AAA): We have gone all the way to Mexico to see a six-way between April Hunter, Nikki Roxx, Simply Luscious, Golden Girl, Chacala, and Diana La Cazadora. Having never heard of half the participants, I was somewhat lost at the beginning of this match. I didn't think they had gimmicks like this in Mexico. I guess the last woman still wearing her dress wins. Simply Luscious is very hot and equally under-rated. This started out like something Vince McMahon would come up with, but then the girls started wailing on each other. It came down to April Hunter and Nikki Roxx. Some dude came into the ring and kissed the referee, who was also a dude. Mexican wrestling is F'd up, man! April ripped Nikki's dress off and then stripped herself just the way Vince McMahon would want it!

Bonus Material: They showed the fight scene from a movie in Japan featuring April Hunter and Japanese legend Shinya Hashimoto. Cool!

- Vs. Nikita (Queens of Chaos): This is not the same Nikita from earlier; that was Blue Nikita, this is just Nikita, who is actually known as "Katie Lea" in the WWE right now doing a controversial incest angle with Paul Burchill. She is phenomenal too, and deserves a hell of a lot more than she has been given by WWE at this point. Nikita managed to wrestle the Queens of Chaos title away from April Hunter!

TIME: 3:00

Reviewed by Brad Dykens on February 14, 2008.