Young and veteran women shine at Divine

LIVONIA, Mich. — On Friday, May 31, 2024, Divine Pro Wrestling, Michigan’s women’s pro wrestling company, returned to the Livonia Elk’s Lodge in suburban Detroit for its second show, Every Show Has Its Thorns. Brad McFarlin was in attendance to photograph Divine’s return show after a long hiatus last month, and he returned last night to photograph their latest event, as well. 

The show opened by introducing the host for the evening, Jeremiah Goldmain, who welcomed the audience to the “greatest women’s pro wrestling talent today,” then introduced the Divine champion, who won the title at the previous event, “The Guardian Owl” Stella Buho, and then it was time for our first match, Leela Hall versus Randi West. 

The young Hall wore a look of concern on her face when she and the veteran West came to face to face, and the crowd began to chant, “Randi’s gonna kill you!” and it certainly seemed like she would, as West took early control of the match, but Hall broke out a series of impressive, gymnastic maneuvers that showed great promise, but it wasn’t enough to take down West, as West finished Hall with a guillotine choke. 

Next, the Divine crew brought out a couple pink director’s chairs for a segment of Coffee Talk with Alex Van Zant. Similar to Goldmain, Van Zant had some inspirational words for the crowd and Divine Pro Wrestling before he introduced his guest, Rory Shield, who came out on crutches. Shield was supposed to have a match that night against Ricki Morris, but she was unable to compete, so after Morris came out for a face to face with Shield, Morris’ actual competition was announced, Kenzie Black. 

Morris and Black were pretty evenly matched throughout, and the crowd was behind both wrestlers in this match, but in the end, Morris slammed Black to the mat, and pinned her for the three count.        

The third match was one I was especially looking forward to, which pitted Randi West’s tag team partner, “Aunt Mickie” Mickie Knuckles against “The Last Unicorn” Juniper. It began with some pre-match shenanigans involving the referee, but Knuckles versus Juniper was a hard hitting match from bell to bell, a real “slobberknocker,” Goldmain called it. At one point, the match spilled out of the ring and into the crowd, until the action returned to the squared circle, and Knuckles overpowered Juniper for the three count and the win. 

After a brief intermission, the action returned with “Drop Dead Gorgeous” Kasie Clay and Heather Blue. There was a lot of smack talk from Clay, mocking Blue’s height and hair color, before Blue got the upper hand during a test of strength. Then Casey took over, and talked and screamed the whole time, to Blue, to the referee, and to the crowd. Clay was really the first clear heel of the night, so the crowd was pleased when Blue pinned Clay, who threw a tantrum after her loss and had to be escorted out of the ring by two referees. 

And now it was time for the main event of the evening, “The Queen of the German Suplex” Aerie Alexander versus “The Guardian Owl” Stella Buho, and this would be for the Divine Women’s Wrestling Heavyweight Championship. Alexander and Buho opened the match taking turns going from post to post, Alexander getting booed and Buho getting cheered, before Alexander finally attacked from behind, and got the initial advantage. This was a really crisp match with some good back and forth, before the match briefly spilled outside to the unforgiving Elk’s Lodge floor. After taking some shots outside, Buho was rolled back into the ring by Arie, who delivered two strong suplexes to Buho. It looked like Divine might see an upset and crown a new champ on their second show, but Buho regained control of the match, and pinned the larger, stronger Alexander for a successful title defense. 

After the match concluded, Heather Blue came back out and challenged Buho for the belt at the next Divine event, and Buho accepted. The date of the next Divine event isn’t yet confirmed at this time, but when it is I hope to be there again with McFarlin to report the women’s pro wrestling action for Slam.

For more on Divine Women’s Pro Wrestling see its Facebook page.

TOP PHOTO: Mickie Knuckles and Randi West at Divine Pro Wrestling at the Livonia Elks Lodge in Livonia on May 31, 2024. Photo by Brad McFarlin