By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
With time of the essence, a small change to proceedings. For each Riptide show, the focus will be on wrestlers who have qualified for the title tournament at the Pride shows. This means some will not be covered, though still covers a significant number of matches on all of the shows.
As Riptide began to run Brighton on a bi-monthly cycle, they would host ‘The Storm’ as their third show of the year in October. Of those wrestlers who are scheduled to wrestle in the title tournament at Pride, the opening match of the show would debut one of the weirder members of the fifteen. Cara Noir, the Black Swan, would bring his flamboyant entrance attire (and tights that left little to the imagination) to Brighton to take on Candyfloss, James Castle, Lion Kid and Session Moth Martina in a five way match.
Castle started the contest with a dropkick on Martina that sparked the beginning of an all-out brawl between all five contestants, with Noir in particular taking Candyfloss to ringside whilst Kid used a second rope springboard into a reverse DDT on Castle. Similar was to follow for Noir, with Kid this time turning the springboard into a modified spinning DDT. An attempt to cause further damage to the balletic one was halted as Noir got his feet up to kick Kid out of midair. Floss would almost de-pant Noir in her attempts to get at the dancer following a kimura attempt that was broken up, though the fans were left with multiple shots of Noir’s bum for their enjoyment. This saw him subjected to some groping from Martina, something that earned her a hard flying forearm.
A vaginal finger break and slap on the balls soon had Noir in some pain in the corner, pain that was only intensified by a knee to the face by Castle and a step up top rope huracanrana by Kid. The powers of beer and sugar collided as chugged drinks fired up both Martina and Floss to take out all of the men, whilst Martina then saved Floss from getting a licking from Noir, something she would have rather preferred. Several dives to the outside later, including a Martina top rope cannonball senton, the match returned to the ring where Martina picked up the win with the top rope codebreaker on Noir after he had planted Floss with a package piledriver. Brighter things where in his future, as well as some new tights.
Already firmly established by show three, Spike Trivet was looking for an opportunity to buck the losing trend he had established as he took on seasoned veteran Darrell Allen. He did his best to get the crowd on his side as always, teasing the arrival of Jack Sexsmith before revealing the man under the Pride flag to be himself. The metaphorical wall of noise met attempts to talk to the fans, whilst a ‘You deserve it’ chant rung out as he talked about how poorly he had been treated, garnering very little in the way of sympathy. Trivet’s words were interesting, playing on the idea of the best villain being one who truly believes they are right; Trivet’s problems circled around the assumptions made by and undeserved vitriol aimed at him from the fans for his background alone. Allen would have his chance to respond pre-match, though just gave Trivet a letter he had received for him (as his coach), one that contained his P45, a rib on a joke played on Theresa May by earlier that week.
A dropkick within seconds almost scored Allen the pin as he stepped aside to avoid a Trivet charge. Some ringside brawling saw Trivet chop the ringpost by mistake, though as the contest returned to the ring Trivet would take control with a second rope armbreaker variation. Unsurprisingly, the limb became the target as stomps and top wristlocks worked the shoulder. Trivet was wrestling with an intensity not seen in the previous show; an arm wringer and dropkick to the shoulder halted a brief attempt by Allen to fire back, before Trivet used the ring post as a means to further damage the joint.
With Trivet occasionally more focused on jawing with the crowd, Allen would score two nearfalls off of flash pins following a spinkick to knock Trivet off of the turnbuckle as he took too long over a move. A variant on a cutter after Trivet tried to pull Allen away from the ropes was followed up with a big spinkick to the back of the head, a 619 and a top rope crossbody for another nearfall. Just as things were heating up, the fire alarm went off – a move quite nicely dealt with on the video stream by Chief Deputy Dunne’s complaints about the fans having too much fun. Still, it left Trivet waiting for the first victory of his Riptide career.
Rather than The Aussie Open Invitational as ran by Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher, we had #CCK on the card who started the Shitwolf Invitational Replacement Replica Mask 2017 competition instead. Chris Brookes would order Lykos to go around the ring and seek out anyone wearing a Lykos mask. Eventually, he would find a surprisingly bruiserweight-esque Lykos knock off. One would be eliminated and sent over the top rope by Lykos, whilst a Pete Dunne pose by another one earned them their ticket out of the contest. Brookes, having stated that he saw no future in the bruiserweight wolf, was soon forced to eat his words as his choice of partner would see themselves dropped with the Bitter End.
What followed was unsurprisingly manic, with each team showcasing their versatile range of offense amidst a sea of Lykos (Lykoses? Lykii?). After a brawl around the ringside saw one of the fake Lykos getting slammed on the apron, the return to the ring would Brookes and Dunne take initial control once Brookes landed a draped spinning neckbreaker on Fletcher. Luckily, Davis would enter the ring on a tear, planting Brookes with a flapjack, a sliding forearm and an Around the World, though Dunne would soon put a stop to this with big clothesline before applying a double single leg Boston on both of Aussie Open. He soon made it a triple as he would put the referee at the bottom of the pile, earning a tap out from the official at least.
Fletcher, Brookes, Lykos and Davis would all take to the air moments later, though Davis was soon down and out following a cast shot by Lykos. As Fletcher tried to stop the illegal tactics, he was subjected to a double wet willy that involved some mixing of spit between both members of #CCK. Fletcher wasn’t having much luck as the referee would be blocked long enough to see him blasted with a tray, grabbed by the balls (Dunne) and peed on (Lykos). As Davis managed to recover, he would show his strength with two powerbombs, though Dunne matched him with an impressive X-Plex. As a tribute to Lykos, Brookes would eventually call for the brainbuster, only for Fletcher to reverse it to stay fairly true to the spot. As things headed towards their conclusion, a Sick Fucking Tag Move was halted by a Davis spear, whilst a Close Your Eyes And Count To Fuck saw Dunne break up the pin for Brookes. After an Aussie Open collision, it was a kick/praying mantis bomb combo on Fletcher and dual Death By Rollups that saw #CCK come out on top.
Though Jack Sexsmith had defeated Spike Trivet two shows in a row, Chris Ridgeway was always liable to offer a much stiffer challenge to the pansexual phenomenon. However, he wasn’t taking things all too seriously in the opening exchanges as he tried to get Ridgeway to touch his penis, as well as grinding against him during a waistlock. Sexsmith would try and match Ridgeway with both the grappling and the strikes, even getting on top of the action following two atomic drops and a neckbreaker. Mr. Cocko would make a premature appearance, though Sexsmith would throw him away as a symbolic attempt to showcase what he was capable of. Unfortunately, that was initially to walk into a big kick by Ridgeway.
Kicks and a back suplex had Sexsmith down for two, though he would soon fire back with kicks and knees of his own. A Sliced Bread #2 had both men down, yet as the match returned to its feet, Sexsmith almost took the victory with his delayed DDT. However, Ridgeway was always going to be dangerous as some kicks and a snap half nelson suplex earned him a two count. Sexsmith managed to show a vicious nature (breaking Ridgeway’s finger) and a resilient streak (fighting out of a Gojira clutch) that was unlike what he had showcased before, and a tiltawhirl into a crossface almost had Ridgeway tapping out. A piledriver looked like it was enough for Ridgeway, yet Sexsmith kicked out with a millisecond to go and this sparked a comeback, a cannonball senton to the outside followed by Meteora-style knees for three. Ridgeway, rather than upset by the win, would congratulate Sexsmith by giving him a big old snog.
Riptide have a habit of souring some of the nicer moments for the face wrestlers, and at ‘The Storm’ was no exception. A Spike Trivet attack, with low blow, Mr. Cocko and a butterfly neckbreaker/kneedriver forced Ridgeway to return to run the heel off before any further damage could be done. Presciently, Ridgeway would find the opportunity to offer Sexsmith his help in a future tag match with Trivet, something that would become pretty important in 2018.
Even before the main event, things were already beginning to escalate when it came to Trivet and Sexsmith – each man showed fire and intensity in their own matches that signalled a desire to be THE person in the promotion. More importantly from where we are standing, none of the qualifiers won a match on this evening; a signal of the ever shifting landscapes of the promotion, landscapes that begun to shift and fall into place from the end of this show. It is beautiful when a plan comes together.
