By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
The arrival of WALTER into Riptide made a lot of people stand up and take notice. The huge Austrian was the reigning PROGRESS Atlas Title holder, whilst perhaps more significantly had also won the PWG World Title over in America. Having had an impressive Wrestlemania weekend that allowed him to be showcased to a wider wrestling world than had possibly been granted to him before, only Matt Riddle, Joey Janela or PCO could claim to be riding a higher crest of a wave in those recent months.
WALTER wasn’t just an end game boss; he was the secret boss you only challenged with the best weapons and armour in the game at maxed out levels – and still probably lost.
With a main event that saw Jimmy Havoc defeat Jinny in a match that stemmed from Havoc’s attack several shows back – a post-match attack seeing three vicious moves by Havoc through a table that did its best not to break – the show would be sold on the debut of WALTER alongside this blood feud. Other people who made their debut this show would include the Grizzled Young Veterans and Team WhiteWolf, simultaneously showing both the pull and the reach of the promotion as they booked established and new talent from across the continent. To add a further wrinkle to the Riptide experience, Junior also played a few songs to a receptive audience.
Having succeeded in their initial attempts to ruin Jack Sexsmith and his run in Riptide, Money Versus Everybody would be represented by Spike Trivet in a non-qualifier against Maverick Mayhew. Having questioned what Mayhew must have done to be put up against Trivet without Connor Mills in the building and with Chris Ridgeway and Damon Moser at ringside, Trivet would accept the match, only for Ridgeway and Moser to give Mayhew an initial kicking to offset Spike’s recovery from a serious leg injury. Unsurprisingly, this attack left Mayhew on the back foot from the moment the bell rang, an early legdrop by Trivet already enough to grab a two count. The numbers game was always going to be key as well; Mayhew’s attempt to launch an aerial move from the apron was thwarted by Ridgeway grabbing a leg and Trivet blasting him with a forearm.
A gourdbuster and sliding punch earned Trivet another nearfall, but Mayhew was still hanging in the contest. A tiltawhirl headscissors allowed him to land a 619 and a top rope crossbody as the pace picked up, but the high risk moves came back to bite him as Trivet would land dropkick to drop Mayhew in the tree of woe. Trivet’s somewhat derisory slaps and berating would only serve to fire Mayhew up and the momentum was with the youngster as he hit a spinkick and a backflip into a DDT from the top rope. He even had suicide dives for Moser and Ridgeway, before grabbing the nearest of near falls with a brainbuster across his knee. Mayhew’s need to go big or go home again cost him; a dive turned into something akin to a Slingblade by Trivet. Still, it would take Moser interference – a punch to the face as Mayhew tried to use the ropes to launch another attack – for Trivet to win following a powerbomb and the butterfly neckbreaker. Mayhew was game, but would go the way of a lot of Money Versus Everybody’s recent opponents: defeated, with a chair wrapped around their leg.
For WALTER’s Riptide debut (and Brighton Championship Tournament qualifier), the promotion needed someone that would accentuate the giant Austrian’s strengths and be able to take an absolute pummelling. Step forward, Wild Boar Mike Hitchman. Whilst this was a showcase of WALTER at his most brutal for the most part, Hitchman more than played his part, even taking the early exchanges as his aggressive opening caught WALTER unawares and led to two sentons in a row by the Boar. However, they appeared to have little effect, and the first chop from WALTER rang out like a shotgun blast. A modified bow and arrow halted an attempt by Boar to grab a leg, before a chop and a back suplex onto the ring apron saw WALTER bring the match up close and personal for the fans. Still, Boar came forward, but a slam attempt was foolhardy and earned him a slam from WALTER for his troubles.
Anytime Boar established distance, he was able to aim some strikes in WALTER’s direction; WALTER didn’t let that happen very often. A shoulderbreaker scored the first nearfall of the contest for WALTER, transitioning straight into a crossface with a knee to the face afterwards for added damage. Due to WALTER’s dominance, even the briefest fight back from Boar would get the crowd behind him – almost reversing a powerbomb attempt had the fans cheering along, though the spear attempt that followed Boar slipping out the back of the move hit nothing but turnbuckle. Boar once again showed his spirit as he drove WALTER back into the corner twice and hit a corner senton, before landing a Saito-style suplex for a two count of his own. It was only delaying the inevitable. One slap, a kick and a powerbomb all had Boar having to beat the ten count as WALTER toyed with him, whilst a clothesline acted as a setup for a STF that had the referee wave the contest off. As a signal of intent, you don’t get many more impressive.
The final match of our focus would see Chuck Mambo take on Lord Gideon Grey, a spillover from a tag team contest at Night Two of the Brighton Spirit shows. There, Grey alongside Kurtis Chapman had defeated Mambo and Jack Sexsmith, so revenge was on the cards. First, there was a caveat laid down by a tired Lord: no ‘high flying bollocks’ from Mambo, and Chapman wouldn’t interfere in the match. Though Grey promised to keep his word, Mambo was perhaps right to delay a handshake, one that was eventually accepted and didn’t lead to a heel beatdown, perhaps surprisingly. It didn’t take long for Grey to begin breaking the rules though – a handful of hair was an adequate assist to an armbar takedown. Having broke the rules, Mambo broke the caveat laid out earlier, using the ropes to add momentum to an armdrag and getting in the face of Chapman on the apron as well.
A springboard move from the apron once again raised the ire of Chapman, causing Mambo to halt in mid-move to chat with the Keyboard Warrior. Realising that the aerial moves brought their own danger, Mambo would instead go to the surfboard, though a pin from this move wasn’t seen by the official who was distracted by Chapman. Both Mambo and Grey had words with the youngster, only for Mambo to use the opportunity to score nearfalls with a rollup and a majistral cradle with bridge successively. Grey finally managed to ground Mambo with an arm wringer that sent Mambo into the canvas, leading to a variation on a tiger bomb and an arm triangle as Grey looked to consolidate his control. Grey let his words get the better of him though, as a proclamation that Mambo wasn’t fit to lick his shoe had the surfer seething, nailing a half nelson suplex and a death valley gutbuster for two as Chapman grabbed Grey’s foot to place it on the ropes.
After a clothesline took both men to ringside, Mambo used the apron to hit a double foot stomp on the back of Grey, yet as the match went back into the ring, Grey caught Mambo coming in and scored a two count with a rope assisted reverse DDT. Everything that came before was designed to lead to a scintillating closing stretch, as Mambo used an Irish whip in the corner as a catalyst for a sequence of moves that saw a second turnbuckle blockbuster on Grey, a boot to knock Chapman off of the apron, springboard Meteora knees on the Lord followed by a suicide dive to ringside, before finishing the contest with the springboard splash for three. Revenge was well and truly gained as Mambo managed to offset the only loss in singles/tag team action in Riptide to this point.
It would be remiss not to mention Jack Sexsmith, so often an integral part of Riptide’s events. A match against Mark Andrews that saw the pansexual phenomenon struggle to put away his more experienced foe led to a moment that saw how broken Sexsmith was by the actions of the past year. Grabbing a chair, Sexsmith would toy long and hard with the idea of using it on Andrews against a backdrop of admonishment from the masses around ringside. Sexsmith eventually would decide against using the chair, but this lapse in judgement allowed Andrews to recover, hitting a cutter variation and a shooting star press for three. Less than gracious in defeat, Sexsmith would walk away from an Andrews handshake.
As the two most popular wrestlers in the company at this point, the rise of Chuck Mambo and the fall of Jack Sexsmith gave fans the ecstasy and agony all in one place. With Mambo’s entrances and victories getting people more and more excited to see him perhaps earn the right to challenge for the Brighton Championship, the hint of the lengths Sexsmith might go to in order to take out his frustrations for his significant losing streak didn’t augur well. Either way, fans knew that both men would have to be at their very best if they were to defeat the newest member of the Riptide roster and qualifier for the Brighton Championship Tournament, WALTER.
