By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
The evolution of Riptide as a promotion continued as they appealed to the masses with a match that it is hard not to love – a Rumble. With only around half of the competitors named beforehand, the Riptide Rumble had people flooding through the doors, eager to see who would win the Rumble and the right to fight for the Brighton Championship. Other matches would also see Team WhiteWolf defend their ATTACK! Tag Team Title successfully against the Grizzled Young Veterans, whilst the Jinny/Jimmy Havoc feud ended with Jinny winning a ‘No Disqualification’ match that was by far the most violent thing Riptide had offered their fans up until this show. Cleverly, this feud that had helped support the company’s growth alongside the Trivet/Sexsmith feud was finished just in time for the focus to shift towards the title.
A chain of events that would see Chakara both open the show and enter the Riptide Rumble meant that her match against Candy Floss was understandably on the short side. Candy Floss would set the quick pace with a dropkick as the bell rang, already picking up a two count with a corner dropkick and starting the arm work with a double knee armbreaker. A little out of character perhaps, but Candy Floss would even indulge in some joint manipulation, before Chakara got her first opening by dropkicking Candy Floss off of the second rope. Candyfloss seemed to have an answer for everything though as she used a tiltawhirl into a Fujiwara-style armbar. The women would trade flash pinfall attempts after Chakara reversed a frankensteiner attempt into a sitout powerbomb, but a kick to the head and snap Dragon suplex looked like they had put Chakara firmly in control.
A misguided attempt at blowing gold powder in Candy Floss’ eyes backfired on Chakara, allowing the pink haired one to hit a straitjacket backcracker with a pin only halted by a rope break. One brief strike exchange later, Candy Floss jumped into a cross armbreaker for the submission, the match only going a little under five minutes bell to bell. Unfortunately for the victor, Cara Noir would again make his presence known to her, using a decoy on the stage to attack Candy Floss from behind with a German suplex. Though Candy Floss was able to avoid the package piledriver and threaten to fight back, she would be knocked out with a brainbuster over the knee.
Spike Trivet finally got what he wanted at ‘Riptide Rumble’: a chance to qualify for the Brighton Championship Tournament. However, he would have to do it without Money Versus Everybody, his two cronies banned from ringside as Trivet would take on Mike Bird. An early rollup by Bird had Trivet taking off his waistcoat, prompting some fairly tuneless ‘stripper’ music from the crowd and the straps getting dropped by Bird. The theme of clothes continued as a chop by Trivet led to Bird ripping open the privileged one’s shirt and blasting him with a couple of chops, followed up by the straps coming down once more! Always happy to cheat, Trivet used an eye rake as Bird ended up on the apron following a missed charge, and began to press home the advantage with a dropkick to send his opponent off of the apron and a gourdbuster as Bird returned to the ring. A vicious Irish whip would even see Bird collide with the turnbuckle and fly over the top rope, a spot in keeping with a Rumble show. Meteora knees on a seated Bird were only enough for Trivet to get a two, though the Rings of Saturn showed further development in Trivet’s offense.
Trivet’s decision to run his mouth, rather than let his moves do the talking, was always liable to cost him; Bird didn’t take kindly to being slapped and called a pigeon, leading to a sequence of chops, a back elbow in the corner and a short arm lariat. Bird would show impressive aerial ability by hitting Trivet with a splash that cleared three quarters of the ring after his opponent had attempted to roll out of the way. Still, Trivet wasn’t done, blocking a move and eventually nailing a springboard codebreaker for two, only to get caught on the top moments later and dropped by with a top rope frankensteiner. Sensing the momentum of his opponent building, Trivet would pull the referee into the way of a charging Bird, leaving no-one to count the subsequent pin following a vicious screwdriver-type move. Bird did manage to kick out of the low blow and subsequent butterfly neckbreaker, but couldn’t kick out of a spanner shot moments later, the weapon provided by Damon Moser from the balcony with a rope – like the world’s worst game of Cluedo. Bird’s leg would be attacked post-match, but more hideously for many, Trivet had qualified for the Brighton Championship Tournament and was one step closer to buying his way to the top.
The biggest bromance in UK independent wrestling would be put to the test as David Starr met Jack Sexsmith. Starr’s messing around in the early exchanges didn’t tally with what Sexsmith needed: a challenging match to get him back in the game. Sexsmith would give Starr a tongue lashing, sparking the beginning of one of the best matches I’ve seen live. The contest immediately kicked into high gear, though Starr would take over first with a tiltawhirl gourdbuster and two methodical suplexes. An attempted third would be reversed into a Sexsmith neckbreaker, whilst Sexsmith would use his knowledge of Starr to block an attempted Product Recall moments later and land a Sliced Bread #2 for a nearfall. Digging deep in his playbook, Starr landed an Angle slam to regain momentum, following up with a suicide dive. Having had attempts at it blocked twice before, Sexsmith would eventually land his delayed DDT, Starr barely lifting a shoulder to break the count.
A Cherry Mint DDT halted Sexsmith’s attempt at a suicide dive, whilst Starr followed up with two superkicks on his kneeling friend, even suggesting that the match should end at this point. This only spurred Sexsmith on, though Sexsmith’s slaps were emphatically cut off with a spinning lariat by the Product. Starr would give Sexsmith a kiss as if to suggest this was the end, but Sexsmith was able to kick out of a Black Heart Buster and another superkick that sparked an impromptu rendition of ‘I Touch Myself’ from the crowd. A ridiculous Sexsmith jump into a Canadian destroyer signalled Sexsmith’s last real chance; a dive had Starr lariat him out of mid-air, ending the contest with a lariat to the back of the head. Sexsmith’s losing streak may have continued, but he showed resilience more in keeping with the 2017 iteration of himself than the broken 2018 shell of a wrestler that Money Versus Everybody had helped to create.
In the interest of time constraints on the VOD version of the show, the match that saw Damon Moser and Chris Ridgeway face off against Connor Mills and Maverick Mayhew went the one way it was likely to go – a win for Moser and Ridgeway.
As the Riptide Rumble by its very nature went over an hour, the focus here will be on the key moments or notable things that happened from bell to bell. That covers a lot. Riptide were able to put together a Rumble that did what they did best: an interesting collection of wrestlers, hard hitting action, liberally sprinkled with some humour.
Kurtis Chapman and Rhia O’Reilly would be the opening duo to enter the Rumble, and it would be the Keyboard Warrior who would be the first person eliminated as Two Metre Peter, the security guard, would eliminate Chapman after he went on a keyboard rampage, taking out Reilly, Elijah, James Castle and Kip Sabian. This was a brilliant piece of storytelling, as the guard and Chapman had had many run-ins before, something that VOD version of this beautifully reminded the fans. Castle and Elijah would eliminate both Peter and Reilly, whilst Sabian found time to hide under the apron for some hilariously inappropriate erection humour. Just as it looked like the Castle and Elijah duo were taking over, Big T Justice hit the ring at number 9, taking out both of the heels, as well as Adam Chase. Connor Mills would be the next man to go: a press slam by Justice taking out the aforementioned three wrestlers at ringside!
The only thing that was able to stop Justice was an impromptu dance number with Sabian and Amir Jordan, harkening back to Too Cool and Rikishi. Unfortunately for the Super Brotheys, they would meet the same fate as Justice eliminated the two men as soon as the dance ended. After a vegan tried without success to attack Justice with a cucumber, it took the arrival of Los Federales Santos Jr. and TK Cooper consecutively to put a stop to the Justice rampage, though not before Santos Jr. learned the hard way not to question whether Cooper was Samoan or not. Sierra Loxton’s arrival marked the halfway point, with a big collision between Justice and Santos Jr. following Loxton’s German suplexes on Ashley Dunn and Cooper allowed her to hit success hip attacks in the corner.
Charlie Morgan should have been in at 17, but an attack by Flash Morgan Webster left the Mod to take her place. One of the biggest threats was soon eliminated – Cooper would attempt to marshal the troops in order to eliminate Justice, only for a low blow seconds later to be enough for the Samoan to get rid of Big T. Wild Boar’s arrival would be number 20, and he would mark entering the last third of the contest with four Trapper Keeper package piledrivers, including one on his partner in other promotions, Webster, though his decision to do a fifth one to Santos Jr. saw him hit with a Cooper axe kick and eliminated.
21 saw the fan favourite arrival of Chuck Mambo, as well as the elimination of Chakara moments later to end her night of double duty. Gideon Grey had already made it clear that all he wanted was a nap, a feeling he reiterated on his way to the ring with pillow in hand and one that earned him a spoon with Loxton and Mambo. Having been woken long enough to eliminate Fraser Thomas, Grey would snuggle back down, though this time accompanied by Lion Kid’s Simba. Grey’s short involvement would then see him sent over the top by Mambo, before Santos Jr. became a human version of Buckaroo with a mixture of Shax’s clothes and Simba on him. This was something that Chief Deputy Dunne wasn’t very happy with unsurprisingly, especially as the crowd chanted ‘this was fun’. Luckily for the Santos Jr., he managed to get some revenge with a clothesline to take out Lion Kid and a press slam to ‘eliminate’ Simba.
Rob Lias’ very vocal hatred of intergender wrestling upon his entrance was all set up for Shax to initially take the fight to him, though primarily for the Riptide debut of Viper, one that elicited a ‘holy shit’ chant from the crowd. Viper would even slam Santos Jr. before we got some stacked brawling between Mambo (on Viper) and Dunne (on Santos Jr.) that would end up with a Dunne poisonrana on his masked compadre. Within seconds, both Dunne and Santos Jr. would be eliminated, ending in particular a very strong night for the luchador. The arrival of Pastor William Eaver at 29 saw him use his Christ-like powers on Roy Johnson and Viper, though the agnostic nature of Cooper stopped Eaver in his tracks.
Number 30 was greeted with a chorus of boos as Zack Gibson also pulled double duty. With the elimination of Johnson (by Viper) and Eaver (by Gibson), Webster would re-appear out of nowhere, only to be eliminated by the returning Charlie Morgan, who nailed him with a suicide dive to boot. A mistimed superkick by Mambo led to the elimination of Viper by Cooper, whilst the two men then ended up trading a series of incredibly close eliminations until a headscissors from the apron left it at just Mambo and Gibson. In a move not too dissimilar in nature, Mambo would win the Rumble as he hooked Gibson under the arms and used the momentum from the ropes to lift him over the top and to the floor!
Things wouldn’t quite be finished for Mambo. Eddie Dennis, occasional compere and bartender for the promotion, would enter the ring and not only congratulate Mambo on his victory, but challenge him for the next show, ‘International Waters’. Not only would Mambo accept the challenge, he would also put his spot in the Brighton Championship Tournament on the line!
For a promotion that had often ended shows in recent times on a downbeat note, this was a celebration that allowed the fans to unashamedly enjoy not only Mambo’s victory, but Riptide Wrestling as a whole. However, as Mambo and Dennis celebrated in the ring, the kernel of doubt that the promotion had managed to develop over the course of nearly a year of existence – things are often not quite as positive as they seem – left an uneasy feeling hanging in the air as some fans waited for Dennis to turn on Mambo. He didn’t, but having seen what Ridgeway did to Sexsmith, it just left enough hanging in the air for the match at the next show. A show that drew to a close the qualifying rounds of the Brighton Championship Tournament, whilst also aiming to further showcase Riptide’s desire to book the best talents not just nationally, but globally.
