A quick throwback to happier times – and a fantastic slice of mat-based wrestling between a name that’s breaking through, and one that really should once things get going again…
Earlier this week, IndependentWrestling.tv added the entire back catalog of Riptide Wrestling to their service. We’ve covered Riptide in the past, but to our shame it’s something we fell out of the habit of. I guess there’s no excuse for us… or for you either, given the amount of footage that’s getting crammed into IWTV’s $10 monthly subscription. For now, we’re going to go back to the afternoon of Saturday October 5, 2019 – unfortunately IWTV had the date a little off at time of writing – and the “middle” show from Riptide’s Brighton Spirit weekend.
Quick Result:
British Rounds: Jordan Breaks beat Daniel Makabe by 2-1 in 11:00 (****)
This one comes from Riptide’s usual haunt, the Brighthelm Center in Brighton…
British Rounds: Jordan Breaks vs. Daniel Makabe
AC Milan is a neutral shirt for Brighton… at least nobody tried to give him a Crystal Palace shirt or anything!
Round One: From the opening tie-up, Breaks takes down Makabe and controls the arm as he looked for an early pin attempt. Makabe’s up, and replies with a knuckle lock, but Breaks quickly battles out and takes him down with a wristlock, clinging on before Makabe escaped to grab a toe hold. The hold’s cinched in, but they keep going back and forth, with Jordon going back to the wrist before Makabe was rolled over by the ropes for a two-count. Another teased exchange ended with an up-kick from Breaks, who then tripped Makabe and rolled him over with a leg clutch for another two-count.
Makabe replies with a corning hold as he looked to stop Breaks’ onslaught to the wrist, keeping the hold on despite Breaks’ attempt to push off. Headscissors don’t work either, as Breaks is taken down again, before Jordan used the ropes to flip free before monkey-flipping his way into some pinning attempts, ending when they got too close to the corner. We quickly resume as Makabe rolls through and kicks out Breaks legs – much like he did to Tony Deppen in the SCI some months earlier. That was a wonderful move then, and it is now, as he uses it to trip Breaks into a Makabe Lock… but Jordan counters out and grabs a key lock before time ran out in the first round.
Round Two: Makabe’s protecting his wrist at the start, but Breaks jumps on it, only to get taken down. Undeterred, Breaks drops a leg on Makabe’s arm as he proceeds to scissor the arm, but Makabe escapes with headscissors as he applies an armbar of his own. A head stand from Breaks frees himself as he nonchalantly walks away, only to get decked with a European uppercut. From the Canadian. More of those follow as Breaks tried to hit back in kind, before countering a backslide with one of his own for a near-fall. A La Magistral gets another near-fall, before they go all World of Sport on us, leading to Breaks flipping Makabe down into a Euro clutch to take the first-fall!
Round Three: Makabe takes the initiative, grabbing Breaks’ arm and suplexing him to the mat as he looked to tie up the local lad. An armbar on the mat forces Jordon to dive into the ropes for, erm, a break, before he got planted with a German suplex for a near-fall. Makabe tries to go for the Makabe Lock again, but again escapes quickly as they transition back and forth. Another pinning attempt from Breaks earns him a European uppercut, before Makabe leapt in with my favourite variation of the Cattle Mutilation – the seated Makabe Lock π – and that forces Jordon to tap. As it would just about anyone.
Between rounds, the Riptide medic rolled into the ring to check on Breaks’ shoulder, with that last hold clearly having done some damage… but Breaks opts to continue, as it’s next-fall-wins.
Round Four: Breaks nurses that shoulder as the crowd roared him on. He ducks some lock-up attempts as he looked to strike through with uppercuts… but Makabe quickly goes to the shoulder, ripping off the KT tape before laying out Breaks. That punch gets Makabe a public warning, which he’s fine with as he proceeded to elbow away on Breaks’ bad wing… only to get suckered in as Jordon went back to the wrist. Breaks rolls through into Key lock, trapping Makabe… and that’s the submission! A brief final fall, but a pay-off to a good story that saw Makabe “flick the switch,” only to get caught out as Breaks’ constant wrist-work paid off. ****
From the VOD presentation at least, I do feel like Riptide missed a rare trick here by not explaining the rules to the at-home viewers. The way the referee just declared “that’s the end of the round” caught me off guard – and left me wondering if it was the end of the round because of time, or because of a submission.
We’ve waxed lyrical about Makabe for a while now – and when things get back to normal, I’d dare say he’d be a sneaky addition to Ring of Honor’s Pure division… but I’m far from the only person shouting out about that. As for Breaks, he’s shockingly only been around for two years (per Cagematch, although if you take in his old name, it’s more like three). The rapport he’s got with the crowd in Riptide is much akin to the early days of Jack Gallagher, while the in ring style is very much patterned on the World of Sport era. As is the name.
Again, once things open up again, I really hope that Breaks finally gets his, erm, break in one of the “bigger” promotions in the UK – while not everything is guaranteed to translate from the Riptides to (say) the Rev Pros or PROGRESS’ of this world, in an era where everyone’s looking for new blood, going “back to the past” is hardly the worst option out there.
- Get access to this match, and the entire back catalogue from Riptide Wrestling by signing up at iwtv.live. If you use the promo code RIPTIDE you get a five-day free trial too…