Review: Tidal Championship Wrestling - Stranger Than Fiction

Tidal Championship Wrestling - Stranger Than Fiction
The Parish, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Sunday, November 14, 2021
Reviewer: Ben Corrigan (@BritWresAwayDay)

Tidal Championship Wrestling - Stranger Than Fiction

Until this past summer, the town of Huddersfield was one that I had never actually visited. Sure, I’d passed through on the train literally hundreds of times while making my way to/from Manchester and the like.

I’d even hopped-off to change trains on a handful of occasions, but until August had never set foot outside the railway station. In 2021, though, the West Yorkshire town has become one of the regular stops for TIDAL Championship Wrestling, the outfit I’ve attended most frequently over the past few years, and so my custom has followed them to Huddersfield accordingly.

This particular event, ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, was a late addition to TIDAL’s calendar, slotted in to make up for an original date in nearby Batley after the promotion decided to withdraw from that venue.

The show, TIDAL’s 90th overall, was also their anniversary event, marking 8 years since the group’s arrival with an ambitious nationwide tour. I went to one of those initial 2013 events myself, and it’s fair to say they were more than a little different to what the promotion would evolve into.

While those inaugural TIDAL events were loaded with name US imports and top-level British performers, TIDAL is these days known for running regular dates in more intimate gig-type venues and performance spaces.

There is a focus on a regular cast of local wrestlers who have become the cult favourite heroes and mercilessly heckled villains to the enthusiastic, vocal and cheeky loyal audience.

The term “undergraps” has been bandied about the past few years, and I’d say that sums it up perfectly. It’s not the widely-reported, headline-making, import-laden, big-venue-running likes of Revolution Pro Wrestling, but is more of the just-beneath-the-surface bread and butter British wrestling shows, running regularly, featuring a range of performers perhaps not yet well-known on a bational level and keeping it’s regular fanbase more than entertained.

I arrived into Huddersfield around 12:30 and spent some time wandering the shopping streets before being joined for the afternoon by friends Chris, Shauna, Geoff, Andrew, Andrew and, erm, Andrew to take in a few of the town’s drinking spots.

Visited on this occasion were the Head of Steam and Arcade Beers, before calling in on my new favourite fast food chain, the wonderful German Doner Kebab. There was also the opportunity to view an exhibition of “The Worst Album Covers” in a town centre pop-up gallery, including some incredible efforts from the likes of Val Doonican.

Then, it was over to The Parish, a well-known venue on Huddersfield’s student and music scenes and, of course, now host to TIDAL Championship Wrestling. With the doors to the show opening slightly late (waiting for several of the wrestlers who had been appearing on a Wrestle Carnival show down in Nottingham earlier the same day), there was time for a few drinks in the main downstairs bar before heading up to the gig room and taking our seats.

I’ve now managed to nab the exact same seat for all 3 of TIDAL’s shows here – a seat on front of the stage giving perfect views of the action.

Despite the small delay in letting us in, ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ started bang on time, by which point there were around 85 people in attendance. That’s up from around 65 last time, and back to what they did on the first show here back in August.

Not huge numbers, and I’m sure they would like to get more in, but it’s an amount that nearly fills the small room they run in. If they were to attract more punters, I struggle to see where you’d fit them in without making some rearrangements to the layout/set-up they use.

Jack Bandicoot vs Joe Wade - TCW Open Championship

The TCW Open Championship is TIDAL’s secondary singles title, so-named because it can be defended against anyone, regardless of gender.

The charismatic Bandicoot is a long-standing fan favourite in TIDAL, though Wade has been impressive in recent outings too. As such, the crowd was mostly for Jack, but there was some vocal support for Joe, making for a good atmosphere of opposing cheers and chants.

This was one of the matches that stood out on what looked to be a strong announced line-up, and lived up to those expectations with a hard-fought, action-based contest.

The finish came when Bandicoot was perched on the top rope preparing to deliver his signature frog-splash but was held up by the referee checking on Wade, who appeared to be hurt. Jack stalled and eventually jumped down, only for Joe to spring up and hit him with an axe-kick to the back of the head, following up with a visually- great swanton bomb to clinch the title.

Wade made his exit, while a confused Bandicoot was left talking it over with the referee. A very good match, with the ending more than enough to justify and generate interest in a rematch on a forthcoming show.

Ace Matthews vs Jake Silver

This largely came off as a showcase for Matthews, who has the character of an inspirational life coach, complete with headset microphone, obnoxiously trying to help the audience be better. Or, as he puts it, “Be Ace”.

It’s a great gimmick, portrayed magnificently with exactly the amount of confidence and poise needed for maximum effectiveness. It’s certainly been a hit with regular TIDAL crowds.

This time, Matthews came out with a whiteboard, listing numbered bullet points, accompanied by cue cards he would read from with tips for us all on “How to be Ace”.

What made this funny was that he’d get to about tip number nine or ten, get annoyed with the impatient crowd interrupting and heckling him, then decide to start right back at the beginning again.

When the match finally did start, Matthew was on the receiving end of endless abuse, calling him an “Ace Hole” and “Whiteboard W**ker” throughout.

Amusingly, he also kept mistakenly referring to his opponent as ‘Jack’, as in Jake’s ‘Crashboat’ tag team partner Jack Bandicoot. The end saw Matthews smack Silver in the nads away from a distracted referee’s gaze, then hit a pumphandle slam for the win.

Interestingly, Silver was a late stand-in for Sebb Strife, one of TIDAL’s lead baddies following his recent split from ‘Lion Kings’ partner Nsereko. That would’ve been a direct rematch from the previous Huddersfield show, where the heel vs. heel dynamic really didn’t work to the benefit of the match or either wrestler, and it was particularly head-scratching why they would need to run it back again.

Brady Phillips vs Callum Newman

Both have been standout performers in TIDAL rings since the summer restart, really two of the best I’ve personally seen in the UK this year, so expectations were high for this one going in.

I’m happy to report they didn’t disappoint. What was noticeable was that this was a completely different style to Brady’s recent show-stealing TIDAL match with Tom Thelwell in Leeds. That certified banger was all about big moves and even bigger near-falls and kickouts, whereas this had a more methodical pace, building gradually and, as they say, “telling a story”.

That’s not to say it didn’t have its crazy moments, though, including a Newman dive from the ring to the stage, scattering chairs and sending one particularly unlucky punter’s entire costly pint of Fruli to the floor. Aw, man.

Back inside the ring, the pair collided into Callum hitting a standing single Spanish Fly, and a series of reversals and one-counts kept referee Scott Bell busy. With Newman strung up in the corner, Brady charged and hit a falling DDT to bring this great match to a close.

Ivy vs Kacie

After an interval in which pints were replenished and floors were mopped, ‘Queen of the Monsters’ Ivy defeated Kacie by submission to a Boston Crab. This was mostly one-sided, though Kacie did get her moments of offence, including a ‘Meteora’-style diving double-knee attack from the top rope.

This was the second consecutive match to spill onto the stage, but thankfully this time the action was limited to the wrestlers and not unsuspecting drinks. Ivy has quietly become a top performer.

Well, I say quietly – one of the keys to her act being so good is that she isn’t afraid to get gobby with her opponents and, more importantly, the audience, going back and forth and giving as good as she gets.

Kacie was fine – she’s very young and not long into this game, and she is naturally some way behind Ivy when it comes to the character/presence as described above, but there is plenty of time for that to come, particularly if she can continue to work on shows like these.

HT Drake vs Tom Thelwell vs Carlos Zamora

One of the highlights of the previous TIDAL show here was an unannounced 4-way in which HT Drake, Dereiss, Dara Diablo and Rufio tore the house down in a thrilling all-action sprint.

It was natural, then, that a similar multi-man match announced here, with Drake again featuring, was being talked up by attendees beforehand as potentially something good, particularly when one of the other two involved was Tom Thelwell, himself coming off two genuinely tremendous TIDAL showings against Brady Phillips and Will Kroos.

The third part of the equation was somewhat of an unknown coming in, that being ‘El Guapo’ Carlos Zamora, a regular for Bodyslam Pro Wrestling in Denmark who has been picking up a few UK dates.

This one didn’t have all the thrills and spills of last month’s effort, following more of a structure that meant one man would be sitting out waiting while the other two did their thing.

This did allow you to see more of each wrestler as an individual, such as Zamora being a very intense little man, inviting Thelwell to bring the fight right to him and firing back with his kicks. A humorous point running through this whole thing was that Manchester’s Thelwell had mistakenly been announced as “hailing from Liverpool”, which gave the crowd an opportunity to poke fun (“Liverpool’s Number One” etc.).

I was sure Drake would break out his incredible double-German-suplex-Canadian-Destroyer move out again here on his multiple opponents, but it was not to be – probably something best saved for special occasions, as you don’t want it becoming just a regular part of a Drake match.

It was indeed Drake that gained the win here again, this time with his diving lung-blower from the ropes.

BA Rose and Jack Turner (Violence Party) vs Dan Evans and Scott Oberman (Merseyside Mercenary Squad) - TCW Tag Team Championship

I thought this was really solid, proper tag team wrestling. Violence Party were baddies for years, but when faced with other heels the TIDAL crowd supported them as “their” own and it looks like it’s going to stick.

Here, they were even embracing and encouraging the “Hairy Bikers” chants that punters cheekily throw their way. On the other side, I feel Dan Evans is frequently over-looked, but is a talented performer with a lot to offer.

Much like Ivy earlier, he has no problem getting into it with the crowd, rarely misses a step and is adept at various styles of match. This time, it was a powerbomb-neckbreaker combination from TIDAL fans’ new favourite heavyweight tag team that secured the victory.

Will Kroos vs Robbie X - TCW Championship

And so we were left with our main event: Will Kroos putting his TCW Championship up against Robbie X. Kroos has quickly become TIDAL’s signature star in 2021, topping every date in what has been a series of incredibly strong and worthy headline attractions.

Robbie X is a name that is known across the country, but for whatever reason he has never been a regular face in this promotion, his sole previous appearance coming a couple of years ago. He’s a very talented wrestler, and one that more promotions seem to be waking up to in this post-NXT:UK world and realising that he can reliably deliver something for them.

Both were on decent form here and put on what I considered to be a very good, exciting curtain-closer. There was a fight around the outside of the ring, then back inside Robbie twice went for his Xclamation springing backwards cutter, Kroos able to fight it off on both occasions.

Eventually it was Big Will getting his hand raised after the Fire Thunder Driver-style sit-down reverse piledriver (that I am reliably informed is called the, erm, ‘Booze Kroos’).

As with Phillips and Newman earlier, I’d consider this pair to be two of the UK scene’s current best. Afterwards, HT Drake came back out to confront Kroos on the stage, his earlier victory granting him the next shot at the big belt.

I liked this. It was aggressive and intense, immediately setting it up as something you’d be interested in seeing resolved. Kroos and Drake did face off in the main event of a TIDAL show in Batley earlier this year but, watching that match on the IWTV streaming service, I thought it had more left in it, and it didn’t have that bit of needle they demonstrated here.

Matching the previous TIDAL show in this venue, it was again all wrapped up by 6:45pm again. This is tremendous for people who need or want to get home and could well be a factor in getting people to consider checking out these shows from further afield.

All that was left was to gather our belongings, carry our Beer Snake of emptied pint glasses back down to the bar and head out into the Huddersfield night, stopping for a couple of goodnight drinks at the King’s Head before hopping back on the train home.

With ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ being an extra event that was sneaked in, TIDAL is actually back in Huddersfield in less than three weeks for the long-announced ‘Destroy All Monsters’. That one takes place on Sunday, December 5, and has already confirmed that Will Kroos vs. HT Drake championship main event.

All being well, I am fully intending on being there. Huddersfield may be fairly new to me, but it has quickly become one of my favourite places to come and watch the wrestling, thanks to plenty of pre- and post-show options in the town, a really good intimate venue with a great atmosphere, and a series of very strong and enjoyable shows from TIDAL.

Let’s see if they can keep up the streak.