The Riptide mystery is finally solved and the internet is fuming
If you have spent more than five minutes on wrestling Twitter or the various corners of the IWC lately, you know that nothing triggers a digital brawl quite like a finisher explanation. Rhea Ripley recently sat down with ESPN to pull back the curtain on how the Riptide came to be. Naturally, the fans are acting like she just reinvented the wheel or, conversely, like she ripped off a move from a random indie show in 2004.
The enthusiasts are busy building shrines
On one side of the aisle, you have the people who treat Rhea Ripley like a modern-day superhero. These fans look at the Riptide, a brutal pop-up inverted facelock slam, as the pinnacle of power wrestling. They aren't interested in the technical minutiae of who did it first. To them, the move is a signature piece of storytelling that fits her Mami persona perfectly.
These folks are flooding the threads with clips of her pinning Liv Morgan or Charlotte Flair, acting like the Riptide is the greatest thing since the Stone Cold Stunner. They argue that the move looks devastating because she actually drives the opponent's face into the canvas with conviction. It is pure validation for people who think modern women's wrestling is in its golden age.
The contrarians want to see the receipt
Then you have the miserable subgroup of fans who exist solely to find the "original" version of every move. They are the same people who point out that a move isn't original because a guy named Kenta Kobashi did a variation of it in a 1999 AJPW match. Their entire identity is built on knowing obscure wrestling history that 99 percent of the audience has never touched.
These skeptics are currently spamming Reddit threads with claims that the Riptide is just a modified Pumphandle Slam. They love to throw around phrases like 'derivative' or 'lazy booking' while conveniently ignoring the fact that almost every move in current wrestling has roots in the 80s and 90s. It is pure gatekeeping for the sake of feeling smarter than the person watching next to them.
My take on the Riptide discourse
Here is my hot take: who cares where it came from? The Riptide gets a reaction, it looks painful, and it ends matches. That is the holy trinity of a good finisher. As Ringside News has covered, the process behind the move was entirely functional for her, which is how wrestling should work. It is not about inventing physics; it is about finding a way to drop someone on their neck that feels believable.
The criticism that it lacks originality is essentially a cry for help from wrestling nerds who want to be noticed by the algorithm. If you analyze the mechanics, she hooks the arm and lifts with enough force to make you believe that 150 pounds of force is being exerted on the mat. That is better than a flashy 450 splash that misses half the time. Stop overthinking a move that works exactly as intended.
Sure, the setup can be awkward if she is not positioned exactly right against someone smaller. We have all seen instances where the transition looks clunky or the opponent has to do too much work to get into position. That is the reality of live television. You are going to have misses. But pinning the top talent in the company with it effectively silences the haters, even if they won't admit it on their keyboards.
Ultimately, the Riptide is exactly what this era needs. It is gritty, it is impactful, and it does not require a trampoline to execute. If the worst thing you can say about a wrestler is that their move reminds you of someone else's move from two decades ago, you might want to consider going outside or picking up a hobby that involves more than refreshing Wreddit. The move is fine, the match quality is generally high, and the IWC is just being the IWC.
