Sunshine Machine Rules

By Renee (@phoenix_renee on Twitter), with editing help from @almostodiena

© Photography by me actually this time, and Chuck Mambo, and whichever kind soul took a picture of me and Sunshine Machine in the Ballroom (might’ve been Odiena actually…)

I don’t know when I became such a stubborn believer. I have talked previously about my past penchant for apathy. But not with Sunshine Machine. Because apathy is about the idea that nothing matters, so why care at all. And you better believe Sunshine Machine matters. I sit here writing this while wearing tie dye despite having no care for the pattern before. Sunshine Machine matters because in itself it’s positive (usually, with an exception). They are full of energy, they are happy, they are fun.

I can’t root against them, and never have. They are a rock in the scene and something for me to cling to and support, no matter what. Both because I enjoy their work and because it is, in part, thanks to those two I feel so safe and comfortable in britwres. Both because the bright colours of Sunshine Machine merch makes identifying fellow fans at shows easy, and because it is my interactions with them that helped build my confidence to be louder and unapologetically myself here.

Since I started watching britwres the story of ‘dissension in the Machine’ has been told across three separate companies, across three separate years. And every time I have dug my heels into the dirt and said “No! They are not splitting. Trust me.” I didn’t have a scoop. I didn’t know more than I should. I just knew.

In fact, when I first became a fan of Sunshine Machine it was during one of these ‘will they won’t they break up’ stories. In Revolution Pro Wrestling in 2024 Sunshine Machine hadn’t been on the best run. An unsuccessful Great British Tag League in 2023, a loss to NJPW young lions Oskar Leube and Yuto Nakashima (now known as OSKAR and Yuto-Ice ‘The Knockout Brothers’), and an unsuccessful challenge for the RevPro Undisputed British Tag Team Titles, it was clear to the pair that something had to change. So they went away for a month, came back to take on the thrown together tag team of Michael Oku and Zozaya and…they lost again.

After the match, TK Cooper laid out an ultimatum, “The next time we lose, that’s the end of Sunshine Machine in RevPro”. As tends to happen in wrestling with these ultimatums, this led to a series of wins which set them back on a collision course with the team that put all of this into motion: the RevPro tag champions, Grizzled Young Veterans at RevPro’s 12 Year Anniversary Show in the Copperbox Arena. One more title match on the biggest stage, against one of the finest tag teams in the country and possibly the world. Once more chance to prove they still had it.

I met Sunshine Machine for the first time two days before this match and I bought a piece of merch expressing my intention to wear it at RevPro. TK Cooper responded “Saturday may be your last chance.”

And I replied “I know, and I’ll take it. Hope it isn’t the last chance though.” Or something to that effect I do not remember exactly.

Me pictured with Mambo and TK at Pro Wrestling Ceasefire in 2024

And when things finally looked to be in the Machine’s favour against GYV, James Drake ducked a superkick from Mambo and TK got hit with it instead. TK was sent outside the ring and he just stood there, thinking. As great as the run leading to this match was, here they were and again it wasn’t working.

Mambo continued to fight valiantly on his own, unaware of TK’s inaction. But GYV looked to twist the knife, holding the isolated Mambo and pointing to his tag partner on the apron. Shouting and posturing, effectively telling TK that he could come in and share the beatdown or he could leave. And while he looks conflicted, he does begin to walk away. Because maybe TK didn’t want it. Maybe he did want them to lose. Maybe it was just Mambo who had gotten them to the Copperbox.

The GYV teed up their finishing manoeuvre, ready to hit Chuck Mambo who had nowhere to go. But TK bolted back down the ramp, pulling Zack Gibson out the ring and allowing Mambo to get the jump on Drake. Actions I could barely see through the tears.

Was it a change of heart or an elaborate ruse? We can’t know. TK Cooper has said, that it was just to trick GYV. But it is easy to worry, to question whether any small part of him did consider leaving Mambo behind. The point, however, is not what his specific intentions of the walk away were. The point is that he came back. He came back and they won. Together.

My tears were of joy and not distress.

In July of 2025, the question of the team’s strength arose again in RevPro, although my investment was hampered rather by me not being there. That is of course no one’s fault but mine (or the fault of Wolverhampton since I was hardly going to travel north twice in one month. Or I could also blame Trent Seven perhaps).

After being cheated out of the RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title, TK Cooper acted impulsively and aggressively, entering a feud with Trent Seven when Trent eliminated Cooper from the Revolution Rumble. Culminated in a match between the two at Summer Sizzler, up in Wolverhampton.

Some have said that TK’s actions went too far and were unjust, when, upon being beaten, an angered TK attacked Seven once more. He grabbed a chair, moving towards Trent, but out came Chuck Mambo.

After letting Mambo take the chair an emotional TK shouted, daring Mambo to hit him with it instead. A dramatic statement to the bond between them, to force Mambo to choose between him and everyone else. Or more specifically force Mambo to have to choose him. I knew Mambo would stand by TK, even if commentary and some fans condemned him, he’d surely choose TK. Which he did. Mambo chose his tag partner. He chose friendship and love instead of what some people deemed just or right.

This began a new era for the pair in RevPro, albeit not a long one and one not without flaws. Still it’s an era I still have fondness for, because, as the team condemned the fans and the management of RevPro, dropping the ‘Sunshine’ from their name, I found myself falling in love with ‘The Machine’ all over again.

Along with the name change, and new theme music (the awesome ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ track), the dynamics of the team seemed to shift. The previously louder, more rambunctious Mambo became quieter. In their post-Sizzler promo, he brought his voice to a whisper, claiming he ‘never wanted to shout again’. Mambo now lacked the positive energy most associated with him. The promo was almost Jake The Snake-esque as he calmly explained that knew he should feel bad for attacking Trent but he didn’t. He said he experienced a ‘moment of clarity’ while out in the woods and that doing something ‘so unforgivable’ allowed him the freedom to no longer care what people thought of him.

As Mambo’s outward energy decreased, TK Cooper’s increased. He filled this new quiet with impassioned sermons citing the injustice that he saw all around him and vilifying RevPro for a perceived lack of respect for The Machine.

As a fan of the team I only thought it right to stand by them in this. I had seen them almost split a year ago and so even if their actions weren’t seen as just, it was better that they were together. I continued to support ‘The Machine’ simply because I wanted to and because I knew that they were just choosing to stand together. And I respected that.

At PROGRESS: Fix Your Hearts 2025, despite reports that TK Cooper’s visa issues could keep him out of the advertised Tag Title match against The Smokin’ Aces, I entered the Electric Ballroom with a smile on my face. When asked what I was most excited for I cited the tag match. The person with whom I was conversing scrunched up their face and said “Didn’t you see? TK can’t make it.”

I simply shook my head. “He’s going to be here. I know it,” I replied.

As this was the latest of many matches between the pair the stakes were raised dramatically. If the current champions, The Smokin’ Aces, lost they would be forced to disband. And if Sunshine Machine lost they could never challenge for the PROGRESS Tag Titles again.

With Nick Riley set to retire not long after, the match would be a last stand for the Aces. A chance to end their team’s story as champions and stick it to their rivals. For Sunshine Machine, the match meant unity. And also a sense of finality, as they finally got one over team they were yet to beat in PROGRESS. Which made it all the more special when the sun shined, TK Cooper walked out onto the stage, and my eyes welled up with tears.

Me pictured with Sunshine Machine at PROGRESS: Fix Your Hearts 2025

Again, I didn’t know anything before the match. But I knew. I knew it would be fine, and it was. I was in ecstasy anyway, from before the bell even rang. And my happiness only grew as I gleefully watched Sunshine Machine beat the Aces, for the first time in the rivalry between the teams, and capture the PROGRESS Tag Titles for the second time (first with me in attendance).

That was the third time I saw Sunshine Machine win tag titles in major britwres promotions. But by April 2026, in terms of promotions I frequent, it was only the Riot Cabaret Tag Team championships that remained. And despite them being the longest reigning team in the promotion’s history, things weren’t in the best place.

Which brings me to Riot Cabaret Thunder Road, and the latest ‘Sunshine Machine are ok’ moment.

In RCPW the villainous, football-tinged ‘Franchise’ were running amok in the tag division and attempting to make TK Cooper their newest signing. Their mystery investor had apparently given a very sizable offer to Cooper to secure him. At Thunder Road not only would the investor be revealed, but TK would be forced to make his decision.

Amid all this there was much rumour and speculation about TK’s allegiances. A video was posted showing TK and Franchise captain Brendan White in the same chicken shop. But throughout it all, Cooper denied it all. And throughout it all I maintained that ‘it’s not going to happen. TK has literally no reason to join them’.

So after I finished up my business for the day I dressed up nice, put on my best tie dye, and headed to Clapham. And once again, I knew nothing. But I maintained that it would be fine, “I know it.”

Retroactively, I can see that the decision to put the champs against mysterious masked debutants was a smart one. It helped the crowd be so uniformly behind the Machine. And the resulting crowd support was loud and immediate. Despite delays to the beginning of the show’s second half, due to issues with the ring ropes, the crowd were hot for their tag title match. Sunshine Machine entered, I saw them and the emotions started flowing immediately. The aforementioned rope issues only made the match more tense as my heart leapt into my mouth watching Chuck Mambo execute signature springboard offence. They did hit all of the trademarked ‘Sunshine Machine spots’. But, call me a mark if you wish, I could watch these spots till the end of time. I will never not pop for Mambo’s daring rope jumps, and I will never not beam and shout as TK no-sells head damage and sends his opponent a headbutt.

However, things cannot be sunny all the time and all title reigns must come to an eventual end. Chuck Mambo was caught, and pinned for a three count. At which I screamed. I couldn’t understand that pair of luchadores we didn’t even know had beaten my guys. Mambo looked crestfallen, Cooper looked irate, and to make matters worse The Franchise’s music hit. Brendan White said TK had to make his decision and a countdown to deadline day began ticking down. But something happened when the countdown hit the number ‘Seven’. The image flickered, a voice said “Seven”, and Trent Seven walked out in a white suit. The mystery investor was, finally, here.

To explain the noise that escaped me upon this revelation would be difficult. It is best described as the midpoint between sheer distress and righteous anger. Because, while functionally irrelevant to Riot Cabaret, Seven had spent the latter half 2025 feuding with The Machine. And my inability to divorce the cannons of other companies from my perception of wrestlers has given me a sustained vendetta against seven as ‘the guy who beat my guys’.

You see there are two people in the conversation of my consumption of professional wrestling. The first is ‘the fan’. The Renee who goes to the show. Who shouts, screams, and cries her heart out. Who ignores what she knows to be ‘real’ and forgets what she thinks ‘would happen’ for the sake of buying into a story.

The second is ‘the writer’. The Renee who sits at a desk and who tries to articulate just what makes wrestling wonderful. Who lets subjectivity bleed into work that mimics objective evaluation and becomes appraisal.

The fan hates Trent Seven. She thinks he is ruining her fun and is a scourge on the entertainment she is trying to consume. But the writer sees this revelation as a masterstroke. A perfect wrinkle to a tale that pulls on all the emotions that inform her enjoyment of this medium of entertainment. Of all the people for the investor to be none could have drawn such a reaction from me like Trent did. I talk in my piece about the Young Guns about how love and hate circle back upon each other to become one in the same. This is no different. I hate Trent because I love Sunshine Machine. But I love the story beat with Trent, and I love how much I hate him. So in a way I love him too.

And as he made his proposition to TK once more, my emotions were torn even further as Chuck Mambo took the mic. Mambo mentioned nagging injuries that had been plaguing him through this latest run, and implied that maybe TK would be better off without him, and that he wouldn’t try to stop him.

At that moment my stubborn refusal faltered. Because there was the reason. For the first time I was presented a believable argument of why the team could end. Mambo’s words instilled the fear of the end of the team and maybe the end of his career. I walked backwards till my back hit the wall and I collapsed to my knees, head in my hands. It couldn’t be over. I didn’t want it to be over. And it wasn’t. Once again TK Cooper chose Chuck Mambo, chose Sunshine Machine, chose good. He mentioned what the team meant to him, he reminded us how he has stood by Mambo, and he said he loved his friend as the pair embraced.

I was once asked, in the upstairs seating of a Midlands fast food restaurant, ‘what type of wrestling I liked to see?’ A question I didn’t really have an answer for. When I read literature, I do not have a specific genre I claim to be my favourite. Moreso I read work from authors I appreciate or that have a premise that piques interest. I believe all art has the capacity to appeal to me, whether it succeeds is up to me.

What I eventually said was “I want the wrestlers to care. I want them to be as emotional and as invested as I am.” Which, while being an answer concocted on the spot, checks out.

My top three favourite singles matches of all time are all about wrestlers who love and care for each other so deeply that the positive emotion twists into something slightly dark and manifests itself as violence. Of course I want the wrestlers to also care so deeply. And while Sunshine Machine maybe has the loudest and most wonderfully devoted group of fans on the scene, I do believe that no one cares about Sunshine Machine as much as TK Cooper and Chuck Mambo. I would implore you to watch this video as it covers a story that truly showcased the bond between the pair (I myself make it monthly appointment viewing).

Especially since so much of it is echoed in this Franchise story. The idea that what makes them different from The Vultures/The Franchise being ‘trust’, and the line that never fails to make me cry that Chuck Mambo “trusts TK Cooper with [his] life”. Time and time again, the bond of the team has been questioned and every time I have believed in it and every time it has stayed strong.

When they are good, Sunshine Machine are the absolute best thing in wrestling. They have my support and that support becomes investment and that investment becomes emotion. I am supremely entertained by ‘the greatest team, TK and Mambo, Sunshine Machine’, and I will continue to be as long as they are creating art I consume. And perhaps by the time when they are no longer doing so I, myself, will be in a pro wrestling ring. Because I hope, I dream, I am one day able to create art that elicits such a powerful reaction in a person as mine to what Sunshine Machine made in: the Copperbox, the Electric Ballroom, and The Clapham Grand.

In short: Sunshine Machine Rules!