Last Week On Ruckus: the Immortals beat the champs to earn a titles shot at Mayday Payday, then threatened to make all the Internet rumors come true and leave QCW with the World Tag Team championships • Mean Season posted three wins in Tag Team Turmoil to earn their own tag titles shot at Mayday Payday, and managed to fend off a possible Club attack as well • Serge Batroc posted three wins of his own to earn the Duquesne Classic cup, #1 contendership, and his own title shot at Mayday Payday, he & Razorblade exchanging words with their cup or title in hand as we went off the air last week…
…but this week, we started with Benjamin Valentino in a locker room, already clearly in a discussion. As he moved about the locker room, you could see the QCW World Tag Team titles hanging in a locker, and as he moved around we saw the World Tag Team champions he manages, the College Park Family, respond to him even though we couldn’t hear anything yet. Lucius Patton’s attention became divided, and there was a huge pop as he walked over to the man coming into frame: the World Champion, the Razorblade, welcoming the Family with a series of handshakes. The Champ arrived on the scene, and started to discuss strategy with the Family – tonight’s main event? An eight-man elimination match, featuring the Immortals teaming up with the International Workrate Commission (!) going against these men…well, not just these men.
The crowd started having all the reactions as The Former Champ came on the scene, jokingly wondering if the strategy sesh was going all right. He was greeted with silence, so after a few beats he gave a mirthless chuckle and said that it was good to see his partners tonight, then started to lay out his stratagems for handling the main. Lucius started chuckling, which drew Mayhem’s ire, but as Lucius started to explain himself Razorblade asked him if he could have a word, which Lu allowed. Razorblade, now facing Mayhem, stated that if they were going to have a team captain, it wasn’t going to be Mayhem. Because when he looked around the locker room, he saw QCW’s longest reigning champions in the Family. And the reason Mayhem wasn’t the Champ anymore? Benjamin corpsed in the background as Razorblade looked Mayhem over, Mayhem unwilling to meet his eyes. The reason Mayhem wasn’t champion anymore is because he ran into a better man. At this point, Jupiter Jones walked into the conversation, tapping Razor on the shoulder twice. Jupiter said he knew a little something about the head being heavy when it wears the crown, and he hoped that he could handle it. As for Mayhem - well, Jupiter’s been QCW Champion, and he’s a tag title holder and has been all year. That means he’s a two-time champion and Mayhem is…well, Mayhem is…uh…Mayhem’s very talented in his own right. So he better have the Family’s back tonight. With that, the Family departed - leaving Mayhem and Razorblade in another staredown.
It went on for a few beats until we hit the traditional open, giving way to pyro and the usual suspects at the announce. Obviously they hyped up the main as well as an eight-woman tag between the Forbidden Book Club and Mean Season with the Champ Lolo Vuitton as the special guest referee, but those weren’t the only fights on this evening’s docket…
| • Party Animal d. “These Hands” Roy Fade • | Announce hyped up this rivalry during the entrances, with things pretty much a coin flip between them despite this being an on-and-off-again rivalry for months. They also announced that they would be making an announcement w/r/t the TV title before the show was over, thus putting some stakes on this one since the rivalry spawned from both men chasing that belt since its inauguration (Fade's reign lasted two hours, give or take). The match, like the rivalry, went about 50/50 through both segments and came down to something hysterically simple: Fade missed The Decision and Animal capitalized with the Claw Is Law. Fade didn't tap out to the hold but Party eventually used the hold to pin him. **
Party was mid chug after picking up the hard earned W, only to get laid out from behind by Anton Stahl, showing off his Teknik by throwing Party around the ring a few times with German suplexes. Fade eventually recovered enough to help Stahl lay out Party, the black hats exchanging a high five and handshake…before Stahl clobbered Fade with a short lariat and started throwing him around with some high angle Germans. Both Fade and Animal ended up laid out before Anton smirked his way back up the ramp clearly pleased at his handiwork.
Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty - the Empire State building from helicopter heights, going around it as Alicia Keys belts out Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New Yorrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! Yankee Stadium! 30 Rock! Radio City Music Hall!
We caught up with Mayhem as he was entering the Arena Earlier Today, basking in the…reaction from the fans as he wheeled in his suitcase. Asked about Mayday Payday, Mayhem noted that last Mayday Payday was one of the worst moments of his career so he was glad to beat up VillaLobos last week if nothing else. When he was asked what it meant to QCW to come to NYC, he hoped that the ticket sales weren’t slowing down too much since he was no longer The Champ, but that wouldn’t be true too much longer - he asked patience, since he would be getting his title back sooner rather than later. Mayhem was asked what places in New York he was looking forward to seeing, and he mentioned settling down to a local Italian place called Sbarro and going to work with a knife and fork with a wry grin before heading into the Arena.
| • Katsuji Ootsuka d. El Gato Negro • | Ootsuka is a made man after upsetting Nazir el-Fadal last week in the Duquesne. There were a couple of Katsuji Is Bae! signs that the camera caught as he came out to his Kaiju inspired theme, smiling a little bit at the increased attention. The smiling ended when the powerhouse of Los Luchadores Locos got ahold of him and started whooping his ass, but Ootsuka has been outsized in every match he's been in so far, so while he took the beating he eventually sped things up and got the ledger over to his side before closing things up with the basement rana driver and Magical Sky. ** A few Katsuji! chants popped up as he got his hand raised.
TOTHEBACK~!, where Anton was smiling and polishing the Duquesne Cup. It turned out he was talking to the #1 contender & his partner, “the French Assassin” Serge Batroc. Neither man spoke English. The conversation was interrupted by the Immortals, their partners for the main event elimination tag. Serge addressed the Immortals in his immaculate French, and they stared blanky. He tried something else, same result. So he & Serge exchanged some more repartee and laughed it up – at which point the Immortals apparently revealed that they were just fine in speaking French, thanks. The IWC seemed a bit taken aback as the Immortals upbraided them, the Revenant saying that they were international. They’d seen everything on five continents; if there was a wrestling show in Antartica, they’d be main eventing. Einherjar noted they’d won titles in Japan, Mexico, Italy and Jordan. The Revenant threw Texas in there as well. Then Einherjar pointed out for their big names and egos, the amount of titles they’d held in QCW was… zero, null, jiro, cero, safar. “Nada,” added the Rev. The IWC looked offended, Anton gathering up the Cup while Serge went eye to eye with the Revenant. After a few beats, they left glaring. Once they left, Einherjar mused that it would be a shame if somehow the IWC got left out to dry. The Revenant said like pemmicam, causing both men to let out manly cackles – and I can’t help but note that sort of plotting feeds into all the internet rumors that the Immortals will go into business for themselves and take the tag titles with them after the PPV.
Let Us Take You Back To Last Week, where Mean Season prevailed in Tag Team Turmoil to get a shot at the tag team championships at MayPay.
Lights out.
Four red throbs later, the lights were back on and the Forbidden Book Club were on the buckles glaring, Agrippa and LaVey slowly hoisting the belts over their heads. Before their opponents came out, the referee showed up and showed out, Lolo more than happy to use her gig as the special guest ref of this match to show off the Women's World championship to any interested parties (including the 4 in the ring). It seemed like something was about to jump off right when Mean Season came out as a unit for the first time since the last MDPD, drawing a huge pop as they did.
Announce pointed out as the match went on - called down the middle by Vuitton to boot - that over the past few months the Club has been able to impose their will on the division because the rest of the division hasn’t been able to put together a unified front against them, something that Season specialized in before Autumn’s absence. Going on for two segments, the match was a back and forth affair that saw both sides get in Lolo’s face about nearfalls. Lolo stayed the course despite that; down the stretch it looked like Gaia had a choice to make on whether to tag out to Summer or Autumn; she looked back and saw LaVey tag in Agrippa, which may have informed her choice to tag in Autumn. Powers and Agrippa whaled on each other through the course of the remainder of the match, which looked to be won by Powers with the Hazy Shade of Winter - but the rest of the Club ran in for the save. A Pier 6 broke out as a result, spilling out to around ringside. A weakened Agrippa eventually got blasted by an enzui Hazy Shade, and while Vuitton hesitated and seethed briefly, she made the count before rolling out of the ring, grabbing her belt and leaving. **
| • Mean Season d. The Forbidden Book Club [QCW Women’s World Champion Lolo Vuitton served as guest referee] • |
The Club gathered on the floor and licked their wounds to the back, glaring the whole time at Season, who were more than happy to remind them how the match just went. From there we went to Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty - the Empire State building from helicopter heights, going around it as Alicia Keys belts out Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New Yorrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! Yankee Stadium! 30 Rock! Radio City Music Hall! But also, since we were getting a glimpse into Mirror Mirror’s Empire State of Mind, a trip through Greenwich Village while they talked, going through Christopher Park and ending by standing up in front of Stonewall:
I will never be the trailblazer, the icon, the hero that Marsha P. Johnson was, but what she & the LGBTQ+ community did on this very spot inspires me to this day. When I break the gendered glass ceiling in QCW, I’m standing on the shoulders of those giants. When I beat, hurt and break Nazir el-Fadal, I hope she and the other activists are cheering me on from on high. And when my time comes and I see you on the other side, the first round's on me… (Mirror cracked open a Cosmo in a can, poured some out, raised a toast and drank up)
| • The Wonderful Ward Brothers d. the Mad Monks (Shaolin & Torquemada w/Rasputin) • | The Mad Monks’ gimmick is pretty self-explanatory; they were mostly here as cannon fodder. Wards barely 5 minutes in with the Dynamic Express. SQUASH
Post match saw Jason grab the stick, and noted it was great that his voice has recovered, since he had something to say. He knew the IWC was busy tonight, but he hadn’t forgotten - if you thought a Canadian winter was cold, spending part of one in a hospital bed was goddamn frigid. So the Ward Brothers were going to be keeping a close eye on the main event, and they hoped the champions and Mayhem would save them just a little piece of the IWC for themselves. Because they were out for revenge, and Jason promised it would be as cold - if not colder - than his hospital bed. Cue “We Made It”.
Over to the announce, which had an update on the TV title situation for us. Naz lost his lawsuit a couple of days ago and won’t be involved in the crowning of a new champion, which will go like this - next week will see two triple threat qualifying matches and the winners will go one on one for the belt at Mayday Payday. The wrestlers who don’t win those matches but don’t drop the fall will be in a Consolation Cup match on the Mayday Payday preshow with the winner of that match getting the first shot at the new champion on the 6th.
Crowd gave a decent and their usual mixed reaction to the Buffett/Mirror team, who came out in Hawaiian shirts as a unit. By contrast, the Luchadores Locos seconded Roberto VillaLobos, trying to hype him up after what happened to him in the Duquesne. Naz made his own entrance as well, also clearly seething over getting bounced in the first round of the Duquesne himself.
That sort of team interplay played out during the match, with the black hats not really on the same page and TikiMirror being a more cohesive unit. Mirror got the upper hand on Ricardo, Al & Ricardo fought to a couple of draws. As for Naz? Well, he got the upper hand when it was just him vs. Al…but he wouldn’t fight Mirror at all, always shaking his head or scoffing as he brought VillaLobos to bear in the fight. Later on in the match, Al started getting the upper hand on Naz, which caused him to tag out and then start to bail out. The Luchadores obviously didn’t take this well, stopping el-Fadal from heading to the back and starting to have words with him on the ramp. Meanwhile in the ring, TikiMirror took advantage of the virtual handicap match and put him away with a Cracked Mirror/Lava Rock two-piece. ** 1/2
| • “Tiki God” Al Buffett & Mirror Mirror d. “The One Man Jihad” Nazir el-Fadal & Ricardo VillaLobos (w/Los Luchadores Locos) • |
TikiMirror got their hands raised to crowd cheering, which got the attention of the Locos, who stopped talking to Naz and swarmed the ring – but TikiMirror fought the former World Tag Team champions and started getting the better of them - then VillaLobos came to the aid of his compatriots and a different kind of handicap match happened with the Locos stomping out TikiMirror. This was of great joy to Nazir, who was rooting it on from the outside and even slamming his hands on the apron in joy. That got the Locos’ attention as well and temporarily stopped their beatdown of Al & Mirror, then made them refocus on Naz, who suddenly remembered that he’d left the dog open and hadn’t fed the stove; the Locos stalked Naz to the back while referees came out to help TikiMirror going into the final commercial break of the evening.
During The Break, the Locos chased Naz through backstage but never quite caught up to him, allowing the One Man Jihad the opportunity to sprint into a four door Escalade that sped out of the Arena.
Back from the break, a slightly beaten up Al was talking to a slightly beaten up Mirror Mirror, who thanked him for his usual support, but where they were going to next they had to go alone. Al & Mirror shook hands, and Mirror continued down the hallway. They took a deep sigh before hesitating before a door - sign for Scott Holmes
Commissioner
evident - as they made their way into the office. Scott straightened up in his chair, asking Mirror what brought them to him. Mirror stated that they wanted Naz, since every time they tried to get their hands on him he found a way to slither out. Holmes noted that it may be hard to believe given their past, but they were going to offer Mirror one of the spots in a TV title qualifier next week. Mirror was quiet for a few beats, then said while they appreciated the offer, they would rather find their way to Naz. Holmes was quiet for a few beats, and said that while they could get Naz at the PPV, that still gave them next week. In the interests of fairness, he couldn’t just give Mirror a benefit without hearing from Naz and/or his lawyers, so how about next week they both would be involved in Pick Your Poison matches? Mirror thought about it for a few beats, then offered a handshake. Holmes looked surprised, but accepted it. Mirror leaned in and said “By the time I’m done with him – Nazir will be begging for mercy.”
Holmes looked a little disturbed by that, but didn’t get to follow up as Mirror quickly vacated the premises. Holmes quickly rerealized that he was on camera, and said that since he was already here with only the main event left to go, he’d hype up next week’s Ruckus and let Steve & Starr save a little bit of energy - as we just saw, Mirror Mirror & Nazir el-Fadal will be in Pick Your Poison matches. Two of the men in the main event would do the contract signing for the main event at Mayday Payday, QCW World Champion Mason “Razorblade” Savage & the #1 contender “the French Assassin” Serge Batroc would put their Hancocks to paper right before the PPV. And in the qualifiers for the TV title? One triple threat based off of their performances in the Duquesne would feature Mayhem v. Katsuji Ootsuka v. Summer Rose; based off of what happened after the opener tonight the other would have former champ “These Hands” Roy Fade v. Party Animal v. Anton “Teknik” Stahl. Winners face off for the belt at Mayday Payday; the two who don’t lose the decisions face off in a Consolation Cup match on the MDPD preshow with that winner getting the first shot at the new champ on the 6th. But speaking of champions, there was a big-ass main event to get to, and now was the time.
Out first were the Immortals, who got an overall negative reaction despite their pockets of fans. Einherjar and the Revenant even looked a bit amused by the fans as they bided their time waiting for their partners in the International Workrate Commission. Of note, Anton preceded Serge coming out holding the Duquesne Cup and Serge was announced as both #1 contender and the winner of the 2022 Duquesne Classic by Duck. The heels regarded each other cooly as the introductions were made for their opposition: first Mayhem, who looked like he was going to bail on the whole thing a couple times given the crowd's booing. Big pop for the World Tag Team champions, and an even bigger one for the Champ. The champions hit the ring and the shit talk commenced, the referee already breaking out into a sweat just trying to keep everyone separated.
Obviously given the length of the match, you won't get a full blow by blow recap, but I will hit all the important moments of everything that happened.
Both teams were getting along for the most part, at least early
Mayhem kept tagging himself in early, and eventually Lucius blind tagged himself in, leading to some heated conversation with Mayhem on his side and Jupiter x Razorblade on the other
The first elimination came when Lucius countered out of a suplex attempt into the Bass Drop - Serge tried to make the save but actually tripped on the ring rope on the way in and was a fraction of a second late on the save attempt; you can imagine the reaction he had. Interestingly, the Immortals exchanged wry grins and let Serge have his merdefit before eventually calming him down somewhat [4-3 Team Gold]
Impressively, once he settled down, Serge opted to run point to a (slightly surprising) lack of pushback from the Immortals. This weird cohesion served them better than the weird lack of cohesion between Mayhem and the champions, even though Mayhem was the first on the team to get in any sustained success on the #1 contender. He planted Batroc and went up before flying off with No More Words; unfortunately for him, Serge rolled towards the corner he flew from and there was no water in the pool. Serge quickly capitalized with an Arc de Triomphe to get the first fall for his team. Mayhem's teammates weren't exactly broken up over this turn of events, even as it took a couple of refs so long to get him to the back Ruckus actually ran a couple of commercials while putting the live action in a picture in picture [3-3]
The next elimination might have been the most shocking one of the whole match, as the Revenant took the next fall for his side. It took everything the faces had to throw at him combined with the newfound cohesiveness that magically showed up when Mayhem departed, but it happened - the Family went first with a series of Bolts From Olympus (Jupiter got two off before tagging out, then he & Lu got off a pair of stereo ones before he had to bail), a Bass Drop and ultimately the Soul Crusher. [3-2 Team Gold]
This led to a testy discussion between Einherjar and Serge, who both seemed surprised at the Rev's mortality and started blaming each other for it for a stretch. Eventually, Einherjar's voice won out (well, that or Serge got tired of fighting given the odds he was already up against) and he stood angrily in the middle of the ring waving on any and all of the white hats while Serge had a bemused look on his face in their corner
Serge may have underestimated who he had on his side, as E turned the tables and got things back to even: he cut off an attempted Bolt From Olympus with a big pump knee that had Jupiter reeling - a second one put him on his knees and a vicious looking Tiger Driver '98 (!) put a bow on the deal, Starr noting on commentary it was the second time in two shows that the Immortals had pinned one of the tag champs [2-2]
The babyfaces bailed to the floor, having a quick discussion to reset their side of things. As for the black hats, E barked something at Serge, who's hands immediately went up in "You got this"
Notable before the next fall was the fact that in contrast to the last match, Serge wanted to get his hands on the Champ (the feeling was mutual). Two sequences of length occured, each getting a narrow upper hand in one of them
As he did last week, Einherjar came in with a timely blind tag. As he took advantage of Razorblade's surprise with some serious forearms, knees and a uraken, Serge slunk over to the other side of the ring and pulled Patton off the apron before sending him into the post, the last thing Jupiter saw before E gave him the same TD'98 that had ended his partner's night and would end his, too [2-1 Team Challengers]
Serge had a sizeable bean on his face as Starr now emphasized that Einherjar had pinned both members of the Family here
Patton came up bleeding slightly to find out he was the last man standing for his side and threw everything he had into the rest of the match and even gave Einherjar the Bass Drop
But Serge came in for the save, then dragged E to their corner and tagged himself in
He pounced on Lu with a running European uppercut that almost won the match, from there it was a matter of time
Serge was so in control that he hit the Arc de Triomphe then taunted the crowd about the fallen Patton instead of pinning him, gesturing first to Sweet Lu then to the back where no save would be coming from
The second Arc slammed the door shut to the shock of the crowd. ****, best Ruckus match to date (hope you set your DVRs for the overrun!)
| • the Immortals & the International Workrate Commission d. QCW World Tag Team Champions the College Park Family (w/Benjamin Valentino), QCW World Heavyweight Champion Mason “Razorblade” Savage & Mayhem in an elimination match
[Survivors: "the French Assassin" Serge Batroc and Einherjar] • |
Steve begrudgingly gave the devils their due, noting that they overcame two deficits and still came out on top. Starr added that they not only did that, but that they earned the last three falls of the match. That didn't candy any bacon with the crowd, who booed lustily as the survivors got their hands raised. E stood still fuming in the middle of the ring while Serge ignored him, flashed a smirk to the crowd and slowly lifted his index finger as he took to a turnbuckle. Steve noted that if this was the shape of things to come, then a big sea change would be coming to QCW. Next week is the last Ruckus before Mayday Payday, so you better not miss out!
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