Last week on Ruckus: Nazir el-Fadal posted another win then turned the attention of his revenge tour against Mayhem • Jason Ward turned heel on his brother and threw his lot in with the International Workrate Consortium, sending Rich out on a stretcher • Party Animal narrowly retained the TV title against Katsuji Ootsuka, he and the Champ Razorblade toasting from the ring to the announce with the roles reversed from Mayday Payday…
The show didn't open with the usual stinger and pyro, but with a vignette filmed earlier in the day from the ring in an empty Arena. It was empty except for four men: the International Workrate Consortium. Caviar sneered in the background as Anton stated that the IWC was stronger and better than ever. Jason Ward took the wheel at this point, smirking before saying that the air was cleaner and food tasted better now that he had support from real brothers having his back. The Consortium was going to do for QCW what they did for him - cut all the dead weight so that only the finest wrestling and best wrestlers succeeded, and if only the Consortium could live up to those high standards, well, sometimes you had to break a few brothers' necks to build a better wrestling company. So when the things disguised as people ran in here later tonight, well, the Consortium would be literally anywhere else. Maybe if they were gone for a week the stench wouldn't be so bad. Make no mistake - QCW would belong to the Consortium. But not this week, because you people don't deserve the privilege yet. So enjoy your…heroes for another week. While you can. While the Consortium let you. It was at this point Serge took center stage, putting us all to shame with his teeth before saying "You're welcome." and letting out a booming laugh. The IWC looked confident, borderline whimsical as the camera went from focusing on them to the empty seats in the Arena behind them…
…before we dissolved from the pretape into the show live, the Arena full of screaming fans and signs, then the pyro went off. The usual suspects welcomed us to Ruckus and hyped up the title matches on the docket with the street fight for the Women's World Championship set to main event tonight's show.
Katsuji Ootsuka’s rise up the card continues despite losing his opportunity at the TV title last week; Roberto VillaLobos’ singles career continues to look more like a singllllllllllllles career since losing the lucha de apuesta match at Golden Rule. The former World tag champion put up a fight and got in a couple nearfalls but fell victim to Ootsuka’s usual 1-2 combo of the basement rana driver and Magical Sky. **
| • Katsuji Ootsuka d. Roberto VillaLobos • |
Ootsuka shook the referee’s hand after he got his raised, then bowed to every side of the ring before leaving. As VillaLobos tried to recover in the ring, the lights went out - blinked red four times - and left the ring empty when the lights came back on.
We got footage from several international locales of note: your Torontos, San Franciscos, New York Cities, Florida towns notable only for their world-class wrestling come Friday nights. As we saw some slo mo footage of big moments during the Quarantine Era, we heard a rich baritone say that in his circles what everyone is talking about is QCW. Fashionable. Trendsetting. Viral.
But it could be more.
It could be dashing.
And when Pierce Moore arrives…that time will come.
After that vignette, Arcarsenal brought out Nazir el-Fadal, who barely had the time to dismissively scoff at the rabble before he got jumped from behind by his opponent, the Tiki God, who came out furious in a black Hawaiian shirt (!) and laid into Naz. The crowd roared as Buffett threw Naz into the barricade on both sides of the ramp, the referee’s pleas from the ring going unheard until Al dragged Naz closer to ringside. Naz almost got sent into the steps before putting on the brakes and reversing, the top half flying on impact as Al hit them. A disheveled Naz rolled into the ring and told the referee to count Al out as the match actually began, then ended a few short seconds later when Al rolled in before five and upon seeing Naz upright, gave him a field goal kick right in the footballs. Wonder where Al picked that trick up from?
| • Nazir el-Fadal ddq. "Tiki God" Al Buffett • |
A very unTikilike beating commenced after that, Al even shoving down the ref at one point to continue hammering away on Naz. Al punctuated his fury by dropping Naz with not one, not two, but three consecutive Lava Rocks, el-Fadal left in a heap midring while Al stood over his body and smacktalked him before some security led him to the back. As they were taking Al to the back, Mayhem ran down past them all to ringside, jumped up off the top and hit Naz with No More Words to another (albeit smaller) pop. Mayhem smacktalked Naz as he headed to the back, still looking confused at the negative reaction a wide swath of the crowd was giving him. Nazir was uncharacteristically quiet, but that’ll happen when you spend the better part of 10 minutes straight getting your ass kicked. DUD match surrounded by *** shenanigans.
Appropriately enough after that ass kicking, announce threw to a video package filmed earlier in the week from Mount Sinai West, Julius Duquesne III on the scene as Mirror Mirror got released from the hospital with @smashleysmithofficial there to welcome them. J3 wanted an update, which Mirror provided, though not about their physical condition - they promised not only to return to the Arena next week, but to start doing the work they were tasked to do, to do what all the great trail blazers have done before them. Next week they come back to QCW and start changing the game for good. They then hugged and exchanged a few words with @ but the vignette ended there before we found out the nature of the conversation.
To THE BACK~!
Enya Face is backstage in a multi-purpose room dimly lit with red lights. In the corner is an altar covered with Santeria candles and Nordic Runes. Standing near a craft services table are newly-crowned Tag Team Champions The Immortals and The Sound of Thunder are toasting with mead (Einherjar and Val Curry) and Corona (Bettie Rokker & The Revenant). Party Animal is in the background drinking Claws, when the Revenant does the “I see you” gesture and shakes his head. Party grabs a few Claws for the road and heads off camera (White Claw Chiron appears briefly on the bottom of the screen). The College Park Family (Benjamin Valentino, Cindy Monet, Jane Doe, Lucius Patton, and Jupiter Jones) enter frame. Valentino is carrying two big bowls of Chex Mix. He places one on the table and hands one directly to Revenant. Einherjar thanks them for attending the Dark Festival celebrating their hard won victory. He assures them that, under the laws of Sacred Hospitality, they will come to no harm. He professes his respect for their efforts while underlining the champions’ dominance and belief that all contenders will fall against them. He punctuates the statement by saying they look forward to their rematch next week. Jupiter & Cindy eye them suspiciously, and Valentino, Doe, and Patton give looks similar to that gif of rapper Conceited with the red party cup.
Before Collipark has time to respond, Einherjar announces that he bought gifts, and Rokker & Curry hand them out. Valentino, Patton, & Monet open up their gifts to find foam replicas of the QCW tag team titles. Jupiter opens his box to find a gold watch. Einherjar then hands Jupiter an application for a retirement home in Miami. Jupiter and CIndy are held back by Lucius and Valentino, respectively, but Jane Doe slaps Einherjar HARD and storms off. Collipark follow suit.
Einherjar holds his face, which is not only red from the slap but from his boiling temper. Curry & Rokker look to the champions, and Revenant breaks the silence with one word.
“Payback.”
Sound got that revenge in the evening's next match, though maybe as not as intended. What would have usually been a friendly match got juiced and contentious based on what just went down in the back and both teams fought that way throughout without either side fully cheating. Sound actually got booed at points during the match due to their affiliation (affinity for?) the Immortals but didn't let that stop them from picking up a narrow victory, Rokker whipping Curry into a spear on Doe that nearly bisected her to end things. **
| • the Sound of Thunder d. Science Fiction Double Feature • |
Post match Jane had problems getting off of the mat, Sound looking a little concerned in the background as Cindy helped the medics help Jane up, though she still needed all their help to get to the back once they did get her up. Cindy glared daggers at Thunder while they headed to the medic with Jane and the med staff in tow; Sound took the glares in stride and waited a couple of beats before celebrating to a mostly positive reaction as we went to commercials.
Back from the break (including a K2 Circuit Training ad) and the Arena popped huge in welcome of the World TV champ, Party Animal. No sooner had he brought forth a celebratory Claw than "Wish" hit the PA and deflated the crowd, Mayhem back out but with a mic in hand spending another week trying to surf the choppy waters of crowd reaction. Mayhem said it was all well and good that Party defended the belt last week, but he wanted a rematch from Mayday Payday. This was an adorable story and everything, but c'mon. Really? No disrespect, no disrespect, no disrespect, just that…just that Party's a fun guy and everybody loves him, but championship material? Hardly. Party paused mid chug to note that there was only one guy with a title in the ring right now and it wasn't Mayhem, which popped the AlcoClawlics in attendance.
Mayhem started to retort when Godzilla hit the PA, drawing a pissed off Toddzilla out to the ring. Mayhem got in his face as he came into the ring, upbraiding him for interrupting what was going on. Toddzilla nodded right up until the point he had Mayhem goozled, transitioning from that into a gorilla press. Party and the crowd looked on in shock as Toddzilla took a few steps forward with Mayhem overhead before he threw him into the crowd, drawing a round of Holy Shit! chants and wiping out a chunk of the third row in the process. Toddzilla let that settle before turning to Party, saying that now that he'd gotten one idiot out of the way, it was time to make it two. Party polished off the Claw, let out a belch then said "Let's do this, Toddie!"
"Toddie" didn't appreciate the new nickname and spent most of the subsequent time limit beating Party down, at one point doing so with the suddenly busy medical staff taking Mayhem to the back while Toddzilla tuned up PA with some crossfaces. Yet despite the size advantage being wildly in his favor, Toddzilla couldn't match Party's craftiness or good luck, the TV champion making a last second dodge away from a charging Toddzilla who went flying into the post shoulder first. Party got a running start down the apron and hit a sloppy basement dropkick that sent Toddzilla's head into the post then shoved a Claw Is Law down his gullet. Ironically enough like Mayhem at MayPay, Toddzilla didn't submit to the hold but got pinned after not being able to fight it off anymore. **
| • Party Animal [c] d. Toddzilla to retain the QCW WORLD TELEVISION TITLE (2) • |
Two defenses down for PA, and you can guess who sponsored the subsequent celebration while Toddzilla disappeared to the back and QCW paid some bills.
During the break, Mayhem ran up on Toddzilla after he came through the curtain and they brawled throughout the backstage area to pretty much a draw. Things had almost calmed down when Mayhem yelled at Toddzilla that he blew his shot at the belt and Toddzilla saying that made two of them, sparking another brawl that lasted right up until the introductions for the next match.
| • the Proper Villains d. Más Histeria • | A bit of an upset here, as Jim Jaspers and Richard Windsor teamed up for the first time as the Villains and beat the former World Tag Team champions of Los Luchadores Locos fame. Histeria seemed to be winning most of the match on points and focusing their attack on Jaspers, clearly marking Windsor as the new team's weaker link. Yet when Jim managed to stop the Locos in their tracks and eventually tag out, King Carny proved that he could carry his share of the team and lit up his opponents with European uppercuts and suplexes; end came when the Villains had El Gato Negro isolated and finished him off with a combination Windsor Lawn Dart and Jaspers' Fury Road, which will probably get a name in the weeks to come. ** ½
The Brits celebrated their way up the ramp and barely had the curtains swept behind them before the lights blipped out / yup, red four times / this time when they came up, El Gato Negro was missing, which had El Perro de Diablo understandably shook. Again, the Club doesn't have a match on this show though they've probably got eyes on the main event.
Before that happened we got some hype for next week's show, which will have 3 title matches on the docket: Party Animal will be making another TV title defense, the Immortals defending the World Tag Team championships and trying to go 3 for 3 against the College Park Family - and based off of their win earlier, the Sound of Thunder earned a shot at the Women's World Tag Team championships to try and end the Forbidden Book Club's reign of terror. But prestigious as it would be…it would be a tag match with standard rules.
Tonight's main event wouldn't be either of those.
We threw it to the Duckster for the announcement.
“The following contest is scheduled for one fall (ONE FALL), and is a street fight for the Q—” Suddenly, Duck touched his earpiece.
“What…wait, what? Can someone put it on the Tron or something?!”
Duck tried to restart the announcement of this being a one fall street fight for the QCW Women’s World Championship only for the Tron to blip to life, showing Rose and Vuitton already in a fight in the back. Referees and security rushed the scene much to the crowd’s disapproval as well as the competitors, the Arena nearly rattling from the force of “Let them fight!” chants. At this point along with a wave of security, Commissioner Holmes showed up and asked a referee what was going on, and was informed. Holmes then said something sure to improve his Q rating: this is going to be a street fight anyway. The crowd’s right, let them fight.
No sooner had the crowd popped for that than Lolo got a running start and blindsided Summer with a forearm, before throwing her into the facade of a nearby vending machine. Holmes informed the referee that given the stipulation, they could fight wherever whenever with whatever - so long as the fall happened in the ring. Holmes took off and took most of security with him, a couple referees in the area as Lolo took the opportunity to grab Summer by the hair and throw her into a wall. It looked like at one point that Lolo was going to slam Summer’s head into a doorway, but it took too long for her to pull off and the champ escaped. Vuitton ate a pump kick as a result and Rose started laying some forearm shots of her own to the crowd’s approval, literally slumping Vuitton down against the wall. Rose went off camera and we heard a smash, then saw her run back into the frame with a diving weapons shot that left Vuitton face down and Rose recovering. Replays showed Summer laid out Vuitton with a fire extinguisher but used the whole thing as a weapon to the face. Vuitton came up a little bloody as Summer dragged her by the hair and started heading towards the ring, vowing to end things tonight. Vuitton used this moment to grab Summer and throw her into the cameraman shooting this, the picture knocked to an eighty degree diagonal as Vuitton gritted her teeth and started stomping out Summer, yelling at her that she ran this and she was getting her title back. As Vuitton and Rose got closer to the ring, Steve noted that these were (to date) the only women to hold the championship, and that this rubber match would see a winner. Vuitton grabbed Summer by the head as they parted the curtains, then got a couple of steps before bieling her down the rampway. The crowd groaned in sympathy but Vuitton didn’t stop, providing another biel that put Rose ringside in the least fun manner possible. Vuitton made The Familiar Gesture around her waist before she went to whip Summer into the steps; Summer reversed but Lolo put on the brakes – then charged right into a backdrop that sent her into the ramp herself. Summer rolled into the ring and gathered her strength, then flew off the ropes with a textbook tope to the outside, landing blows after the landing.
They fought for nearly four (!) segments and ten minutes into the overrun, using everything from cookie sheets and trash cans to kendo sticks and thumbtacks. Rose hit the Come Up, but Vuitton kicked out. Vuitton would fight back and hit a version of the Bloody Shoe on the outside with Rose slumped against the steps, but had to get her back in the ring, where Rose kicked out. Vuitton seemed to have Rose dead to rights by Bloody Shoeing her with a trash can on her head, but Summer kicked out of that at 2.8. Vuitton seemed a bit frazzled at that, which is when she went for the thumbtacks – and Rose murked her with a blindside chairshot that sent Lolo down to the mat in a heap. The crowd roared at this as Summer yelled at Lolo to get up, grinning fiendishly as she held the chair; when Vuitton got up, she made the mistake of catching the chair, which caught the Come Up, and Rose hooked both legs with victory assured.
Except it wasn’t, because on the kickout Vuitton got a handful of thumbtacks in Summer’s face, one jabbing her in the eyebrow. Rose screamed in pain (we didn’t realize what’d happened until the replays) as Vuitton used the chair to pull herself up, but Rose basement dropkicked it out from under her and it actually sort of stabbed her in the neck. Steve got bleeped, maybe for invoking His name. Rose limped over to a gagging Vuitton as fast as she could and took the chair from under her opponent, still on the mat. The crowd loved the second steel chair shot across the back, and they did so again when the third such strike landed.
But Rose didn’t stop there.
Somewhere around the eighth or ninth swing of the chair, the crowd got quieter and quieter.
You could hear murmurs in the crowd as the rest of Mean Season came out onto the rampway and watched, but Summer kept swinging the chair.
Swinging it through the referee’s telling her to call it off.
Swinging it after Lolo went limp.
Swinging it so often even Starr got uncomfortable - a couple swings later, Rose threw the chair to the side after it practically imploded: unfortunately for Lolo, she rolled out of the ring and knocked over the steps – to reveal a pair of barbed wire steel chairs. Mean Season tried to signal to Summer not to do this from the ramp’s apex, and the referee tried to stop Summer from doing it by pleading to her better nature. But Summer hears you. Summer don’t care. One chair under the limp Vuitton’s head, then the other one in hand. It was so quiet in the Arena the ring mic picked up Rose hissing the following: “IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiii run this.”
And BLAM barbed wire conchairto.
The referee looked horrified, the Mean Season members had varying looks of shock, disgust and awe, and the crowd started booing a little bit, but mostly sat and watched as Rose barked at the referee to count and pinned Vuitton while piefacing her and glaring down the hard camera the whole time. Starr begged for a quick count to end this; it didn’t come and certainly wasn’t necessary.
| • Summer Rose [c] d. Lolo Vuitton in a street fight to retain the QCW WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP • |
**** ½, and I said what I said.
A shakily voiced Duck announced Summer as still the Women’s World Champion, and she took her belt in and slowly got herself up to take the shellshocked referee’s hand raise, Vuitton’s blood dripping off of her arms and jaw. You could see some puncture wounds in her palms. Rose stepped over Vuitton then scraped her shoes on the mat to dust her former rival, and again this didn’t draw a wave of boos but mostly frightened silence. Summer gave a cruel laugh and slowly raised the title overhead before rolling out of the ring and heading to the back. Mean Season met her halfway down the ramp, all asking questions at the same time, most of which seemed to be in the “have you lost your damn mind?!” family.
Summer shook her head, then held up her hand. And for the first time in months, a familiar smile over the face of the old Porcelain Doll. “She wanted a fight.”
Without looking, she pointed her index behind her to the ring as the EMTs were hustling down to scrape up Lolo.
"Bet she won't want another one," said The Champ, a blood-splattered smirk coming over her face before she dipped into a curtsy.
Summer blew (well, shuffle limped) past her stablemates to the back, EMTs coming to stretcher out Vuitton. With Steve and S. both in the ring checking on the motionless Vuitton, Ruckus went off the air in near silence, save for the murmuring and light booing in the crowd.
WELP.
See you next Friday, where at the very least they’ll be able to tell us where to send Vuitton’s relatives condolences.
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