For a moment, I thought I had accidentally torrented recorded the wrong show when I saw a dimly lit room and a shirtless, muscular, broad shouldered back taking up most of the frame. Then I heard an offscreen voice (with subtitles) naming the owner of that back as El Perro del Diablo. The voice belongs to Crusazdo del Oro as the camera cuts to him, flanked by El Caballero Blanco & El Caballero Verde. Crusazdo has a black and gold cloth in his hand.
"Perro, you have served the forces of darkness and they have betrayed you, as they do all who are in their sway. They nearly stripped you of your reputation, your standard, your very manhood, by removing your mask."
"My loyal order is offering you redemption. Swear loyalty to us, to honor and to the light, but never forget the darkness that you escaped from. Will you set fire to the remnants of El Perro del Diablo and rise like a phoenix to join our order as...El Caballero Obscuro?"
Perro's now former mask went into a waste basket. From behind, Perro dons the new mask. El Caballero Obscuro is born.
From there, we see the usual clips of QCW action in the opening Ruckus montage, but instead of the exterior shot of the foreboding Arena Quaratina, we instead see a dangerous looking city street with pink taxis zooming by, and a line of well-dressed people coming out of what looks like a dingy warehouse. We zoom in on the sign coming out of the warehouse, and we see the words:
ARENA MEXICO
A chyron appears on the screen telling us that we are in Mexico City, DF. An interior shot of the legendary arena shows a sold out crowd cheering wildly and chanting "KU-SAY-DO-BLAY! (clap clap clapclapclap)" The usual White Claw branding seen on QCW television has been replaced with infinite banners advertising Corona (lawyers are looking over these endorsement contracts as we speak). And instead of Steve Vandeblanche & S. Mark Starr, we are greeted by the QCW Spanish announce team: Guillermo Gallegos and retired luchador El Angelo Azul.
They welcomed us both to their Arena and an episode of Ruckus with limited commercial interruptions. To explain why this is such a special episode, they throw to a pre-recorded announcement from QCW Commissioner Scott Holmes, sitting at his desk with three championship belts in front of him:
"Quaran-titans, tonight is a historic night in QCW history. Not only do we have the privilege of making our first appearance in the legendary Arena Mexico, but we are also unveiling these: The Ambassadors Trios Titles!
Whichever three-person tag team wins these belts will represent QCW throughout the world and will defend these titles abroad. Depending on the country, they can either defend their titles in a six-man tag or a standard tag match, using what is colloquially known as the Freebird Rule. Whatever team returns to Arena Quarantina with these belts in hand may challenge for the QCW World Tag Team championships in a handicap match against the defending champions.
And speaking of the QCW World Tag Team Champions, the Immortals will be defending their belts against two tough hombres and one spicy senorita, El Cantador & El Borracho, with La Dama in their corner. They are the champions of the infamous Lucha Salvaje promotion south of the border - and this match is winner takes all!
I, and all of QCW, are proud to bring you - free of charge - a truly special night of wrestling. Thank you for watching!"
We have a lot of matches tonight, so I'm going to go through the first round quickly.
FIRST ROUND
- Caballero Blanco/Caballero Verde/
El Perro de DiabloCaballero Obscuro d. Team Yokai (Junji Obake/Ryoji Oni/Tengu) Hot opener, mostly a spotfest. This was Team Yokai's first foray out of Japan, and they looked a little nervous. Tengu sold some sick bumps and Obake might have dropped Obscuro on his head at one point. Blanco got the pin with a rushed Straight to Avalon (Wing Clipper), but the crowd was into it. ** 1/2 - Fated to Become Champions [Roberto VillaLobos/El Gato Negro/Toddzilla] d. Club Rochambeau (Truman Stone/Jackie Paper/Tyler Sharp) The black hats are apparently FBC 4 Life, as their sudden appearance and disappearance was signaled by the Club's signature herald. This one was a bit of a styles clash, as Club's limited moveset and East Coast brawling didn't really get over with a lucha crowd, although the hoss fight between Toddzilla & Stone was pretty novel, and Paper is a bumping machine. Plus, VillaLobos & Toddzilla are starting to gel as a team and used a modified Mierda Loca finisher (Toddzilla powerbomb x VillaLobos 450 kneedrop) on Paper to put them away. 1/2* for the finisher and Paper's wild bumps.
An interstitial showed some of the roster on a working vacation, including Party Animal & local luchador El Borracho exchanging Claws for Coronas, Tiki God going ham on about a dozen tacos before being scared by Ashley Szabo in a Mirror Mirror mask from the mercado, behind the scenes of Ashley's photoshoot on Los Piramides, and The Champ making a slightly awkward appearance on the morning news with Crusazdo del Oro providing translation.
- the International Workrate Consortium (Caviar/Stahl/Ward) d. the Silent Partners (Danny Castle & Martin Williams) & "Bird Robo" Tatsuo Ishinomori This was a squash, and might as well have been a three on one handicap match, as Pyotr Caviar did much of the wrestling. Outside the ring, Stahl & Ward just dismantled the former IWC member Williams. Mercifully for Williams AND the audience, the Analyst rolled himself into the ring and right into Caviar's Hit My Music finisher. DUD
- the Proper Villains ("the Fury" Jim Jaspers & "the Proper King" Richard Windsor) & "the Wonderful" Rich Ward d. the Polycule (Bobby Bash & Dom DeSade) & "Napalm" Bob Osterberg At least it was quick - Jaspers immediately knocked down Bob the Human Punching Bag with a big forearm and Windsor hit an immediate springboard bodypress for a pin. *
Crusazdo del Oro d. Super Avión In between tournament rounds, local hero Crusazdo & third generation high flyer Avión put on a lucha libre clinic, and the crowd was HOT going into the intermission. The announce team was hesitant to put over any of Avión's moves, as the Commissioner has shoot heat with Avión's father - El Hijo de Avión - for ending his brief wrestling career. Dropkicks, planchas, mask pulls, flirting & dancing with the ring girls; reader, I was delighted. There were only two things wrong with the match: it was too short & the referee missed Avión's foot on the ropes as he counted a fast pin after Crusazdo's Pajero del Sol splash. And either the announce missed it too or just ignored it. *** 1/2
Mean Season tried to have an intervention for Summer Rose, which blew up spectacularly - The Champ hasn't backslid and was pissed this got dropped in her sober lap, especially given Autumn getting some preferential treatment and Beckett Carpenter being brought in to possibly mediate things given that long, gnarled history. Later on in the show we would see a crying & furious Rose make her way home solo, only to be "greeted" by a BevMo gift card from the FBC.
I don't know what Spanish for livid is, but that' s what Super Avión was as he lit up the ref who missed the call, QCW in general, and Scott Holmes specifically - at one point getting bleeped before threatening to finish the job that his father started.
SEMIFINAL: the International Workrate Consortium (Caviar/Stahl/Ward) d. the Proper Villains ("the Fury" Jim Jaspers & "the Proper King" Richard Windsor) & "the Wonderful" Rich Ward Caviar was a non factor here after carrying the weight in the opener; no matter, as the Wards tore into each other for the first time in their professional career on opposite sides to the cheers of the crowd and compliments from online. Rich won the battle but Jason got the war, Caviar helping with a enzui Russian sickle to weaken Rich enough for his little brother to roll him up. ****
TV TITLE: Party Animal dco. El Vaquero Loco It turns out that he was wrestling Mayhem in a Loco mask until the real one came out to thwart No More Words and get some respek put back on his name. Mayhem & Loco brawled to the back so Party retained the belt via countout to up his magic number to 4. **
SEMIFINAL: Los Nuevos Caballeros d. Fated to Become Champions While it went unspoken by the announce, this turned into a tornado match that skews closer to traditional lucha libre trios rules with Toddzilla the only non luchador involved here. Sometimes he would no sell some of the one on one offense but would always be tripped up when the Caballeros combined forces; unlike Rich Ward in the previous match the newly monikered Caballero Obscuro would get some revenge on his former partner, hitting him with his own finisher multiple times to send his new squad into the finals. Full of psychology, especially for a lucha libre styled bout. *** 1/2
unification QCW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS/LUCHA SALVAJE TAG TEAM TITLES: The Immortals (w/the Sound of Thunder) [QCWc] d. El Borracho & El Cantador (w/La Dama) [LSc] PPV headliner value at TV semi main cost. Scott Holmes sees the economy and replies accordingly, you gotta love it. Peanut butter & jelly styles clash that could've gone twice the length; Immortals go over and add two more belts to their C.V. when the bottle of booze variant on the I Know What You Did Last Summer spot blew up in the luchadors' faces. ** 1/2
Former QCW champion, infamous podcaster and J. Jonah Jameson cosplayer "the Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble cut a promo from his truck, complaining about all the stars from Japan and Mexico making their way to QCW over the past few months up to & including tonight due to Scott Holmes' open door policy. Unmasked, unvaxxed and ready for a comeback, you might not be surprised to find that he wants to Make QCW Great Again.
Ahead of the main event, hype for next week's Ruckus included Summer Rose defending the Women's World Championship against the Forbidden Book Club's Diana Spare, Party Animal defending the World TV title against Crusazdo del Oro, and springboarding from what went down in a semi, Jason Ward can pick any fellow member of the Consortium to tag with next week against his brother Rich and a partner of Rich Ward's choosing.
FINAL: the International Workrate Consortium d. Los Nuevos Caballeros It turns out Jason will be bringing a share of the Ambassadors trios titles with him into that tag match, as the Consortium went over shadily but ultimately clean here. Again, another signature Caviar sickle turned the tide at the right exact moment to blindside Obscuro, Stahl getting the rollup pinfall with his discombobulation - between them winning the trios titles and Serge holding onto the Duquesne Cup, in 2022 the Consortium are taking all the turns. ***
Stahl complisulted the field on a noble if ultimately doomed effort, considering they were up against the finest tag team practitioners on the face of the Earth. They were the finest wrestlers to ever grace the Arena Mexico and they "did it without silly gimmicks or cheaply made masks, just hard-won skill and God-given charisma". The crowd's reviling this was promptly interrupted by the dulcet tones of "Killed By Death", the herald for the World Tag Team champions the Immortals. From the ring surrounded by the Ambassadors trios championships and the Duquesne Cup, the Consortium stared down the Immortals; from the apex of the ramp with the Lucha Salvage championships on their shoulders and the QCW World Tag Team championships around their waists, the Immortals stared down the Consortium. See you next Friday when QCW continues to bring the matriach fornicating Ruckus!
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