Last week on Ruckus: Even pretending to be a luchador, Mayhem couldn't get the TV title away from Party Animal, nearly causing a riot in Arena Mexico • the Immortals added to their trophy case by taking the Lucha Salvage tag titles from El Cantador and El Borracho • Under Serge's watchful eye, the rest of the Consortium followed his lead and won three matches in a one night tournament to be crowned the inaugural Ambassadors Trios champions, earning them a shot at the Immortals - who came out to welcome the new champions with their new hardware, six men exchanging glares over seven championships…
The show got off to an inauspicious start, with the announce having to step on the usual show open because Nazir el-Fadal came out to the ring with a chair before snatching the mic from Duck and setting up shop in the middle of the ring. Naz told the monkeys in the truck not to bother with the pyro because he was going to bring enough heat to get the fire marshals out if he didn't get his way. To the shock of no one, Naz was beyond livid that he had gotten screwed out of the World Title two weeks ago, saying that he had Razorblade dead to rights in the very spot he sat in. Ever since Devil's Night this place has found a way to fuck him over. He makes the World Championship, Mayhem steals it from him and gets Holmes' approval implicitly or explicitly. He never gets a one on one rematch, so he goes out and earns the TV title - then Mirror Mirror "or whatever the fuck they're calling themselves these days" screws him out of the World title at Golden Rule and Holmes doesn't let him participate to crown a new TV champion. By this point the crowd was firmly in "STFU!" territory, to which Naz responded that's what they wanted, just like Holmes. But after he earned another shot at his property, he thought he had his bases covered. At this point, Duck got inside the ring and was unusually chesty with Naz by his standards, yelling that they still had matches to get to. Naz was compliant, raising his hands and rolling out to the floor after handing Duck the mic. Kicking the chair out of the ring, Duck made the announcements for the first match of the evening, newcomer Atum Pharaoh going up against…Ichi-Go? Why are you looking at me like that? Do you know somethin – oh, there that went.
| • Atum Pharaoh NC Ichi-Go • |
Given opportunity and a chair, Naz took both and laid out the lower rungs on the power rankings ladder, first laying into Ichi-Go then mule kicking Pharaoh to leave him laid out. Ichi-Go ate a WMDDT, then Naz managed to leave Pharaoh laying with a buckle variant on the Hamrin Valley Driver before snatching up a mic to go shooting with. As he was saying before he was so rudely interrupted, Holmes ran to Mexico and put on that dog and pony show while he was busy being detained! And why was he being detained? Because Holmes' precious golden boy, Mayhem, got in another disaster of his own making. But this wasn't a PPV he could book around but a fan who got hurt…at this point Duck was in the ring again, trying to get the mic from Naz, who wondered if Duck was suddenly leaping into action based on certain Commissioners in his earpiece. If the Superstar In Repose wanted Naz out of this ring, he could come down and do it himself. Otherwise Naz might tell a lawsuit story. Maybe the injured fan's. Maybe the antitrust lawsuit Naz had in the hopper, since it seems to be the only fair way to ensure he gets a fair title shot. At this point, Il Postino came out with a referee but Naz refused to yield the microphone, and then Bird Robo followed suit behind Postino. They exchanged a discussion on the ramp, then left the referee on the ramp and headed to the ring. Grinning widely, el-Fadal waved them on with a free hand while reaching into his pocket with the other.
| • Il Postino NC "Bird Robo" Tatsuo Ishinomori • |
Postino went down in a heap, then so did Ishinomori, and when Naz's hand came back up with the microphone a row of brass knuckles gleamed under the overhead lights. At this point the referee on the ramp ran to the back while Naz ranted that while he was waiting on the first train to Jacksonville or Orlando, he was going to leave QCW with a Naz-shaped scar they could never erase - he would officially be first to the Triple Crown and not only that, the Greatest Man Alive would hold them all simultaneously. Then the bidding war would begin. Maybe Scott or Tony or hell, even Nick would be interested in another company's Triple Crown being used to sign his newer, better deal?
At this point is where Commissioner Holmes showed up, but only in advance of the security detail. Naz waved them on, but there were a dozen of them and one of him. Give the devil credit where it's due - Naz managed to lay the first two teal shirts out with the knux but the rest of them swarmed el-Fadal and took him down, then eventually out, literally: with the crowd serenading him with a Steam classic, the remaining security not only took Naz out of the ring but to the back, but not before Naz and Holmes exchanged harsh words (a handful of which got bleeped). Camera barely had time to show S. Mark Starr giving a one man standing O to Naz's removal before cutting backstage and finding out he wasn't the only one with that reaction: everyone from the Game Changers to Mayhem and even Enya Face applauded as security shoved Naz into a taxi that sped off into the night. Steve apologized for the abrupt and weird beginning and threw to commercial to give them time to get the Arena reset and start the evening off right with the Game Changers in action after the break.
| • the Game Changers (Carpenter/Szabo w/Buffett) d. the Angel Twins • | The Changers notched their second victory as a unit since forming with the former tag partners having come full circle in this one, Carpenter actually drawing the heat from the Crush alumnae identical Room 237 residents for a bulk of the match before finally making the tag to Szabo. Ashley cleaned house on Los Angeles and notched the W with a somersault swinging neckbreaker setting up her top rope fistdrop (Smash that Subscribe Button). #rIpSARa ** Szabo was ebullient post-match, as Carpenter slightly let their body relax when first she then Al came in for post-match hugs. Announce noted Szabo hadn’t been that on point in the ring ever since their original breakup of their team with Beckett, and that maybe their alchemy was coming back to the surface with their reunion.
Hope you didn’t think we weren’t going to get some Grade A gloating from the International Workrate Consortium, because the newly crowned Ambassadors trios champions were dans la maison in addition to their leader Serge Batroc’s Duquesne Cup. Starr put over the accomplishment as they came down to the ring, saying that Serge’s leadership was paying off with all the hardware the IWC had while Steve followed up by saying that not only had they earned QCW’s newest championships but earned a shot at the Immortals as well. As has been happening since he joined the squad, “the Terrible” Jason Ward (note the new nickname) cut the bulk of the promo in front of the Arena.
Ward crowed that he’d almost ended up in the hospital before, but it would have been due to back issues since he had to carry his brother for years upon years; here with equals, any arguments you had against them should be now fully silenced as they were not only champions but the Ambassadors of QCW. The crowd booed this, so Serge took the mic to upbraid the audience in French to more boos. Jason & Serge had an off-mic discussion before Jason got the stick back, saying that Serge said he shouldn’t have expected a proper response of their internationally born greatness from ignorant Florida swamp trash. But it wasn’t just Florida, since they got booed in Arena Mexico, too; of course, those boos didn’t stop them from capturing the trios titles and it wouldn’t stop them tonight, when they finally rid QCW of the annoying leech he unfortunately shared DNA with – a couple beats after this, Rich Ward popped up on the QuaranTron and offered up some sarcastic congratulations to the IWC on winning the belts.
Of course, what Jason was leaving out is that if it wasn’t for that meathead Russian saving his ass, maybe he’d be holding the Ambassadors titles with the Proper Villains instead of getting bounced in the semis. But at least he got a chance at retribution tonight. Jason mocked him, saying that it didn’t matter what unfortunate chump he got to team with him because the Consortium would put them both in the hospital. Rich smirked a little bit, saying that the Consortium had made enemies left, right and center – he didn’t have a problem getting a partner, he had a problem picking the one he’d team up with to win the match. But the IWC and Jason’s punk ass would have to wait to meet the partner until the match tonight, and when they won they’d only have two words for Serge and his attack dogs: you’re welcome. Crowd popped as the IWC was livid, and Rich disappeared off the Tron as Jason threw out some more threats before throwing down the mic in frustration. The Consortium, now looking refocused and angry, held up their hardware while announce hyped the Jason Ward x IWC v. Rich Ward x mystery partner match for later on in the show.
| • “the Electric Android” Cindy Monet (w/Benjamin Valentino) d. “Death Metal” Bettie Rokker (w/”Shieldmaiden” Val Curry) • | Monet’s been out on a mini revenge tour ever since the Sound of Thunder accidentally injured her partner during a loss a few weeks ago; she picked up a prior win against Rokker’s partner Val Curry a couple of weeks after that and completed the sweep here. Bettie put up a game effort but fell prey to the Tightrope that took down her partner. ** Post match saw Monet get a good pop for the W, a pop that only increased when she made A Very Familiar Gesture around her waist.
TOTHEBACK~!, where we didn’t hear any audio for a couple of beats after we saw Gaia Green, Autumn Powers & Winter Wonderland talking about their botchamania of an intervention last week, wondering how to get through to Summer if she truly wasn’t using again - obviously with her getting increasingly vicious in regaining and keeping the Women’s World title, this is leading to friction. What else leads to friction is your friends talking shit about you behind your back, as those of us at home saw Rose walk into the background of this discussion without the rest of her stablemates noticing. Rose let this go on for a bit, interrupting with a loud throat clear when Autumn started to helm the conversation.
Clearly seething, Summer called out the rest of Season for last week and doing this right now when she had a championship to defend, not that any of the rest of them knew what it was like to do it - let alone twice. That got glares from the rest of Mean Season and oohs from the crowd, but Summer (first hesitantly, then with a louder throat) apologized for the dig. She noted that this is exactly what she was concerned about tonight: that whatever dark magic fueled the Club’s sisterhood, it was definitely more cohesive than the dysfunction they were going through right now, and if that happened out in the ring the entire division’s worst nightmare would come true with the Club holding all the titles. If she had to fight a whole coven off, she would do the best job she could in a four on one situation - but she didn’t want that. What she wanted to prove was that the Club didn’t run the division, they did, even when things were a little messed up between them. It was absolutely crucial that the title stayed in the family…so would they have her back tonight? The rest of Season exchanged glances before Autumn stepped up to Summer, and said that she was right: above everything else, the title had to stay in the family. Autumn & Summer seemed to have a staredown for a couple of beats but Powers offered up a handshake; a couple beats went by before Rose took it and walked off for her title defense up next. Autumn watched Summer leave while Winter nudged Gaia in the background.
Back from the break, the Club materialized as a unit, Agrippa & LaVey toting the Women’s World Tag Team championships while Spare stood center ring gesturing that She Wanted The Belt. Rose came out solo in response and was halfway down the ramp before the rest of Mean Season came out behind her, Autumn bringing up the rear. This turned the title fight into an ad hoc lumberjill match, both sides protecting their own while keeping a wary eye towards the opposition. Spare is known as the level headed one of the Club and seemed to have Rose stymied to an extent early (though announce noted that while Spare seemed to be focused on the title opportunity, Rose was glaring as much at her team as the potential outside interference).
The coin flip nature continued for the bulk of the match, only firmly going into Rose’s ledger when a normal backdrop counter to a charging Spare sent the Club member over the ringpost and Spare slammed into the top of the steps before sluicing down the rest. Quickly recognizing the opportunity, Rose followed up by throwing Spare into the steps again, then into the barrier, then rolling into the ring to break up the count before uncorking another throw into the steps - another throw into the barrier - Mean Season started heading over towards the action just as Summer snap suplexed Spare across the middle step before throwing her into the ring and quickly following, the Club and Season exchanging words on the outside. While the war of words happened on the floor, Rose brought the war to Spare until she couldn’t stand. Match ended uniquely, as Rose hit the Come Up…but pulled Spare up at two. Spare then found herself victim to her own Subconscious Bomb, but Rose pulled her up at two again, drawing ire from everyone on the outside. The Club got all the way in the Season’s faces, which led to a brawl on the floor. Meanwhile in the ring, Rose put the finishing touches on the match with a familiar looking Yakuza kick and elevated Texas cloverleaf with her knee in the back of Spare, who was forced to tap out. ** 1/2
| • Summer Rose (w/Mean Season) [c] ds. Diana Spare (w/Forbidden Book Club) to retain the QCW Women's World Championship • |
With the seconds fighting on the outside, Rose kept the Cloverleaf on well after the bell had rung, nearly triggering a reverse decision by the ref before she finally let go, snatching her title away from the zebra with two hands to a mixed reaction. The Club and Mean Season continued to fight on the floor as the referee called for the medical staff to come out to check on Spare while Rose ignored the six woman brawl and walked to the back solo with the title around her shoulder, seemingly without a care in the world while leaving Spare as another addition to the list of potential challengers she’s taken out of the picture over the past couple of months.
We came back from the break to "Aces High" by Iron Maiden, the theme of QCW's latest addition to the roster - former Lucha Salvage champion and internationally renowned luchador Super Avión came out in a clearly tailored suit to join the announce table ahead of the next match.
The announce welcomed him to the table and QCW, Avión bitterly noting that it was the first kind of real welcome he's received from anyone in QCW since he signed on the dotted line. As the Revenant came out, Avión was asked about the intimidating stature of the tag champion; he had a couple couched compliments but said that if he had even a decent partner that he could become a QCW tag champion - if Holmes let him. Announce wanted to follow up on that but that's when the newly monikered Caballero Obscuro came out to a decent reaction. Avión lit into him, calling him a sellout and un gato gordo for joining up with that payaso Crusazdo del Oro; this flowed seamlessly into Avión complaining about Oro's shady W over him last week and that somehow getting Oro not only credit but the main event TV title shot to close out Ruckus tonight.
With seconds barred from ringside for this one, Obscuro & the Rev went at it to a better than it had any right to be clip for nearly 10 minutes, while Avión had more cross words for whatever and whomever came to mind (most notably spilling the beans that his father had gotten fired from QCW a generation ago for accidentally injuring certain current Commissioners, so he came not only to show the best modern day Lucha Libre in the world but to shove it up Holmes' culo that he had created such a buzz south of the border QCW had to bring him in before he walked onto another Friday night wrestling show). It actually seemed early on that Avión might have more rants than there would be match time, with the Rev going for the Red Right Hand not even three minutes in. Obscuro fended off the chokeslam and started fending better for himself. He couldn't get the Revenant down for anything longer than a two & a half count, which drew even more of Avión's ire and complaints that this bastardized Lucha Libre wasn't going to stand while he drew a check here. A few beats later, he ran in while the Rev was protesting a near fall and dropped Obscuro with a discus lariat; unfortunately for the Revenant, the referee turned around just in time to catch that. **
| • Caballero Obscuro ddq. the Revenant • |
An incredulous Revenant stared down Avión afterwards, who shrugged. Einherjar came down the ramp so Avión opted to leave through the side between the ramp and ring - despite the complaints from the Immortals that they didn't have anything to do with Avión, the referee explained that the decision was final, leaving the 2x champions furious.
Heading into commercials, we saw Rich Ward backstage pop his head into a locker room and thank someone for tagging with him tonight to take on his brother and the Consortium. Rich continued to thank the partner while leaning in the doorway, saying that he hoped they were successful in their first time out as a tag team. Ward got some kind of positive response as the announce pointed out we couldn’t see or hear who Rich had picked to be his partner…but we’d all find out together after the break.
Back from the break, we welcomed the Consortium ahead of the semi-main tag match - Jason again on the stick to brag that since they didn’t even need his help to secure the Ambassadors titles that their fearless leader Serge was going to be his partner tonight, so bring out his loser brother and whomever was willing to go to the hospital with him. Rich then came out to a decent pop, though he stared down his brother from the apex of the ramp for a few beats. He held up an index finger, then pointed it to the back – and out came Katsuji Ootsuka to a sizeable pop in his own right. Starr couldn’t believe that a newbie could fight against the IWC and win, but Steve provided a compelling counterargument about Ootsuka having beaten former QCW World Champion Naz clean and giving Party all he could handle going for the TV title; Steve even made a rare prediction that it wouldn’t be if Katsuji became a champion in QCW, but when. Even Starr didn’t press back too hard against that.
The tag match went for nearly three segments, and while you would consider the Consortium to be ahead on points for a plurality of the match they never got things into blowout territory even while they spent the bulk of the match grounding Ootsuka. But the Prince of Punishment proved he could take it as well, fighting his way out of the IWC’s corner by running up Jason to send him to the floor and Ootsuka swinging into a modified tornado DDT. Jason recovered and pulled Serge to his corner to tag himself in then ankle picked Ootsuka – but Ootsuka converted it to a basement rana driver and tagged out, Rich rushing to a pinfall that got broken up by Serge. The final couple minutes of the match saw a Pier 4 break out between the legal brothers and Ootsuka fending off Serge to varying degrees of success. Hilariously enough, both Wards went for the Wonder Cutter to close (perhaps you shouldn’t try that on your brother and former tag partner) and failed, then Rich went for a Thesz press that Jason countered with a jackknife cover. However, that cover got broken up by a flying in Ootsuka, who’s springboard 450 (as Steve yelled out on commentary) landing across Jason’s ribs was high and violent – and put Rich in position to get an arm over his brother for all of three and a half seconds. ***
| • Katsuji Ootsuka & "the Wonderful" Rich Ward d. "the French Assassin" Serge Batroc & Jason "the Terrible" Ward (w/"the Tracksuit Tsar" Pyotr Caviar & Anton "Teknik" Stahl) • |
No sooner had the bell rung than Caviar and Stahl were in the ring, laying into both Katsuji and Rich to boos. For obvious reasons, they focused most of their attention on Rich, with Jason particularly gleeful about grounding and pounding his brother while Serge tied Katsuji up into the ropes and started throwing stiff European uppercuts. The bell rang a few more times – the Consortium hears you, the Consortium don’t care – when everyone got pleasantly surprised by “Oh Yeah” hitting the PA. Starr couldn’t believe Party Animal was rushing out here when he had to defend the TV title up next, but not only was he out here he was out here to ring Caviar’s bell with the TV title, the big Russian slumped on his knees after the champ’s blow landed. However, Serge caught up to Party from behind, and it was clear that the IWC was healthier despite their big man disoriented as they started to work over all the babyfaces – until Crusazdo del Oro, Party’s opponent, ran down to the ring and then set off the cameraphones with a sky high springboard crossbody press that dropped the IWC. Despite the fact they were about to throw down for the TV title, Party & Crusazdo showed no qualms about throwing hands against the Consortium, and with a fully fledged Pier 8 on deck with Quaranteers cheering, out came the teal shirts (two fewer than there had been at the beginning of the show) to break things up. Steve feverishly said that they still had the TV title match to go, so they hoped during the commercial break they could settle things down here at the Arena ahead of the big main event after the last round of commercials.
After they aired, the ring was clear except for the ref, Duck to make the announcements, and Party & Oro to face off for the TV title. Steve noted after they shook hands to start the match that the IWC, Rich Ward & Katsuji Ootsuka had all been sent to the back so that the match could be purely about competing cleanly for the championship. Oro’s not an unpopular man, but he doesn’t have the same level of love from the Quaranteers that Party does. Starr noted in the early going that when you had a styles clash like this, whomever was able to fight the match closest to their style was going to prevail nine times out of ten. It surely seemed as if this would be Oro’s night - he flew around the ring hitting highspots on an increasingly disoriented Party, who went to the floor to try to recover only for Oro to get a running start inside the ring then twisted in mid-air as he went over the top to slam into Party with a moonsault that had the crowd on their feet. Oro recovered and threw Party in before going up; it was entirely possible that he was going for the Pajero del Sol but PA rolled out of the ring before he could. Oro went for another crossbody to the floor, so in a unique bit Party dove under the ring when Oro flew off, and Crusazdo went splat on the floor. While both men were down, Steve managed to get in some hype for next week’s show - the winner of this match defending the TV title, the Arena debut of Super Avión, and Holmes’ office promised some sort of disciplinary action for Naz given how he started the show. Party popped up on the other side of the ring and rolled in, seemingly content to take it by countout, but Oro came in at 8. Party checked with the ref to make sure things were continuing then went to work in his own right, getting a nearfall down the stretch after a vicious rebound spear that Oro couldn’t see coming but still managed to narrowly kick out of. Party Animal reached into their board shorts, but it wasn’t a Claw they pulled out but a….Claw-endorsed glove. It looked like he was going to introduce Oro to the Law, but Oro converted into a triangle and wore Party down with it until he started going limp. Once he had Party down, Oro hit three lightning quick legdrops off the ropes before making the international hand gesture for “That’s IT!” and reascending the ropes, looking for the Pajaro del Sol. Unfortunately for him, his Phoenix splash ate Party’s knees, and he soon found himself on the bad end of the Claw Is Law. Even with Oro flailing, Party was wearing him down, and then surprisingly ended the match with something new: a sort of uranage enhanced version of the Claw when Oro wouldn’t tap sent him into the mat, and Party managed to have weakened him enough to pin him after the move. ** ½
| • Party Animal [c] d. Crusazdo del Oro to retain the QCW World Television Title (5) • |
Party recovered slowly but got to a knee grinning, welcoming the return of his belt. We quickly cut backstage to Super Avión in the back watching Crusazdo's loss, shaking his head and walking off camera. As he was leaving, the Consortium was arriving, quickly gaining retribution for what went down earlier. Tired from the pre match fight and their subsequent match, neither Party or Crusazdo could handle Serge’s European uppercuts, let alone Caviar’s power. The crowd jeered this lustily and they would only get more pissed as Jason gave an evil grin, then grabbed the TV title. Steve almost screamed out “Don’t they have enough championship gold?” and since they are the baddies, you know what the answer to that is. Jason wasn’t greedy, he handed it off to Anton and it eventually got passed around to every Consortium member with Serge pointedly admiring his reflection in the championship and Caviar pulling out his phone and taking a couple of selfies with it (even talking Anton into taking one with him). Jason was off-mic but said to the hard camera right into our living rooms that the dark days of Windsor & Williams were over – the revamped Consortium wouldn’t just be taking all the turns, they’d be taking all the titles. And if anyone wanted something Terrible to happen to them? Just stand in their way.
Steve was disgusted and incredulous that these were QCWs ambassadors, while Starr noted this was the second straight Ruckus that ended up with the Consortium toting titles and leaving bodies around them - you went up against Serge & the rest of his squad at your own risk, and a bunch of folks FAAFOed tonight. As we faded to black for the week, the Consortium held up the TV title as a unit while a grimacing Party Animal recovered at their feet.
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