Last week on Ruckus: Frustrated over being screwed out of the World Championship again, Nazir el-Fadal ruined matches & knocked out a couple of security guards, leading to his being forcibly ejected from the building • Summer Rose notched another successful Women’s World Championship defense and seemingly injured Diana Spare in the process, leaving the rest of Mean Season to fight the rest of the Forbidden Book Club • Despite losing in a tag match, the International Workrate Consortium would manage to lay out Rich Ward, Katsuji Ootsuka, Crusazdo del Oro and most notably the World TV champ Party Animal; all four members would pose with that belt and their own titles to conclude last week’s episode while Party writhed in pain at their feet…
We got the usual opening before we threw to the announce. Steve was perfectly normal but S. Mark looked like his Christmas had gotten here early and we'd soon find out why:
Let Us Take You Back To Last Week where Nazir el-Fadal kept two matches from happening, laying out four roster competitors and two members of the security detail. (Naz truthers will note that nothing he said last week got reaired here, just the attacks and the part where he got carried out and thrown into a taxi that sped off into the night.)
After the recap package, Starr gleefully revealed that not only had Commissioner Holmes levied the biggest fine in QCW history against Naz for his actions to the tune of five grand - but Naz was suspended for the rest of the month as well as barred from the Arena. Starr literally threw his papers in the air and gleefully spun around in his chair, a frightened Steve noting he hadn't seen Starr this happy since he found out who Sydney Sweeney was. But if you wanted some euphoria on Friday night, look no further than in the ring on Ruckus - and those fights would get underway right now.
| • Mayhem d. El Borracho • | Online rumors that QCW's recent worldwide expansions are actually unofficial auditions for potential sister leagues to do business with probably got some kerosene on them with the appearance of the former Lucha Salvage tag title holder to kick off the show. Borracho received a decent reaction that got bolstered by his drunken antics; it turns out, however, that Mayhem is still behated by the Arena faithful much to his dismay and (most of) our general amusement. Subplot to the match was Borracho fighting Mayhem right from the bell without his usual sense of drunken whimsy and having the former QCW World champion on the backfoot early on (rumors about Mayhem having heat with luchadores came up last year and in certain circles never really faded). The main thrust of the bout was Mayhem overcoming that initial wave to give as good as he got and then some, taking the luchador into deep waters to drown him. An Air Raid Crash set up No More Words, which got Mayhem another W to another big, mixed reaction. ** ½ Starr noted post match that Mayhem was trying to get back into title contention after going 0-2-1 against Party Animal recently, but he might be in a position where he'd have to start at the bottom and build himself up again; Mayhem's face - even though it was responding to the Sad Boiiii chants and not Starr's commentary - told you all you needed to know about how The Former Champ felt about that.
TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face was standing by with "the Wonderful" Rich Ward, who himself was in a much better mood than usual. We found out next week will be what they're calling the War of the Wards: his first one on one match against his brother Jason since "the Terrible" knifed his flesh and blood in the back to join the IWC. No sooner had Enya asked Rich about what his game plan would be before she let out a shriek – right as said IWC showed up on scene to surround Rich and asked him to strongly reconsider showing up next week. Rich responded by mockingly saying he needed some time to think about it, then he hooked a loogie in Serge's face to a big pop before saying that he was good, thanks. That wouldn't be true much longer as that spit got Rich jumped by all four Consortium members, who roughed him up and stomped him out before they dragged Rich towards the men's bathroom so that Jason could slam his brother's head into the door a few times to the horror of the crowd. Security arrived on the scene but the damage had already been done; as Rich was gurgling and coughing on the floor, Jason took the opportunity to squat next to and lean over his fallen sibling before dryly saying "you'd think something Terrible just happened!" The Consortium slowly backed away from the scene of the crime as Commissioner Holmes showed up, the medical staff revealing a gash across Rich's head while he was still clearly knocked loopy and drooling a little bit.
A shaken Enya threw back to the announce, who had the difference of opinion that you might expect over what just went down. When Starr finished his Consortium cheerleading, Steve suggested we go to the ring for a fair fight…
| • the Proper Villains d. A World Of Pain (DeSade/Osterberg) • | If I were in a match against DeSade or Osterberg I'd be a slight favorite, so the land monsters have joined forces. It didn't stop them from being the cannon fodder in a Proper Villains showcase, however. Jaspers in particular got to show off some of his power game in handling the World before the Villains uncorked A Proper Finish - Windsor narrowly managing the strength to Lawn Dart Osterberg into Jaspers' Fury Road. ** The Proper postmatch celebration got interrupted by the Immortals, who strode out with all four of their belts. The Villains didn't show any fear; in fact, Jaspers sat on the middle rope and waved them into the ring. But the Immortals merely let out evil chuckles, held up a couple of belts and left. The Villains took to the turnbuckles and made Very Familiar Gestures around their waists to a decent pop from the Quaranteers.
This Week In QCW History: we got some still photographs from 1959 (with J3 doing the voiceover) of Paddy O'Grady dropping the QAAW (proto QCW) title to "the Russian Menace" Ivan Caviar (Pyotr's grandfather) in what was a shocking upset at the time. We then went from made history to QCW's newest signee looking to make history in his own right.
| • Super Avión d. Caballero Obscuro (w/Los Caballeros) • | Avión had a successful debut in the Arena, but it didn’t come without some controversy. The opening moments of the match saw the rechristened Obscuro get the upper hand on his fellow Tijuanian luchador, and Avión eventually bailed out to the floor. The referee stopped Obscuro from going for a highspot, and Avión used that opportunity to pick up a chair – then slam it into the ringpost, and flop on the outside while pushing the chair between himself and Los Caballeros. When the referee turned around, of course, the Caballeros were in a picture perfect position to be framed and found themselves ejected to the boos of the crowd. Obscuro seemed to get a little bit rattled by the ejection of his new friends and Avión used that wedge to open the door wide for his win, culminating in his crotching Obscuro on the top rope before delivering a top rope crucifix slam he calls Air Superiority to secure the W. ** ½ Post match, Avión delivered some smack talk to the fallen Obscuro before posing on the turnbuckles, the announce wondering what the iconoclastic Avión would have next in his plan to take over QCW and defy the Commissioner along the way.
Ironically enough from there, we got another Freedom Watch with Drake Tremble filmed live in front of a truck's driver's seat. The former QCW Champion is still railing against all the luchadores and pureso stars that have gotten added to the roster in the recent past, and having a bunch of dirty foreigners as QCW's official ambassadors just goes to prove Little Holmes can't ever live up to his daddy. That's why Drake has to come back - not only to Make QCW Great Again, but because all true patriots know that they are the ones on the watch to keep their freedoms free. Fucking WOOF. From there, we went to a Mexico v. France matchup, because QCW has a fine sense of humor like that.
Let Us Take You Back To Last Week, where after Party Animal narrowly defended the World TV title against Crusazdo del Oro, the International Workrate Consortium rushed the ring and stomped out both men before they took turns posing with and admiring the TV title.
Obviously this villainy wasn’t going to go unanswered by the man who’s name literally translates to the Gold Crusader, and we got this singles match with him going against the leader of the IWC in Serge Batroc. Announce pointed out in the outset of this match that this was going to be one of those where the man who dictated their style of wrestling moreso than their opponent would win and both segments of this one bore it out: Oro flew around the ring when he was able, dazzling the crowd with sky-high armdrags, crisp dropkicks and even getting a nearfall off of a super huracanrana that almost had the IWC rushing the ring; of course, the lucha libre style is very feast or famine, so once Serge countered a springboard crossbody attempt by walloping Crusazdo with a counter European uppercut, he got the upper hand and kept Oro grounded to maintain his advantage, hitting big power moves to get nearfalls…but he couldn’t keep Oro down for three. Despite that, with him winning on points Serge went for the Arc de Triomphe that secured him the Duquesne Cup – but Oro wriggled free and then drilled a rewind rana on Serge to pop the crowd, and Crusazdo pulled Serge into position before going up and flying off with the Pajaro del Sol phoenix splash. The IWC were on the outside exhorting Serge to get up, Stahl even banging the mat to try and warn their leader, but it was of no help.
What was of help was the part where they rushed the ring after the Pajaro hit. ***
| • Crusazdo del Oro ddq. Serge Batroc (w/International Workrate Consortium) • |
The Consortium came in and stomped Crusazdo into the mat with prejudice, the bell ringing forever and changing nothing. Starr noted that all the backup Crusazdo possibly could have had from last week was gone in different manners: Rich Ward had gotten a similar beatdown earlier in the show, Party Animal still had the TV title to defend in tonight’s main event, and Katsuji Ootsuka was actually in Kyoto shooting a commercial this week. So the beatdown went on for a couple of minutes before some referees came out and finally provided enough of a reason for the IWC to stop, though Jason made sure to brag loudly off-mic as they headed to the back that the options for the rest of QCW were simple: pay fealty to the Consortium, or end up like Oro.
Ahead of our next match, we got some footage from Earlier Today: originally scheduled for this singles match, Diana Spare couldn’t get clearance from the medical staff to wrestle tonight (she was actually fuming on crutches in the foreground); the rest of the Club then debated amongst the 3 of them who they would send into the match – but we didn’t find out until the match itself happened:
| • Nancy Crowley (w/Forbidden Book Club) ddq. Autumn Powers (w/Mean Season) • |
The Club/Mean Season contretemps has gone on for the better part of a year and continued here in singles action – Crowley & Powers got a little bit of extra heat last week when they were throwing hands against each other on the outside of the Summer Rose title defense that injured Spare. QCW prides itself on fighting Friday night programming and this delivered the most out of any bout on the card; there weren’t a lot of nearfall attempts (I only recalled two) but a lot of hard-hitting, high impact maneuvers. It seemed like Powers was going to get the duke when she laid out Crowley with the Hazy Shade of Autumn but Crowley got her foot on the ropes; however, Summer got heated about that, saying that LaVey had put her foot there (we didn’t see any evidence to that point but there are harder things to believe). The Club got defensive, Summer got even more irate, and if someone’s willing to limp over on crutches to fight you for the second week in a row it turns out they’re gonna. Another Season/Club fight uncorked, with Spare at one point drilling Summer with one of her crutches and sending her down in a heap. Spare got on the apron and dragged the other crutch into the ring and looked like she was going to tee off on Autumn with it when suddenly Summer dove into the ring and delivered a queen-sized belt shot. It looked like she was aiming for Autumn, but that (apparently) turned out to be a feint so that she had a clean shot at drilling Crowley right between the eyes. The ref saw this and called for the bell. ***
For obvious reasons, everyone was wondering if Summer had just gotten Autumn intentionally disqualified up to and including Autumn, who got in Summer's face while Spring and Winter tried to play peacekeeper between them. They failed at that, partially because it's pretty obvious that at this point the Summer/Autumn rift gets more irreconcilable by the week but mostly because the Club bumrushed Mean Season while they were having their public group therapy session. Spare threw the recovering Crowley a crutch, Agrippa and LaVey had no compulsions about using the Women's World Tag Team championships for weapons given what just went down, and the subsequent minutes saw the Club wipe out Mean Season entirely with both Summer and Autumn getting busted open from the champs' belt shots. Once Season got left laying the Club transported out after some womanly cackling, leading to the medical staff trying to do the best they could for Season once the lights were back on after the Club blipped out.
Ahead of the main event the announce hyped up some of next week right now, but started by speaking about a match that now wouldn't be happening: due to the IWC jumping him earlier, Rich Ward wouldn't be able to have the scheduled singles against his brother Jason next week, though the Commissioner's office would try to reschedule it ASAP once he was medically cleared.
While it sucked that wouldn't be happening, Mayhem would be in action, as would Einherjar vs. "the Proper King" Richard Windsor - and the Revenant was set to fight "the Fury" Jim Jaspers…but it's entirely possible we're a Red Right Hand away from that being a TV title match.
We got a surprise ahead of the main event: a very special guest referee, The Champ himself. Mason "Razorblade" Savage got the pop of the night as he came out in a loaner zebra shirt over ripped up black jeans.
The Revenant came out solo after Einherjar gave him a manly fist bump and departed with his two titles. Rev brought his titles in the ring as well, and he looked down on The Champ exchanging a look that could be best described as fraught. That look was interrupted by the arrival of the Champion of Claw, the crowd roaring at Party Animal's arrival. If he was rattled by the sudden appear–I couldn't even get through that sentence, it's entirely possible Party's too drunk to realize he's going into the same ring with the World Champion and a land monster. The Claws were out in force with the Quaranteers as Duck made the introductions; this subsequently made the Rev closer to the heel in this one. (He cares.)
The Revenant scoffed down at the TV Champion once Savage called for the bell, so after realizing the disrespect Party started throwing forearms and alternating chops. It didn't rattle the challenger five or even ten seconds in, but as Party continued to wail away the crowd fired up and eventually the Rev was forced to a knee. Party Animal ran for the ropes and LARIAT.
Everyone groaned as the champ somersaulted through the air from the force of it before crash landing on the mat like the victim of a Mafia hit. He kinda was. The Champ went down for the count, but the TV Champ wasn't quite out for the count.
Barely, but he'd survived; the World Tag Champ then spent the bulk of the rest of the show an eyeblink away from adding a third title in two weeks. The Revenant spent so much time beating on Party with Party barely kicking out that Starr on commentary openly wondered if The Champ wasn't looking out for his little buddy because he was afraid of a Revenant cash in. Conspiracy theory stuff, but it didn't come off as crazy the longer the match went with PA in survival mode. And while he couldn't hear the commentary it became evident that Revenant and Starr shared a similar school of thought, with Rev getting increasingly chesty with The Champ's counts. Steve wondered if the Rev had a legitimate beef or if he was just taking out his frustration over not having won the title yet as he so obviously thought he would have by this point in the match. Party started fight back and clearly rattled the Rev, but a well timed uraken sent the Czar of Claw falling between the middle and bottom rope. Failing to grab Party before he fell out of the ring, Rev followed out at a leisurely pace. Rev went to snatch Party up, only to be shoved backwards into the post - before Party charged and added an avalanche to sandwich Rev into the post again, spilling off his body off the impact to around the corner, and both men were down. Party managed to crawl into the ring and seemingly looked to try and get the dub via countout, but a rattled Rev rolled in at eight. Party tried to close the distance with a spear, but the Rev booted that idea away and up; the challenger went to close out with his signature Red Right Hand but suddenly found himself in a victory roll…that actually got the victory, if only by an eyeblink before the kickout. ***
| • Party Animal [c] d. The Revenant to retain the QCW World Television Title [sixth defense]; special guest referee QCW World Champion Mason “Razorblade” Savage • |
For obvious reasons, this caused murder in a certain pair of Immortal eyes. The recipient of a shadyish call for the second straight week, the Revenant wasn't hesitant about getting in The Champ's face about the count being shady and found himself across from another champion who doesn't believe in back steps. It actually took Einherjar coming from the back along with the recovering and still reigning TV champ to step between them, and even that just ended up branching off into both of the Immortals beefing with Razorblade and Party Animal to a growing buzz in the crowd. Announce freaked out over the possibility of the World champion and World TV champion teaming up to face the World Tag Team champions, but that wouldn't be happening on this evening. More cross words were exchanged, but the Immortals decided when the conversation was over (after warning both singles champions that this wasn't over) and left the ring.
But the show didn't end there.
As Razorblade exchanged some parting thoughts with the Immortals, Party Animal grabbed the mic from Duck. Party said since this was cutting into Claw O'Clock, he only had two things to say:
The World title turned some people into jerks, but Razor's always been a decent dude and proved so again tonight by calling things down the middle
Speaking of jerks, last week the IWC waited until after he'd won to jump him - well, he was sick of their crap so he'd rather just skip it: next week if they wanted to get their hands on the TV title so badly they could fight him for it. Hell, they could all try their luck in a gauntlet match for the TV title. But he would win and they would fail because Claw is Law.
As you might expect, everyone was various degrees of stunned after thst announcement: the crowd was full of Quaranteers who were cheering with concerned looks on their faces, and the announce wondered if what Party proposed was even possible. Starr said it was just like a drunk to propose a virtual handicap match even if it was called a gauntlet match: how was one Claw-addicted idiot going to be a challenge for all the Ambassadors of QCW? Show ended with the champions in the ring, Razorblade seemingly looked concerned and maybe questioning Party's judgment but as you might expect, Party didn't look too concerned. If that gauntlet ends up happening next week, tune in to see the Consortium put another title in their trophy case…
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