Last week on Ruckus: Razorblade disclosed during an interview that he & Nazir el-Fadal would be involved in Pick Your Poison tonight with the winner picking the stipulation for their Mischief Night title rematch • OnlyFitness & the Hard Way advanced in the United Contenders Challenge to face off in the finals tonight • In a barnburner main event, Katsuji Ootsuka narrowly beat Roy Fade in a last man standing match with the World TV title on the line, ending things with a Magical Sky off the balcony through Fade through two tables
Ruckus kicked off with a pretape from not only the Forbidden Book Club but Fated To Become Champions as well, flanking them for the first time publicly. Fog rolled in the background somehow while El Gato Negro & Toddzilla looked imposing and Roberto VillaLobos sneered, Nancy Crowley kicked off the promo by saying that it must be a surprise to us all seeing them after what happened with their losses last week. But they aren’t the sort of people to…heh…hide in the shadows, no – there are ways to win when you don’t get the pinfall. So if people think the Forbidden Book Club or for that matter Fated To Become Champions aren’t ready to continue imposing their will on QCW and bringing it into the darkness, then they aren’t thinking. And before the show is over – Shelley LaVey came forward and said that before the show is over people will remember to fear and respect the FBC. Fog enveloped the screen, then when it faded none of the six of them were there.
A few more tweaks to the open (a little more Autumn and The Hard Way, they couldn't get that balcony Magical Sky in there fast enough if I had to guess) concluding with the carousel of champions, Katsuji's being updated with him recovering on the barrier and bleeding on the TV title giving way to Naz outside the Arena popping gum with shades on outside at night before cackling and holding up his two titles.
Orange pyro gave way to white and gold detonations from and around the QualiTron 3000, so let a few hundred screaming Floridians welcome you to another Friday Night Ruckus, commentary provided by America's Dad Steve Vandeblanche and America's Shady Internet Troll Cousin S. Mark Starr. They put over the big card for the evening then almost casually added that things would kick off with the Consolation Cup for the Unified Contenders Challenge.
| • Fated To Become Champions NC the Immortals in the Unified Contenders Challenge consolation cup • | Except that it really didn’t – before the match could begin, the Forbidden Book Club took spots in almost a triangle around the ring, then raised their arms and began, for lack of a better term, speaking in tongues. They may not have been but they may as well have been if they weren't. Then the lights went out – six red throbs in the darkness – and not only was there no Fated To Be Champions, there was no Forbidden Book Club.
But there were two laid out Immortals in the ring and on the apron.
Nobody knew what to do for a few beats, and then the referee called for the EMTs and medical staff. Duck Eko and the referee talked between themselves as the staff came out with stretchers, and both Einherjar and the Revenant were put on gurneys while the crowd murmured and the announce laid out. The Sound of Thunder and in a small surprise the Hard Way came out to escort the med crew and check on…well, not their friends, but clearly going to the mat together has brought out mutual respect. Despite participating in the UCC finals later, the Hard Way followed Sound of Thunder and the stretchers to the back – uncommented on by the announce, a figure in a hoodie jumped the railing and followed all of them to the back a few steps behind. Hopefully we can get an update before the show’s over.
TOTHEBACK~! where Julius Duquesne III brought on his guests who're fighting later tonight to try and win the Unified Contenders Challenge - OnlyFitness. Karyn, Lolo and Scott arrived on the scene to boos from the Quality Controllers. J3 asked them how they were feeling headed into the UCC final. Lolo bragged that they were the first team in QCW to beat both of the Immortals and they looked oh so fine doing it. So whoever the Hard Way thought they were, they weren't winning the Challenge or the belts; Karyn chimed in that those belts were going to belong to OnlyFitness before Halloween and that would taste sweeter than any candy they could get. Lolo agreed, then said that the Hard Way were literal has beens as former champions, but the tag division has been changed almost overnight so they're ready for the new opportunities, ready to win the Challenge and become the Unified World Tag Team champions. And once they had those belts around these gorgeous waists…well, once that happened, they'd run this. Lolo and Karyn traded smirks and a fist bump before walking out of the frame, leaving Scott behind to peer awkwardly at J3, before starting to screech something at him only to immediately reach for his neck brace and whimper. Julius the Younger gave Scott a couple of sympathetic back pats before throwing things back to ringside.
| • “the Voice of Freedom” Drake Tremble d. Katsuji Ootsuka [c] to win the QCW World Television title • | Between Naz and this title change, we’re officially in the darkest timeline, yeah?
Ootsuka showed up to defend his title but when he removed the belt to hand it to the referee it revealed he was heavily bandaged around the ribs (almost as if he hit the highspot of the year off the balcony last week and went through tables in the process). Ootsuka actually got off to a hot start early but then ran into a kitchen sink knee to the gut that slowed him down, and to be frank even that basic move was enough to throw a king-sized wrench into Katsuji’s plans. Former three time champion Tremble was at his vulturish best/worst, picking apart Ootsuka with moves to impact the back and ribs before he won the belt clean with the Truth Bomb. The fact I heard any cheers for that, even in Florida, is why I’m agnostic. **
After the replays of Tremble’s win, something unexpected happened – “Swamp Trash” Ted Holland, who faced Tremble a few weeks ago but seemed to be under his sway by the end of it, ran down to the ring and began cheering and talking to Tremble. They seemed to be having a discussion driven by Holland, then Tremble got a wide grin on his face as he stepped into the middle of the ring…and Holland made sure to put the TV title around Drake’s waist as Tremble made sure that the referee raised his hand to boos as Ootsuka clutched his ribs and staggered to the back. Tremble shook Holland’s hand, and Ted sat on the ropes as Drake left the ring. Tremble crowed to the camera as he headed to the back that he’d squashed the foreign menace and would finally bring some pride to the World TV title, and if the Voice of Freedom kept racking up wins, well, this would only be the first title in his glorious return.
| • “Pyre & Ice” Erik Norville d. Atum Pharoah • | This was the debut of Norville, the land monster who's been stalking the Immortals the past few weeks with his face in two separate dualities. In a sharp contrast to recent outings, Pharaoh went under pretty quickly without much in the way of offense. Norville ended Atum's evening with a modified Olympic Slam to win his debut. **
But he wasn’t done there; as Atum was licking his wounds and trying to recover on the floor, Norville grabbed the microphone from Duck and made an introduction to the audience. When the end begins again and the old bonds sever – when your former friends turn their back on you and start throwing in with the Revenant – well, Einherjar deserved what he got from Erik at AnIIversary. (!!!) He won’t be cast aside just for some jerkoff who reads a Wikipedia article and thinks he’s the goddamn God of Thunder, which is why he answered the call that the Forbidden Book Club made to him last month. So that he, Erik Norville, can do what no other man has the balls or talent to do: kill the Immortals’ legacy once and for all. They may not be killable, but by the time Erik is done with them and shown these so-called people the truth of their beloved Immortals, they’ll wish they were dead. Norville threw down the mic and stepped over the top rope on the way to the back, crowd booing lightly but also clearly scared of the man and with good reason.
Announce put over Norville as a monster and were shocked by his being yet another emissary of the FBC, as well as his being behind the attack on Einherjar at AnIIversary. They also added that they didn’t have any updates on the Immortals after what happened in the opener as of yet and would have updates on QCW socials if they weren’t able to get any updates on them before Ruckus ended, Starr speculating that it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility for Norville to be behind that attack as well.
After letting the ripples from that settle down they threw proceedings TOTHEBACK~! where Enya Face was standing by to welcome her guests tonight about to try and win the Unified Contenders Challenge - the Hard Way! Fifita and Goodish came out in the warm embrace of a crowd pop. Enya asked them what their game plan was against OnlyFitness and Fifita was brusque, saying that they'd been around the block too many times to give away a game plan on national TV. The game plan is to win. The game plan is to get the gold at the Devil's Night. And in case you forgot…the game plan is to win. Goodish exchanged a nod with him and said "We're working our way back to the promised land one win at a time. The only way we know how." The Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Dr. Octagon’s “Buried Alive” fired up over the PA, and out walked the Hard Way to a good reception from the crowd, looking over the Arena before exchanging a no-look fist bump and heading towards the ring.
| • OnlyFitness d. The Hard Way to win the Unified Contenders Challenge and earn a shot at the Unified World Tag Team championships at Mischief Night • | A big night for the heels rolls on into the second half of the show with OnlyFitness pulling off another upset and taking home the Challenge.
The Hard Way had a little bit of a points advantage going into the finish, which came after nearly three segments of great tag action. We periodically saw the Game Changers watching the final on a monitor backstage and talking amongst themselves. The former champions looked like they were setting up for their notorious missile dropkick/Electric Chair combination when Scott Tisch-Warren popped up on the apron and tried to distract either Goodish or Fifita. Obviously the Hard Way weren’t going to sweat a pretzel stick in a neck brace, but as the referee was admonishing Scott a buzz rapidly spread in the crowd and then turned into murmurs and a few boos when Erik Norville came back out with his eyes focused on the ring. As Norville made his way down the ramp, fortunately Team Teal came running from the back to surround him to try and stop him or at least slow him down. Norville almost got into the ring before the dozen shirts got him corralled.
It was a perfect opportunity for Scott Tisch-Warren to run into the ring behind the ref’s back and slam a hydroflask into Fifita’s head, then for his wife to follow that up with a low blow to compound things. Lolo caught Goodish with a standard Bloody Shoe from the corner then OnlyFitness Only Finished This with the enzui Shoe and full nelson facebuster from Karyn on Fifita. ***
OnlyFitness shock the world in winning the Unified Contenders Challenge and by hook and by crook, get a shot at the Game Changers come Mischief Night. The crowd rained down jeers as Karyn, Lolo and Steve celebrated arms in arms in arms practically dancing in the ring over the biggest victory they’ve garnered to date. Announce started plugging OnlyFitness vs. the Game Changers for the belts in New Orleans and with the Pick Your Poison matches the only thing left on this week's show, they shifted into hype mode for next week..
🌟🌟 Unlikely and distasteful as it is, Drake Tremble lived up to his promises over the summer; now with championship gold and a useful idiot, he'll defend the World TV title for the first time next week 🌟🌟
🌟🌟 QCW's Unified World Tag Team champions The Game Changers will be in trios action facing #1 contenders OnlyFitness and a mystery partner 🌟🌟
🌟🌟 And the main event will also be a trios match with Mischief Night title implications: the Forbidden Book Club look to return to the win column, but easier said than done as they face off against the reunited Science Fiction Double Feature and QCW Women's World Champion Autumn Powers 🌟🌟
The announce started to mention some other things coming up next week for the go-home show when “Unscripted Violence” came on over the PA and the crowd erupted for the former World champ, the Razorblade himself - Mason Savage. But he was clearly in business mode, as he ignored all the cheers and marched down to the ring. He’d barely been in it before he went over to Duck and asked for the mic, then the moment his mouth opened Arcarsenal came on. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.
Out strolled Nazir el-Fadal eventually, in gear for his match up next but still with a shit-eating grin on his face and more importantly, both the Evergreen Wrestling League title and the QCW World Heavyweight Championship each taking up shoulder space. He asked for his music to be cut, then bathed in the 2:1 negative reaction he got before slowly holding up the QCW World title. He laughed at Savage pacing already in the ring, saying that he was going to have a stroke before Mischief Night even got here. Naz teased that maybe he was going to be the opponent…Mason’s the one who needs this, this is just Friday night for Naz and who knows what Florida city he’ll be spending them in next year…but while Razorblade was on the air bragging last week about all the people who hated Naz, it’s not like he’s some holier-than-thou saint himself. In fact, Razorblade’s opponent came to Naz and asked for the shot, and if there’s one thing YOUR Real World’s Champ does, it’s look out for the everyone below him on the totem pole.
Naz gestured behind him to the entryway as “Aces High” by Iron Maiden came out. Super Avión came out and looked like he wanted to beeline to the ring, but Naz stood in front of him and talked to him; announce assumed it was his marching orders for the evening but seemed surprised a bit when Naz headed to the back and Avión took off running to the ring. Savage met him with rights, Avión responded in kind, and it was Donkey Kong on in the Arena.
| • Mason “Razorblade” Savage d. Super Avión in a Pick Your Poison match • | This was a rematch from three weeks prior where a pissed Savage piled on Avión and made him eat three Soul Crushers before pinning him when one would have done. It was why Avión was rushing the ring and probably motivated him to get the upper hand through the first third of the match. Announce speculated on whatever he & Naz said, with Starr pointing out that Naz might have told him to run if he got in trouble just to extend the amount of time he’d have to win PYP (depending on how the main event went). Avión went full throttle after Savage, going for repeated nearfalls and using his lucha libre to better effect than he had in their September match.
Ironically enough, it was that very same lucha libre that led to the beginning of the end for the luchadore – he went for a tope suicida on Razorblade to the outside only for Savage to catch him and deliver a massive overhead belly to belly suplex into the steel ramp. Seeing the success rate of that, once he’d recovered, Savage then replicated the overhead belly to belly with the positions 180ed: this time the overhead belly to belly sent Avión flying backfirst into the apron, and the yelp he let out upon contact officially signified that control of the match had shifted hands. Without the ability to fly at his best, Avión soon found himself in the same position he was in last month of playing catchup. Savage continued punishing Avión, who initially put up resistance before the #1 contender dropped the house on him and eventually took him out with the Soul Crusher a little bit after the 14 minute mark. Avión put up a better fight this time, but Razorblade’s a buzzsaw right now. ***
After being announced as the winner, Razorblade got the mic from Duck as Naz came out and Avión staggered to the back by the side of the stage. Savage was breathing a little heavily as you might expect, but said that he’d held up his end of the bargain no matter how hard he had to fight to do it. Naz came down to ringside as Razorblade noted it was funny that Naz said Avión practically volunteered to fight him, since when it came time for him to pick Naz’s opponent, this man…hell, this legend, volunteered for the match. And you don’t turn down first ballot Hall of Famers. Naz had gotten ready to get in Razorblade’s face and say something when his eyes narrowed, then when he went to speak he got cut off —
– by “Bombs Over Baghdad”.
| • | the main event | • |
Razorblade gave a mirthless grin and Naz hung his head before almost shaking it and chuckling in a “should’ve seen this coming” fashion, and maybe he should’ve.
Super Avión is a talented QCW roster member.
There might not be a QCW without Jupiter Jones, who strode out with the rest of the College Park Family ready to renew hostilities with the man who took the QCW Championship off of him last spring (feels like that happened in 1993). Razorblade left the ring as Naz turned towards the entryway, where Jupiter was telling Collipark that he had this on his own. The crowd roared as he came down to ringside, Naz angrily divesting himself of his belts before glaring up at where Jupiter was posing on the turnbuckles. el-Fadal went over to poke Jones in the chest, and promptly found himself slapped for his troubles. Naz slowly drew his head up, gave a couple of slow nods, then backhanded Jupiter across the face to the shock of everybody, you included. Jupiter took his own couple of beats to recover, then laughed and went forehead to forehead with Naz, both men talking smack, and the referee couldn’t call for the bell fast enough. In fact, a couple of seconds after it did, Jones let a Bolt From Olympus fly that Naz narrowly dodged, then Naz kitchen sinked him and hooked a leg looking for the WMDDT, but Jones slipped away from that and both men were more than happy to remind the other via fingertips just how close they’d come to getting got, Queue Cee Dub! chants reverberating in the Arena.
| • QCW World Champion “the One Man Jihad” Nazir el-Fadal tld. Jupiter Jones in a non-title Pick Your Poison match • |
Once the match had begun, a clock in the upper right corner of the QT3K counted down from 14:19 (Razorblade’s winning time). But Jupiter being his opponent clearly came as a surprise to Naz, who wasted valuable time early bailing out on a couple of occasions where Jones was getting the upper hand on him. Announce asked Savage for commentary, but he was intently peering into the ring for the whole match and ignored their questions. At one point el-Fadal had Jones up for the Hamrin Valley Driver, but Jones elbowed out then dusted off Naz with his own old(?) MDK elbow, but the discus forearm smash sent el-Fadal spilling to the outside. Naz recovered in the first half of the count and seemed to be heading towards grabbing his belt and calling it a night when he saw Razorblade sitting at the announce table and fumed, before rolling into the ring and right into a pop up Samoan drop that he was lucky to kick out of.
Jones went for another Bolt From Olympus to close a few beats later only for Naz to pull the referee in front of its path. Jones pulled up but Naz used that opening to bounce off the ropes then catch him with Sudden Death, his new Sling Blade Flatliner. Naz would try to follow up with the Outsider’s Edge only to have Jones wriggle free and counter out into a backslide for 2. el-Fadal came out of that and hit a snap Hamrin Valley Driver before hooking up Jones for the WMDDT; Jones would counter out into a small package that nearly secured him the W.
In the final moments Naz would hit the Outsider’s Edge and hook Jones for the WMDDT, except that this time not only would Jones knee his way out of the cyclone fisherman’s buster, he’d hit the Bolt From Olympus clean as well. el-Fadal blocked it with his jaw, then found himself falling between the middle and bottom ropes before sluicing all the way to the floor. The referee started a count and Jones squared up as Naz tried to get his bearings on the floor. By the time that happened, there were only five seconds left on the clock. Great TV match for what it was but it’s still a sister kisser. ***
The crowd deflated when Duck announced the time limit draw but got their spirits back up when he revealed that meant that Razorblade had won Pick Your Poison and would be picking the stipulation for the title fight at Mischief Night. Naz gathered up his titles like the miser he is while Razorblade grabbed the mic from Duck and reveled in being in the driver’s seat. What was he going to do to Naz in New Orleans? Maybe he’d disfigure him inside a cage - crowd loved that idea. Maybe this should be a Falls Count Anywhere match so he could throw Naz’s sorry ass in the Mississippi - crowd loved that even better. Of course, if everyone bleeds, then maybe a First Blood match would be the order of the day. Even off mic, Naz was close enough to him to be heard yelling at him to just tell him what it is. Razorblade looked over in Naz’s direction for the first time and offered up a small smile. “You want to know what it is, Naz? You want to know what it is?
Well, I’ll tell you…next week.”
Savage let out a manly cackle and walked to the back as Naz flipped out, demanding answers from the ref, the announce and Duck, but they all told him the same thing or something close: just because Razorblade won Pick Your Poison tonight doesn’t mean he’s gotta reveal the stip tonight. Naz stood fuming on the announce table with his belts in hand while Razorblade offered up a no-look middle finger before he parted the curtains to the approval of the Quality Controllers. Tune in next week to see what stip Razorblade chooses for Mischief Night!
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