s2e14 | 1 • 20 • '22
Live on GRPL+ from Quality Arena | Parts Unknown, FL
"QUEUE CEE DUB! QUEUE CEE DUB! QUEUE CEE DUB! QUEUE CEE DUB!"
LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS
Jacques Krieger kept his undefeated streak going with the second-fastest win in QCW history then revealed an open contract for anyone to fight him at Cold As Hell
The Revenant and Lucius Patton won their qualifying matches to fill out the six person ladder match for the vacant World TV title at Cold As Hell
Thanks to some accidental (?) help from Rich Ward, Razorblade beat Anton Stahl in last week’s main event with both the Consortium & Nazir el-Fadal looking on; post match proceedings saw a brawl between the IWC, Razorblade and the College Park Family take us off the air
The open rolled out, still being tweaked with week after week at this point (appropriately enough, there are now two shots of Krieger: one getting his hand raised and the other being him walking to the back) before we jumped into the Arena for the last Ruckus before Cold As Hell Sunday night on PPV out in Hollywood.
Purple, gold and red pyro exploded before we saw all the screaming Quality Controllers and Steve & S. welcomed us to what was sure to be an action-packed episode of Ruckus, especially with a massive eight person intergender tag main eventing the show. And they promised us that we would run down everything coming from the Hollywood Palladium Sunday night on PPV, but first: not only was Ruckus starting with a fight, it was going to start with a title fight!
| • the Women's World Championship match between Lolo Vuitton and Autumn Powers was ruled a no contest • | …well, they tried.
OnlyFitness came out first, Starr of course pointing out that the champ gets prerogative over when they come out; Lolo obviously wanted to kick off the show with all eyes on her and maybe sell a few more subscriptions in the process. Good idea, but who had a better one was Autumn Powers, who actually jumped Lolo from behind and sparked a mad brawl. Autumn was essentially fighting 3 on 1 for a bit but managed to send Karyn into Scott then drop Scott; this gave Lolo an opportunity to get Autumn from behind, and the fight continued on.
Even after the referee called it off and Duck made the announcement, Powers & Vuitton’s brawl continued, the crowd booing even louder when the security force formerly known as Team Teal came out in purple shirts with gold accents on the sleeve and started trying to separate the champ & her crew from a pissed off former champion before taking everybody involved to the back. The announce wondered/hoped that we would be able to get the match tonight before the show was over, and killed some time by talking up the half year history between Lolo & Autumn before Steve started getting word in his ear. Starr said that he might actually be interested in what Steve had to say for once, but Steve went over to Duck, who took in the information and hit the ring.
Starr couldn’t even get the question off before Duck voiced an apology on behalf of the Commissioner’s Office that they couldn’t get things underway tonight as planned, but since QCW is nothing without quality the fans were going to get what they paid for with their tickets; this following contest had been previously scheduled to be a dark match, but while they were getting things settled backstage here in the squared circle the following contest was scheduled for ONE FALL! with a fifteen minute time limit.
| • A World Of Pain d. Los Nuevos Caballeros • | Sometimes speed beats power, but this was not one of those times. The Caballeros took a beating early and managed to rally the faithful with a comeback, but it was all too truncated for the luchadores. Once Danny Castle and his THE END IS COMING sign passed through in the background, AWOP threw their weight around literally down the stretch, first wiping out Blanco on the outside and throwing him into the barrier, then taking down Verde in the ring with a two man alley oop rack bomb. ** The crowd booed the win while the monsters smirked and flexed; the referee checked on the fallen luchadores.
From there we went TOTHEBACK~! where Enya Face brought on the Game Changers and the College Park Family ahead of their main event teaming tonight. Their assemblage got a good pop from the Quality Controllers as both sets of former tag champions flanked Enya, who asked them what the game plan was going into tonight especially after the wild brawl that took Ruckus off the air last week.
To the shock of many Lucius Patton spoke first, saying that while he should be focused on Sunday night, he wants to get his hands on Pyotr in the match tonight. He couldn’t beat him because he can’t beat him, and he’ll teach that overfed Russian what a Bass Drop from the A feels like tonight if he’s lucky. Ashley Szabo then Al Buffett noted that they were in good spirits because they had just come back from Commissioner Holmes’ office and gotten it made official: come Sunday at Cold As Hell, the Game Changers would get their titles rematch and would make even more history as not just the first-ever Unified World Tag team champions but the first squad ever to two-time at it. Avi贸n is way better at running his mouth than the ropes and Naz is beyond checked out. Season’s Beatings was bad luck, but after Sunday the universe will go back to unfolding like it should. Jupiter Jones closed the promo, hyping up his teammates before saying that he didn’t care that both the Insurgency and the Consortium were having their little problems, because he had the answer for all of it – a Bolt From Olympus upside the jaw to shut up anyone that got in his way, whether it be the IWC or the champs tonight…or even Mason Savage Sunday (the audience had the 90’s Fox crowd reaction to that you might expect). Jupiter is on the roll of his life, and he wants to continue that tonight with his boy Lu and the Changers. And the next stop after that is the World title. Jupiter then his teammates exchanged pleasantries with Enya, who put a button on things before throwing it to Duck in the ring to introduce the next fight…
| • Atum Pharaoh d. "Great American" Bobby Bash (w/the Red, White and True) • | HOSS FIIIIIIIIGHT!
Well…maybe more of a hoss brouhaha, but you get the point, you got Godzilla vs. Mothra at home. Spirited sprint that had the Quality Controllers oohing and aahing whenever one land monster could get the other one off of their feet. Pharoah even landed a top rope flying shoulderblock that had the announce reeling and almost got him a win.
That caused the predictable to happen with the rest of the Red, White and True getting involved to interfere on behalf of their boy, but then something unpredictable happened: Katsuji Ootsuka, having gotten stomped out by the cosplaytriots last week made a beeline to the ring and started throwing shots at "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland but saved the most furious shots for the man that beat him for the World TV title last year in Drake Tremble. All that going on outside the ring wobbled Bobby's focus in it, and he walked into a big Iron Claw slam at Pharaoh's hand. The crowd gave Atum's first victory in QCW a good pop. **
After replays, Pharoah had the reaction to his first win you might expect. Tremble gathered his flock and was yelling at Pharaoh from the floor when all of a sudden they got wiped out by a Ootsuka sized bullet train of a tope; the crowd popped and Pharoah cheered as Katsuji made his way to Duck and asked for the mic. Ootsuka first made sure Atum got another pop for his first win before focusing on Tremble and his goons, and if Tremble thought this was over when he stole the TV title off of him, he was wrong. Because Katsuji was going to end it Sunday, and maybe if he was real lucky he'd get to shove a red hat right up his narrow ass. The crowd popped huge for the usually silent good guy Katsuji popping off with a swear, and he stood on the steps firing up the fan base even further while a scowling Tremble made his way to the back heading into some commercials.
Back from the break and we got a video package of Krieger’s winning streak to date in QCW, him absolutely wiping people off the map: winning not just in under a minute, but under a half minute – in under twenty seconds – and last week, dusting Atum in a fun coincidence in a mere 7 seconds. There’s an open contract to face him at Cold As Hell and that is a PPV payday…but who, if anybody, has got an answer for
K R I E G E R
| • "Dashing" Pierce Moore d. "The Proper King" Richard Windsor (w/"the Fury" Jim Jaspers) • | Moore spent most of this match in reverse; he couldn’t outpower the King and he damn sure couldn’t keep up with him on the mat. So what could Moore do?
Stall.
Bail out of the ring.
Duck between the ropes.
The most basic garden variety chickenshit shit you coud imagine, but it had the desired effect of winding up Windsor and helping Moore get an advantage. He couldn’t maintain it, however, and pretty soon Windsor was back to teaching a mat clinic where he could wipe the mat with his opponent’s face. Jim Jaspers got a cocky strut going outside of the ring, even mouthing off to commentary a couple of times loud enough without being micced that 2023 was going to be the Year of Proper Villanry come QCW’s way. Windsor put Moore in a couple of holds that made him scream but he didn’t tap, then Windsor went for the Lion Lock –
– and Moore struggled, flailed, then suddenly leapt off the second rope with a sloppy but effective Fresh to Death that stunned the crowd, the announce, and hell, maybe even Moore himself. The Best Dressed Man In QCW slowly crawled for a cover, then hooked the leg and got the win despite eating 90% of the match. ***
Moore crawled out of the ring seeing Jaspers come into it to check on his partner, but Moore slowly got his bearings about him and was in full swarm heading to the back after making the referee raise his hand. We went from seeing this live in the Arena to on a monitor backstage…one being watched without much aloha by “Tiki God” Al Buffett, and Moore should probably count himself lucky that Al has some big main event level fish to fry instead of uglying him up like he would probably prefer to do at this point.
Black and white static interrupted Al’s watch, then got some bass behind it and hit the screen twice before there was temporary darkness. A massive white light enveloped the screen and once it died off there stood Einherjar and the Revenant of the Immortals standing side by side as the fans roared in the Arena watching their taped message. The Revenant’s low, raspy chuckle could be heard as Einherjar said Sunday would be a battle with so many other bodies to pillage, but ever since they have come to QCW no one has had an answer for the Immortals and Cold As Hell might as well refer to everyone else’s chances. They thrive in battle, and no one will be safe from their might in the ladder match. For the television championship they will go to war, leave red ruin in their wake – then the Revenant leaned over the camera and said in a gravelly voice that whether it be he or his partner, the World TV title was going to be a fine addition to the trophy case of the Immortals. His red right hand slowly engulfed the lens until everything was red, and the crowd cheered and fired up some “IM MOR TALS!” chants.
From there, Duck announced (again) that the following match was scheduled for one fall, with a sixty minute time limit and was for the QCW Women's World Championship…
| • the Women's World Championship match between Lolo Vuitton and Autumn Powers was once again ruled a no contest • | …OOFTA.
Remember, we were going to kick the show off with this fight but it didn't happen because Autumn jumped Lolo from behind before things could have gotten underway. This time, we tried something different and Autumn came out first - that meant that this time OnlyFitness jumped her from behind when she came out and the brawl was back on in earnest.
The crowd started booing as OnlyFitness started whaling on Autumn but the former QCW Women's World Champion started fighting back, then started sending them reeling. It turned out Autumn had grabbed a spotlight that illuminates ringside and the ramp then started swinging for the faces - fences - well, both. Karyn shoved Lolo out of the way and took a shot, but Autumn kept coming and dropped Lolo then hauled off and kicked a 63 yard field goal with Scott's balls while the crowd popped. The purple shirts started coming out but it was too late for Scott, who ate a Hazy Shade of Autumn and went flying into the steps and crumpled.
Referees followed Team Purp (we'll work on the name) out and separated Lolo from Autumn with the voice of Commissioner Holmes beating him out to the ramp saying that it was not going down like this on Ruckus tonight. This is such a PPV worthy fight he went against his instincts and put it on tonight, but now – twice now! – they can't even get in the ring without all this chaos and destruction? Hey, he's a wrestling promoter: this works for him if he can make money off of it, especially given the fact G+ puts their faith in QCW every Friday night just like these fans do. So here's what's going to happen.
They're going to the back, SEPARATELY, and Ruckus will put on some fine tag team action for you. Once that match ends we're going to try Autumn v. Lolo one more time…with extreme rules.
The crowd popped big for that but Holmes talked through it, warning both Powers and Vuitton he suspected that they'd be fine with the new stipulation but that if they threw hands in the next half hour before a bell could officially ring for that extreme rules match, then the whole thing was off. So did they have a deal?
Lolo looked chippy, almost frothing, but she took the deal. Autumn looked ready and furious, but she took the deal. Holmes announced the match while the crowd and the announce freaked out, they threw us to some commercials and the last thing you heard before break was Lolo asking where Scott was.
During the Break, referees and purple shirts put Lolo and Autumn in separate locker rooms with a couple of purple shirts outside both doors; in addition to that, Scott Warren-Tisch ended up getting stretchered out and we got a couple of replays of him flying into the steps off of eating the Hazy Shade. He looked to be knocked out but that's just a guess. Either way, Karyn Tisch-Warren climbed into the ambulance that took her husband out of the Arena and the announce hoped that they would be able to give us an update on his condition before the show ended.
After that, the show settled down a bit and we got the previously promised tag team division action…
| • the Hard Way d. Fated To Become Champions (w/Toddzilla) • | the Hard Way came out looking even more focused and grim than usual, and as they came out to the ring GRPL+ Would Like To Remind You That Two Weeks Ago they dropped a tight one to the Insurgency and failed trying to get the Unified World Tag Team championships.
Fortunately for the former champs, if they weren't shrugging off the loss they didn't let it interfere with them handling business against Roberto VillaLobos and El Gato Negro (who seem sort of adrift without their familiars). Fifita and Goodish put on a showcase of why you can't write them out of the tag titles picture even if they have to fight their way back into a titles shot and put away VillaLobos with Down to Earth. **
The Hard Way took the victory in stride and headed silently up the ramp; with no more excitement happening in the ring we headed TOTHEBACK~! where Julius Duquesne III welcomed his guests at this time - the entire International Workrate Consortium and the Unified World Tag Team champions the Insurgency.
The Consortium came on screen to jeers, JD3 receding a bit into the background to allow all five of them room. Jason the Terrible took over the promo and bragged about their impending victory in the main event, saying that with Serge and Pyotr involved that the Consortium's best two man team would be securing victory and showing the Insurgency what real tag champs are made of. (Anton raised his eyebrow at what Jason said, but that's been known to happen before.)
Right on cue, Super Avi贸n swaggered into the scene in a spiritual cousin of how he does it on the open. Avi贸n laughed, saying that the only undefeated tag team in QCW history wasn't going to listen to a bunch of Eurotrash when he was one half of the premier tag team in the world…at which point "the Wonderful" Rich Ward surprisingly spoke up, saying how could they trust a team with Nazir el-Fadal on it? Avi贸n started to defend his partner, only for Naz himself to get in Rich's face and give him a once over before sniffing and spitting on the ground in front of him. Naz walked off the set while Avi贸n let out a quick cackle and said to Serge that maybe they didn't need to worry about the only Grand Slam winner in QCW history…maybe they needed to handle their Wonderful problem first.
Avi贸n twisted the knife on the way out, mentioning to Anton that back when he was running things the Consortium was a well-oiled machine, and now….tsk! Avi贸n followed Naz out of the room and maybe more importantly out of the reach of the Consortium, who were as offended as you might expect. Even Anton.
Well…anyways, with chaos raining salt in the IWC locker room a slightly frazzled JD3 threw to Duck in the ring.
Duck also looked a little frazzled, but maybe because the rest of the night was going to involve a street fight and a match with Naz in it for him.
| • Lolo Vuitton [c] d. Autumn Powers to retain the QCW Women's World Championship in an extreme rules match • | After a couple of teases early in the show, we finally got to the fireworks factory once this fight actually happened. Even with the violent surprise ending, I hope that this doesn’t get forgotten over the next 11 months when we start talking about MOTY candidates (though it inevitably will).
Both women appeared to be seething when they came out, and the announce noted on Lolo’s way in that she was without the rest of OnlyFitness after Autumn took out Scott in the second brawl and Karyn went with him to the hospital.
The bell had barely rung before a hockey fight broke out, much to the delight of the Quality Controllers in the Arena and Starr at the desk. Powers & Vuitton slugged away on each other with punches until they had knocked the other to their knees…at which point slaps started being exchanged, followed by harder slaps while they were both getting vertical again, followed by another hockey fight to an even bigger pop.
The hatred in this long standing rivalry shone through for the better part of half an hour as both women used the new stipulation of extreme to their advantage. They brawled up the steps in the Arena and a particularly vicious Autumn tackle of Lolo sent both of them careening down over a dozen of them while the fans tried not to get knocked over like bowling pins as a result of the brawl. Lolo would get her revenge when she ducked a Hazy Shade attempt and shoved Powers into the post to draw color then put her and them both through the ringside barrier with a big spear that seemed to have Autumn’s number before she kicked out at 2 ¾.
The fight continued around ringside, with Vuitton again dodging a Hazy Shade and backdropping Autumn through the announce table to “Holy shit!” chants and Starr’s hilariously high pitched squealing over his suit possibly being ruined. Lolo got in the referee’s face about the count, but when she tried to gather Autumn up it was her face that got uppercutted by a monitor from the announce table by the former champion, and Vuitton went down in sections.
Off of the monitor shot, Powers almost stumbled over the wreckage of the table before she used some help from the barrier behind her to pull herself upright, then in bits and pieces she started to mount a comeback while the crowd chanted for her. Powers left the monitor behind at that point and started upping the ante with garbage cans, chairs, and even an OnlyFitness hydroflask that she found under the ring hunting for plunder and used it to beat Lolo until she was also busted open.
Lolo must have sensed that the match was slipping away from her – at one point she pulled the referee in front of her as a shield to try and use him as a distraction to set up a cheap shot, but Powers not only dodged the startled referee but hit a bicycle knee strike in response that came within a whisper of getting her back her championship. Powers wrapped the trash can around Lolos head and then pummeled it with a chair until it was unrecognizable and went for another cover, only for Vuitton to survive that as well.
A couple more minutes of a Powers beatdown and it sure looked like Lolo’s second reign as champion was going to come to a brutal end especially after Powers lashed out with a chop block to counter a desperation Bloody Shoe.
Autumn laid out Lolo, then revved up the faithful before she wiped out the champion with the Hazy Shade of Autumn.
That should have ended things, but someone felt differently about that: Karyn Tisch-Warren, who came in from out of nowhere and dove on Autumn at 2 ⅞ to save her bestie’s belt. The crowd booed this while Starr pointed out they could get as mad as they wanted to, this was all legal when it came to extreme rules. Steve wondered what she was doing back, then noticed what was now causing Autumn to bleed from the back of the head – the same thing that had broken up the pinfall, as replays would show – Karyn diving onto Autumn, yes, but swinging her old Crush championship as she did so. Karyn seemed torn between checking on Lolo and doing more damage to Autumn, but a .6 Muta scaled Powers was getting to her feet faster than the champion.
Karyn tried to help Lolo up as much as she could, but she eventually opted to drop her so she could waffle Autumn over the head with the belt again - then she dragged Lolo on top of Autumn and demanded the referee count.
The roof nearly came up off the Arena when Powers survived that at 2.9. Karyn started yelling at the referee, demanding a faster count. Undeterred, Karyn helped Lolo up and started working out a plan, only for a bloody Autumn to throw her body at them both and start throwing hands against anyone against her. Powers got them both reeling, but then missed two attempts and both women waffled Autumn with a belt sandwich. Powers went down in a heap, and Lolo covered Autumn.
ANOTHER KICKOUT!
The roar through the Arena might have made the camera shake, but a now less loopy Vuitton started bossing around Karyn and then they made sure they had Autumn dead to rights in the middle of the ring. Once they did, Karyn did her part and Lolo did hers; OnlyFitness drilled Autumn Powers with a textbook Only Finished This and they both covered Autumn after hitting their finisher this time.
Autumn’s response to this was to somehow get a shoulder up at 2.99946.
Lolo screamed for a solid 10 seconds after, the announce being forced to lay out due to the “LET’S GO AUTUMN!” chants. But one person who wasn’t chanting was Karyn Tisch-Warren, who after complaining about the count again rolled out of the ring and got something from underneath it. When she brought the satchel into the ring and undid it before spilling a couple hundred thumbtacks on the canvas, the people who weren’t standing before got to their feet in a hurry.
Autumn threw some shots, and rattled Karyn, and rattled Lolo, but then Karyn absolutely walloped her with a chair shot before gathering up her limp body in another full nelson. Lolo and Karyn locked eyes with each other, and Lolo even gave Karyn a bloody smooch on the forehead before they drove Powers into the thumbtacks with a second Only Finished This, and even after that was accomplished Karyn got on top of Lolo during the pin (no doubt launching another thousand fanfics in the process) and this time, Autumn was fresh out of miracle kickouts. ****
Replays of all the big moments showed for us watching at home, then we went back to the ring where OnlyFitness was staggering to the back, arm in arm both with belts in hand. They took a moment at the top of the ramp to turn around and taunt the crowd, Lolo defiantly yelling about having proven herself the best female fighter that QCW had to offer while Karyn massaged her back with her free hand.
They went to the back…but in the ring, Autumn was still down.
Purple shirts and the medical staff came out, and while Autumn’s lips were moving the rest of her was not. After a few beats, Autumn slowly rolled to her side and started to try to stand up, only to fall to her knees and back down to her side, and that seemed to quicken the medical staff, who got Autumn onto a stretcher despite her feeble protests. A couple of shots to the crowd saw people concerned or outright crying, while Steve put over her ferocious effort even in a losing cause. Even Starr had to give begrudging props as the Quality Controllers began an ovation and some “Thank you, Autumn!” chants as the former champion got carted out of the Arena.
The announce was understandably concerned for Autumn as the EMTs took her to the back, with Starr also noting that the real winners of that one were all of Lolo’s ladder match opponents - she’s a proud champion who did what she had to do to retain the belt but there’s no way in hell she’ll be at 100% come –
– Starr was cut off by a beautiful voice, slightly accented, and as the woman revealed herself coming out it turned out to be “Bollywood Diva” Sohla Patel, who sent her thoughts and prayers Autumn’s way very quickly before revealing why she was here. Firstly, she was disappointed to not receive a standing ovation; surely this nondescript small Florida town is no better than Cannes. BUT! When she makes her glorious return to combat sports on Sunday she will once again light up their screens as she’s lit up movie set after movie premiere after awards ceremony. So start getting to work on the standing ovations, yes? Yes. Details to come, dahlings; ciao for now!
The crowd murmured disapproval as Patel left, with the announce using that as a fulcrum to hype Cold As Hell - Patel will be making her return to QCW on the preshow and it won’t be easy against former Unified World Tag Team champion Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo. And the Hard Way will be facing off against the Wonderful Ward Brothers, no doubt Serge dishing out more punishment to Rich.
But the main card is where the tastiest cream is going to be on Sunday night, and we ran through that while Cold As Hell’s theme (Metallica’s Trapped Under Ice) played in the background…
❄️ Who, if anyone, is going to take Jacques Krieger up on his open contract? ❄️
❄️ The revenge minded Katsuji Ootsuka looks to even the odds when he faces Drake Tremble, the leader of the Red, White & True ❄️
❄️ This might end up stealing the show: it’s the Insurgency against Dark Mirror & the Tiki God in the rematch for the Unified World Tag Team titles; can whatever weirdness going on with the champs somehow lead them to another win or will the former champs get their belts back? ❄️
❄️ For the first time ever in QCW history, there will be a six person ladder match and the winner will become the new World TV champion. Both Einherjar & the Revenant of the Immortals are in, former two-time TV champ “These Hands” Roy Fade has to be considered a favorite, Lucius Patton is another upset away from the first singles gold of his career, Anton Stahl has caught fire and Lolo Vuitton, assuming she can get medically cleared after that brutal street fight where she retained her championship.
And not only that, but thanks to the fine folks at GRPL+, there will be a newwwww title belt to be unveiled by the Commissioner at the PPV. It’s Einherjar v. Fade v. Patton v. the Rev v. Stahl v. World Women’s Champion Lolo Vuitton for the GRPL+ World Television Championship at Cold As Hell ❄️
❄️ And the main event is a dream match in the making with the Thirteen Pounds of Gold on the line.
Jupiter Jones is the first officially recognized Triple Crown winner in QCW history. He’ll have his own wing in the Hall of Fame whenever he decides to hang it up, and he’s caught a career renaissance that included a lengthy World TV title reign at the end of last year.
Mason Savage is the Razorblade. One of only two men to ever be a two-time QCW World Champion. He fought his way through the streets of Chicago and over the past couple of years has established himself as one of the best and most beloved fighters in QCW history and spent part of last year holding both the World & World TV titles.
But Sunday is different. Sunday is Jupiter v. Razorblade for the belt and may the best man win. ❄️
There’s just one more thing that has to happen first, and “Unscripted Violence” over the PA meant that we were about to kick off our last main event before Cold As Hell.
| • | • the main event • | • |
Out in civvies (that look pretty much like his ring gear), Mason Savage came out with Lucky 13 in tow and about blew the roof off of the dump, but he was out for the third chair at the announce desk. As he shook hands with Steve and he and Starr exchanged nods, Muse’s “New Born” hit the system and brought out the Game Changers to another big pop. As QCW’s most beloved troika made their way down to the ring, announce hyped their PPV fights before “B.O.B.” replaced Muse and the good times kept rolling with the arrival of the College Park Family. Razorblade barely had time to mention that everybody on the team was going to be fighting for a title Sunday before Jupiter Jones made his way over to the table. Razorblade looked a little curious, but Jones shook his hand and they exchanged some playful banter about Sunday before Jones took his place in the ring with his teammates to await the arrivals of their opponents.
First up and out, Rammstein’s “Engel” and the International Workrate Consortium. While Serge & Pyotr were clearly focused on the ring, Anton Stahl was talking them up all the way down the ramp with the Wonderful Ward Brothers a couple steps behind him bickering per usual. Anton and Razorblade exchanged glares with Razorblade saying to the home viewers that if Anton came over this way it’d be two weeks in a row for The Champ to drop him on his ass. Steve had to stifle a laugh and did so just before “Oh No’ brought out the reigning Unified World Tag Team champions the Insurgency. A cut to Razorblade saw a hard face get even harder as Super Avi贸n came out vibing to Mos Def, Nate Dogg and Pharoahe while Nazir el-Fadal actually blew by him…and ignored everything happening in the ring, threw his half of the titles in Duck’s direction then stared down Razorblade, who stood up and held the title overhead while Naz gazed at it then went back to staring down Mason Savage while the announce was understandably uneasy over QCW’s two brightest lights on the brink of another fisticuff-filed chapter of their rivalry. Razorblade started barking at Naz, who just shook his head almost sadly.
| • the College Park Family (w/Benjamin Valentino & Science Fiction Double Feature) and the Game Changers (Tiki Influence w/Beckett Carpenter) d. QCW Unified World Tag Team champions the Insurgency and the International Workrate Consortium (Tracksuit Assassins w/Anton Stahl and the Wonderful Ward Brothers) • | All the weirdness both parts of the black hatted side brought into this match didn’t get solved in this borderline instant classic and, if possible, things got worse for both sets of teams.
The Game Changers & Collipark had no qualms about rushing their adversaries at the bell, which made it a 4 on 3 for the good folks since Naz was still in full staredown mode with The Champ.
You could easily make the case that while the semi-main showed off a better fight, we got a better match here even with the weird pseudo handicap stipulation that Naz’s laser focus on Razorblade turned things into. Things started off hot with Jupiter insisting on starting the match for his squad, so since it made Serge Batroc feel some kind of way about it the reigning Duquesne Cup holder started things off for the black hats.
The opening few minutes saw he and Jones go pretty much hold for hold on the mat to Batroc’s surprise and the crowd’s cheers; some of the fellow nerds in the Arena got an audible “This is wrestling” chant going down the stretch there. With a stalemate on the board, Serge took Caviar’s barking in Russian as a positive sign and tagged out; Pyotr tagging in gave Jupiter a decision to make as both Lucius Patton & Al Buffett wanted to get their chance at the Tracksuit Tsar. Jones thought about it then tagged in his usual partner, who immediately went after Caviar with both barrels. Caviar didn’t back up but he didn’t have an answer for it, and Patton continued to bring the fight to Caviar for the next stretch of the match.
Caviar slowly started to get an upper hand on Sweet Lu and eventually bisected him with a running crossbody and went for the cover…but it got broken up at 2 by a top rope flying double stomp delivered with much aloha by Al Buffett, who had blind tagged in to the fight right before Lu took one for the team.
Caviar went from throwing hands against Patton to being in a borderline hoss fight with Buffett, who also didn’t show any back steps in facing off against the Russian land monster. Caviar missed with a Russian sickle at one point only to blindside Al with a blindsiding one from the other side of the plate but Szabo & College Park saved the match at two and a half - then a n o t h e r Pier 7 broke out to the joy of the crowd. Things settled down a couple minutes afterwards, but none of the white hats noticed Avi贸n make a blind tag to insert himself in the match. Buffett went back to work on Caviar only to get cut off by a picturesque springboard missile dropkick that sent the Tiki God flying through the air. Buffett was fortunate to fly towards his corner, and Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo was there to save her friend and tag in.
Szabo started handing Avi贸n his lunch and started rolling exactly when Anton Stahl looked to slide into the ring and protest the match. This was a ruse, but it had the desired effect when Caviar ran into the ring and almost wiped Ashley off the mat with a Russian sickle before dragging Avi贸n to their corner. Serge tagged himself in and THEE Influencer started getting worked over (mostly by the Consortium though Avi贸n got in a couple of cheap shots from the apron and briefly tagged in to hit a couple moves Ashley kicked out of).
The majority of the match played out with similar through lines; the bad guys could get momentum in their borderline handicap match but couldn’t keep it. Serge, Pyotr and Avi贸n at different points found themselves calling out for Naz’s help, but his eyes remained focused on The Champ so long that Razorblade actually started trying to goad Naz into fighting him, which somehow Naz found hilarious before turning his back on Razorblade with his arms outstretched to offer him a freebie cheapshot.
This put Naz facing the ring, and everyone on his side immediately started getting in his face about it. In the ring, Pyotr Caviar managed to reverse a double suplex attempt from the Changers and suplexed both halves of TikInfluence…but when he went to tag out, Serge & Avi贸n were on the floor yelling at Naz, who in short order turned his back on them all and went back to staring down Mason Savage.
Not like the Razorblade flinched.
He & Naz stared each other down awhile longer before Naz got up on the apron and nudged the tag rope with his arm. When Pyotr tagged Naz in, Naz vaulted over the top rope – and immediately tagged out to Avi贸n before going back in a staredown with Razorblade, who stood back up at the announce table.
Worst for Avi贸n, he was now across the ring from a tagged in and fresh Jupiter Jones, who immediately started running roughshod over the opposition. Avi贸n gave him a couple of nice maneuvers and got in a pair of nearfalls thanks to some shady tactics, but with the IWC focused on Naz’s lack of focus, Jones was able to pick off an aerial attempt with a textbook Bolt From Olympus that knocked the mask and the man inside it sideways to give him a crucial win heading into the main event of Sunday night with the Thirteen Pounds of Gold on the line. *** 1/2
To the shock of no one ever (not even the announce), the match ending just meant there was a loud noise between fights. The Consortium went after Naz remembering last summer, and Avi贸n to his credit stepped up where his partner didn’t, and started throwing some shots of his own at the IWC only for the Game Changers and Lucius Patton to all go on the dive train and wipe out every black hat on the outside of the ring to the roars of all the fans in the Arena.
Razorblade looked all around at the carnage before he entered the ring to face the last man standing – and would you look at that, it’s Jupiter Jones. Savage and Jones exchanged some tofu instead of beef, both smiling and laughing occasionally; it’s just that the thing Mason’s holding overhead as we go to black is the same thing Jupiter is gesturing to put around his waist. Friendship or not, it’s a dream match: Razorblade/Jupiter for QCW’s most prized possession on Sunday from the Hollywood Palladium, so you better make sure you pay for the per view!
