Instead of the usual open, we got a recap package for Cold As Hell. After some shots of Hollywood, its Palladium and screaming QCW fans we heard Steve welcome us to Cold As Hell and saw stills of "Bollywood Diva" Sohla Patel and the Hard Way win their matches during the preshow.
Then we moved into some video highlights of what happened on the main card, including:
Jacques Krieger beating both members of A World Of Pain in less than 40 seconds combined
Katsuji Ootsuka flying off with the Magical Sky to shut up Drake Tremble
"Dashing" Pierce Moore unveiling a Usain Bolt impersonation rather than continuing to fight Autumn Powers
Miscommunication between the Insurgency helping the Game Changers regain the Unified World Tag Team championships back; Nazir el-Fadal turning on Super Avión post match and the luchador getting stretchered out while a seething Naz skulked to the back
Absolute chaos and carnage as expected in the six way ladder match for the GRPL+ World Television title - high spots left and right, blood and broken things - the Revenant fighting off both "These Hands" Roy Fade and Einherjar to get his first taste of QCW singles gold, Starr saying the countdown was on and it was only a matter of time until he had the World title
Razorblade and Jupiter shaking hands after the bell, the 13 Pounds of Gold in the air - crowd loving both competitors and the action - Jupiter getting the upper hand with Savage barely kicking out and vice versa - Jones landing the Bolt From Olympus but Razorblade falling between the ropes to the floor - Savage kicking out - coming back - and ending things with the Soul Crusher.
Jones looked crestfallen and Savage exhausted, but after a couple of beats a clearly saddened Jones raised Savage's hand and pointed to him, the two men again shaking hands and exchanging kind words, Jones leaving the ring with one last look back at Savage, holding up the World title while the fans chanted for him
Then they rolled out the open, now with a little more Krieger, Autumn and Katsuji before wrapping up with the champions: the Game Changers, the Rev, Lolo and ultimately the Razorblade.
Back in the Arena where there's pyro to set off and fans to make scream; Steve and Starr welcomed us to the Quality Arena and hyped up the Rev v. Tremble with the GRPL+ World Television title on the line, but first was going to be QCW's hottest newcomer.
Set your clock apps.
| • Jacques Krieger d. Roberto VillaLobos • | And a Roll of the Dice and 18 seconds, there went TAFKA Gran Atomico. DUD Duck doesn't even bother announcing time limits for One Eye matches. As Krieger headed to the back through the crowd cheers the announce speculated that Krieger was well on his way to title contention and Steve laughingly wondered if he was looking at the first wrestler in his time at QCW that could win a title in under a minute.
The tenor changed as Steve then focused on some injuries to roster members suffered at Cold As Hell, two of which happened as a result of the batshirt six way ladder match for the TV title – Einherjar suffered a broken right ring finger, and even worse for "These Hands" Roy Fade. The Revenant's Red Right Hand from the ladder probably separated his shoulder and he's looking at 3 to 5 weeks before a return.
Worst off is Super Avión, who got dumped on his head with a vicious Saito suplex and thrown into the ring post after that Naz went Naz; since he is still unable to pass the concussion protocol, there is currently no timetable for his return. Steve threw things to Duck for the next match.
| • Autumn Powers d. Robert E. Moonshine • | Moonshine is a third generation Tennessee wrestler with QCW roots (Pyotr Caviar and Jupiter Jones also are 3rd generationers with similar pedigrees). But in Parts Unknown right now, Moonshine is just some geek and Autumn Powers is Autumn Powers - the two time former Women's World Champion took a few shots but had heavier artillery of her own with the Hazy Shade putting a button on things. ** Powers helped Moonshine up post match and they shook hands before R.E. ceded the ring to Autumn, who bathed in the crowd cheering and chanting her name before we went to break.
Back from the break and we saw the previously online exclusive footage of the College Park Family after Cold As Hell and kids, it was g r i m – SciFi Double Feature looked down in the dumps, Benjamin Valentino seemed to just be walking around aimlessly in the background mumbling to himself.
Even worse, Lucius Patton looked like he might have shed some pretape tears.
Even worse than that, when a clearly crestfallen Julius Duquesne III asked Jupiter Jones about the evening?
Jupiter sounded defeated, and spoke in a low tone. He said they had such high hopes for the evening; yeah, it would have been hard, but Lu had his shot for the TV title and obviously he was trying to turn back the hands of time and picked the wrong Razorblade to try that against. Lost. For the first time in a long time, he feels lost, and maybe he's dragging down the Family as well. So when you're lost, you go home. They're going to go home, all the way to the stoop and figure it out. Because this can't be the last memory QCW fans have of College Park. It just can't. JD3 actually gestured to the camera person to kill the shoot, which happened in short order. Well, that sucked! How about matches instead? Matches can't break your heart, right?
| • Atum Pharaoh d. Toddzilla • | HOSS SKIRMISH!
Finally off the schneid thanks to a little help from Katsuji Ootsuka last week, Atum didn't need any help this week in beating longtime bully Toddzilla; the power man from just shy of the Nile dropped Todd with a top rope flying shoulderblock before putting him away with an Iron Claw slam. * ½ Atum gave some waves and fist pounds on his way to the back while the announce put over his first QCW wins happening twice in a week and wondered if he'd finally cracked the code for QCW success.
While they did that, Danny Castle (who'd been walking around holding an THE END COMES SOON sign in the background since probably the beginning of the show) got hemmed up by the Quality Control purple shirts and led away. It looked like Martin Williams was trying to intervene on his behalf but something Castle said to him before he got led away clearly rattled the Brit.
We got the latest vignette for "Night Sky" Diana Spare, saying that what she used to do to the Women's division was called forbidden so she became a cauldron of chaos before watching from the shadows (we got previously unseen footage of her in the rafters watching the street fight last week as well as her scoffing at "Bollywood Diva" Sohla Patel's post-victory preening Sunday night). But the time for receding into the darkness is no longer - starting next week (!), QCW would belong to the night.
| • Karyn Tisch-Warren (w/OnlyFitness) ds. Winter Wonderland • | As Winter came out GRPL+ Reminded Us That Two Weeks Ago OnlyFitness beat Autumn and Winter in a tag fight a couple of weeks ago, which had WW out for revenge here…unfortunately, she wasn't able to get it. Lolo Vuitton and Scott the Simp lurked around ringside, Scott weirdly toting the Crush championship during the match while he slinked around ringside. But in a change of pace Karyn didn't need them and dominated the match with a flurry of back breakers to set up her Circuit Breaker (a high elevation Texas Cloverleaf with her knee in the victim's back) that Winter had to tap out to. ** ½
Officials came and helped Winter to the back while both Lolo and Karyn preened with their titles in the ring. Entirely possible Lolo was throwing Karyn some side eye; entirely possible she didn't and I just saw that because it's what I'm rooting for.
[As the opening of Muse’s “New Born” rings throughout the arena, the crowd welcomes the conquering Game Changers. "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter carries a tag belt over each shoulder, flanked on either side by "Tiki God" Al Buffett and Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo. Tiki & Ashley held the ropes open for Carpenter, and Carpenter looked at the titles and paused before handing each of them a tag belt. They (Carpenter) grabbed the mike, and took a deep breath before they addressed the Quality Controllers.]
“Game boys, gamer girls, and every game piece in between, I promised we would never lie to any of you, and we never did. I promised you that we would hold gold in 2022, and we did. I promised you we would challenge the gender binary, and we unified the mens and women’s tag team titles. I promised you that we would get our damn belts back, and…”
(The crowd popped as Tiki & Ashley held the tag belts aloft while Steve put them over as the first two time Unified World Tag Team champions.)
“I also promised myself that I would brush a Naz-sized chip off my shoulder, and I did. But there’s one promise I haven’t kept to myself. That promise is to truly come into my own as a person, as a wrestler, and as a champion. And while I could not have achieved my current level of success without either of you...some things…some things I need to do on my own.”
(Everyone was suddenly confused by this - the crowd, the announce and Al and Ashley, who traded confused looks at each other.)
“You see, I love you two more than I can say. That’s why I’m invoking the Freebird/New Day/What Have You rule and declaring you both the tag team champions exclusively. I couldn’t have achieved either of my title runs without you two, so I’m surrendering the belts to you both. Nobody will argue that you aren’t worthy champions, and I know you’ll do me proud.”
(Mirror wiped a tear away, as does Ashley. Poor Tiki just stayed looking confused.)
“And it's not like we’re canceling Game Night (looking at Ashley)... or brunch (Tiki wipes his brow in relief). I just need to know that I am good enough to hold singles gold in QCW, and that I wasn’t just standing on the shoulders of giants (puts an arm around Tiki).”
So I’m going to make one last promise to my two best friends, to the fans, the stans, the haters, and myself: By the end of this year, we will be reunited in the middle of this very ring, and every single one of us will have gold around our waists.
(Carpenter’s voice quavered, but they managed to choke out their last sentiment:)
“Don’t make a liar out of me.”
(As the three of them share a group hug in the middle of the ring, we cut to a commercial for White Claw. Party Animal stops a bank robbery by throwing Claws to the robbers, much like an old Hostess Fruit Pie ad in the back of 80s comics.)]
| • "Dashing" Pierce Moore d. Blockhead Ferguson • | Here's what I know about Ferguson: a) based on his build, he used to play football and b) he was here to eat a Fresh To Death, which he did in a little over 5 minutes. ** Starr's anti Moore commentary since he bailed on his match Sunday against Autumn was more interesting than anything that happened in the showcase for the Face of QCW, who still had a healthy smirk on his face despite the crowd razzing him on his way to the back.
The announce was still smacktalking Moore a bit when the lights cut out.
Cue Arcarsenal.
The crowd exploded with jeers and waited for Nazir el-Fadal to show up, and waited, and waited – until he appeared on the Qualitron, saying that the rabble should know better than to think that he was going to lower himself to appearing in front of them at their glorified sweatbox tonight. It was pretty funny – it reminded him of What’s-His-Mask talking himself into this insurgency when nobody showed up for it, and Naz did it just so he could be the first to the Grand Slam even as this company won’t recognize him as the true first Triple Crown winner. But that loserdore couldn’t keep his head on straight Sunday night and cost Naz a world championship, so Naz decided to remind him and everyone else just who exactly Allah’s Anointed was. And having lost the dead weight, he was looking to put on a few pounds…well, actually, like most of the rabble in January, gaining them back.
A few weeks ago this company thought it would be fun to steal the World title away from him again. So he’s going to remind them of what his idea of fun is: dropping their precious white disposable heroes, especially that two-faced street rat Razorblade, and regaining his proper spot at the top of QCW’s food chain. They couldn’t stop him from regaining the World title – all they could do was delay it – and he expects more of the same here. Naz’s only question before he blipped out was how many careers was their overlord Holmes going to look the other way on while Naz ended his charade and got back his championship?
After Naz had left the biggest possible screen, announce had the reaction to their favorite* wrestler on the roster that you'd expect before they pivoted to hyping up some of what's to come on next week's Ruckus:
🌟 Set your stopwatches and see how long it takes for Jacques Krieger to make another victim 🌟
🌟 We'll hear from the Women's World Champion Lolo Vuitton about what's next for her after last week's street fight and her almost winning the World TV title on Sunday 🌟
🌟 Speaking of the TV title, it's obviously going to be defended next week - but by who? 🌟
And just like that, we arrive at the main event.
| • | • the main event • | • |
| • the Revenant [c] d. "the Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble (w/the Red, White and True) • | Drake came out all confidence, a former champion with backup on hand to try and regain the GRPL+ World TV title. But the crowd saved their love, obviously, for the newly minted TV champ who slowly sauntered out with a fine piece of metal and leather in his red right hand.
Tremble’s self confidence hit a brick wall posing as something vaguely resembling a human being, and the crowd loved the early goings with the Rev powering Drake around the ring and causing Tremble to bail to the floor a few times. Drake ended up in a huddle with his boys a couple of times while the Rev looked on bemusedly from a neutral corner. Even Tremble’s shady tricks didn’t manage to do any lasting damage to the new champ, and when Holland tried to provide a distraction to set up Bash for some cheap shots on the Revenant, the referee caught him and then ejected both of them from ringside.
Before they could leave, they would find out the hard way that the person who’s justice they had to worry about was the Immortal’s and not the zebra’s – Holland was thrown into Bash, who got speared through the barricade. The Revenant wasn’t done there, dishing out a Red Right Hand into the apron for Holland, and when Drake stood up for his boy, the Rev decided to further their spiritual bond by chokeslamming the Voice of Freedom right down the middle of the announce table to the biggest pop of the night and some “HOLY SHIT!” chants.
The Rev picked up Drake and pressed him into the ring between the middle and top ropes, then followed his victim in. The crowd was chanting “One more time!” and he was happy to oblige them, sending us home happy with a delayed Red Right Hand before he absolutely slam dunked Tremble into the mat. The referee could have counted 3, 300, 3,000… **
Replays of the match fired off as the camera focused on every member of the cosplaytriots laid out either in or by the ring as the Revenant roared and held up his belt, Starr noting the count was now down to 9. Steve took us off the air and invited us to come back next Friday night on GRPL+ and watch the Rev and QCW continue to bring the Ruckus.
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