LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:
the International Workrate Consortium celebrated the Wonderful Ward Brothers winning the Unified World Tag Team championships
Both "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter and Karyn Tisch-Warren won Duquesne Classic qualifying matches; Carpenter beating Serge Batroc means someone new will win the Classic this year
The Revenant announced he was looking out for #1 and set the record for longest reigning TV Champ while both haunting and kinda dodging Razorblade
A slightly modified version of the open rolled with changes to the end of the cavalcade of champions that leads us into the Arena: the Wonderful Ward Brothers with the Unified World Tag Team championships, Jason the Terrible in mid cackle while Rich Ward showed on his face how wonderful it was to finally be a champion in QCW - "Night Sky" Diana Spare in all black less the Crush championship shining over her left shoulder - and a few seconds from Golden Rule of Razorblade holding up the Unified World Heavyweight Championship while the fans roared behind him…
…the same exact way the Quality Controllers are roaring in the Arena right now. Set off plenty of pyro and look at all these signs…
…and cue Arcarsenal?
Steve was pretty solidly caught unaware, and Starr thanked him for the good times before saying something that got bleeped and then quitting the broadcast table. Starr vaulted over the barricade and started to leave through the crowd as Naz came to ringside, bizarrely willing to pose for selfies and slap a couple of hands on his way. Duck Eko looked confused and angry but Nazir el-Fadal had a million watt smile as he approached Steve at the desk, who had the same question we all did: WTF?!
With a bit of a cackle in his voice, Naz admitted he assumed he was finished with QCW after he quit the company…but GRPL+ gave him six figures worth of reasons to stay, so here he was. Securing the bag, not having to take another order from Jumping Scotty Holmes, and outside of seven words he could say what he wanted about who he wanted without a single 6F being able to stop him.
Duck started to make the introductions for the opener while Naz further revealed that he was in negotiations with G+ not just to be the color man for Ruckus, but that he was looking over contracts to host his own talk show. Steve put his face in his hands while Naz put his Jordans up on the desk.
| • the Game Changers d. OnlyFitness (w/Scott Warren-Tisch) • | The Women’s World Champion and the former Crush champion came out first with Scott the Simp in tow; as they came down to ringside GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week the Tiki God v. Karyn Tisch-Warren Duquesne qualifier got decided by Scott interfering with the hydroflask and Karyn bouncing his head off the ringpost. Understandable that OnlyFitness would come out feeling themselves as a result; understandable that the former Unified Tag Team champions would come out salty and looking for revenge.
OnlyFitness controlled the early proceedings, with Lolo Vuitton showing up and showing out even in a fight where her title wasn't on the line. Lolo got the upper hand on Ashley THEE Influencer and matched power with Al. Karyn kept the offense going once she got tagged in, but the overzealous Scott was looking to exercise his duties as manager and got caught before he could brain Ashley with a cheap shot from the hydro flask.
The referee immediately set upon ejecting Scott from the premises to the joy of the crowd and Karyn went almost full Karen in her complaining before getting snatched up by Ashley and rocked with a T-Bone suplex. Ashley managed to tag out and Al took over powering Karyn around the ring. The former #1 contender started pushing the advantage for the ex tag champs, and kept the momentum going up to and including his signature Inner Strength. After planting the Notorious KTW with the delayed avalanche uranage, Al scrambled to recover and make a cover – but Lolo put paid to that with an emphatic modified version of a Curb Stomp that broke up the count.
Lolo smacktalking Al's fallen body left Ashley with an opening to make Lolo's body fallen as well and she took it, the women throwing hands back and forth until Lolo shoved Ashley away and teed up a Bloody Shoe with Szabo's face on it.
Ashley's face didn't eat the Shoe, though - a nimble sidestep on her part ensured that the one who did would be Karyn and the crowd cheered loudly as Tisch-Warren timbered to the mat like a freshly cut redwood. Vuitton looked shocked and mad at herself for the miscue, but things would only get worse for her as the Game Changers would lay her out with a double team that saw Al military press Lolo into a Szabo Codebreaker. The ref shooed Ashley out of the ring but the damage had been done, and then Al tagged her in so they could hit the same move on a mostly limp Karyn and secure the victory. ** 1/2
Replays fired off and Naz gave some reluctant kudos to his former rivals, saying that the end of the match showed the difference between a really good team versus one that knew what it took to be champions (even if Al could never beat him, heh heh heh).
We went from the former tag champs celebrating TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face didn’t teleport in but rather set the stage for her guest – “Dashing” Pierce Moore. Enya tried to ask him a question about his Duquesne Classic qualifying match but Moore cut her off, still pissed that QCW was rolling out the red carpet for Reggie Strong. He knew Reggie Strong and shouldn’t have been surprised Reggie showed his fugly mug in a place where Pierce was saving the business and looking pretty while he did it. But these leather worn idiot Floridians should know this – Reggie Strong isn’t pretty, just a pretty good liar, and if these people bought into his lies it would make them as dumb as they looked. A salty Moore waved off Enya and stomped off the interview set while Face said we’d be right back on GRPL+ with more Ruckus.
✨
| • "the Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble (w/the Red, White & True) d. "the Proper King" Richard Windsor (w/"the Fury" Jim Jaspers & Katsuji Ootsuka) in a Duquesne Classic qualifying match • | In the same vein of a broken clock being right twice a day, unfortunately for us Tremble came into this with a game plan. Even worse, he and his cronies pulled it off.
Windsor came out with the rest of the Ambassadors trios champions first, which is when they got jumped by the cosplaytriots from behind. Bobby Bash used his power to almost spinebuster “the Fury” Jim Jaspers from the ramp to the barricade, and then they had a 3 on 2 advantage that Windsor and Ootsuka soon got swallowed up by their numbers as well. The Red, White & True continued the beating down to the ring, where the referee was finally able to get between Tremble and Windsor to check on the Proper King.
Windsor was clearly in a bad way, but he told the ref to ring the bell and go forward with the match. Once that happened, Windsor limped over to Tremble as fast as he could and started alternating throwing hard forearm shots and European uppercuts as the crowd started firing up behind him. Bash and Ted Holland threw Katsuji into the steps as Windsor uncorked a rolling European uppercut that drove Tremble to his knees and made the Englishman uncork an uncharacteristic roar in response. Windsor ran for the ropes – and then Tremble hit him with a lariat that not only sent him somersaulting through the air but made him land face first. The next thing after that was the Truth Bomb and the next thing after that was the three count. * ½
After replays, we saw Jaspers crumpled against the barricade holding the back of his neck, a slumped over Ootsuka by the base of the steps, and in the ring both Holland and Bash celebrating Tremble’s win, who kept his fist in the air and a shiteating grin on his face. A chyron popped up in the corner of the screen, revealing that Tremble’s win had vaulted him to the top of the Classic leaderboard. And this being the first year with a Beat The Clock component, if he maintains the lead he’ll get first pick of possible first round opponents. Steve ran down Drake on commentary as the Red, White and True headed to the back with their shady W while Naz reluctantly put over the smarts of the plan. They bantered about that for a bit before we went back to the ring.
| • "Bollywood Diva" Sohla Patel d. Gaia Green • | Poor Green got obliterated by a ferocious Patel here, stunning Steve with her easily flipping a switch and ratcheting up the intensity. Patel ended her showcase with a chain of Falcon Arrows; the third being a delayed one that put a cap on things before they even hit four minutes. **
Dissatisfied with her victory, Patel demanded the mic from Duck and got it. Patel paced the ring as she talked, practically seething as she said that she couldn't believe Diana Spare was going to upstage her again. First at Golden Rule, their hero Diana Spare took advantage of her being in her third match to earn a so called victory and now she was going to be out here next to rub it in her face? No.
NO.
Diana Spare liked to wear black and look like an advert for Hot Topic, but trash like that soon finds its way to the bin. Next time Sohla's performance would bring the Sky crashing down. Patel then herself got in a plug for whatever International Lotus is before stepping over Green's crumpled body and actually throwing us to commercial break - before asking us to not turn off GRPL+ just because Diana Spare would be on next.
✨
| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare d. Veronica Vespa to retain the Crush championship 2️⃣ • | We came back to rookie Vespa already in the ring, so you knew how this one was going to go. In a mirror of Patel's aggression in the previous match happening because Spare got Patel in the gauntlet match, Spare almost reverted back to her Forbidden Book Club roots in cranking up the intensity before polishing off V² (doing so in roughly four minutes with the Nightfall). **
Spare barely got her hand raised and her title back before going to the back still clearly pissed about Sohla's words.
From there we went TOTHEBACK~!, where Julius Duquesne III asked us to help him welcome his guests: the Game Changers! Huge pop from the crowd as “Tiki God” Al Buffett and Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo came onto the scene and exchanged greetings with JD3. Those put aside, Duquesne asked them what was up next for them after beating OnlyFitness earlier in the evening. Al said that OnlyFitness found what it was like to be on the receiving end of his power and Ashley’s finesse, and now that they’ve handled that problem it’s on to golder pastures. Julius tried to correct Al’s saying but Ashley said that Al had right the first time; they lost their belts at Golden Rule but next week was when they would get them back. The Wards may be holding the belts, but the last time they exercised their rematch clause they won their belts back. And history was going to repeat itself, because they were going to change the game again when they became the first ever three time Unified Tag Team champions and took back their belts. She and Al nodded, wished Julius well and headed off set to leave Julius to throw things back to the ring and another Duquesne Classic qualifier…
| • Super Avión d. "Dashing" Pierce Moore in a Duquesne Classic qualifying match • | Okay, now this is more like it. Show was turning into a donut there.
Despite being clearly disturbed about QCW signing “Superfine” Reggie Strong, Moore was able to get out to a slight lead in the opening moments of the match. Moore started to preen (you’re familiar with the concept) and taunt the fans, which gave Avión an opening to start utilizing his lucha libre offense to bring things over to his side of the ledger. Steve did needle Naz at the announce desk about his losing to Avión at Golden Rule but Naz just flashed a six figure grin and said that sort of thing was above him now. Speaking of above, Avión sent Moore tumbling to the outside, then followed up with a handless tornillo/spinning plancha that took Moore down and set up Avión right by Naz, who slowly drew himself to his feet…and golf clapped right before the break.
✨
We came back from the break just in time to see Moore on the outside begging off before taking off, Avión chasing him around the ring. But Moore suddenly put on the brakes, then delivered the Fresh To Death and drove Avión into the floor before diving into the ring and almost log rolling into the ref. Moore staggered to a corner and slowly drew himself up while the referee counted Avión out…but the Tijuana native managed to roll in the ring at 9 ½ to the joy of the crowd and exasperation of Moore, who immediately started laying in the stomps on Avión’s fallen body. Moore yelled something we didn’t hear the entirety of at the Quality Controllers about his being better than Reggie Strong, then went back to work on the fallen luchadore. Moore spent the next few minutes pressing Avión’s gas tank to the red and pressing him to the mat for several nearfalls before countering a dive of Avión’s with a spinning Stun Gun. Moore called for the end, then lashed out with another Fresh To Death, but Avión managed to push him off. Moore was only discombobulated but it was just the opening Avión needed to lash out himself with a crispy rewind rana that scrambled Moore’s brains like eggs for breakfast. That left both men down for a few seconds before they both started to stir around the same time, except that once they did it was Avión who hit a Fresh To Death (even Naz freaked out and popped over that) to set up a flawless Air Superiority that won him passage into the Classic. ***
After replays, we saw Avión make his way up the ramp while saying to the camera that he was going to show the world the finest lucha libre on his way to winning the Duquesne Cup; the time stamp chyron came up here showing that Avión was only behind Tremble and ahead of both of last week’s winners. Half the field for the Classic is set.
From there we got a stinger for QCW’s newest signee, “Superfine” Reggie Strong. It started with him in voiceover, saying that everybody wants to know how it is that Superfine & QCW find themselves simpatico. From there we saw him as an adorable small kid – slowly getting bigger – never losing the thousand watt smile. This was interspersed with him in the current day getting fitted for suits, handing out three figure handshakes to valets, and maybe throwing a couple of rogueish grins to some attractive women; there are harder things to believe. Simply put, people want to try him and guess what? They tried him – and every one who tried failed. Punks jumped up to get beat down. He’s good at this and likes this, so why not do this in the hottest wrestling company in the world? Because there’s only one accessory that fits every outfit in his wide, wide wardrobe: the Unified World Heavyweight Championship. When asked about Pierce Moore by the off camera interviewer, Strong’s response was simple: “Who?”
Steve put over Strong while Naz spun an analogy that made Pierce Moore Gallant and Reggie Strong Goofus before Steve tried to swat that away, saying that we would be hearing more from the bright young star soon. Then the push towards next week began, after Steve and…I almost said Starr, it's still jarring for Naz to be there. Uh, anyways, next week's show is going to be more loaded than me on my birthday. Let's get into why:
📺 When/if The Revenant retains the GRPL+ World TV title, he'll be in line to defend it again next week and the week after that until he cashes in or the robots take over 📺
📺 Trying to follow in the Rev's steps, "Night Sky" Diana Spare tries to record her third successful Crush championship defense in a row on the way to the vaunted 10 she needs to be able to cash in for an opportunity at the Women's World title 📺
📺 After the titles changed hands at Golden Rule, the rematch goes down next week with the new champions the Wonderful Ward Brothers going against the Game Changers (looking to make history by being the first ever three time champs with a win) 📺
📺 AND! Yes, there's still more; half the field is in for this year's Duquesne and two more tickets will get punched - old rivals renew hostilities when Autumn Powers goes up against Women's World Champion Lolo Vuitton in a non title match (weird considering their history, but the Duquesne is up for grabs).
The other qualifying match will see the International Workrate Consortium 's impeccable German, Anton "Teknik" Stahl face off against one of the men he lost a share of the Ambassadors trios championships to, Katsuji Ootsuka 📺
But before then, we had a GRPL+ World TV title defense in
| | • the main event • | |
| • the Revenant d. "Boundless" Ashok Banjerjee to retain the GRPL+ World TV title • | Up until Golden Rule, Banjerjee was the champion of the UK's Catch Hell Wrestling League but lost in the main event without dropping the fall. After that fight, the Revenant came out and chokeslammed him (as well as the man he beat last week, El Vengador de Gente Jr.) and started moving in an even darker direction - one which came to light here.
The Rev was throwing hands before the bell even rang, and given the size and power discrepancies at hand here Ashok pretty much got swallowed up early and was never able to fully catch up. The Rev even pulled Banjerjee up at two and a half to the booing crowd, which caused Naz to cackle at the desk. The Grand Slam champion noted that the fans' reaction to the Rev didn't mean a thing to a force of will that was going to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. el-Fadal is…a lot of things, but dumb isn't one of them. The Rev continued dominating and punishing Banjerjee even before he started to fire off the chokeslams; this Friday's magic number was 5 and then he pinned poor Ashok with his foot on his chest. **
Not content to extend the longest TV title reign of all time, the Rev continued to beat on Banjerjee until the referee came in for the save. Immortals usually beat mortals, however, and the Rev easily piefaced him to send him sprawling over almost ¾ths of the ring.
While the referee was sprawled out in the ring, the Rev was leaving it – and toting Banjerjee over his shoulder like a backpack while he did. Other officials and purple shirted Quality Security came out to try and get the Revenant off the path he chose but his response was to start swinging Banjerjee at them like a weapon. Leaving the backup scattered on the ramp, the Rev took Ashok to the edge of the stage –
– and chokeslammed him off of it.
Banjerjee went flying, then through two tables in the floor, then didn't move. The crowd freaked out, eventually landing on a spray of "HOLY SHIT!" chants that got bleeped out for the kiddies watching at home. The credits box came up as cameras panned the destruction the Rev left behind from the ring to the ramp, bodies everywhere. But the one that wasn't moving was Ashok's, and as the medical staff came out to check on him the Revenant looked over the edge and smiled darkly downward at the ruin he'd left. The announce laid out and we soon faded to black after that.
No comments:
Post a Comment