- Jacques Krieger brought S. Mark Starr back to Ruckus as his “fixer”, both vowing to fix QCW as payback for getting mistreated by the company in the recent past
- “Night Sky” Diana Spare challenged and beat Lolo Vuitton by countout to retain the Crush championship but International Lotus laid out both women
- "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter beat "These Hands" Roy Fade to retain the GRPL+ World TV title but got dressed down and challenged by Autumn Powers; tonight they begin the first ever Best of 5 series in QCW history with the belt in the balance
The usual open came to a dead halt and the screen went black.
A few seconds later it went red. And a couple of beats after that, the screen reverted to something resembling normal but the...man (?) standing in the darkness with a red right hand and the Unified World Heavyweight Championship in his left.
Lit by a streetlamp in a distant corner, he had this to say:
It's no secret that I embrace what the darkness has given me. It's why I have repaid it with a Triple Crown amongst my many conquests.
Yet I still do not hear my name whispered with proper reverence, so tonight I shall live up to my name.
I'm at home here.
And that should terrify you mortals, because when I emerge..."
He stepped out into slightly brighter fluorescent lights from slightly closer streetlights and for about three seconds we got to see what he saw: the front of the Arena from the back of the parking lot.
"...when I emerge..."
Then we saw his final words as he crackled the knuckles holding the Fifteen Pounds of Gold.
"..I do it to bury another hero."
He began to cackle - a little while after that the lights flickered - and right after that we were in the middle of the usual pyro with Steve Vandeblanche introducing himself and "the Only Color Commentator That Matters, Especially After Last Week," Nazir el-Fadal. He hyped up that we'd hear from Mason "Razorblade" Savage later on in the show and with rumors the Revenant is lurking around the building, who knows what carnage could happen in the Arena tonight. Tonight's going to make history with the first ever Double Jeopardy match and the first match in the Best of 5 series for the GRPL+ World TV title, so on a night this packed he threw to Duck Eko in the ring to intro the evening's opening bout scheduled for one fall (ONE FALL!).
| • Fiona Fogg d. Shelley LaVey • | Ruckus kicked off with action from the women's division, featuring former Catch Hell Women's champion Fogg against the long-suffering LaVey. Crowd didn't sit on their hands long as Fogg started getting her offense on display, including hitting a Pele kick that nearly won her the match less than 5 minutes in. A little bit after that "Dashing" Pierce Moore walked out to boos, the Baron of Beverly Hills clearly looking to get something started with Shelley over the past few weeks. LaVey actually started battling back shortly after he came out, and as she started making a comeback Pierce got closer to the ring. LaVey hit a pretty nice Meteora out of the corner and Fogg had to kick out at the death to keep the match going. Moore pounded the apron a couple of times and encouraged LaVey, but she took issue with him being out there and started telling him to go away. LaVey focusing on Moore meant she wasn't focusing on Fogg, who snatched her up with the Unspeakable and pinned her off the Osaka Street Cutter. **
Moore cringed at ringside as Fogg got her hand raised to decent applause from the Controllers.
From there we went TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face brought on her guests: the Ambassadors Trios champions, Katsuji Ootsuka and the Proper Villains. The crowd popped as the trio came over to Enya, gold in tow. Enya couldn't even get out a full question before things got interrupted by human ingrown toenail Drake Tremble and the rest of the Red, White and True. Tremble complained that no matter how hard the good governor tries, foreign elements still keep QCW from being great and even worse…they're celebrated as Ambassadors? Drake was revving up to another rant when Jim Jaspers stepped up to him and said unlike him and his boys, they were who the people wanted being their Ambassadors and if he and his brats wanted to be taught a lesson, class would be in session next week.
Drake chuckled and rubbed his hands together, saying that he couldn't wait until he, Teddy and Bobby gave their people real champions to believe in - but why wait for next week when they could fight tonight? Any one of them willing to lose could face any of the Red, White and True here tonight in a singles match. At that point Katsuji Ootsuka suddenly stepped up and got in Tremble's face, saying that he accepted…as long as it was against Tremble. The crowd cheered as Drake fumed but then accepted, saying that he'd see Ootsuka later. Katsuji pointed out he was already in gear so Drake had five minutes to meet him in the ring. On that note, Ootsuka and the Villains took off to leave Drake and the cosplaytriots complaining while Enya teed up the first commercial break of the evening.
✨
Back on Ruckus we saw that During the Break Pierce Moore was being very apologetic to Shelley LaVey about how things went in the opener, trying to apologize as she stomped through backstage. She was Not Amused and no sold him entirely. Steve mentioned that this wasn’t going to be the last we saw of Moore tonight as he & Roy Fade against the Game Changers later on in the show & Naz wondered how Fade would feel about his partner focused on grappling with LaVey instead of their opponents. From there, we went to Duck making the intros for the next fight of the night.
As the participants came out, Steve noted that a then injured Katsuji lost the TV title to Tremble last fall, which was probably why the usually quiet Ambassadors champion stepped up to take him on here. Since Tremble brought his squad out with him, Katsuji matched him by bringing out the Proper Villains alongside him. True enough, the Prince of Punishment brought the violence in lieu of silence, leaving Tremble having to bail from the ring not even three minutes into the contest. Even when he was getting coached up from the outside, he & his flunkies found themselves on the receiving end of an Ootsuka bullet train of a tope that earned the Prince of Punishment a 3 for 1 much to the cheers of (most of) the crowd. Ootsuka let out a quick bark at the fallen Tremble before throwing him back in the ring, and within a couple minutes it looked like it was going to be all over for the Voice of Freedom - especially after Ootsuka drilled him with a basement rana driver. The Prince went up for the end, but immediately got distracted by “Swamp Trash” Ted Holland trying to get up on the apron. The Villains came over to give Holland the what for, and with all this happening that drew the referee to try and break things up out there while in the ring, Bobby Bash got on the other side of the apron around the corner from Holland and snatched Ootsuka up before giving him a tree slam into the apron that shocked and awed the crowd.
The Villains now found themselves brawling with both Bash & Holland on the floor, and the ever-opportunistic Tremble took further advantage of the situation by throwing Katsuji shoulder first into the ring post. Quality Controllers booed but Drake just went to work while the Villains and the Red, White & True B-team brawled to the back. Tremble worked over Katsuji’s arm and got some near falls before hitting a huge tilt–a-whirl powerslam and calling for the end…but Katsuji slipped free of the Truth Bomb and spiked Tremble into the canvas with a crispy rewind rana. Ootsuka’s left arm was hanging at his side, but as he went up top Naz noted that the arm Drake worked over wasn’t the one Ootsuka used to hit the Magical Sky – the Prince proved it by flying off with his signature shooting star elbow drop (best finisher in the joint if you ask me) and securing a 3. ** ½
| • Katsuji Ootsuka (w/the Proper Villains) d. “The Voice of Freedom” Drake Tremble (w/the Red, White & True) • |
After replays, Ootsuka celebrated up the ramp and got met by the Proper Villains, all three men raising the Ambassadors belts while Tremble pouted in the ring.
From there, we got Steve anchoring a satellite interview with Mason “Razorblade” Savage while Naz was apparently getting back to some texts. Steve asked the former Unified World Champion how he was doing, and Savage said that as much as he would love to be in the Arena throwing hands he still had a few hours left before he could officially clear the protocols. But besides waiting, he was fine.
And by fine, what he meant was pissed off - because the Rev was walking around with his belt after throwing him into some dirt. The Rev took the Fifteen Pounds from him and did it in his kind of match; maybe it was his kind of match because he knew he couldn't pin Razorblade and the day he taps out is February 30th. So he could talk all the spooky crap he wanted, but he knew as well as everybody else watching that when they got back in the ring against each other, Savage wasn't just going to make him bleed - again - but at the end of that fight he'd take back his Unified title and once again be recognized as the best fighter not only in QCW but the world. The big, bad Rev thinks he's the only one who can crawl out of the grave? He's going to find out he created another monster that will not die. The feed suddenly cut out, with Steve taking a bit to cotton on that Savage had intentionally killed it. Naz let out a cackle and said Savage was reaping what he sowed for what happened at Season's Beatings, so "he could tell his little sob story to the rabble all he wanted. Read between the lines and it sounds like he wants the Rev to finish the job." Steve disagreed with el-Fadal but eventually threw things to Duck for the first of three fights tonight with title implications.
"Roar" by Katy Perry brought out International Lotus for the first ever Double Jeopardy match in QCW history. As Scott Warren-Tisch's slimy behind accompanied Sohla Patel and his Women's World Championship holding wife to the ring, we got a brief video package recapping the interwoven nature of both major women's championships over the past month, leading to this unique tag. If Karyn Tisch-Warren gets pinned here she'll have to give a title shot to whichever woman pins her.
Karyn and Sohla took over the ring and preened as Steve said that we'd get the first ever Double Jeopardy match when we got on the other side of a few commercials.
✨
We returned to International Lotus talking amongst themselves in the ring before "Bodak Yellow" brought out Lolo Vuitton to a loud and mixed reaction. The two time former Women's World Champion walked down the ramp with purpose, saying that she was going to embarrass Karyn on the way to getting back her belt. Billie Eilish's debut single brought out the Crush champion "Night Sky" Diana Spare, who's Crush championship crown was in jeopardy here; either member of Lotus pinning her in <15 minutes ended her title reign. Of course, since time is of the essence, it made sense that Spare was sprinting down to the ring. Knocking over her tag team partner for the evening, Spare slid into the ring and immediately swarmed the Women's World Champion before peppering her with forearm shots. Patel tried to save Karyn and started eating some shots of her own, Steve already yelling that things were going nuts and the match hadn't even begun yet.
Lotus started to get the numbers advantage when it was Lolo's turn to get in the ring and start whooping on Karyn. The antiheroes got the upper hand and cleared Lotus from the ring, giving the zebra an opening to ring the bell. Immediately after that, Spare and Vuitton started chirping at each other and that escalated to shoving. Never one to miss an opportunity, Karyn recovered enough to blindside Diana and send her reeling into Lolo, who went down in a heap. When Lolo got up she was heated, but the referee eventually got her to go on the apron.
While that happened Karyn worked over Spare, Steve selling that Karyn beating Diana would essentially make herself her own #1 contender with backup from the rest of Lotus. Vuitton glared into the ring (at who?) as Karyn got a couple near falls and almost captured her old Crush championship once again. KTW tagged in Patel, who also got in a couple nearfalls while Naz pointed out that Lolo hadn't tried to save Diana or her belt at all. It looked like Lotus was going to put a cap on things but it's entirely possible that Karyn may have spiked the ball at the 10 yard line. She gave Sohla some instructions and it looked like they were going to add insult to injury by ending things with the old OnlyFitness finisher, which is when Lolo vaulted herself into the ring and started dishing out more beats than Metro Boomin.
Hi, Sohla Patel! Sign for this Bloody Shoe, would you? Patel went down in sections as Vuitton ran off the ropes and knocked KTW heels over head with another Shoe then just opted to ground and pound Karyn while the Controllers cheered her on. Scott reached into the ring to try and pull Lolo out of the ring - he succeeded - then Lolo beat him almost out of his adidas. Warren-Tisch staggered away only to go almost flying into the second row when Lolo drilled him with a Bloody Shoe. Karyn ran over and dumped Lolo over the barricade before checking on Scott the Simp. While he was trying to figure out what letter came after 3, Lolo grabbed a chair and started swinging at her ex partners, who ran for the hills and for their liiiives.
Patel and Spare recovered in the ring and traded some rollups before Patel got a running start and floored Spare with a forearm. She tried to put a button on what had essentially broken down into a singles match with her finisher the Ninth Incarnation, but Spare slipped out the back and rolled up Patel with a rolling prawn. Patel rereversed into a roll-up and snatched the middle rope at 2…but the ref caught her and stopped the count. Patel complained to the ref for daring to interfere in her affairs but her complaining would come to an end when Spare spun her around and drilled some short range knees to the gut. Spare cinched Sohla up and drilled a textbook buckle bomb before polishing Patel off with the Nightfall for the win. ** 1/2
| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare & Lolo Vuitton d. International Lotus (w/Scott Warren-Tisch) in a Double Jeopardy match; Spare retains the Crush championship • |
Spare took her belt back from the ref, who immediately stepped in between her and Patel. Diana continued to put the badmouth on Sohla before holding up the Crush championship up high with pride. Naz gave her credit for soldiering through the match and to the shock of Steve put her over as his Wrestler of the Year in QCW so far (since he was mostly retired and all).
From there we went TOTHEBACK~!, where Team Batroc was warming up in their dressing room - well, Pyotr Caviar was warming up by destroying a heavy bag while Serge Batroc barked at him to hit it again and hit it harder. Announce put over their challenging for the Unified World Tag Team championships in the main event before throwing things back to Duck for another title match…
| • “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter [c] d. Autumn Powers to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship (Mirror leads 1-0 in the best of 5 ) • | Back to back historic matches with title implications, as this was the first Best of 5 match set up as GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week Autumn definitely flapped the usually unflappable Carpenter by dressing them down, saying they weren’t fit to be a champion, and that tonight would start a Bo5 for the TV title. Autumn came out to a massive reaction from the crowd, though you could hear an undercurrent of boos from the diehard Mirror fans; when the champion came out, looking focused and angry, they got a big pop as well though some of Autumn’s diehards could be heard jeering when they held up the belt.
As they stared each other down after the bell, Naz pointed out that the series meant that both competitors would or should be worried about the split focus necessary to come out on top in this: you had to win the battles in the individual matches while winning the war of the overall series, hopefully without suffering any major injuries in the process. There was a feeling out process to start, followed by some rope running. Carpenter caught Autumn by surprise by firing off an armdrag, but Powers responded with a pair of armdrags of her own and a dropkick that had Carpenter bailing out to the floor. Autumn sat on the middle rope and waved Beckett in while the crowd oohed, but Carpenter didn’t take the bait.
Unfortunately for them, that was a microcosm of how the opening third of the match went for them - it wasn’t that they weren’t able to get an upper hand on Autumn, but they couldn’t keep it for even three moves in a row before the Punk Queen of Puget Sound would find a way to counter or shut them down outright with their power advantage. Powers seemed to be ticking the boxes towards a Match 1 win when a buzz started in the crowd and grew, since former two-time Women’s World Champion Summer Rose was coming down the stairs. Steve sold it, saying that it was the first time Rose had been seen since Autumn sent her packing in a Loser Leaves Town last year. Quality Force security came to stop her from getting involved, but she flashed a front row ticket, causing them to sheepishly head to the back while Autumn looked quizzically at the figure from her past.
Carpenter seized the opportunity with a chop block, drawing some more boos, then started working over the leg of Autumn. Dark Mirror looked back at where Summer was and looked surprised to see her, but Rose's face was a brick wall. Mirror continued the assault on the leg, including hitting a vicious shinbreaker into the apron. Powers was in trouble before that happened and had obvious problems with mobility for the rest of the match. Mirror didn't delve into anything outright illegal but definitely fought with an edge.
Carpenter even started to get advantages out of nowhere, and even Powers' desperation attempt at a Hazy Shade got countered by a Mirror drop toe hold to counter that immediately flowed into Look Inward. With the hold secured, Carpenter yelled at Autumn to tap out, but the next time she gives up will probably be the first time. Powers managed to start powering up out of the hold and looked like she was going to try and Tombstone counter out. But Powers collapsed before she could really do anything besides a modified slam, and they both went down in a heap. Carpenter dug into the canvas and pulled themselves up before charging Autumn, who sidestepped and hit Mirror with a release German that rocked them. The champ was reeling as Autumn used the ropes to pull herself up, then launched forward with a Hazy Shade.
Autumn couldn't hit it, though - she crumpled in a heap before she could connect with Carpenter. The crowd deflated as the referee checked to see if Autumn could continue the match, but as she was answering Carpenter rolled her up.
For three.
WELP! *** ½
Carpenter rolled out of the ring with a grin spreading on their face as the crowd had a huge mixed reaction to their win. A graphic popped up on screen and put a 1 next to Mirror's avatar while Autumn sold frustration in the ring. The referee came back from raising Mirror's hand to see if Autumn was okay while Carpenter raised the World TV title up and sarcastically asked who wasn't ready for the best of 5 before heading to the back. Steve had some begrudging praise for Carpenter's win and teed up the final major commercial break of the night.
✨
Back from the break we went to the locker room of the Wonderful Ward Brothers, who were doing upside down pullups and talking to each other, though we couldn't hear what the Unified World Tag champions were saying. Announce again put over the tag titles rematch for the main event tonight before throwing to more action in the tag team division…
| • “These Hands” Roy Fade & “Dashing” Pierce Moore d. The Game Changers • | Both Fade and Moore have had long standing rivalries both with Game Changers alumnus Beckett Carpenter as well as the Changers so this match was made on Quality's socials over the past week.
The Changers brought the championship experience but Fade and Moore showed some cohesion early in the face of it. The lights flickered briefly as the Changers moved the scale on their side of the ledger, especially when it looked like Al was going to plant Pierce with the Inner Strength avalanche uranage – but Moore countered at the death to turn it into an avalanche Fresh To Death that drew a huge wave of noise from the crowd and even some "Holy shit!" chants that got bleeped. Moore recovered first and managed to tag in Fade, who quickly got into the ring to prevent a Buffet tag only to get pulled into a short range uranage and it happening anyway.
Ashley started lighting into Fade as the lights flickered even more, Steve apologizing to the viewers as Szabo surprised the former three time TV champ with unleashing her skill set. Even Moore got one shotted off the apron and Ashley caught the incoming Fade with a Michinoku driver out of nowhere and went to the top rope.
And out went the lights.
Nobody knew what was happening; a few screams went up in the Arena. Then a massive crash was heard, Naz almost got bleeped and complained he almost got hit with something. The lights flickered - came back on fully - and the announce table was wrecked, presumably by Al Buffett's body, which was being cackled at by the entity standing between the ring and the table shards. Not a man, not a god, not a guru, but the Unified World Champion in the undead flesh himself.
The Revenant cackled over Al's body while Steve freaked out. Naz correctly said that the Rev must've been behind the lights going out and Al going through the table. Ashley stood on the top rope, and it looked like she was judging whether or not she could fly onto the Rev from where she was. Unfortunately for her, the Spooky Champ was not in the match…Roy Fade was. He alley ooped her right off the top rope into the waiting arms of a Moore Fresh To Death. After Pierce pleaded, Roy tagged him in to pick the scraps and win the fight while the Rev went over the barricade and out through the concourse. ** ½
After replays Fade was set to leave the ring, but Moore actually stopped him and spoke to him (we couldn't hear him, though). Moore extended a hand, which Fade looked at quizzically before turning it into a fist, bumping it, and then taking his leave. A pleased Moore seemed to be practicing future daps with a smile on his face before retreating to the back as the medical staff helped out the Changers.
Steve again sold the sudden reemergence of the Rev and he and Naz spoke from closer to the timekeepers area as Al got helped to the back once the table rubble was off him.
Vandeblanche did some sponcon ahead of the hype train for next week's supershow with limited commercial interruptions; it's coming from Vancouver, where QCW stars are going to be in next month's G+ TV movie A Quality Early Christmas (imagine Christmas in July and Canada). So there's behind the scenes of that coming on next week's show.
More importantly for fans of the spandex soap operas, the LCI Ruckus next week will have FOUR title matches to look forward to:
🌟 The Ambassadors Trios championships are up for grabs with the Red, White and True challenging Katsuji Ootsuka and the Proper Villains 🌟
🌟 Longtime rivals Sohla Patel and "Night Sky" Diana Spare will face off with the Crush championship on the line 🌟
🌟 "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter now leads 1-0 in the Best of 5 series for the GRPL+ World TV title against Autumn Powers; match 2 will see if Autumn can find a way to even up the score 🌟
🌟 And the 15 Pounds of Gold go in the air before next week's main event - the Revenant putting up the Unified World title against the red hot Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo; where's her head going to be after what just happened to Al? And should QCW's resident Big Bad be looking over his shoulder for the former champ Razorblade? 🌟
All those titles are on the line next week - but the Unified World Tag Team championships are getting fought over right now in…
| | • the main event • | |
"Engel" brought out Team Batroc to boos, another Friday night in Parts Unknown (though Pyotr lunged at a kid in the front row and almost scared him into the third row in a funny bit). Serge and Pyotr stood proudly in two man formation right before some red and white pyro went off on the stage, signaling the arrival of the champs: the Wonderful Ward Brothers. Camera work found several attractive women who were Very Much Here for the champs, though the referee had to step between the teams before the spotlight went on Duck for the intros. Naz wondered if the Wards would lose their Canadian citizenship if they were to lose the belts before making it to Vancouver, while Steve shrugged him off and put over the rematch for the Unified Tag straps.
| • the Wonderful Ward Brothers [c] NC Team Batroc; the Wards retain the Unified World Tag Team championships • | Crazy, crazy ending to Ruckus this week. The only downside to it is that it might overshadow what was another really good match between the former stablemates.
The opening few minutes of the match saw the Wards able to make a couple of quick tags and hang with Serge on the mat; however, that all shifted when the French Assassin raked Jason the Great’s eyes and tagged out to Pyotr. Caviar probably has a good 100 pounds on either Ward and he used his power game to swing the match for him & last year’s Duquesne Cup winner. Even when Jason managed to dodge a couple of Russian sickles and tag out, Rich also didn’t have too much success against the third generation grappler. It took a bit of luck and smarts for things to end up where Jason could blind tag in and the Wards could use some high impact offense in the form of a double superplex that rattled the ring.
Serge was stomping on the stairs to try and get the recovering Pyotr to make a tag when Robbie Williams’ “Mad Machine” fired up and out strode most of the Ambassadors trios champions, the Proper Villains. Steve mentioned on commentary that they had originally been scheduled to do commentary with them during the match but, of course, the table had just gotten destroyed in the semi main. Jim & Richard walked down the ramp and circled the ring, Jim getting in some jabs at Steve about the table going to heaven before he could scout the match.
Pytor kicked out of the double superplex and Jason immediately tried to seize the opportunity with the Wonder Cutter only to get tossed across the ring. A dazed Caviar still started off going towards the wrong corner before hearing Batroc’s voice and rerouting to make the tag. Serge took advantage of Jason and started laying into him with European uppercuts when suddenly Richard Windsor went down on the outside and then so did Jim Jaspers, thanks to the suddenly arriving Red, White & True. While those brawls happened on the floor, the man from Marseille started tossing Jason around the ring, hitting some rolling double underhook suplexes that had the youngest Ward reeling. Batroc called for the end as the outside teams brawled up the aisle and into the crowd, but as he set up for the Arc de Triomphe Rich blind tagged himself into the match. Jason ate it and Serge bridged on the cover, but of course the zebra wasn’t counting; when Serge got in their face to ask why he got spun around and ate a perfect Wonder Cutter from Rich. Rich swooped down and hooked both legs on the cover…but Serge survived with a kickout at 2.8. Replays went off while Rich uncharacteristically questioned the count, but the right one was made.
While it didn’t win them the match, it certainly improved the Wards’ odds of winning it and they fought the next few minutes accelerating towards a W with Serge having to kick out nearly half a dozen times from the onslaught. The Wards looked like they were going to polish things off with the Wonderful Express but Serge threw off Jason into Rich and hit the Arc on him, only for Rich to dive at Serge’s legs to break up the count. The Quality Controllers were chanting “This is awesome” right before all the chaos began.
The Villains/Red, White & True fights ended up back around ringside, then ended up in the ring. Serge started yelling at Jaspers to get out of his ring while Tremble immediately got in Jason’s face, and instead of anybody backing down from anybody a full on Pier 8 erupted as a result. The referee tried to reason with them for a few beats before giving up and calling for the bell – the crowd booed lustily after Duck made the announcement, but only for a couple of seconds. ***
They really should have gone to a RedZone four screen here, since not only were the babyfaces fighting the heels, but the heels and babyfaces were fighting amongst themselves. The Controllers were chanting “Let them fight!” as Quality Force ran down to try and break up the fights but they themselves were almost outnumbered. Naz said Serge was going to lose his mind over this as Steve hurriedly wrapped up the show and said we’d see them in Vancouver next week - the last thing that aired before fading to black was Pyotr Caviar wiping out both Jason Ward & Richard Windsor with a running crossbody.
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