LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:
QCW’s first ever Double Jeopardy match saw Diana Spare retain
the Crush championship after Lolo Vuitton ran off Women’s World
Champion Karyn Tisch-Warren
The Revenant cost the Game Changers a tag team match when he
chokeslammed “Tiki God” Al Buffet through the announce table
“Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter beat Autumn Powers to kick off the
Best of 5 series over the GRPL+ World TV title and take a 1-0 lead
The open rolled out per usual before we leapt into Rogers Arena in Vancouver, and a barrage of gold and white pyro exploded on a slightly different stage than usual (the Canadian QualiTron being a little bit bigger and more square, eh). We saw plenty of signs and screaming fans before seeing a nattily clad Steve Vandeblanche and Nazir el-Fadal in a Kadri Calgary Flames jersey standing at ringside, Steve hyping up the supersized episode of Ruckus with limited commercial interruptions and a night featuring four title matches and Ashley Szabo looking for revenge and the Unified World title against the Revenant in the main event. Steve threw things to Duck Eko in the ring.
He was getting his name chanted by the fans, much to Naz's disgust. After that, Duck thanked Vancouver before saying that the following tag team contest was scheduled for one fall [ONE FALL!] with a 30 minute time limit.
The Hard Way came out to a decent reception from the Quality Controllers of the Great White North, Fifita and Goodish bumping fists with a couple of ringside fans on their way to the ring. The former tag champs were getting patted down by the ref as first Pierce Moore and then Roy Fade came out as the opposition, GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week that they'd benefitted from the Revenant's interference to beat the Game Changers last week.
The Hard Way started off well here as Steve put over the former tag champs' cohesiveness showing here against a new team with far fewer reps. While THW got off to a solid start the Dashing One paced on the apron and shouted occasionally shouted over some encouragement. A buzz grew in the crowd that got Moore's attention, and he followed their eyes to the ramp where Shelley LaVey was standing on the ramp watching the fight.
Moore started ramping up his enthusiasm from the apron but it didn't have an immediate effect; in fact, Moore saved the match by saving Fade from Down to Earth. That caused a domino effect of Goodish whiffing on a missile dropkick and Fade driving his knee into the back of Fifita's head to send him to the mat. Fade got free of the wreckage and tagged out; Moore leapt into the ring and bounced off the ropes to build momentum before hitting both members of the Hard Way with simultaneous Fresh To Deaths to drop them. Moore powered Goodish over after he went down and hooked both legs to secure the W for These Dashing Hands. ** ½
| • “These Hands” Roy Fade & “Dashing” Pierce Moore d. The Hard Way • |
Fade and Moore exchanged a dap after the match, but when Moore's eyes scanned the stage it was empty (LaVey must've taken off at some point during the back end of the match). Moore looked a little disappointed but some back and forth with Fade cheered him up as Steve put over their consecutive wins against former champions in back to back weeks.
From there Steve teed up a stinger for the return of the College Park Family next week (and it'll be happening in the A to boot). While Jupiter Jones understandably got the bulk of the piece, everyone got some time to shine. It concluded with the Collipark cream and maroon logo before ending with a bit of Run the Jewels’ “Ooh LA LA” – the Family comes back to Ruckus next week.
| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare [c] d. Sohla Patel (w/International Lotus) to retain the Crush championship 1️⃣4️⃣ • | Despite her annoying persistence, one thing Patel hasn’t been able to do yet to Spare is beat her. She got another shot at the Crush championship but Spare had the answers to the quiz and solved it with Nightfall once again.
It’s entirely possible that Sohla didn’t land an offensive move in the first two and a half minutes as Spare fought even more aggressively than usual, Naz noting she brought out the bigger firepower against her most heated rivals. Things didn’t change until Spare beat Patel out of the ring and then drove into her with a tope that sent her into the barricade. All Diana had to do to get a roar out of the crowd after that was to stand on the steps and peer out over them. She went back to work and tossed Sohla in but Patel distracted the zebra, which allowed Karyn Tisch-Warren to get a running start and slam the Women’s World championship into Spare’s head. The noise from the crowd alerted the referee that something was rotten in the province of British Columbia, and after some back and forth with the powder pushers (not that powder, but yunno) ejected both Karyn & Scott Warren-Tisch to the huge applause of the crowd.
Patel freaked out about this for a bit and possibly missed her best window to take advantage of a wobbly Spare before rolling out, getting her back in the ring, and covering for a solid two count. Patel dropped Spare a few times with high impact offense after that and seemed to be set to wrap things up with the Ninth Incarnation when Spare unveiled a never before seen counter: she just bit the crap out of Sohla right in the face, almost right between the eyes. Patel squealed and whimpered while the referee got in Spare’s face (and got a response that got bleeped). What was left of the match was all Spare, and she bested Sohla a couple minutes after her Tysonesque counter with her signature powerbomb Lungblower. ** ½
Spare started celebrating her way up the ramp right before Karyn Tisch-Warren ran out from the back and again floored her with the Women’s World title, and Spare went limp on the rampway as the crowd booed. A furious Karyn tossed Diana back into the ring, and with Sohla and Scott the Simp providing a human barricade to keep the referee trapped in the corner, Tisch-Warren locked Spare up in her Circuit Breaker until the Crush champion was feebly tapping out. Cut to the back and we got a shot of Lolo Vuitton watching the proceedings with a small smile on her face; it took Quality Force coming out to pry Tisch-Warren’s elevated Cloverleaf off of Spare, and it took them a few beats before they were able to do that. As Tisch-Warren kicked dirt behind her onto Spare’s coughing and laid out body, Steve excoriated International Lotus for their dirty deeds before teeing up our first sizeable commercial break of the evening.
✨
Back from the break we got a stinger for "Superfine" Reggie Strong (who should be back soon from injury) before we took things back to Duck Eko in the ring doing the intros for the next match on the evening.
Rammstein came on the PA and brought out Team Batroc for rare singles action. They matched out looking even grimmer than usual, Batroc seconding the big young Russian bear Pyotr Caviar. They got in formation in the ring before "We Made It" hit the PA and the roof came off BC with the emergence of the Unified World Tag Team champions the Wonderful Ward Brothers. They might've been from the next province over but the Wards got a reception like they were Vancouverites as they came out in red on white. Rich would be the man on the floor while Jason the Great had the task of trying to down Caviar.
| • Jason “the Great” Ward (w/”the Wonderful” Rich Ward) d. Pyotr Caviar (w/Serge Batroc) • | Jason found a way to pull it off, but man did he take a beating on the way there.
The match actually started off well for Jason, who wisely employed hit and run tactics in the opening minutes much to the cheers of the crowd. Jason employed the 5 Ds as well as landing some thigh kicks. They seemed to annoy Pyotr more than do lasting damage but they were nudging things on his side of the ledger.
Jason staggered Pyotr then went up top and flew off – and Caviar obliterated him with a crossbody that made Jason bounce off the mat and almost out of the ring on the recoil. We got a few replays of it as Pyotr started to recover and a worried looking Rich on the outside tried to bolster Jason's spirits and coach him up. You can't coach away a hundred pounds worth of a weight advantage, though, and Caviar spent the next few minutes punishing Jason while Serge looked on approvingly on the outside.
The last minute of the match changed everything; Caviar was Giantly Swinging Jason around the ring when Ward uncorked a dropkick that sent Caviar staggering into and off the ropes. That was all the opening Jason needed to fire off a Wonder Cutter…but Caviar bounced up off the impact like he'd walked right through it. Jason thumbed Pyotr in the eye and dropped Pyotr with a second one that kept him down, then Jason eventually got him on his back and hooked a massive leg.
Pyotr kicked out at one and it was like the air got vacuum sucked out of the Place. The announce freaked out and while Jason didn't say anything you could tell by his eyes that he was too. He looked over at Rich, who raised his eyebrows. Jason looked over at Caviar, then moved into the nearest corner and steeled himself. Caviar slowly got to his knees and was nearly vertical when Ward jumped off and drove him down with a flying Wonder Cutter that popped the crowd huge. Jason went for another cover and Pyotr kicked out again - just not until 4 this time. ***
Steve couldn't even finish talking about what an upset it was before Serge rushed into the ring and took Jason down, drawing Rich in for the save. For a while it looked like Serge could only put Rich in an inverted bearhug before Pyotr flew back into the picture with a Russian sickle that propelled him into a high angle release German suplex from Batroc. The crowd booed as Serge mockingly cried at them, only to get spun around by Jason. But Jason couldn't hit Serge with the Wonder Cutter; the Frenchman pushed him off and Caviar handled the rest with a discus Russian sickle that sent Jason somersaulting through the air before landing chest first and melding into the mat.
Serge demanded the mic from Duck and got it before nearly getting booed out of Rogers Arena. Batroc did some mock whining over the mic before asking if these were their heroes, the same men who couldn't beat them a couple of weeks ago and the same team that needed shady referring at Mayday Payday to get a crooked win. With Cruel Summer a couple of weeks away, they wanted another shot at the Unified World Tag Team championships and once they did, they'd show the tag division, these idiots would be just like the rest of the world - under his eye. "Engel" started over the PA and the crowd booed, but Team Batroc stood tall and the Wonderful Ward Brothers weren't standing, period.
Before match 2 of the Best of 5 series, we got a longer-than-usual video package recapping what went down last week in the opener, with Dark Mirror earning a hard fought victory helped out by their working over of Autumn’s leg. When it was over, both competitors were in the ring exchanging daggers for eyes right before the referee rang the bell to get things underway.
Carpenter made a couple of early dives at Autumn’s leg, which seemed to be mostly fine but did have some kinesio tape around the knee. Naz sold that Autumn was up against the wall having lost the last match and possibly getting hurt in the process, Steve begrudgingly agreeing that if she lost the first two matches the best of 5 would pretty much be over before it began. Powers did a good job of keeping Dark Mirror from doing any further damage to her leg but it did open up other avenues and the always thinking Carpenter modified their attack on the fly, stunning a charging Powers with a Stun Gun before following it up with a hangman. Steve pointed out that they were doing the work to hopefully set up a Look Inward for themselves down the line as the match progressed.
As it did, another ripple effect from match 1 happened with the re-emergence of Summer Rose. Not seen around QCW since dropping a Loser Leaves Town to Autumn last fall she came out last week and Carpenter used her showing up to get the upper hand. Dark Mirror peered curiously at Summer, who was making her way back down to the front row. Powers took advantage of it by rolling Beckett up, but they kicked out before 2 and then landed a Cracked Mirror headbutt to crumple Autumn before focusing back on Rose. Quality Force surrounded ringside and they again went to Rose, but this week she didn’t pull out a front row ticket – she pulled out a remote and aimed it right at the Tron.
And then the infamous cage collapse played. Over and over and over. Rose let out a scoff, tossed the remote high, and left back the way she came.
Carpenter seemed transfixed by the footage of their former self laying out Autumn but that was the past – in the present Powers was picking herself up off the deck and the word furious didn't do her eyes justice. Dark Mirror turned around and blocked a pump knee strike with their face, snapping their head back and sending them flopping between the ropes before they spilled out to the floor.
A seething Autumn followed Carpenter out and proceeded to play ping pong on the floor using two different sets of steel steps as the paddles and poor Carpenter as the ball. As the number of times Autumn threw Beckett into the stairs neared five, Steve started feeling squicky over Autumn's aggression as Naz sold it as a sign that Autumn knew she absolutely had to win this match. After the fourth throw into the steps, Autumn threw Beckett into the ring and followed them in.
With disdain on her face, Powers slowly lowered her kneepad before making Carpenter eat another Hazy Shade; Powers uncharacteristically made the three count along with the ref as they evened up the series. *** 1/2
| • Autumn Powers d. “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter [c] to win the GRPL+ World Television title; the best of 5 series is even at 1 apiece • |
Autumn took the TV title from the ref and held it up high as those of us at home got replays of Powers dominance down the stretch. As Powers held up an index walking to the back, Steve put over the crucial third match that would happen on next week's show before saying Ruckus would be back in just a couple of minutes.
✨
Back from the break to sponcon of A Quality Early Christmas behind the scenes- it'll be the lead in to next week's Ruckus and features Enya Face, the soon to be returning Jupiter Jones, Lolo Vuitton, Razorblade almost going full Jokic, the Revenant as the Ghost of Christmas Future, and "Tiki God" Al Buffett as Santa Claus., which is pretty hilarious given what happened last week If you like Christmas in July and QCW, this is your movie!
But if you just like QCW, the third title match of the evening was up next…
| • Katsuji Ootsuka & the Proper Villains [c] d. The Red, White & True to retain the Ambassadors trios championships) • | Despite the unlikelihood of their team, the OotVillains were able to successfully retain the titles against the cosplaytriots. Drake and his squad did themselves no favors by having “Great American” Bobby Bash wave the stars and stripes on the way to the ring, thus providing a nice contrast to the cheers the Prince, the Fury and the Proper King would get when they came out following that.
The RWT found an MVP for their early success in the form of “Swamp Trash” Ted Holland, who’s unorthodox style and willingness to bend the rules saw him get advantages on both Ootsuka and Richard Windsor. “The Fury” Jim Jaspers would be able to fight him off to a standstill only to get surprised by Holland using a tiger feint variant to leap off the ropes with a flying tornado DDT that spiked Old Jim. Drake seemed to be torn on whether or not he wanted to pick the bones or have Holland continue to put the pressure on, eventually opting for the latter.
In a bizarre way, that’s what undid the match for him, since being on the apron put him in prime position to be yanked off of it, and suddenly he disappeared under the ring. Bobby Bash was in a tug of war underneath the apron as Holland went for the Grouch Bomb only to get buckle bombed in a swank counter by Jaspers. Bash won the tug of war and ended up pulling a suddenly bloodied Tremble from underneath the ring as on the side of the ring closest to the ramp a figure emerged from under that side of the apron, and the crowd roared as his spiked brass knuckles were raised to the sky.
But it wasn’t any of the Red, White & True’s scheduled opponents on the evening who emerged but the returning “Superfine” Reggie Strong, who enacted literal bloody revenge on Drake in his surprise return. With Bobby Bash too focused on getting the EMTs out to help the almost unconscious Tremble, Holland was left in the ring to get triple teamed - first the Villains laid him out with their half and half suplex/Fury Road combo finisher, then they tagged in the Prince, who flew off the top with Magical Sky to continue their title reign. ** ½
Strong passed the EMTs on his way to the back while the Ambassadors took to three sets of buckles and showed off their hardware. As we went to commercial break we saw an EMT hold a towel up to the bleeding Drake’s forehead while Bobby barked at them in his drawl to hurry up and help their leader. The fun thing about commercial breaks is you can use that time to google things, such as whether or not Reggie Strong has a Venmo. One last break and right back for the main event and more…
✨
We came back from the break TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face wasn’t in an ugly Christmas sweater but rather welcoming her guests at this time - Sohla Patel and the Women’s World Champion, Karyn Tisch-Warren: International Lotus. The crowd booed as they came on the set, Karyn smirking as she shined up her title. Enya tried to ask a question but Sohla cut her off and said she’d already been in this second rate town long enough, so she’d get right to the point.
After the debacle of last week’s Double Jeopardy glorified handicap match they advocated and argued with the Commissioner for days for something fairer after that…loss last week. But despite the fact they had to cajole him into it, eventually Commissioner Holmes listened to reason, so next week there would be Pick Your Poison matches for both Diana Spare & Lolo Vuitton - whichever one of them could win their match faster would get the shot at Karyn come Cruel Summer in a couple of weekends. And the reason they were fine with that was that at the PPV, Karyn would embarrass either of them and the crown jewel of the women’s division would stay on her shoulder and with International Lotus. Ciao for now!
Before the Unified World Heavyweight Championship went in the air Steve hyped up some of what's to come on next week's show live from Center Stage in Atlanta…
🌟 A major announcement - plenty of rumors in the air but who knows what this one is 🌟
🌟 Lolo Vuitton and Diana Spare in Pick Your Poison matches, Spare probably having to defend the Crush championship in hers 🌟
📺 And a pivotal match 3 in the best of 5 series for the GRPL+ World TV championship between "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter and Autumn Powers 📺
But before we jet to Atlanta there's one more piece of business to handle here in Vancouver, and it's not light work. It's Fifteen Pounds heavy.
| | • the main event • | |
Muse's "New Born" hit the PA and brought out Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo to a solid pop from the Canadian Quality Controllers. Szabo walked to both sides of the stage, amping up the fans without playing to them. Ashley was in the middle of making A Very Familiar Gesture around her waist when the lights cut out.
The dulcet tones of Nick Cave and the noisy whirring of the Hellevator brought out the Big Bad, with the 15 Pounds firmly clinched…well, you could guess. The Revenant let out a low cackle as he raised his head high – and Ashley jumped him from behind to the shock of everybody ever, including you.
The lights suddenly came up as the referee ran from the ring and up the ramp, where Ashley was throwing roundhouse kicks to the ribs and the Rev was wincing and cursing at having to eat them. The referee was trying to get them into the ring when suddenly he had a bigger problem on his hands - the Rev blocking a kick and spinning Ashley around before planting her into the ramp with a Red Right Hand. The Rev divested himself of his duster and tossed the Unified Championship into the ring, letting out a full bellied cackle while replays played and the ref checked to see if Ashley could continue on.
| • the Revenant [c] d. Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo to retain the Unified World Heavyweight championship • |
She did.
Unfortunately for her, it took 9.6 seconds to pull herself together and roll into the ring under the bottom rope. The Rev looked a little surprised that he hadn't snuffed out the title challenge before a devious smile spread on his face. He then whipped Ashley to the opposite side corner and she collapsed to the mat after impact. The Rev seemed to be encouraging even more boos from the Controllers as Szabo tried to pull herself off the canvas, Naz noting on commentary that her tag titles reigns were a lazy river compared to the deep waters of being #1 in the company.
The Rev threw Ashley into the corner and peppered her with body blows until she went down, then he bieled her across the ring and draped his arms over the top rope before she even splattered across the mat. He called for the end, and Ashley staggered up right into a goozle…that she converted into a triangle armbar to the shock and growing applause of the crowd. The Rev tried to use his free arm to force Ashley off the hold but she tightened the hold and the Rev let out a scream that he then tried to disguise as a growl.
The Vancouverites started chanting at him to tap; his response was to power out and one armed bomb Szabo into the mat – but she held on the armbar. The Rev tilted a little bit, but got his footing and then tried to powerbomb her again. He hit it again but she didn't relinquish the hold no matter how foggy her eyes were getting. The Rev looked around the ring and lumbered both their bodies towards a corner before checking his positioning. He dove backwards at warp speed, which had the effect of being a makeshift catapult that sent Ashley flying head first into the middle turnbuckle to put paid to the armbar.
The crowd deflated and the Rev knew how to put them into an even pissier mood; Ashley couldn't fight off a second goozle and went down the elevator shaft via the Red Right Hand. The Rev grimaced a bit after he hit it, then sort of used the top turnbuckle and almost hyperextended his arm against it, then a loud crack was heard. Rev's normally haunting face looked even creepier with a smile on it, and he wasted no time checking his handiwork by drilling Ashley a couple of times with the Red Right Hand before pinning her with his boot on her chest. The Controllers booed. He cares. Those four chokeslams got him 3 and a successful title defense. ** ½
Replays started but didn't finish, and we went back to the ring to see why: having dropped the referee with a red-handed right, the Rev was able to walk out of the ring before grabbing Ashley by the boot and pulling her to the floor. Naz got the hell out of Dodge and Steve wasn't far behind, then the Rev goozled Ashley again and gave her the same chokeslam through the announce table he dished out to Al last week.
The crowd booed lustily as the Rev snatched his title from Duck and held it overhead. Quality Force started coming down the ramp as the Rev draped the 15 Pounds over his shoulder and started heading up the ramp. That was when the "ASSHOLE!" chants really jumped up in volume, and the Rev looked around BC clearly feeling like the feelings of the lowly mortals didn't matter, and he set the Unified World title on the ramp before marching back down it.
Quality Force is usually about a dozen men in purple shirts with gold accents, and they all tried to form a wall to save Szabo. Of course, against a force of nature like the Rev, those shirts may as well have been red, and The Spooky Champ barely took half a minute to lay waste to most of them with right hands and big boots. A couple fleed up the ramp as the lights began to flicker - the Rev ignored it to pick up Ashley like she was his title and draped her limp body over his shoulder.
He stomped up the ramp as the lights flickered deeply, tossing her to one side of the stage before looking over the lip of it and seeing a few tables filling out space between tech work. The sick grin of the Rev spread wider as the lights flickered harder. Somehow poor Ashley staggered up, and found herself at the red right hand of another goozle. The Rev's teeth looked closer to fangs as he hoisted her up –
Lights off.
You heard some screams as phone flashlights spread across Rogers Arena. The lights flickered again and then went out. For a couple of seconds, there was almost silence from nearly 20,000 sold out seats.
It wasn't Kanye, but "Unscripted Violence" brought up all of the lights. The Rev turned around and HOLY CRAP RAZORBLADE DOVE OFF THE QUALITRON FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
The Rev staggered Razorblade with a massive right, but Razorblade one upped him with a mighty Greco-Roman kick to the balls. The Rev seemed to try to no sell it right before Ashley crawled over and grabbed him by the ankle. Rev had nearly broken free when Razorblade suddenly came diving across the screen and slapped the Rev with the 15 Pounds of Gold, sending him down to a roar from the crowd. Razorblade pulled himself up from the wreckage and then looked over the edge of the ramp before a smirk broke across his face.
Razorblade stuck his right hand sky high and stalked the Rev, who turned around…and got goozled himself. His eyes went wide, and then that was the last we saw before Razorblade chokeslammed him off the stage through four tables on the floor.
W
E
L
P
The final (announceless) moments of A Quality Early Christmas showed the wreckage of the announce table, followed by the myriad bodies of Quality Force, all the way up the ramp where Ashley Szabo was coughing and sputtering.
An intrepid camera person walked up behind Razorblade and looked over it with him, where the Rev wasn't moving after getting his just desserts. Razorblade spit off the stage onto the Rev before walking over to the Unified World Heavyweight championship that he was the first to hold. Savage raised it overhead and let out a yell, the crowd roaring back and chanting "Razorblade" as Savage laid down the belt on the stage and headed towards the back as the EMTs came to start trying to separate dings from the bad stuff. The credit box came up but not before Razorblade emerged again at the top of the Qualitron with a wry grin on his face. See you next week in Atlanta!
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