LAST TIME ON RUCKUS:
The Game Changers challenged the End Times & Summer Rose
to a trios match tonight where Summer will be exiled from QCW if her side loses and allowed to maange the End Times should they win
“Night Sky” Diana Spare went after Karyn Tisch-Warren ahead of their rematch for the Women’s World championship tonight and helped cost Sohla Patel an opportunity at the GRPL+ World TV title
The Revenant jumped Jupiter Jones after he won a singles match and declared himself Mr. QCW ahead of their Unified World title match headlining tonight’s show
We got a much different opening than usual, culled from a bunch of contributions to Quality Social over the past week – wrestlers packing bags, flashing passports, walking through the airport (funny stuff of Steve Vandeblanche asleep in an airport chair waiting for his flight to board while Nazir el-Fadal emptied a can of whipped cream on his head) before seeing the Pacific from 20,000 feet high - then landing in Japan, taking in the scenery, Tokyo humming at night, cherry blossoms falling from trees in the afternoon before we took a drone shot view into Budokhan, where the building was sold out full of clapping hands and a few cheers before the stage exploded with red and white pyro for a good half minute.
Once it died down to more cheers, Steve & Naz welcomed us to Ruckus presents Live From Budokhan with limited commercial interruptions thanks to GRPL+. Steve hyped up tonight as a PPV level event with five title matches and Jupiter Jones trying to liberate the Unified World Heavyweight Championship from the Revenant in the main event, but said we’d get things underway with the first title match of the night and someone Jupiter knew real well before “Dance Or Die” hit the PA and the Crush champion came out to a good response.
| • Cindy Monet [c] d. Winter Wonderland (w/Gaia Green) to retain the Crush championship 6️⃣• | Another Ruckus, another opening successful title defense for Monet. This match spun off from last week's show, where Cindy successfully defended against Gaia and raised Winter's hackles by dropping her partner.
This was ostensibly an all babyface match but Winter fought with an edge throughout, even after Cindy opened off the match well and got a couple of quick nearfalls in. Wonderland fought back and put Cindy on her ass a few times but couldn't deliver Nuclear Winter while Monet fought out from under and got the win with the Tightrope a few seconds before the halfway point of the time limit. ** 1/2
Gaia consoled Winter while Cindy took the Crush championship and celebrated up the ramp, Steve noting that she was only a few more successful defenses away from being able to cash it in for a shot at the Women’s World championship.
From there we definitely didn’t teleport TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face welcomed her guests: the Wonderful Ward Brothers! The former Unified World Tag champs got cheers and waves of respectful applause as Rich and Jason the Great came into frame to exchange greetings with Enya. That out of the way, Face asked them what was next after losing to Team Batroc last week with the titles on the line. Jason began to answer when he was cut off suddenly by “These Hands” Roy Fade, and the other half of Beauty & the Beast Mode “Dashing” Pierce Moore was quick to be by his side. As the teams faced off, Fade wondered why Enya was interviewing these losers when she could be talking to the hottest tag team in QCW right now: them. These two ugly puckleheads needed to realize they had a nice moment, but last Roy saw of them last week that big-ass Russian boy was taking their heads off. So if they had any kind of sense (Pierce: “You know they don’t”) they would step aside and let the next men up succeed where they failed.
That got Rich’s ire, and he started throwing verbal jabs at B&BM when the International Players from College Park Family showed up. Moore & Fade immediately got salty about this but Lucius Patton said they weren’t here to fight - in fact, while they were arguing over here they’d just gone to see Commissioner Holmes to see what was next for the Players and he had some news that involved everybody here that Enya could break.
Benjamin Valentino said that on next week’s Ruckus, there was going to be a #1 contendership match to determine who got the next shot at Team Batroc. Them…vs them (gesturing to Beauty & the Beast Mode)...vs y’all (pointing square at the Wards). Applause and cheers for this, as each team looked at the other two suddenly realizing all three of them were going for the same thing in a triple threat in seven days. Lucius added that soon Collipark would be dripping with gold between the Crush championship, the Unified World Tag belts and Jupiter taking the 15 Pounds of Gold of Big Spook in the main event – this obviously drew the ire of B&BM, as Moore stated that no team had the answer for their finesse and fury – and that drew the ire of the Wards who quickly pointed out that for all the talking the other four men were doing, the only ones who actually knew what it was like to be tag team champions were them. The words got chippier and Quality Force came onto the scene to separate the teams, who were still chirping at each other as they all got led off of the set in different directions. Enya shrugged once everyone was gone but said it should be a great triple threat match next week back in the Arena.
We went back to Duck in the ring, who let the attendees know that the following contest was scheduled for one fall with a thirty minute time limit, and would be for the Women’s World championship!
"Roar" hit the PA and brought out a focused looking Karyn Tisch-Warren, flanked by the rest of her International Lotus cronies. The crowd's disapproval didn't stop Sohla Patel and Scott Warren-Tisch from pumping up Karyn as "you should see me in a crown" took over the sound system and brought out the Women's World champion to hefty cheers.
"Night Sky" Diana Spare came down the ramp but Tisch-Warren surprised everyone by making a beeline to the woman who took the title off of her and in short order they were engaged in a hockey fight on the ramp. The referee called for the bell as Diana tried to send Karyn into the ringpost (yes already) only for Karyn to reverse and drive Spare into it so hard it sent the champ to her knees. A furious Karyn started throwing hands from Diana’s blindside until she was fully down and then started to stomp her out with gusto. Karyn punctuated the moment with a stiff paintbrush shot to the back of Diana's head before hearing the referee's count hit 7.
Tisch-Warren tossed Spare in and went to work trying to regain the belt, starting the match off by trying to keep Spare either on the mat or a couple of inches off of it. Spare threw a couple back elbows when Karyn whipped her in the corner, but when Diana flew off the top with a crossbody Karyn countered out into a nice tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and got 2 ½ off it.
Karyn started to deploy her arsenal of backbreakers to wear Diana down while her cronies continued to obnoxiously root her on from ringside. While Spare was fighting her best from underneath, it looked like KTW was going to put her in the Circuit Breaker but the champ managed to land a series of upkicks that staggered Karyn into a corner. Spare slowly drew herself up before getting a running start to deliver double knees to Karyn's chest, and a buzz grew in the crowd as Diana started dishing it out instead of taking it.
Spare got in a couple knockdowns, then sent Karyn so high up on a backdrop that the First Lady of Fitness landed square on her tailbone. Night Sky followed that up with a Sliding D, appropriately enough, and though Karyn kicked out at 2 you could feel the tide turning in Spare's direction.
Diana started to push Karyn's power meter closer to the red to the point that Tisch-Warren tried to scramble away to the outside (Spare snatched her up and dumped her with a German suplex in response). Karyn seemed to be rattled and on her knees, but she wouldn't be there for long after Diana blasted her with a hesitation buzzsaw kick. Spare called for the end and let out a war cry, which got Sohla up on the apron. A roaring elbow later, she was no longer on the apron. Spare snatched up Karyn for Nightfall – but Tisch-Warren not only slipped out the back but hooked up Spare and put her into the Circuit Breaker.
The crowd booed as Karyn stretched Diana in the elevated Cloverleaf and made things worse by parking her knee on the back of Diana's neck. The crowd clapped to rally Diana, who almost but didn't tap out but instead crawled along the mat trying to make the ropes. Spare got herself closer and closer over the course of a tense half minute, getting within a foot of the ropes before Karyn let out a wordless scream and pulled her back to the center of the ring to pull back as far as she could.
It left Karyn in perfect position; perfect position to block a Lolo Vuitton Bloody Shoe with her cheek.
| • Karyn Tisch-Warren (w/International Lotus) ddq. “Night Sky” Diana Spare [c]; Spare retains the Women’s World championship • |
It took a couple of minutes for Duck to make that official, however, and in that period even more chaos broke out.
Lolo sat on Karyn and then started baptizing her with right hands, right before Sohla Patel clobbered her from behind with a timely forearm. A livid Patel ditched her earrings and grabbed Vuitton for the Ninth Incarnation but the Miami native caught her in the back of her head with another Bloody Shoe. The crowd seemed to be a little confused and murmuring concernedly as Lolo ripped the Women's World Championship out of the hands of the ref and raised three fingers and the belt high to a very mixed reaction.
Right before Karyn Tisch-Warren jumped on her from behind and started laying into her with crossfaces, which is what is what she was doing right before Diana Spare spun her around and lariated her down to the mat to a pop. Spare set up for Nightfall, but Patel pulled her partner to safety and the heels bailed out on the ring, Karyn fuming about Lolo costing her the belt again. Both Spare and Vuitton seemed to be waving International Lotus on as the referee handed Diana the belt back, Lolo clearly gazing at it as it transfered hands. Spare got right in Lolo's face and raised the championship up high, right as International Lotus rushed the ring and started throwing hands.
A Pier 4 broke out in the ring but not for too long, and there was some light booing as Quality Force Security came streaming down the ramp and separated the 4 women. The action died down enough for Steve to put over the cutthroat excellence of the women's division before teeing up the first major commercial break of the night.
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We came back after ads to the Collipark locker room, where Julius Duquesne III was hanging out to interview the challenger in tonight's main event Unified World title fight, Jupiter Jones. There was a massive pop for Jones, who stopped doing pullups and came over to JD3 for the interview smiling a little bit at the pop.
After they shook hands, JD3 brought up the fact that the Rev jumped Jupiter last week and called himself Mr. QCW before wondering how much that played into Jones's mindset tonight.
Jupiter responded that it took a weak man to jump somebody from behind, but not just weak - scared too. He said JD3 knows about Jupiter's reputation, because he started building it almost 15 years ago right here in Japan and has been grinding hard to not only live up to a legendary father but in some ways surpass him. Jones continued that he'd been fortunate enough to fight his way towards many titles in his career, and while the Unified belt might be newish, it held his old QCW title. 15 pounds of redemption, of proof, of pride, and he could have it…so long as he beat an undead land monster. The Rev got in the first shots last week, but when he hit the big spook with the Bolt From Olympus, the gods would destroy a so-called Immortal and Cindy wouldn't be the only World champion in Collipark. Jones thanked JD3 for his time before saying he had to get back to his pregame workout - as Duquesne threw things to Duck you could see the International Players putting kinesio tape on Jones's lower back.
| • Autumn Powers [c] d. Serge Batroc (w/Pyotr Caviar) to retain the GRPL+ World Television title 6️⃣ • | This match came about largely through Quality Social; feeling himself after the successes of the past few weeks and last week, Serge endeavored to become the first person in QCW history to concurrently hold a tag title and the TV title; Powers took the offense to this that you might expect, teeing this one up for the Japan chapter of Quality Controllers.
The early moments saw a back and forth that slightly went in favor of the domineering leader of Team Batroc - he does have the power advantage after all, and while Autumn was more than willing to throw hands both members of the announce team were in rare agreement that Autumn’s usual willingness to fight anybody to the teeth might be a losing one against Serge. As if to prove the point, Autumn seemed to go for an early Hazy Shade only for Serge to see her coming and give her such a ferocious Stun Gun that Powers not only gagged on the top rope but bounced over it and off the apron to the floor with a thud. Serge preened to some boos in the ring while Pyotr lurked menacingly over Autumn on the outside. Replays showed the massive impact while in real time Batroc was being held back by the ref, keeping the French Assassin from getting to Autumn since he’d yet to fully start the count.
On the floor, Powers looked in the ring, then back at Pyotr – then sort of threw herself into the stairs?! Powers rolled to her side and barely lifted a finger at Caviar, while the ref turned around and saw a fallen Powers up against the steel with the Tracksuit Tsar barely two steps away from her. The referee and Pyotr got into a back and forth, and despite being innocent Caviar got ejected from ringside to the cheers of the crowd while Powers allowed a small smile at upholding the first tenet of Guerrero Babyfacedom. A livid Caviar yanked one of the ringside spotlights and went to brain Autumn with it, but Serge had to talk him down since that would cost him the belt. After the back and forth, Pyotr stomped up the ramp while Serge upbraided the referee about the innocence of his enforcer. Batroc went between the ropes to grab Autumn, only to get clocked upside the jaw with a Powers gamengiri that drew more cheers.
As Serge recoiled back into the ring and Autumn used the bottom rope to pull herself in, replay showed the tip of the boot connecting with Serge right behind the ear with the rest of the boot slamming into his jaw. A disoriented Batroc was never the same after it hit, and with his support system no longer around Powers broke him down in sections, targeting his legs to get him down to a manageable height before cuffing him with crossfaces, rabbit punches, and even a couple of headbutts; anything to cut down the size advantage and keep him disoriented. Powers wore down Serge some more as a cut to the back showed S. Mark Starr taking notes while watching the fight on a monitor with Jacques Krieger stonefacedly watching on behind him. Powers prepared another Hazy Shade but Serge dodged this one as well then topped it off with an enzui European uppercut to set up an inverted suplex that dropped Autumn front-first onto the canvas.
Batroc got up first and put together a rally of his own, and it really looked like he was going to come away with the title when he set Autumn up for the Arc de Triomphe…but Powers countered out into a poison rana that spiked Serge into the mat, and the follow up Hazy Shade was on point and secured the hard fought W for the Final Woman. ***
After replays, Powers stood on the buckles and held up the World TV title to waves of cheers and applause, while the referee checked on Serge on the mat.
The flashing lights and Euro techno beats mean somebody is still Coming Soon – this week what was in neon and bold was MR. TE. The stinger took us to commercial and wrapped up the first half of the show.
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Muse's "New Born" brought out all three Game Changers as a full unit to a positive reception to the crowd. As "Tiki God" Al Buffett, "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter and Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo slapped some hands on their way to the ring, Steve set up the stakes for the night's only non-title match; after last week's challenge, the Changers look to exile Summer Rose permanently from QCW with a win here after she probably cost Carpenter the World TV title at Cruel Summer.
Danny Castle & Dr. Martin Williams came through the crowd in their grey worker jumpsuits toting their usual THE END IS NIGH signs, and in formation behind the End Times was the inaugural Women’s World champion with a sign of her own: BUT MY REVENGE FIRST.
To the shock of no one, Carpenter wanted to start off the match for their side and called for Summer so that they could scrap and settle this. Rose vaulted into the ring, squared up – then turned around and tagged in Dr. Williams. Rose cackled as she went back to the apron while Carpenter glowered at her, but who ended up paying the price was Martin as Beckett proceeded to whip his ass for the better part of a minute. After another glare at Summer, they tagged in Ashley THEE Influencer, and they used most of the ref's five count to batter the Analyst with hammer and anvil elbows before Beckett left the ring.
The Changers continued to rack up hit points on Williams while Summer paced on the apron, but when Al and Beckett set him up for Face Reality, the baddies ran in for the save: Rose chop blocked Buffett out of his gorilla press while Castle powerbombed Dark Mirror nearly through the ring. Castle then rolled Williams closer to their side of the ring, where he crawled over and Summer tagged herself in. Rose attacked Carpenter almost ferally with multiple ground and pounds; while we couldn't hear all of her trash talk the cameras did pick up a "make you remember" as she went on the attack. Summer even busted out some Kawada kicks while maintaining control of Carpenter's arm before tagging out, and the heels began to take over the fight. Danny Castle was no bruiser but he was the biggest man in the match, and the black hats started to run their offense through his impact moves, Dr. Williams' mat work, and Rose's borderline feral attacks.
It looked like Rose/Castle would take Carpenter out, but Dark Mirror matadored Castle into Rose and laid them out with a neckbreaker and DDR combo. Carpenter eventually pulled themselves up and forward rolled before tagging in the Tiki God to a big pop.
Al Buffett hit the ring and started putting meesters on keesters; Castle might've been the biggest man in the fight but Al was the strongest and he got to show it off in front of an increasingly amped crowd. The Tiki God brought the thunder in dropping both members of the End Times and when Summer Rose tried it she went down, too.
When Al took offensive control, Ashley and Beckett were rooting him on from the corner and when Al had dropped all three of his opponents in turn, who he wanted to tag in was Beckett. And once they got in the ring, Summer Rose didn't need a watch to know it was Ass Whoop O'Clock.
Carpenter whooped that ass like it was their job and they were going for a promotion, Naz pointing out on commentary that this was exactly what the baddies didn't want because of the wide gap in Rose's in ring time since last year and Carpenter literally having just gotten back to full power after the Best of 5.
Dark Mirror got Summer in position after an Exploder and proceeded to unleash a torrent of hammer and anvil elbows before securing the Look Inward. Castle and Williams hit the ring only to be cleared out by the Game Changers, then the ref went to get them out of the ring. And Dr. Williams grabbed one of their signs and jabbed it into the base of Carpenter's neck, breaking up the hold and sending them down in a heap to boos. The Changers sped back into the ring and a Pier 4 broke out, both fights spilling to the floor.
In the ring, a loopy Rose got to her feet before deciding to add injury to injury and put Carpenter into their own Look Inward. Steve was already working himself into an arrhythmia as the referee was checking Carpenter's arm, and he blew his stack when their arn fell limply to their side and the zebra called for the bell. **1/2
| • the End Times & Summer Rose dtko. The Game Changers • |
There was audible booing as the announcement was made in both languages, Summer Rose cackling before jumping up and down in a giddy circle while Castle and Williams remained stoic. Steve continued to rail against the injustice that returned Summer to QCW while Naz stood and applauded (every time Beckett suffers, a Naz gets his wings, never forget). The End Times and Summer picked up their signs and left through the concourse while the Game Changers checked on Beckett Carpenter trying to get their bearings about them on the mat.
From there the power of television whisked us TOTHEBACK~! where Enya didn't teleport in; she was too busy bringing on her guests, the Unified World Tag Team champions: Team Batroc.
Serge and Pyotr Caviar strolled onto the set, each man toting a title over a shoulder. Enya began to ask Serge about losing to Autumn earlier in the show, but Pyotr said that she should be congratulating them on retaining the titles last week and stared her down.
Enya cleared her throat and pivoted, asking them if they had a prediction for who would win the #1 contenders' triple threat next week. She probably wasn't prepared for the response she got, which was loud, booming laughter from Caviar and almost high pitched wheezing from Serge. Once they collected themselves, Serge put an arm around Enya and said he would state the obvious since she was too pretty to understand what was actually happening: that match wouldn't make contenders, it would just name their next victims or give them yet another chance to splatter the Wards. No one had his intelligence, no one had Pyotr's power and ruthlessness, so whoever won next week had the honors of losing to them on QCW's biggest stage. So long live the Unified champions, and Viva Team Batroc. Pyotr added an "he's right, sis" before Enya threw things to Duck for the next titles match.
The crowd gave the biggest ovation of the night for Duck announcing the semi-main event as being for the Ambassadors trios championships before “Pray For Me” brought out Beauty & the Beast Mode for the six-man tag – but the mystery partner they promised all week didn’t materialize as Roy Fade & Pierce Moore took over the ring. The referee seemed to be asking them where their third was right before “King Kong vs. Godzilla” hit the PA to the pop of the night to bring out the champions – the Proper Villains and the proud Ainu Katsuji Ootsuka, clearly moved by returning to his home country as a champion.
It was a beautiful moment, and the only thing that could ruin it was Jacques Krieger running down the ramp to lay Ootsuka out from behind while the Mode team jumped out of the ring to brawl with the Villains. Steve seemed stunned but then noted that the black hats got a high quality mystery partner and former TV champion for their third. With absolute chaos outside in the ring and Krieger tossing the Prince of Punishment in the ring, the ref called for the bell.
| • the Proper Villains & Katsuji Ootsuka [c] d. Beauty & the Beast Mode & Jacques Krieger (w/S. Mark Starr) to retain the Ambassadors trios championships • |
It looked like we were going to crown the third ever Ambassadors champions as the bad guys (as Naz called them, Beauty and the Cheat Mode) got off to a hot start bolstered by One Eye's sneak attack. Cameras caught S. Mark Starr cackling on the floor as the Dashing One tagged in and continued to beat on Ootsuka, saying he was going to make him as ugly as a haberdasher.
Moore kept the advantage and tagged in his partner Fade so they could hit Katsuji with a double snap suplex. B&BM continued dominating Ootsuka, and as it went on it kept happening to the exclusion of Krieger - who was getting increasingly frustrated on the apron. Despite that, it looked to be the end when Moore sized Ootsuka up for his Fresh To Death, only for the former TV champ to pick off with a rewind rana that left them both flat on the mat. Both men crawled for their corners and tagged out - but Jim Jaspers actually had to put on the brakes, because while Fade had caught the tag, Krieger had immediately tagged in Fade. The heels started arguing with each other, giving Jaspers the chance to run Krieger into These Hands and send Roy spilling to the outside.
"The Fury" and One Eye threw hands at each other in the ring while on the outside Moore was checking on Fade. Roy was more annoyed than hurt; so annoyed, in fact, he told Pierce he was out. When Pierce asked if he was sure, Fade spat out a "forget him" and started heading to the back. The Dashing One was a couple of steps behind his partner, much to the joy of the crowd and the rancor of S. Mark Starr, who was complaining that his client was being left swinging in the breeze. B&BM heard him but they didn't care, and soon the Qualitron 9k04 swung shut behind them.
Krieger was a coin flip to win a fight against Jaspers but against all three champions he was as doomed as Pompeii; once Jaspers took down Krieger with a pop up headbutt, he was able to tag out and the rout was on. The last few minutes saw a flurry of tags and double teams before Krieger played a losing round of Finisher Bingo; "the Proper King" Richard Windsor hit him with a half and half suplex, then tagged in Jaspers who took him down to Fury Road, then after goosing the crowd for it, a tag to Ootsuka who flew off the top with Magical Sky to secure the three count and keep QCW's longest reigning champs exactly that. ** ½
Huge ovation for Ootsuka getting the win while on the outside it looked like Starr was looking for a straw boater to punch through. The babyfaces got their belts back and hands raised in triumph before taking to a set of turnbuckles and thanking the fans, all three men showing off their hardware. Steve put over their win before setting up the last commercials of the night - the Unified World title fight is up next.
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One match left tonight, but next week the march towards AnIIIversary ramps up even more.
🖥️ Next week's Unleashed will feature "Superfine" Reggie Strong in action as well as Beauty and the Beast Mode up against the Hard Way 🖥️
🌟 On next week's Ruckus, Cindy Monet will defend the Crush championship and Autumn Powers will defend the GRPL+ World TV title 🌟
🌟 And there'll be a triple threat match to determine the new #1 contenders to the Unified World Tag Team championships: Beauty and the Beast Mode vs. the International Players vs. the former champions the Wonderful Ward Brothers – winners get the titles shot at AnIIIversary against the domineering Team Batroc 🌟
That's next week for positioning against the Unified World Tag Team titles, but the 15 Pounds of Gold and the Unified World title are on the line…right now.
| | • the main event • | |
"B.O.B." hit the PA and you could hear it for maybe four seconds before the roof came off the dump and Jupiter Jones parted the Tron. He stood at the apex of the ramp and took Budokhan in, clearly moved. Jones cracked his neck, yelled out a "Let's DO this!" and started coming down the ramp. As the former QCW Champion came to the ring Steve put over the fact that Jupiter got a kickstart to his career in Japan over a decade ago before coming back to QCW and you probably know the rest. Jones stood on the buckles and raised a fist in the air right before the lights cut out.
With dry ice fog rolling across the stage, the Hellevator and Nick Cave playing brought up and out the Revenant with the 15 Pounds of Gold in his red right hand. He slowly strode to the ring and stepped over the top rope into the red spotlight center ring.
The spotlight switched to white while Duck made the prematch introductions, with the crowd deep in Jupiter's back pocket.
The bell rang and the men went face to face (well, face to chest) as the chants for Jupiter rang out in the sold out arena.
| • The Revenant [c] d. Jupiter Jones to retain the Unified World championship • | It felt like the entire arena (and down the stretch, the entire country) was against the Rev, but he managed to come out of a low-level war with the belt intact in an instant classic.
Both men peered around Budokhan after the opening staredown, the Rev clearly getting less amused with all the Jupiter chants while Jones pointed out at the audience that was clearly firing him up. JJ threw a hard right hand that would’ve put me in the hospital for two days, and the Rev barely budged before throwing a red right that would’ve put me in the ICU for a week. Jones took the hit but kept firing back, the Rev did so in kind, and as Budokhan started to test the limits of their decibel meter a hockey fight broke out to start things off.
The Rev got the upper hand and then got in a knee to the breadbasket before throwing Jones into a corner and starting to tee off on him with body blows that landed with sick thuds. The Rev pressed his boot against Jupiter’s throat for the entire count and then told the crowd he had something to shut them up, bieling Jones halfway across the ring. Jones rolled over onto his stomach and started to try to pull himself up while the Rev preened, barking at a camera that that was why HE was Mr. QCW.
Jupiter fought back but honestly got swallowed up in the opening minutes of the contest, with occasional cuts to the back showing the College Park Family showing concern over the beating. The Rev probably could’ve won this thing clean in the opening 10 minutes if he wasn’t, yunno, THE REV, and kept shutting down Jones with a combination of power moves and shady tactics – at one point he even ripped the kinesio tape off of Jones’ back and used it to choke him out for a four count, just because he could. Steve expressed concern at the desk while Naz enjoyed the scene in front of him given his own history with Jupiter.
At one point it looked like Jupiter had caused enough separation to get the upper hand, and he wasted little time when he saw the opening to uncork the Bolt From Olympus, but even then the Rev was there to not only pick him out of the air but convert his signature into a pop-up powerslam that drove Jones to the canvas like a speeding elevator down an empty shaft. The Rev signaled for the Red Right Hand, and got Jupiter into the goozle – then was as surprised as the rest of the world when Jones s l o w l y but eventually powered the Rev’s hand off of his neck and got a release after a bit. Jones started rocking the Rev with forearm shots from both sides, and while the Rev never covered up he was certainly in retreat. He shoved Jones off and went for a big boot, but Jones not only ducked it but busted out a handspring elbow of all things, and Steve and Budokhan erupted in stunned joy.
The Rev was rattled and Jones pressed the advantage, powering him into the corner to land shoulders to the gut before teeing off with more hard forearms. The Rev reversed a whip to the opposite corner but Jupiter ran up the buckles and pivoted, flying off with a clothesline that finally dropped the Rev to a big pop.
Jones emptied his tanks, using short range knees, hard kicks, and everything else he could think of. The Rev went for another Red Right Hand a couple minutes into this onslaught only to have his hand kicked away, and Jupiter rocked the ring with a massive release German suplex that had the Rev down. Jones fired up the faithful and called for it, moving out of swiping distance of the wounded Rev before finally delivering on the Bolt From Olympus.
The only problem with that was that it only managed to knock the Rev down to a knee, and there was a brief look of confusion on Jupiter’s face before determination set in; gesturing for the ref to move, Jupiter got loaded up and then rocked the Rev with an even cleaner Bolt From Olympus, and now the Unified champ was on both of his knees. Jupiter bellowed at the Rev that it would be him who gods destroy, and went to hit him with a third Bolt –
– it never made it.
The Rev sidestepped it and plucked him cleanly with a goozle, then delivered a Red Right Hand. That was bad enough, but what was even worse was that even after driving Jupiter in the mat the goozle was still on. The Rev got to a knee and then pulled himself up with one arm and Jupiter with the RRH (Steve got away with a “Je-SUS” on commentary) before spiking Jones into the canvas with a second Red Right Hand, and he wasn’t done there.
He pulled Jones off the canvas by the throat and showed him off to a couple of sides of Budokhan, clearly ignoring the helpless ref’s pleas before he did the same thing to Jupiter that he did to Razorblade at Cruel Summer, hitting him with a double pump Red Right Hand that stilled Jones. Budokhan got so quiet you could hear the ref’s three count cleanly, and everyone knew it was going to be a three. ****
Replays of the hard hitting throwdown played but when we went back to live time in the ring it was the Rev, the 15 Pounds of Gold in his red right hand, and the fallen body of Jupiter Jones laid out underneath the Big Bad’s booming cackle. Steve reluctantly put over another successful title defense for the Rev against a QCW staple before thanking their Japanese friends for having them and saying he & Naz would see them back at their stomping grounds of QCW Arena next week, where QCW would continue to bring the ruckus.
The credit box looked like it was coming up, but then we saw some world class culture spots – a lovely aquarium, a nice zoo, a museum in a forest - but then we started to hear a mid aughts hip hop classic as we heard Ludacris welcome us to Atlanta as we started to see Certain Popular Soda’s Logo, the Georgia Dome, Olympic Park and the MLK historical site before we got a shot of the Center Stage Theater from overhead at night with cars zooming around at 25x speed. Eventually the AnIIIversary logo appeared on the roof of Center Stage, with a prompt across the bottom of the screen that tickets would go on sale Monday at noon EST for QCW’s signature event of the year. Then we got the credit box briefly before we said goodbye to Budokhan.
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