LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS
The End Times not only laid out the Wonderful Ward Brothers but threw them both off the stage
In two Crush Rush qualifying matches, La Flor and Shelley LaVey won fatal four ways to advance to tonight's main event four way elimination Crush championship match
Jacques Krieger beat "the Fury" Jim Jaspers to retain the GRPL+ World TV title but got challenged by Katsuji Ootsuka for this week's episode
After the open rolled, we were looking live at the Quality Arena, where the Quality Controllers were already hyped up and waving signs even before the pyro popped off. Steve Vandeblanche and Nazir el-Fadal put over the sold out crowd before Steve got into hype mode for tonight, where the main event would crown a new Crush champion and we’d get to see newcomer Justice Davis go for the hat trick by taking down Drake Tremble of the Red, White and True – but action would begin from the tag division tonight…
| • the International Players (w/Jupiter Jones) d. the Red, White and True (w/Drake Tremble) • | The former #1 contenders were looking to fight their way back towards another titles shot and made their case by notching a two segment win here against the underling cosplaytriots. Steve noted as the match happened that Tremble seemed distracted, possibly due to the fight he was going to be in with Justice Davis later in the program.
“Swamp Trash” Ted Holland took on the bulk of the work for the heels and acquitted himself well; at one point he had Benjamin Valentino grounded on the mat with a figure four headlock while Steve used the hold to talk about the after effects of last week’s scheduled tag opener: the Wards were going to be out 4-6 weeks with bruised ribs and Rich Ward going through concussion protocols as well; the End Times heinous attack got them and Summer Rose banned from the Arena if only for the week.
Lucius Patton managed to fight out from under and reset the match with an arm wrench hook kick that felled Holland. Patton managed to tag out but Holland couldn’t, and that told the story of the last third of the match with the Players managing to keep Bobby Bash from tagging in and continuing to wear out the increasingly worn down Holland. After sending Bash into the steps and leaving Tremble to check on his powerhouse, the Players put a bow on the match with a double team avalanche Spanish Fly that put Holland down for good. ** ½
Jupiter Jones hit the ring to celebrate with his people while the Red, White & True licked their wounds and headed to the back. Steve mentioned that the win kept the Players in championship conversation, especially given how close they came to a win at AnIIIversary.
After that, we got a lengthy video package about the life and times of the Crush championship. By lengthy, I mean lengthy by QCW standards, so 3 or 4 minutes. But it hit all the major points in the history of the title, starting with its inception in the all women's Crush Wrestling Enterprise in a small town outside of Cincinnati in April 2001. We saw some of the biggest names in Crush history hold the title as well as appearances from Awesome King, Sara del Rey, Gail Kim and Alexis LaRee causing the Crush fans to throw enough streamers to baptize the ring out of respect.
When QCW bought Crush at the tail end of 2021, a host of now familiar names came to the women's division: the currently AWOL Luz Cruz, Val Curry, Jane Doe, Sohla Patel annnnddd Karyn Tisch-Warren, who was the last Crush champion when QCW bought them out. Karyn started toting around her old belt earlier this year and eventually Commissioner Holmes reinstituted the championship as the women's division equivalent of the GRPL+ World TV title.
We got footage from AnIIIversary of Karyn winning back the Women's World Championship and sending the woman who'd beaten her for it out of the company – only for Collipark's Cindy Monet to cash in the Crush championship and make the notorious KTW's second title reign disappear in under 10 seconds.
With Cindy cashing it in, that sets up the elimination four way main eventing tonight. Footage was shown of Jane Doe, La Flor, Shelley LaVey and – brace yourself – a certain Karyn Tisch-Warren winning fatal four ways to earn their spots in the spotlight tonight.
All four women cut short promos about how they would be the one to win (or in Karyn's case, win back) the Crush championship and continue the long, proud tradition of Crush champions.
When it ended, we went back to the announce who hyped the Crush championship main event. Steve put it over as a first of its kind match before Naz told him nobody cared about that; they cared about who he thought was going to win the belt. After some more prodding Steve said that since he was getting pressured he would go with La Flor who had been catching fire on Unleashed – Naz of course used that pick as an excuse to call Steve an idiot, saying that the Crush championship wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Karyn so he had no doubt (especially with International Lotus backing her up) that the Crush championship would find its way home to the First Lady of Fitness. With that PTI imitation out of the way, Steve threw it to Duck in the ring for the next match.
Beauty and the Beast Mode came together in large part due to the whole "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" paradigm in programs with the Game Changers, and given the fact that Tiki God v. These Hands was on the docket you didn't have to be Marvin Gaye to know what would go on once they rang the bell.
Buffett and Fade got into a slugfest early, which was a little bit of a tighter fight than Fade might have been used to given Al's surprising power. But as Naz pointed out at the desk, you didn't want to spend all night throwing hands with a Golden Gloves alumnus and soon Roy had Buffett crumpled up thanks to a big straight right that sent him to his knees. Fade followed that up with a Muay Thai plum and a series of short range knee strikes before dumping Al with a swinging fisherman's neckbreaker that got him the first near fall of the match.
Fade kept working over the neck of Buffett as he worked towards being able to drill Al with the Decision, but as Ashley THEE Influencer pounded the apron to fire up the faithful the Tiki God managed to slowly piece together a comeback. First he managed to shrug off Fade's nerve hold, then getting to his feet first allowed him to absolutely drill Fade with a dropkick in the teeth that had Fade reeling. These Hands never quite fell over (although he came close), and once he got a few more bearings he charged Buffett, who low bridged him over the top rope and out to the floor. Fade's partner went over to check on him, but both "Dashing" Pierce Moore and Roy Fade got engulfed by Al's sudden tope suicida that really woke up the crowd and had Ashley looking excited, #respectfully.
Al eventually got himself together and tossed Fade back into the ring before dominating him for the next few minutes, getting a few nearfalls before putting a bow on things with his signature Inner Strength from the top. Fade was a snow angel on the mat but as Al drew himself up to head over to pin him, Moore ran into the ring and dropped Al with the Fresh To Death to cause a DQ. I get it but also booooooo. ** 1/2
| • "Tiki God" Al Buffett (w/Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo) ddq. "These Hands" Roy Fade (w/"Dashing" Pierce Moore) • |
Of course, sometimes you get a DQ in the short term to win in the long term, and that's what Beauty and the Beast Mode pulled off here – Ashley ran in the ring and put a flurry of hands on Moore only to be stopped in her tracks literally by Fade hanging onto her leg; that was all the opening the Baron of Beverly Hills needed to drop her with another Fresh To Death. The crowd booed while Moore tended to his partner, eventually helping Roy up and starting to make an exit. But Fade had other plans and slid back into the ring to drill Ashley with the Decision as she tried to get up. Al crawled over to use his body as a shield to keep Ashley from suffering any more punishment – and that put him in perfect position to eat The Decision himself. Referees came out to keep the carnage from increasing, but Fade put up his hands and left the ring causing the damage that he'd wanted to do. A giddy Moore was borderline squealing and repeatedly slapping his partner's chest in glee while they backed up the ramp, Fade's cocky sneer slowly turning into a grim smile. Steve derided the actions of the black hats while Naz waved it off, saying he'd done worse to the Game Changers before. Steve tried to save that off and said we'd finally see the Justice Davis vs. Drake Tremble grudge match after they powered through a few commercials here on G+. Of note: right before the break there was a cut to backstage that showed Shelley LaVey watching Beauty and the Beast Mode strutting on a monitor and looking on with interest before going back to her stretching ahead of the main event.
✨
We came back from the break to another black and white vignette with splashes of red dotting it, but this time we saw the massive back of a hulking figure. He said his name was Omar, but that’s not usually what people called him. It was always stuff that couldn’t be repeated on television, and for most of the past few years it was freak. Just because of the scars. Just because something was a little off on a dive and it turned him into…well, this. They would see it soon enough, recoil from him soon enough, learn fear the way it was taught to him and worse soon enough. Ugly wins were still wins, and by the time he was done making his mark on QCW he would leave it with a scar they could never get rid of, just like him. The name was Omar. Omar Littlefield. And he would be in the business of scarring QCW soon. The figure got up and left the frame, though we never saw Littlefield’s face.
| • Justice Davis NC “the Voice of Freedom” Drake Tremble • | After making his way through both the underlings, Davis assumed he would get the leader of the cosplaytriots tonight.
He didn't. Guess why – the underlings.
Davis came out but then got jumped in the aisle by Bobby Bash and "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland. Davis had some success but couldn't fend off three men. Bash, then Holland and then Tremble himself took turns hitting their Finisher Bingo daubers while the Controllers booed. Drake asked Ted to get the mic, and once he did he got right in Davis' barely conscious face in order to begin smacktalking him.
Tremble said that after last week, everybody had their jokes about him but now he was getting the last laugh. The Cindy thing happening was bad enough, but a rookie? No goshdarned way. If he wanted to bring this nation down by trying to bring him down in a one on one match, first he'd have to get past all of the Red, White and True in a trios match next week. He could get any two partners he wanted as long as they were fine with losing. They would rather live in San Francisco than have some snot nose punk go up the ladder in QCW at their expense, and come next week Davis and whatever losers he got would find out the hard way that they would not be silenced. "Stranglehold" hit the PA and they headed up the ramp to boos with Steve bitterly noting that by hook or by crook, Drake got what he wanted tonight. A playful Naz joked (?) that if the kid had Dark Mirror money, his Venmo was open.
Refs came out to check on Davis, who took a couple of minutes to get vertical but eventually headed to the back under his own power with the zebras a step and a half behind just in case. As they headed up the ramp, Duck Eko got back into the ring and waited for them to be behind the Qualitron before announcing the following contest with a 15 minute time limit was scheduled for one fall (ONE FALL!) and was for the GRPL+ World Television championship!
The theme from “King Kong vs. Godzilla” played and brought out Katsuji Ootsuka to a good pop from the Controllers. The Prince of Punishment had a small smile on his face, even messing with the hair of a kid in the front row on the way to the ring. GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week Ootsuka came to the aid of his buddies the Proper Villains, keeping Jim Jaspers from getting pummeled post match and challenging the TV champ to a one on one with their seconds in the back tonight. As Ootsuka let himself get checked for foreign objects by the referee, said champion came out.
Beartooth’s “Hated” brought out Jacques Krieger on his own for the first time in months…well, on his own if you didn’t count the silver around his waist. As he headed to ringside there was a quick cut to backstage where his fixer S. Mark Starr was pensively watching on a monitor. The referee stood between them as Krieger slowly raised his belt overhead while glaring down Ootsuka, a former TV champ in his own right. Duck made the introductions, and once they were wrapped up the lights in Quality Arena restored and the title match got underway.
Ootsuka was already coming at Krieger while the bell was ringing, and clipped Krieger with a rolling Koppu kick that popped the crowd. Ootsuka scrambled to a knee and launched himself forward with another rolling Koppu kick that hit Krieger on the crown of the head and sent the champion down to a knee. Katsuji ran for the ropes and went for a third but Krieger ducked down. Ootsuka bounced off the ropes on the other side and bull rushed Jacques – who drilled him in the jaw with his Ace in the Hole shotei so hard that Ootsuka went somersaulting through the air and landed on his chest. Krieger let out a war cry before staggering towards Ootsuka and snatching him up. Krieger hooked him up in a suplex and held it before converting it into a spinning uranage. Krieger went for a cover – and to the shock of everybody watching, Krieger pinned him clean in the middle just like that. I’m not going to lie to you – I have no idea what to rate that.
| • Jacques Krieger [c] d. Katsuji Ootsuka to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship 3️⃣ • |
The camera caught plenty of Surrender Cobras out in the audience as the ref got the belt and raised Krieger’s hand; Ootsuka hadn’t moved as we went to replays, which turned out to be the entire 37 second match before Ootsuka got laid out and dropped. Steve was speechless and even Naz was astounded, saying that it reminded him of last year when Krieger was routinely microwaving chumps in under 30 seconds, but Ootsuka is an Ambassadors champ and former TV champ – and yet that had still happened to him. Krieger walked up the ramp with his index finger in the air and the TV title over his shoulder facing the ring, and he got met by an ecstatic S. Mark Starr who leapt into his arms and was obviously giddy over his client making a statement win. Krieger, as usual, played it much cooler and lowered Starr as they parted the Tron before heading to the back.
As for poor Ootsuka, he was coming around but he may not have fully been in the Arena; once he was able to sit up the first thing he did was asked the referee if he had won. The zebra leaned forward and had to tell him, which turned Ootsuka white in the ring. He looked as if he’d been told a family member died, honestly. The crowd, which had been mostly in shellshocked silence for the past couple minutes started to make some positive noise as the Proper Villains came down the ramp and got in the ring to bolster their fellow Ambassadors trios champion.
“The Fury” Jim Jaspers did most of the talking and “the Proper King” Richard Windsor added some additional helpful words but the thousand yard stare of Ootsuka hadn’t budged since he got conscious. Jim and Richard offered up small smiles as Katsuji started to move…but the move was to roll out of the ring and after a moment on the apron, making the Sad Hulk walk up the ramp. Naz took his usual sadistic glee in the misery of a good person while Steve noted that this put the Proper Villains in a very awkward situation where they wanted to help buck up their friend but couldn't because their match was coming up next. We went to commercials with the Villains looking concerned in the ring and Katsuji with his head in his hand on the ramp possibly wiping away tears.
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When we came back from the break, Ootsuka was nowhere to be seen and it had the Villains talking to each other as long time partners and fellow Catch Hell Wrestling League alumni Ian Cook & Gerry Greene came out to disapproval from the Quality Controllers.
The Villains were in rare territory for themselves for most of the match - playing catch up. The announce put over that outside of the Consortium no one perhaps knew the Villains as well as Cook x Greene did, and they frequently had counters to some of the Ambassador titleholders’ biggest maneuvers. You could have made an argument they controlled the match 75/25 right up until Greene slapped Jaspers and mocked him for being a gutted little melt (?) without their servant around. Jaspers slowly pulled himself up and headbutted Greene in the face, then did it three more times, and that sparked the turnaround.
The Villains were back on their championship level ways after that, and even took out the massive Cook with a double team powerbomb through the announce table that drew “Holy shit!” chants far and wide in the Arena. With his muscle taken out of the picture, Greene tried begging off but the Villains ran through him like bills through a paycheck and took pride in making him pay for a few minutes. After a half and half suplex scrambled his brains, Windsor tagged in Jasper and they took out the Shame of Birmingham with a dope double team maneuver: Windsor provided the flapjack but Jaspers came down with a Fury Road to the back of Greene’s head (FuryD?) that spiked him hard into the canvas. Jaspers didn’t bother hooking a leg after that and he didn’t need to, either. **
| • the Proper Villains d. Ian Cook & Gerry Greene • |
After replays, we could see Jaspers getting the mic and his share of the Ambassadors Trios championships from Duck. Once he waved down the Controllers a bit, Old Jim gave a shoutout to Ootsuka and said that he got surprised and that it happened to everyone, so he shouldn't be too down about it. And now that they'd finished beating these prats twice in three days, they're moving on to bigger and better teams:
"Oi, Sergei! You and the Russian bear show up next week and put the Unified Tags up against me and the Proper King - we'll make it so your title reign ends and we hold all the tag team gold 'round here." With a smirk and a "Cheers," Jim tossed the mic to the side and stood on the middle rope talking smack and holding up his share of the Ambassadors belts while the announce speculated if Holmes would authorize the long time rivals fighting it out for the Unified World Tag Team championships next week.
✨
Back from the break and Steve conducted the hype train for next week's QCW programming…
🖥️ Unleashed will have the International Players in action with Ted Holland facing Autumn Powers in the main event 🖥️
💫 Jacques Krieger will make another defense of the GRPL+ World TV title - who's next on Krieger's march to 10 after sweeping Prince and Proper? 💫
💫 Just made official from the Office of the Commissioner, a match has been made with the Unified World Tag Team championships on the line with the Proper Villains trying to get the belts off of Team Batroc 💫
💫 And the Crush championship will be on the line…but before that happens next week we need to crown a new Crush champion right now 💫
| • the main event • |
"Shockadelica" brought out Shelley LaVey first, looking focused in her usual red and black. As she headed down the ramp into the ring, GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That a couple nights ago on Unleashed she and Karyn Tisch-Warren teamed up to beat Jane Doe and La Flor - more importantly, it was Shelley who pinned Jane at the end of that tag match and carried the momentum into the main event tonight.
Speaking of Jane Doe, "Space March" brought her out next to a good pop from the Quality Controllers. Highlights of her winning her qualifying match played as she hit the ring. Shelley got in her face but even before the referee got between them Jane was no selling the smacktalk. Steve pointed out that she'd actually gotten a shot at the title at AnIIIversary and looked to succeed here where she'd failed at the PPV.
"Roar" brought out Karyn Tisch-Warren to a tidal wave of boos from the Controllers, not that she cared. She bypassed the Doe/LaVey contretemps in the ring and walked up to where the Crush championship was on a small podium ringside, seemingly eying every facet of her old title. She nodded briskly a couple of times before getting into the ring, Naz noting that a win here turned the notorious KTW into the most decorated Crush champion in the history of the belt.
Then out came the luchadora La Flor, though she didn't show any nervousness about the bright lights. In fact, she was the one who sprinted to the ring and took down Karyn with a double leg and immediately started going ground and pound with forearms. The referee encouraged Jane and Shelley to take up spots on the apron and rang the bell to get the elimination match under way.
The women paired off in every combination during the first fall, which took up a couple segments. In addition to the usual white v. black hats action, there was a stretch where LaVey and Tisch-Warren faced off for several minutes without one getting a huge advantage on the other. And we got some fun back and forth between Jane Doe and La Flor, but who the luchadora was focused on was the First Lady of Fitness. Unfortunately for Steve's prediction, it turned out to bite her in the ass as Shelley LaVey saw an opportunity and took it. As La Flor ran Tisch-Warren into the ropes, Shelley blind tagged herself in. La Flor managed to catch Karyn with an O'Connor roll, but the now legal LaVey flew into the scene and dropped La Flor with a cutter; seconds later after a flying splash, she got the first three count of the match.
Shelley LaVey eliminated La Flor for the first fall.
The Controllers booed, but LaVey responded by pointing over at the championship while smacking herself in the chest and barking at the crowd. Tisch-Warren spun her around and seemed to be taking umbrage over Shelley getting involved; LaVey seemed to be listening for a while before she got her revenge by sticking Karyn with a cutter. Tisch-Warren bounced off the mat and ended up spilling between the middle and bottom rope to the floor. With her out of the picture, Jane Doe came into the ring and she began going back into the fight with Shelley LaVey that started in fits and starts during the first fall.
Doe soon got the upper hand on LaVey thanks to her unorthodox offense, making the Controllers cheer thanks to her airplane spin and standing corkscrew moonsault. However, Shelley wrestled back the upper hand a few moments later when she caught Jane coming off the ropes and spiked her into the mat with a leaping double foot stomp that got her 2 ½. Steve let everyone know GRPL+ had sent notice that they would stick with this match no matter how long it went, even into the next hour.
Shelley continued to have the upper hand on Jane and seemed to have her set up for her second straight elimination, but not only did Jane push off her attempt at a cutter, Karyn pulled down the top rope and sent LaVey falling to the floor as a result. Jane tried to go after Shelley but the referee held her back. Tisch-Warren quickly snatched up LaVey and powerbombed her into the ring post before walking away from her handiwork with a little smirk on her face. LaVey screeched in pain on the floor but managed to pull herself into the ring at 9 with help from the bottom rope. A weakened LaVey was no match for Doe, and with Karyn smiling on from the apron Jane sent Shelley to the showers with a fallaway slam out of a fireman's carry.
Jane Doe eliminated Shelley LaVey for the second fall.
Karyn applauded before strutting into the ring; the strutting ended right at the end of Jane's heart punch, and Karyn had to get out from under at 2 ¾. With the crowd chanting "Let's go, Jane Doe!" the Collipark representative gave the former three-time champion hell - Jane almost won the title off of the former champion with an impressive rebound Asai moonsault. A couple of minutes after that, Karyn dodged a Jane attack and Stun Gunned her into the top turnbuckle. Tisch-Warren tried to shake off the cobwebs and go back to work but when she turned to do so Jane was wrapped up in a Lady of the Lake World of Sport style. Karyn tried rolling her around to pin her - when that didn't work, Karyn stomped away at Jane's body. At least she did for a little bit, until Jane picked her ankle and quickly moved into a crossface.
The crowd was chanting at Karyn to tap out, and one of Tisch-Warren's hands got up in the air. But she wasn't in this to tap out; she reached up and tried to pry Jane's grip loose. But that attempt just made Jane clamp down harder on it, and Karyn's free hand started skimming the air and then the canvas. Karyn knuckled up against the mat and then proceeded to do the most impressive push up of her life, raising Jane off of the mat while she still had the crossface on. (Steve lost his mind over it and all you could hear was Naz laughing and clapping once she got vertical.) Karyn staggered for a couple of steps while holding both women up before she swung Jane into the nearest corner. Jane somehow kept a hold on Karyn, but she didn't after Karyn repeated the move. With both women down Quality Arena fired up a "This is awesome! 👏 👏 👏👏👏" chant as both of them slowly got up parallel to each other.
Jane got up first and went for another heart punch, but Karyn tried to backdrop Jane out to the floor. Doe landed on the apron but Tisch-Warren snatched up her leg and gave her a dragon screw leg whip that sent her out to the floor. Karyn rolled out of the ring and grabbed Jane before hooking her up and delivering a shinbreaker that sent her injured leg into the top of the steps to the shock and disgust of the Controllers. Jane's differently colored eyes blinked rapidly as she clutched at it while Karyn got back in the ring and demanded the referee count Jane out. Jane actually rolled under the ring and came out the other side at 8. Doe managed to get back in the ring and hobble forward but Tisch-Warren launched herself at Jane with a chop block that sent Jane somersaulting through the air. Karyn wasted little time in locking the Circuit Breaker on Jane, letting out a war cry as she contorted Jane with her elevated Texas Cloverleaf. Jane had some water in her eyes, but she didn't say anything – she just crawled for the ropes. The crowd fired up even louder "Let's go, Jane Doe!" chants as she got within three feet of the ropes…two feet…fingertips away –
– and Karyn looked back before pulling Jane to the center of the ring and putting her knee on the back of Jane's neck. Karyn let out a gutteral roar as she continued trying to fold Jane in ways she was not meant to bend. Doe tried to power out of the hold multiple times but eventually her head fell limply to the canvas. The referee moved towards Jane's arm and lifted it up; when it fell straight down to the canvas she called for the bell and you could hear the oxygen go out of Quality Arena. ****
Karyn Tisch-Warren rendered Jane Doe unconscious for the third fall to win the Crush championship.
| • Karyn Tisch-Warren d. Jane Doe, Shelley LaVey and La Flor in a four way elimination match to win the Crush championship • |
Karyn collapsed to a knee as Naz didn't brag on commentary, not one bit (Ron Howard voiceover: We all know that's a lie, right?). The referee checked on Jane, who was moving but barely. Moving far quicker than the fallen Doe were both Sohla Patel and Scott Warren-Tisch; they hit the ring just in time for Karyn to be handed the Crush championship. Sohla and Scott were literally jumping in circles around an exhausted Karyn as she raised the belt overhead before orange and yellow pyro to match the championship's facade exploded on the stage. After it died down, Karyn whispered something to Scott, who immediately got the mic from Duck and handed it to his wife.
Once she spoke, Karyn got right to the point.
You mouth breathers see this?
DO
YOU
MOUTH
BREAAAAAAAATHERS SEE THIS??!???
You think because Cindy cheapshotted me from behind she's a real champion? She's a joke. This is what a real champion looks like, and it's appropriate they call you Android because people with money get the real phone, you understand? You got the belt from jumping me - I got my belt back by dominating the division, just like I have all year. There's only one four-time Crush champion, and I am HER.
So whether it's my rematch or my baby on my shoulder, I'm going to make it midnight on your little fairy tale. And even these mouth breathers will be forced to admit that when it comes to excellence in the women's division, the last word will belong to KARYN. TISCH. [BLEEP]ING. WARREN.
The notorious KTW chucked the mic and glared at the hard camera while Steve put over Karyn's historic win and Naz put himself over for picking Karyn to win. While Scott and Sohla celebrated around her, the new Crush champion kept her glare steady on the hard camera as the credits box came up. Come back next week for Karyn's first defense and more as the march towards the grave Devil's Night continues!
