Ruckus kicked off with Luda in the background of the AnIIIversary recap package; stills of Shelley LaVey and Mr. Teknik winning their preshow matches gave way to video of highlights from the main card:
Cindy Monet retaining the Crush championship against her partner, Jane Doe
Serge pulling off a fake tag before beating the International Players and retaining the Unified World Tag Team championships
"Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter Look Inwarding Summer Rose to sleep to win the unsanctioned match
Jacques Krieger debuting a new wrinkle to his offense that planted Jupiter Jones for 3 to regain the G+ World TV title
Karyn Tisch-Warren cheating to finally beat "Night Sky" Diana Spare and not only gain the Women's World championship but to send Spare out of QCW…
…only to have Cindy Monet cash in the Crush championship and beat her a minute later to win the Women's World championship to be the third different one in three minutes
The Revenant sending the good people of Atlanta home downtrodden after slamming Autumn Powers into the mat with a pump Red Right Hand and retaining the Unified World Heavyweight championship
Speaking of Atlanta, Center Stage gets one last Ruckus before we head back to homebase, and just as they were on Sunday night the A-Towners were rabid and in full throat for Friday night. Steve & Naz are on commentary, and Steve immediately asked Naz what he meant at the end of the show when he said he could solve the Revenant problem if Commissioner Holmes paid up. Naz pointed out that tonight would see the first steps taken towards crowning a new Crush champion after Cindy Monet cashed it in to become the new Women’s World champion. Steve pressed Naz again and Naz hyped up the also new World TV champion, Jacques Krieger, who would be defending the belt in tonight’s main event. Steve started to ask again, but then he was paralyzed by red and yellow lasers with some Euro techno getting the crowd lively and on their feet for the opening contest…
| • Mr. Teknik d. Ian Cook (w/Gerry Greene) • | Mr. Teknik made his (re?)debut on the AnIIIversary preshow, going over Greene who was on the floor for this one. Against the bigger Cook, Mr. Teknik literally danced his way out of holds before teeing off with some rapid fire thigh kicks, and once they worked to wear Cook down he put on a few impressive holds of his own while dancing and strutting between them. Between the Muta Locks and the dance moves, the Big Tosser got eaten up like a salad and went down in short order to a hammerlock DDT. **
Post match, Mr. Teknik tried to get the ref to dance with him after getting his hand raised to no avail but still danced his way up the aisle with his victory in pocket.
After that, we went to the announce desk where Steve noted while An–Mr.Teknik had a good AnIIIversary, several QCW stars ended up injured during the course of the show and they were finally able to provide conclusive updates as to the active status of said stars.
Both “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter and Summer Rose suffered injuries during their wild unsanctioned match, which will see Carpenter out for another few days with an elbow contusion and Rose out for two weeks with a concussion after being pummeled with a bat and choked out in a Look Inward.
Before he could be involved in the World TV title match, “Superfine” Reggie Strong got jumped in the parking lot by Jacques Krieger and put through a windshield; it’ll be October before we get Sade over the PA again. And Mason “Razorblade” Savage was jumped by the Revenant backstage at AnIIIversary and got a vending machine dropped on him for his troubles – and while he did check himself out of Emory University Hospital on Tuesday, there’s been radio silence from him for a week and no timetable for his return is known as of yet.
Steve threw from that info dump to another “match” that might’ve seen two more beds at Emory get filled up…
| • the End Times NC the Hard Way • | This was more an angle than a match, with the End Times coming out from the crowd to absolutely bludgeon the former tag team champions with their THE END IS NIGH signs for the better part of a minute before the Quality Force security finally formed enough of a protective wall between the teams to make Danny Castle and Dr. Martin Williams to take their leave silently while the crowd booed. At the announce table, Naz directly attributed this to the absence of Summer Rose, and as a great meme once said, he’s out of line, but he’s right.
Staying at the desk, Steve pointed out that we were without a Crush champion as Cindy Monet successfully cashed it in on Sunday to take the Women's World Championship off of Karyn Tisch-Warren. Over the week the office of the Commissioner put together a plan to fill the championship, and it'll play out over Ruckus all September.
Starting tonight, there will be four fatal four way matches (2 to come and 2 next week as well). The winners of those qualifying matches will then advance to a fatal four way elimination match on the September 29th Ruckus with that winner having earned being Crush champion.
We saw Justice Davis walking through backstage after Steve made that announcement, and the Battle Ground Battler continues his war against the Red, White and True after the break.
✨
As “Stranglehold” brought out the Red, White & True we took a trip on G+’s Wayback Machine, although we only needed to go a week back: Justice Davis beat Bobby Bash in the show’s opener, and then when Bash & Holland jumped Autumn ahead of her main event G+ World TV title defense it was Davis who made the save, thanks to a steel chair, clearing the deck for Autumn to take down Drake Tremble. So they cosplaytriots were salty at newbie JD, who wanted to wash those redhatted scrubs.
Bobby Bash stared at the Qualitron 9004 while Tremble continued to feed Holland fruit from his poisoned learning tree. We got to see this for a few seconds before “New Day” by the Bouncing Souls brought out Davis to a good pop from the Quality Controllers. Davis put his index up as he made his way to the ring but otherwise kept a focus on the opposition in the ring, circling it before getting in.
The battle of QCW first year stars started with a back and forth for the opening few minutes, and to a mild shock for most Holland kept a step or two ahead of Davis (maybe call it 55/45, maybe less) and even stunned him with a springboard dropkick that sent Justice to the outside. Tremble tried to run interference while Bash piled on with a completely unnecessary clothesline. Unfortunately for the MAGAtts, the zebra caught Bobby's interference and tossed him to the delight of all decent people everywhere.
Holland complained briefly to the ref but told his partners in crime that he had this.
It turned out that he, in fact, did not. Davis used the opening to get a head start and speared Holland through the ropes to send both men to the floor. The Quality Controllers loved that and you could hear an audible but faint wave of "Holy shit!" chants. Most of the referee's count went by before Davis could recover first and tossed Holland into the ring.
The rest of the match was Davis' to lose and he didn't despite Holland making life tough for him. Justice eventually put him down with a combo that'd make a veteran proud: a nasty release German suplex to get to a John Woo dropkick before closing him out with the Davis Driver. ** ½
| • Justice Davis d. "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland (w/the Red, White and True) • |
We got replays for a bit but then we cut to Davis at the announce table, who without benefit of a mic said that now that he'd dropped the flunkies, he had that annoying living As Seen On TV ad next on his hit list…and he wouldn't waste a lot of time waiting to drop him, too. Davis headed to the back to a good pop while the referee's tried to help Holland regain his bearings.
After that we got a vignette, full of darkness, and an unfamiliar voice was all we heard as things got occasionally interrupted by a splash of red, or screaming fans, or even people throwing up in revulsion.
The voice said that everyone talked about wrestling as if it was some kind of higher calling, its own church…but what happened when you gave everything to that church and it still cast you out? What happened when you gave a pound of flesh for the combat art you idolized and people turned on you from that moment and designated you a sideshow freak because of a freak accident that could have happened to anybody? Everyone talks about the glories of wrestling, but he (whoever he is) is the ugly reality, and they will have to deal with him soon. A life in wrestling has scarred him…and he will scar QCW in kind.
SOON.
We went back to the ring, where Duck Eko announced the first of two Crush Rush qualifying matches before “Roar” brought out a lemon-faced International Lotus and an especially salty Karyn Tisch-Warren. The notorious KTW used timing and cheating to send Diana Spare out of QCW and regain the Women’s World championship, only for Cindy Monet to get the jump on her with her cash in and take that World title off of her hands. Even Scott the Simp looked as tough as he could behind the ladies while Karyn said to the camera that despite Cindy’s efforts to cancel her, she was going to be a champion again – hell, maybe the first women’s division double champion, and if she got screwed again, it would be Sohla’s turn to hold a title. Don’t let a cheater holding her property get you confused; this was still the Year of the Lotus, and they’d bounce back stronger than ever.
They paced the ring as Steve hyped up seeing their opponents and running tonight’s Crush Rush qualifying matches on the other side of some ads.
✨
We returned to see Lotus looking on as Fiona Fogg came down the aisle with her usual wan smile on her face, and while she kept an eye on the ring she was followed out by Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo of the Game Changers, who got an even bigger pop than Fiona did.
Once the match began it looked like Lotus was going to be in a unified front against their babyface opponents, and they had more than enough firepower to keep Ashley and Fiona on the backfoot early. For Lotus, however, history repeated itself; just as it had on Sunday the rules of the match led to some low-level infighting that manifested itself first when Sohla broke up a pin attempt that Karyn was doing. A couple of minutes after that, Szabo did a matrix bridge to avoid a Lotus double team and Patel’s clothesline took out her partner accidentally (?) before Szabo took down Patel with a rewind rana for 2.
Fogg got a couple of spots to show off her skills but down the stretch she was taken out by a Doomsday Missile Dropkick Device (!) from Lotus, who then turned their attention towards wiping out Szabo from the frame. But Ashley sent Patel into Karyn before looking to neckbreaker Tisch-Warren who’d DDT Patel in the process, and Szabo fired up to roars from the crowd. Ashley bench pressed Sohla into an alley oop codebreaker, but then Tisch-Warren snuck up behind Szabo and threw her shoulderfirst into the ringpost before looking around the ring…and pinning her partner. ** 1/2
| • Karyn Tisch-Warren d. Sohla Patel, Fiona Fogg and Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo in a Crush Rush qualifying match • |
Post match replays played before we went back to the ring; you could understand the disappointment in the faces of both the white hats but the interest quickly pivoted to the ring, where Patel was understandably salty about getting pinned by her own partner (/employee?). Even without mics you could hear Karyn saying she had to end the match before one of them won it and kept the belt away from International Lotus. Sohla had to get beat now so Karyn could win the belt later, and Karyn gave her her word this would end with her getting back her old Crush championship. It didn’t fix everything but eventually Lotus was a semi happy family as they headed to the back, Karyn bragging to the camera that it was only a matter of time before her baby came back to her while Patel barely nodded in the background. Curiouser and curiouser…
We saw a vignette that began with an overhead shot of a graveyard dotted with tombstones but only one had a figure sitting on it; when a zoom in happened we could only see the back of a massive man flashing something shiny in his red right hand.
It was…almost adorable the way you all believed. The way you all knew that a miracle was going to happen.
While we didn't see it, you could hear the spit before the Unified World Heavyweight Champion continued speaking.
There are no miracles in my presence, only truth. And the truth above all is this: your…heh…Commissioner INSULTED me when he sent an off duty Hot Topic cashier to come for my prize - for these 15 pounds I exalt with every victim that I add.
The people at the network won't like what I say next but since this is what they paid for, they can swallow their sad pride and face the facts.
They dress it up like QCW is a destination. But the reality is that QCW is a morgue.
MY MORGUE.
And if you keep sending frail humans after an immortal then the result will be the same. It's what I'm counting on, actually: because I'm not done until I dig the grave of anyone foolish to stand in the way of my dominance and bury their hopes and dreams just like all the crying babies and their spawn do after my victories.
If that turns QCW into my morgue along the way…then I have every reason to send Quality Championship Wrestling to its final resting place.
The Revenant stood on the grave and while he faced the camera due to his duster and big black cowboy hat, the championship could be seen more clearly than he was.
Send anyone you want, whoever's left. But I assure you of this - if someone is foolish enough to come at me after all I've done just in the past six months alone, I will remain immortal.
And they will find a place to rest.
Having concluded his soliloquy, the Revenant walked towards and then past the camera with the Unified title scraping a line through fresh dirt. Behind that dirt, even in that darkness what was on the tombstone was as clear as crystal:
AUTUMN POWERS
who cares - 2023
| • Jane Doe d. Val Curry, Gaia Green and Lolo Vuitton in a Crush Rush qualifying match • | You could argue that the first qualifying match ran more or less to expectations given the individuals involved; you couldn’t say that here even though Jane’s partner was the last Crush champion.
Vuitton was the biggest name in the match and the fight certainly got fought that way, with Green trying to take on Lolo one on one and largely failing before tagging in the tallest woman in the division, Curry. The Shieldmaiden used her strength to wear down Lolo for hammer blows but when she went to big boot Lolo down, Vuitton caught her and turned it into a knee breaker instead. The two-time former Women's World champ continued to focus on wearing down Curry's knee until a corner charge saw Lolo get spiked into the mat via a limping Curry's STO.
But Curry's position allowed Jane to tag herself in, and the otherworldly talent proceeded to show a deep playbook against her opposition. Vuitton tried to intimidate Doe with her aura and resume, but Jane sort of breezed past Vuitton and lit her up with armdrags and a handspring double heel kick.
Gaia tagged in and took Jane down with armdrags, but then Jane lashed out with a chop block that grounded Green and she began working the leg over to an increasingly positive reaction. Gaia managed to upkick Jane away and roll over a few times, but that made Curry tag in and she was hellbent on revenge.
Curry powered Jane around the ring a few times before she hoisted Jane up and said she was going to hurt her even worse now. Jane tilted her head slightly, and then broke Curry's goozle before slamming into the Shieldmaiden with a heart punch. Curry started wobbling even before Jane laid her all the way out with another heart punch. Doe started to go for a cover but saw Fiona coming in to break it up and sent Fogg flying with a backdrop that almost made Fogg senton bomb Curry. Jane went for another cover but got off of it at 1 so that she could sidestep the incoming Vuitton and actually matadored Lolo into taking out Fogg with the Bloody Shoe…but Vuitton's momentum took her into tripping over Fogg and going out and over the top rope. Jane went back for a cover and Curry kicked out at 2 ½. Doe wasted little time in powering up Curry to some gasps from the crowd before hitting a running fall away slam and going for the cover. Lolo went in and dove onto the cover…but she broke it up at what would have been 4, and to the shock of the Controllers Jane Doe advanced to the elimination title match in two weeks. ** ½
Doe got her hand raised while Lolo scowled from the corner, and a chyron put Jane next to Karyn Tisch-Warren with two silhouettes next to them for the winners of next week's qualifiers. A cut TOTHEBACK~! showed Cindy Monet watching on a monitor with a smile, clapping while the Women's World championship bounced off her left shoulder a few times. Steve hyped up the GRPL+ World TV title being on the line in the main event, but first Ruckus had to put a final round of commercials to bed and tuck it in.
✨
We came back from the break to creepy whistling over the PA, which could only mean two things: the dulcet tones of Rammstein’s “Engel” and the fact that the Unified World Tag Team champions were coming out to brag. As Serge Batroc and Pyotr Caviar walked to the ring in tracksuits we got some stills of their successful title defense at AnIIIversary, however narrow their win was.
As they hit their mid ring pose and lifted up the Unified belts, four streams of golden pyro shot up from the ringposts while the A-Town Controllers booed through it all. Serge demanded the mic from Duck and got it in short order while the jeers continued; after this went on for a few seconds Pyotr asked for and got the mic from Serge before bellowing into it “SILENCE YOURSELVES!” and the temperature in Atlanta went down three degrees. Caviar handed the mic back to Serge, who smiled at his protege and embarrassed us Americans with the brightest beam in the game.
Batroc lifted the microphone and said as much as the ugly Americans on the other side of the barricade hated him and Pyotr, it just reminded him of Sunday night when he introduced their precious hometown heroes to the same reality they were whining about now – no one would stop Team Batroc from dominating the division for the rest of the year or being the Unified champions. These people could cry about it and get nowhere, the same way the International Players tried their feeble best and ended up staring up at the lights. If people didn’t get the point, Serge would be more than happy to remind them that the power lied in his brains, in Pyotr’s arms, and if you wanted to see someone else hold the tag belts then go to the website and buy them. Because otherwise the Unified World Tag Team champions would continue on their path - above everyone else. Viva la Serge…and long live the reign of the champions. “Engel” came back on over the PA and we went from seeing Team Batroc preen in the ring to Prince and Proper in the back watching them celebrate.
“The Fury” Jim Jaspers asked his partners why they weren’t just laying out these jerk[bleeped]s and Katsuji Ootsuka said that there would be a time and place for that, but they should focus on making Richard Windsor TV champ in a few…minutes….and the Prince of Punishment took a phone call, explaining to his partners he just needed a minute. Ootsuka then told whomever called him that he was down to listen to them if they could hang on for a moment. When Ootsuka turned around again, he suddenly found himself in an empty locker room.
Before we hit the main event, Steve hit up some programming highlights coming over the next week of QCW shows…
🖥️ On Unleashed, Ted Holland will go one on one against Lucius Patton and Fiona Fogg will face off against International Lotus’ Sohla Patel 🖥️
✨ ✨ ✨Next week’s Ruckus will have the other two Crush Rush qualifiers as well as the winner of the main event will be defending the GRPL+ World TV title ✨ ✨ ✨
But who’s walking in as World TV champ? Time to bring up the curtain on
| • the main event • |
The Proper Villains parted the Tron to a good response from Atlanta. Jim Jaspers was talking up Richard Windsor as he made his way down the aisle. The Ambassadors champions (well, at least ⅔rds of them) hit the ring and Windsor stretched out in the corner, nodding through a couple of questions from the referee before the tenor in Center Stage shifted.
For the first time, "Hated" by Beartooth played over the sound system. The crowd's buzzing quickly shifted to rancor as the Tron parted to see S. Mark Starr with the shit eating grin to end all shit eating grins; on his heels was his client. And while not much about Jacques Krieger's walk down to the ring changed, the fact that the GRPL+ World Television championship was back around his waist had. Stills from his slightly shady but mostly clean win over Jupiter Jones on Sunday night were shown before the lights were dimmed and a lone spotlight fell on Duck and the participants. Windsor got a positive reception but the hatred for Krieger was palpable - his only response was to throw up two fingers in the air with one hand and the TV title with the other.
| • Jacques Krieger [c] (w/S. Mark Starr) d. "The Proper King" Richard Windsor (w/"the Fury" Jim Jaspers) to retain the GRPL+ World TV title 1️⃣ • | To the surprise of the crowd, Windsor rushed Krieger at the bell and popped him with a European uppercut. It didn't knock the new champ down but it put him on his heels enough to allow Windsor to power him into the corner and continued to lay in some uppercuts until the ref got in at 5. Windsor broke free and charged in with another European uppercut before snapmaring Krieger and following up with a perfect necksnap.
Krieger was barely down for 2 but when he kicked out Windsor latched a cravate on. The next few minutes saw this sort of pattern repeating: Krieger got in more offense, but before he could fully swing the momentum of the match Windsor used his experience to ground One Eye by slapping on a hold or reaching down in his bag of technical tricks to stay on top. Windsor cleared Krieger from the ring and looked to press his advantage by following him out and landing a Penalty Kick but unfortunately for the Proper King Krieger caught his kick before sweeping his other leg as well.
What happened was the beginning of the end for poor Richard, as Krieger swung Windsor like a baseball bat into two neighboring sides of the barricade while the Controllers gasped and winced. Starr exhorted Krieger to keep up the pressure, but that was like telling a military man to be on time.
One Eye took sadistic pleasure in hitting a series of power moves on an increasingly helpless King, even pulling him up at 2 after leveling him with his Ace in the Hole shotei. Krieger ended things with his next move - the same move he debuted against Jupiter to win the belt Sunday, a delayed suplex into a spinning uranage. ** ½
After replays we saw both Starr and the zebra raising Krieger's hands while Jaspers checked on his partner. One Eye added insult to injury by back kicking the dirt from the mat back at the Europeans, but as he left the ring he suddenly went out at full velocity thanks to a very familiar knee strike from the Fury. Starr yelled at the ref and Old Jim, who had a simple response for him.
"Let your boy try that crap next against me next week, then!"
Jaspers repeated it a couple times while a dazed Krieger got his bearings and his belt back, and both men were smacktalking all the way up to the credits box popping up and Ruckus fading to black. The last shot was of Jaspers sitting on the middle rope to invite Krieger in even though One Eye was slowly moving backwards up the ramp.
No comments:
Post a Comment