LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS
Newcomer Justice Davis continued his hot streak by getting the pinfall in an eight man main event tag
Commissioner Holmes announced the return of the Unified Contendership Challenge with the elimination round kicking things off tonight
Autumn Powers celebrated becoming the new Unified World champion but got a little upstaged by new Women's World champion and still reigning Crush champion Karyn Tisch-Warren
Once they rolled out the open, we zoomed into Quality Arena where the pyro was popping and the Controllers were loud. Alongside Nazir el-Fadal, Steve Vandeblanche welcomed us to Ruckus before hyping that we'd get a ten tag team battle royale that would shape the Unified Contendership Challenge that would start next week.
But this week's Ruckus would begin the same way that last week's Ruckus did - with the first ever double champion in women's division history putting up one of her titles against a luchadora and rising star in the division.
Duck Eko was in the ring to announce the first match of the night, scheduled for one fall with a 15 minute time limit and it was for the Crush championship! Bad Bunny brought out luchadora La Flor to a decent reaction, and GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That a couple nights ago she didn't need too much time to go over Midsomar on Unleashed and finish off her opposition then with an impressive double jump moonsault. But she was going from the shallow end of the talent pool to the deepest water so far as QCW's women's division was concerned.
The annoying "Roar" brought out the equally annoying Karyn Tisch-Warren alongside the rest of International Lotus. Out to defend her Crush championship, the Women's World champion marched out to the ring with focus, letting her husband Scott Warren-Tisch and her tag partner/business consigliere Sohla Patel hype her up to the camera and try to silence the booing hordes of the Quality Arena.
Once the bell rang, La Flor didn't hesitate to go on the attack much to the joy of the Quality Controllers. Flor got off to a hot start and dropped Tisch-Warren before throwing down a couple of flash elbows to the sternum. Karyn tried again to get in a shot or two only to eat a Stun Gun. The notorious KTW bailed out to the floor to buy herself some time, but when she got her legs underneath her enough to stand Flor was flying from the ring off the top rope with a picture perfect Steamboat press that popped the crowd even more.
Flor stood on the stairs and revved them up a little more before going back to Karyn, who immediately blinded her with a face rake before delivering a drop toe hold that sent the luchadora neck first into the ring apron. The crowd deflated as Karyn let a sly grin creep over her face before she cinched up La Flor and snap suplexed her onto the mats on the floor. Tisch-Warren grabbed her challenger and tossed her into the ring before following in and locking down the Circuit Breaker - but Flor quickly scrambled to the ropes to get the hold broken up.
Karyn looked peeved that the match wasn't already over and proved it by slapping La Flor right after the high flyer stood up. Flor responded by bullrushing her into the nearest corner before slapping the double champion right back. When Karyn fell to the mat, Flor immediately uncorked a mudhole stomping on her that excited the crowd and had her almost break the ref's five count a couple of times. La Flor got a quick two count on Karyn before throwing her back down to the mat and ascending herself to hit a spectacular double jump moonsault. Flor hooked the leg on her cover, but Karyn shot up a shoulder at 2 ½.
Tisch-Warren staggered to her feet only to get caught in a flying guillotine by La Flor, who cranked back on the hold as the rest of Lotus looked increasingly shocked and worried on the outside. Karyn landed some body blows on her slightly smaller opponent before pivoting her body weight to cinch up La Flor and hit her with a buckle bomb. KTW ran into the ropes before flying off with a leg lariat that laid out La Flor. Karyn made a cover that gained her a two count, then when Flor kicked out she grabbed a leg and went to work. Soon thereafter she reapplied the Circuit Breaker, but despite the pressure from the elevated Texas Cloverleaf La Flor managed to crawl for and get the ropes to a big pop from the crowd.
Furious, Karyn executed a snapmare before teeing off on Flor's back with a series of PKs that had the luchadora screaming out in pain. KTW hoisted up Flor after the kicks and hit her with Spare Me (a powerbomb backbreaker) before covering and hooking both legs - so you can imagine the pop and Karyn's frustration when La Flor wriggled free at 2 ¾. While Karyn complained again to the referee, La Flor rolled out of the ring herself. After some parting words Karyn pivoted and got a running start before wiping out La Flor with a tope suicida that found the mark. Tisch-Warren glared at the jeering crowd before looking over at her cronies cheering her on. KTW tried to throw La Flor in the ring but soon found herself reversed into the ring with a shocked look on her face.
La Flor was slow to get back in the ring and Karyn made her pay for it, body blocking her from the apron to the barricade. Karyn rolled out under the bottom rope and told the rest of Lotus "I got this"; unfortunately for La Flor this turned out to be the case as Tisch-Warren powerbombed her into the barricade (!) with authority, even drawing some "Holy shit!" chants from the crowd and just a shade shy of that from Steve and Naz on commentary. Karyn picked up a limp La Flor and tossed her back in the ring between the middle and bottom rope before reentering herself and locking La Flor into a Circuit Breaker. After a few short seconds La Flor weakly tapped out to the disappointment of the crowd. Always nice to get the show started with a dope match. ***
| • Karyn Tisch-Warren [c, w/International Lotus] ds. La Flor to retain the Crush championship • |
After replays, Scott put over the fight La Flor brought to the opener and Naz shot that down to an extent, saying that the focus should be on the winner and the double champion Karyn Tisch-Warren. Scott and Sohla each put a belt on a shoulder of Karyn's before they left the ring smiling and Tisch-Warren said some sarcastic bye-byes to La Flor on her way to the back.
A video package played after Karyn's successful title defense, featuring a barrage of modern footage - riots, collapsing ice shelves, screaming QCW fans, more of man's inhumanity to man, screaming QCW fans - with a sepia tone over it. A voice wondered how we could be celebrating when the world was ending, how we could celebrate QCW when it was baptized in filth and unholiness. Someone had to take on all their sins. Someone had to show them the path by walking it. And someone had to save QCW from itself and by showing that to the world, maybe save the world. But none of that redemption could happen until they all learned how to REPENT. Repent was in large sepia cursive, except for the second where an interlocking W and G flashed upon the screen.
| • Omar Littlefield d. "Swamp Pride" Ted Holland • | Last week, Holland notched a hard fought victory over his former tag team partner Bobby Bash, and going up against another similar sized opponent in the newcomer Littlefield it was fair to wonder going in if the newly christened Swamp Pride could pull off another come from behind victory.
That did not happen; that did not come remotely close to happening. Omar put on what's usually called a showcase but was far more of a statement than that. Littlefield rocked Ted towards the end with (count 'em) five Vader Bombs before he put Holland down for good with a crucifix powerbomb DDT he calls the Face Eraser. **
After replays, we went back to the ring where Omar demanded and quickly got the mic from Duck Eko. Littlefield tapped it a couple of times before introducing himself and cutting a promo.
Omar said that he had barely been in QCW a hot minute but all he saw was victims and future victims. He knew - he could feel all the whispers and talk behind his back about his face. Unfortunately for them, they were going to see his face a lot more often. He was going to rack up more victims, maybe a victim for every time he heard the word freak, and nobody and nothing would stop Omar Littlefield from leaving QCW with a scar. Omar tossed the mic to Duck before leaving to "Fight Music", both members of the announce team wondering what victim would be next for the menacing newcomer before Steve teed up the night's first big commercial break.
✨
| • Fiona Fogg and Mean Season d. the Sound of Thunder and Veronica Vespa • | Ruckus rolled on with even more women's division action, a six woman tag with former friends turned enemies Mean Season and the Sound of Thunder getting a partner to try to establish dominance in their months long rivalry.
Ironically enough, the Sound of Thunder got along better with Vespa than Season did with Fogg. This led to Naz stirring the pot on commentary, saying that while Autumn Powers was the alleged top of the food chain in QCW she was sure being a crappy friend to her…well, he couldn't even call them her sidekicks if they weren't even by her side, could he? While the Sound of Thunder continued working over Winter and took out Gaia on the floor, it left Fiona as the last woman standing on her squad; when Bettie Rokker's springboard dropkick accidentally flew into her partner Val Curry, Winter had no choice but to tag Fogg in.
Fiona evened the odds and got the jump on the opposition, even at one point managing to hit a simultaneous DDT on Rokker and neckbreaker on Vespa. Fogg continued to dominate and looked to have Rokker set up for her finisher when Gaia blind tagged herself in, cinched Bettie from Fiona’s shoulders and hit her with an avalanche powerslam that got the white hats the W. **
After the match there was obviously some dissension between Fogg & Season, but they all got their hands raised before leaving separately. We’ll see what, if anything, comes from this in the shows to come.
We got a video package highlighting another great QCW PPV from the past, this time going back two and a half years to Mayday Payday 2021: Commissioner Holmes announcing the imminent debut of a weekly show called Ruckus - Mean Season finally triumphant over the Storybookers in WarGames - and Naz beating Jupiter Jones to win the QCW title all got some time in this one. Like a similar segment last week, stills of all three moments flickered at the end with the letters X, X and V superimposed over them before we went back to the Arena.
No sooner had Evan O'Neill parted the Qualitron then he asked the jabrones in the truck to cut his music so that he could cut the crap. Last week he came out here to deliver the truth to the handful of people in this Arena who could hear his words for the gospel that they are, only to get blindsided and accosted by Carpenter. He didn't tap out because of the pain, he did it so he could get out of this backwards ass town just that little bit faster. But he was back to be a QCW legend – forget that, the QCW legend. So forget the Carpenters of the world! If a place like QCW could even make a legend, bring them on so they could come face to fist with the truth.
When "B.O.B." hit the PA, the truth was that Evan O'Neill was going to find out in short order exactly what a QCW legend looked and fought like…
| • Jupiter Jones d. Evan O'Neill • | Well, it's November and squash is in season. O'Neill got in all of an eye poke before running the ropes and into a pop up powerslam. A Bolt From Olympus later and the truth was Jupiter Jones is Jupiter Jones and Evan O'Neill isn't, at least not yet. DUD
Jupiter left the ring to the cheers of the crowd while the ref checked on Evan; Steve put over Jupiter as an all-time great, which set off Naz as you might expect, and they argued for a bit until it was time for commercials.
✨
The back end of Ruckus began with, all things, Fur Elise and the introduction of another newcomer to QCW, a preppy intellectual named - no bullshit - Broderick Palmer II, aka "Upper Class". A Yale graduate with QCW in his blood (his cousin Adam being a former tag team champion) and obviously far superior to anyone in the stands or in the back, he'd prove he provided pro wrestling par excellence when he won a major championship in his sterling QCW debut. "So bring out this…Reginald, was it? Come forth, Reginald, so that the Class of QCW can begin to elevate this institution as Television's Champion."
So on the heels of that, out came "Superfine " Reggie Strong to a pop and Sade with the World TV title shining around his waist.
| • "Superfine" Reggie Strong [c] d. "Upper Class" Broderick Palmer II to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship 2️⃣ • | Palmer II put on a good showing eventually but the opening beats of the match proved Strong either the equal or better of the new arrival culminating in Reggie dropping Broderick with a rebound lariat. Palmer spun through the air before splattering on the canvas and Strong used the top rope as his personal hammock in the corner.
It looked like Strong was on an unstoppable roll and was about to move things towards the endgame when Palmer blocked the champion's attempt at his signature Strong Style suplex; even worse for Reggie, Palmer matadored him into shouldering the ring post and followed up with a falling inverted DDT that got him a two count.
Upper Class put some heat on Reggie over the next few moments and sent him between the ropes to the floor. But when he went for a cannonball off the apron, Strong avoided it by leaping up to the apron himself and the debuting Broderick went splat against the floor mats. Strong added injury to injury by getting a running start from the apron to frog splash BP2 on the floor, and the rest of the fight was Strong’s from there. Reggie broke the newbie down once things got back in the ring, using another new move of his - the Superfine Stomp - to set up his Ol’ Faithful, the Fine and Dandy spinning Michinoku Driver to get the three count. ** 1/2
But when the bell rang, there was Beartooth's "Hated" instead of Sade on the PA. Reggie looked around the Arena but found who he was looking for on the Qualitron 9004 - the former World Television champion Jacques Krieger and his fixer S. Mark Starr.
Starr sneered that Strong got a cute little win against a guy who'd been here for five minutes, but he better not lose sight of the big picture - after the debacle that went down on Devil's Night it was only a matter of time until his client gets his contractually obligated rematch and once he did, it was going to be midnight on Reggie's little Cinderella story and Starr would be accompanying the three time World TV champion to the ring. They blipped off screen to boos, leaving Strong to fume in the ring while slapping the front plate of the G+ World TV championship. Even when Sade came back on the PA, the usually cheery Strong was clearly quiety fuming right up until Steve sent us into another round of commercials.
✨
When we came back from the break Steve was conducting the hype train for some of the action to come on next week's QCW TV:
⌨️ Unleashed will have the imposing Omar Littlefield in action as well as the Wonderful Ward Brothers facing off against Drake Tremble and Bobby Bash ⌨️
💫 "Superfine" Reggie Strong will make another defense of the World TV title 💫
💫 Likewise, Karyn Tisch-Warren will continue her Crush championship reign even as she holds the Women's World championship 💫
💫 And the Unified Contendership Challenge will have two first round matches - but in order to find out what teams are going to be facing off we need to get to
| • the main event • |
As the entrances of the teams were happening, Steve went over the rules: 20 men in 10 teams to start the battle royale.
The first two eliminations would cut two teams out of the Challenge entirely and then the remaining teams would be in a double elimination battle royale where a team wouldn't be eliminated until both members were - then the seeds for the tournament next week would be determined by how fast a full team was eliminated, with the final survivor (or survivors, should a lucky team pull it off) earning the #1 seed for their squad.
With QCW's entire referee squad on various parts of the outside of the ring to monitor eliminations, the bell rang and the clubberin' commenced. Steve put over how crucial the first two eliminations would be; within a couple of moments of him saying that, one of the fights that had been on since the bell rang got decided conclusively, and not in a way the Quality Controllers liked.
The Hard Way were eliminated from the Battle Royale and the Unified Contendership Challenge
Once again, the former tag champs had found themselves victims of the End Times and you could see the body language of Fifita and Goodish as they made the Frustrated Hulk walks to the back, even ignoring the fans trying to high five them on the aisle.
The fighting ramped up a little bit more with every team trying not to miss the tournament. There was a hoss skirmish between A World of Pain and Bobby Bash, with some of the other participants trying to take advantage and toss them only to get sent flying into midring instead. Drake Tremble ran to Bash's rescue, only to have multiple people help AWOP and send him flying into Bash, who hung onto his mentor but started teetering - the next to last thing you want to do in a battle royale like this.
Justice Davis and Mason Razorblade Savage introduced them to the worst one when they got underneath Bash and tossed both he and Drake out to the floor.
Bobby Bash and Drake Tremble were eliminated from the Battle Royale and the Unified Contendership Challenge
Bash stared hard at Tremble on the floor before pulling him to his feet - but once he did that, he left Tremble to his complaining and headed to the back. That didn't stop the Voice of Freedom from chasing after his only meal ticket all the way up the ramp, leaving the 8 teams in the Challenge to duke it out for seed supremacy.
It didn't take long before the 8th seed was set in stone, as half of the competitors went after the second biggest man in the battle royale, Bob Osterberg while the other half went after his partner and the biggest man in, Dom DeSade. In both cases 7 beat 1, and then there were seven teams left.
A World of Pain was eliminated, capturing the #8 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge
Once the biggest men had been turfed from the ring, a bunch of individual and team fights broke out to the surprise of nobody. The fighting was broken up by a hot run by Justice Davis, who uncorked a string of four straight Davis Drivers on various opponents right up until Gerry Greene caught him with a low blow. (It's a battle royale, so it's a pretty lawless environment.) Ian Cook goozled Davis before chokeslamming him into the apron, and to the surprise of everyone Davis sluiced off the hardest part of the ring down to the floor.
Justice Davis was eliminated by Ian Cook.
It didn't take long for Justice's partner to enact his revenge on the big Brit.
Ian Cook was eliminated by Razorblade.
On the other side of the ring, Roy Fade and Pierce Moore were using their teamwork to cull the herd around them, dropping both members of the International Players before gaining a decisive upper hand in the fight against the tag team representing the College Park Family…
Benjamin Valentino was eliminated by Beauty and the Beast Mode.
…and they weren't done there, either.
Gerry Greene was eliminated by Beauty and the Beast Mode; Greene and Ian Cook are the #7 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge.
The field was now cut in half, and Beauty and the Beast Mode were still in hunting mode. But while they were trying to rack up even more eliminations another team was starting to get on the board themselves: the former Unified World Tag Team champions the Wonderful Ward Brothers. Rich made a save for his brother Jason, and then they teamed up for a double dropkick that sent the Tiki God off the second rope to the floor with no inner strength to continue on in the battle royale.
"Tiki God" Al Buffett was eliminated by the Wonderful Ward Brothers.
The End Times jumped the Wards from behind but the Wards fought back with all four hands to get the upper hand on the doomsday preppers, Rich and Jason out for revenge on the men who threw them off the stage a couple of months ago. They'd get a measure of it here, too.
Dr. Martin Williams was eliminated by the Wonderful Ward Brothers.
And when Pierce Moore tried to interrupt the proceedings with a familiar looking cutter, Rich shoved him off in Jason's direction to eat a Wonder Cutter and get tossed from the ring.
"Dashing" Pierce Moore was eliminated by Jason "the Great" Ward.
But without the help of his brother, the rest of the ring quickly coalesced to take out the latest threat to the top seed and bundled him up and over the top rope.
Rich Ward was eliminated by the ring.
Jason was tossed over when he turned to react, and then the five remaining fighters went to work on each other. Naz noted on commentary that since it had been some time since a whole team had been eliminated, every single elimination that remained would determine the bulk of the seeding for the Challenge.
When the fighting rolled on it was Razorblade who got the upper hand on everyone else – right before everyone else went after the former double champion and tried to eliminate him. Of course, in moments of chaos there's opportunity, and Roy Fade knew one when he saw one –
Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo was eliminated; by Roy Fade; the Game Changers are the #6 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge.
–but why stop at one when you can ruin two rivals' nights within a little over a minute? First These Hands turfed the Game Changers, and then after dodging a couple of attacks from the competition he went up a level, hitting Razorblade, then Danny Castle, then Lucius Patton with the Decision and tossing Patton to further thin the herd.
Lucius Patton was eliminated by Roy Fade; the International Players are the #5 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge.
Fade was rolling, having been at least partially responsible for five of the eliminations in the battle royale, but given past history he didn't care about eliminating Danny Castle from the proceedings as much as he did Razorblade. A sick grin spread over his face as he lined up Mason Savage for the Decision before charging forward…but the former Unified World champion not only caught him, he drilled him into the mat with a sit out powerbomb that fried all of Fade's circuits. Once Roy staggered up from that, Razorblade was there to escort him out of the ring with a clothesline.
Roy Fade was eliminated by Mason "Razorblade" Savage; Beauty and the Beast Mode are the #4 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge.
So it came down to former tag champ Danny Castle of the End Times and former World and World TV champ Razorblade. Castle started off well, but eventually Mason was too much to handle for Castle, who ended up shouldering a ring post when Razorblade dodged his corner charge. Savage peeled him away from the corner and then tossed him over the top rope as the Quality Controllers roared their approval. Razorblade stepped up to the second turnbuckle and encouraged the cheers, and it was the sort of moment that everybody loved; hell, Jason Ward loved it so much he dropkicked Savage from behind to send him into the ring post and down to the floor.
…
…wait, what?
💫. 💫. 💫 💫. 💫
It took a couple of minutes and a boatload of replays to get a conclusive ending to the battle royale, but see what had happened was this:
Rich Ward got eliminated a while ago, for sure. But when Razorblade provided the final push to "eliminate" Jason the Great, only one of his feet landed on the floor – the other landed on Rich. The referees on that side of the ring kept watch on it as Rich scurried towards the stairs while Jason kept his balance on his brother before pulling up to the stairs and sitting on the middle one. And with everyone else too busy fighting, Jason sat in wait to strike, making sure the rest of the field took each other out before reasserting himself at the last and best possible time before he struck.
And since he did…
Danny Castle was eliminated by Mason "Razorblade" Savage; the End Times are the #3 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge.
Mason "Razorblade" Savage was eliminated by Jason "the Great" Ward; Savage and Justice Davis are the #2 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge.
| • Jason "the Great" Ward was the last survivor of a 20 man battle royale to give the Wonderful Ward Brothers the #1 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge • |
Both Castle and Savage looked pissed from the floor, and there were pockets of the audience who weren't in love with it, either; despite that, Jason got a decent pop for winning and a bigger one when Rich ran down the aisle and slid in the ring before tackling his little brother and rolling around the ring with him playfully. While Danny Castle left through the concourse, Razorblade got to his feet and shook his head before giving the Wards a small smile and a threat/possible spoiler: this ain't over, fellas.
But as he made his way to the back, "We Made It" hit the PA and the Hot Topic enthusiasts in the crowd shrieked loudly; the Wonderful Ward Brothers had secured the #1 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge with some brotherly teamwork and quick thinking from Jason. Steve noted as the credits box came up that maybe the answer to Team Batroc had been staring everyone in the face the whole time but maybe it took Jason's win to rerealize that. Catch you next Friday for the beginning of the UCC and the fastest two hours in wrestling for another episode of Ruckus!
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