LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS
"Superfine" Reggie Strong made another successful defense of the GRPL+ World TV title but Jacques Krieger reminded him a title rematch is coming soon
Karyn Tisch-Warren had a narrow win over La Flor to retain the Crush championship
Jason "the Great" Ward eliminated Mason “Razorblade” Savage to win a 20 man battle royale and give the Wonderful Ward Brothers the #1 seed in the Unified Contendership Challenge
The usual open began playing but got suddenly cut off as we went to the Arena, where Drake Tremble unfortunately had a microphone and even more unfortunately had the use of his voice. He moved into the ring to say that he would not be moved, that he was tired of being a punching bag in a place he helped put on the map long before this network or all the weed addicted abortion lovers out in the stands ever came along. First that no-good newbie Justice Davis, then that turncoat Ted Holland, and now after two nights ago even his most dependable foot soldier Bobby Bash had gone AWOL. But all that crap would end tonight - all that crap would end because…
At this point Duck Eko was trying to get his attention, and after a short back and forth Tremble was even madder, saying no one and nothing was going to get him off of this mic or out of this ring; he had justifiable grievances, and these quote unquote people were going to hear them.
But what they heard instead were the dulcet tones of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us”. That brought out “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter to a big pop from the crowd while Tremble fumed in the ring over having his promo cut off, amongst the other complaints he had. Carpenter entered the ring and Drake jumped them, dropping them to the canvas and laying in some stomps before choking them with his American flag kneepad. The referee finally got between them and forced Drake into a neutral corner before checking to see if Dark Mirror wanted to continue - you can probably guess the response that got.
| • "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter ds. Drake Tremble • |
The response it got meant that the post match went longer than the match – Tremble charged after the bell only to get rocked with a spinebuster from Carpenter, who didn’t waste much time transitioning to hammer and anvil elbows. Carpenter gave Drake a baptism of them, so much so that the crowd lost count somewhere in the mid-twenties (!) as Carpenter pounded Drake like a tent spike, a bloodied Drake feebly tapping out before 50 landed (the final count was somewhere in the 40s). The referee literally had to pull Dark Mirror off of Drake before they got their hand raised. DUD
Carpenter went to smacktalk Drake after getting their hand raised but Drake was out cold and bleeding out on the canvas. Beckett grabbed Drake by the back of the head and lifted it up, staring down a clearly unconscious Tremble before throwing his head down to the canvas and rolling out of the ring. As Carpenter went up the ramp the medical staff came down it; after a brief discussion with the referee, they called for the stretcher. Tremble, barely moving, got loaded upon the stretcher and as it got wheeled up the ramp the Quality Controllers uncorked a “You de served it 👏 👏 👏👏👏” chant; in the background you could see Naz encouraging it and actually in agreeance with the “rabble” for once. Steve tried to stay neutral, but Naz laughed it off and laughed at Tremble getting carted out – of course, imputing it to the undefeated streak longtime adversary Carpenter has been on ever since they appeared on the Nazir el-Fadal Show months ago.
From the announce desk, we went to the QCW Control Center, where Julius Duquesne III and Enya Face were for Bracketology. With the Unified Contendership Challenge about to kick off in just a few minutes they were at the Center to run down the bracket for the UCC after last week's battle royale; JD3 went over the top half of the bracket.
It's tonight's main event and it's the 6/3 matchup when the Game Changers face off against the End Times. The beloved Game Changers are former tag champs trying to end 2023 with two title reigns under their belts while the doomsday prophets the End Times under Summer Rose's…tutelage continue to get harder, grimmer and closer to tag gold. Keep in mind Danny Castle is a former tag champion and got the Times in the final four of the battle royale last week, so that's in play here, too.
The Catch Hell alums Ian Cook and Gerry Greene notched the seventh seed and will go up against #2 Justice Davis and Mason "Razorblade" Savage. Razorblade was a surprise away from winning the battle royale last week and the former double champion teaming with his protege makes them a tourney favorite but both teams exchanged eliminations - this is one of next week's first round matches.
Enya took over the bottom half of the bracket starting off with the #5 International Players up against the #4 Beauty and the Beast Mode. The Players had a tag titles shot at AnIIIversary and barely came up short, but Beauty and the Beast Mode have beaten the Players before and racked up the most eliminations in the battle royale. The winners will face off against…
The winners of the match up next between the #8 A World of Pain and the top seeded Wonderful Ward Brothers, who come into the Challenge with extra steam. They lost the belts to Team Batroc early in the summer and on the way to try to regain them the End Times threw them off the stage a couple of months ago. But they came back at Devil's Night, then Jason the Great won the battle royale last week after Rich saved him from elimination – can the Wards ride the wave of momentum they have back to the Unified titles they dropped months ago? Or will the land monster perennials DeSade and Osterberg pull an upset and use their power advantage to tilt the bracket in their favor?
We went back to the Center where Enya and Julius stood to the side of a big screen that showed off the bracket; after saying that the Wonderful Ward Brothers/A World of Pain match was up next, Enya asked JDIII if he had a pick for the Challenge. Duquesne appeared to think about it before saying that he had to ride with his boys the International Players, then asked Enya who her pick was. Enya said she was going with her buddies the Game Changers to win the Challenge and regain the Unified World Tag Team championships.
JD3 counterargued for the Players, Enya countercounterargued for the Changers, and then they argued for a few beats until we went back to the Arena.
Backstage, A World of Pain was putting on their black gloves slowly before almost eclipsing the screen before they left their locker room; in another locker room, the Brothers Ward were putting on their jean vests in Canadian flag colors and hyping each other up. A chyron came on the screen and Steve hyped that the 2023 Unified Contendership Challenge was going to kick off with the #1 seeds in action – up next!
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| • #1 the Wonderful Ward Brothers d. #8 A World of Pain in a first round Unified Contendership Challenge match • | The Challenge began with the former Unified Tag Team champions and #1 seeds from the Great White North going up against the land monsters of A World of Pain. As the Wonderful Ward Brothers made their entrance GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That last week Jason the Great secured the top seed due to some quick thinking–but we had to quickly drop Short Attention Span Theatre because the black hats were jumping the Wards much to the disapproval of the audience. The behemoths got early control, causing the Wards to resort to several sleeper holds to wear them down over the course of a few minutes. Once Jason & Rich got the upper hand, they got it and then put things to bed quickly, Jason putting “Napalm” Bob Osterberg on his back after a series of Wonder Cutters from both Wards finally felled him. ** The win puts the Wards in the semis against the winner of the International Players vs. Beauty and the Beast Mode match next week, as the last men to hold the tag belts before Team Batroc try to make a successful return to the top of the tag team mountain.
We got another highlight package of a great PPV, and we go back to last year's Golden Rule from the Golden State - Collipark retained the tag belts, Lolo Vuitton won a five way and the Women's title, Naz gatecrashed the main event and cashed in the TV title but got thwarted by the artist currently known as Dark Mirror, directly leading to Razorblade pinning his former tag partner and capture his first World title. We again got stills with the letters X X and V superimposed over them, but we also got one more word that almost took up the whole screen: SOON
| • "Superfine'' Reggie Strong d. Gerry Greene (w/Ian Cook) to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship • | “The Shame of Birmingham'' acquitted himself well enough in the battle royale last week to earn a TV title shot here and actually surprised Strong early by mixing his natural chickenshittiness with some power, even backdropping Reggie over the top rope to the floor before the match was five minutes in. While Greene distracted the referee, his muscle Cook tossed Reggie into the steps – but the noise got the referee’s attention, and after the Quality Controllers got done snitching, Cook was ejected from ringside.
Greene complained to the ref, which meant he took his eye off the prize - when he tried to follow up, Strong snapped off a hangman before pulling off a slingshot Blockbuster, and Reggie went from fighting from behind to taking the lead to putting away the former Catch Hell Wrestling League champion. The Superfine Stomp was the overture, Fine and Dandy the crescendo, and just over half the time limit Reggie had notched another title defense. **
Strong celebrated after replays and headed up the ramp, only to see Jacques Krieger on the Qualitron with one thing to say, actually: next week.
That’s it, he said “next week” and blipped off the Tron. Before Steve could hype it up, Reggie turned to the camera closest to him and we caught him in a brief promo of his own, saying how he whooped that ass at Devil’s Night and next week wouldn’t be any different for the Face of QCW. We went to break with Strong heading to the back and a chyron popping up hyping the title rematch against Krieger on next week’s episode of Ruckus.
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We got another sepia toned video package this week, though this one was a bit different in tone. As different highlights from the stars of the women’s division played, this time an unfamiliar voice lectured us at home that all the so-called empowerment of women had done was turn them into men with ovaries, full of the same lusts, wickedness and thirst for violence. If words were doomed to fail in the modern day QCW, then she would speak to these lessers as they demanded to be spoken to - in the language of barbarism, in the language of greed, in the language of violence…until they all found DELIVERANCE.
Despite those foreboding words, we went from that video package to another one. But this second was a longer version of when GRPL+ Helpfully Reminds Us About Things. In this case, the two or three minute sizzle reel began with some slo-mo footage from last week's Ruckus where La Flor challenged Karyn Tisch-Warren for the Crush championship. Flor looked impressive early and even hitting a crisp double jump moonsault that had Karyn in trouble before she rallied to tap La Flor out with the Circuit Breaker.
When Karyn bragged about it on Quality Social, La Flor said she was closer than maybe anybody to beating Karyn - and if she had the ovaries to give her a rematch Flor would prove it. Sohla Patel interjected to sign off on it and within hours Commissioner Holmes approved the bout.
| • "La Flor" d. Karyn Tisch-Warren [c, with Scott Warren-Tisch] to win the Crush championship • | And after all that hype, probably the worst Ruckus match ever – though it would take it a few minutes for the rest of us to figure out why.
It felt exactly like last week, except without the hatred and at a quarter of the speed. The crowd and the announce were confused early, and then after a couple of minutes the crowd booed for the rest of the match. They were within their rights to, as sometimes it seemed like both women sold moves that didn’t come close to hitting and again, they seemed to be fighting at .25 speed. End came when KTW went for the Circuit Breaker and La Flor took her down in a small package that got her 3 and won her the belt, which got a small pop to break up the waves of booing. DUD
La Flor got the belt and her hand raised, only to be spun around by Karyn Tisch-Warren, who poked her in the chest – and La Flor went down like she’d been shot. KTW stood over La Flor, and immediately went after the mask. The referee tried to stop her, only to get shoved away, and then Tisch-Warren ripped the mask off of La Flor…
…to reveal Sohla Patel.
The referee looked agog as Karyn ripped the Crush championship out of his hands and handed it over to her partner, with the crowd alternating between shock and rancor while Naz laughed and clapped at the announce table, saying that International Lotus had put one over on the entire women’s division they swore to rule…and now that they had all the gold, they did. The “BULLSHIT!” chants were long and loud. They didn’t change a thing. Scott the Simp slid into the ring and raised both women’s hands – Sohla Patel, the Crush champion and his wife Karyn Tisch-Warren, reigning supreme as the Women’s World Champion. “Roar” played them out of the ring as they sucked up to each other, reveling in pulling off their master plan.
We got a montage of some of the seminal moments that have come to define QCW’s Modern Age over the past three+ years – we saw some of them in video packages over the past few weeks, some we haven’t seen in a while, but they were all interrupted by Commissioner Holmes.
Holmes said that QCW had put on PPVs for the past few years and was always looking to evolve the game, always looking to put together the best possible show for their fans all around the world. But QCW would be nothing without the people coming to the Quality Arena week after week, and for QCW’s last PPV of the year, well, this one was for them. The crowd popped for that as you might expect and after a few beats Holmes continued, saying that a month from tonight would see QCW’s next PPV – call it XXV or 25, since it would be the 25th PPV of the Modern Era. He couldn’t tell you what would happen on the show as of yet, but he promised every QCW fan and especially those Quality Controllers who’d stuck with them all these years. Holmes said since he had something to talk to GRPL+ about, this would be a perfect time for a commercial break. Before we went to ads, Holmes implied that International Lotus was essentially about to be called into the principal’s office for the stunt that they just pulled and that it might get folded into what was going to come on Ruckus next week, but we’ll see if that comes to fruition.
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| • Mean Season and Autumn Powers d. Shelley LaVey and The Sound of Thunder • | We came back from the break to trios action in the women's division, spurred by the last week of action. Mean Season has had their ups and downs (winning on Ruckus last week but Gaia Green lost to Shelley LaVey on Unleashed a couple of nights ago) while their longtime partner Autumn Powers has ascended to Unified World champion.
Up against a cohesive Season as opposed to last week's mix and match trio, the Sound and LaVey quickly found themselves behind the eight ball and never really got out from behind it. The imbalance only worsened for the black hats once The Champ made her presence felt and tagged into the match, Powers proving an easy overmatch for her opposition. Autumn put a bow on the showcase by obliterating Bettie Rokker with a Hazy Shade to give the reunited Season the W. **
The crowd ate it up as you might expect, and Gaia and Winter put Autumn up on their shoulders and paraded her around the ring while the Sound seethed on the floor; interestingly enough, Shelley LaVey seemed nonplussed and quietly made her way up the ramp with a shrug.
Does QCW have some dope matches coming our way next week? Does the Pope crap in the woods?
⌨️ Unleashed will feature Justice Davis against Gerry Greene and Pierce Moore vs. Benjamin Valentino ahead of their team's first round Unified Contendership Challenge matches ⌨️
At this point, Steve veered from the usual script, saying he'd gotten word from the Commissioner's office that next week's Ruckus had gotten special dispensation from GRPL+ to make next week's Ruckus a special one with limited commercial interruptions and extended run time. Commissioner Holmes has dubbed next week's show Flashpoint and it's going to be more loaded than a rock star on New Year's Eve…
⚡ "Superfine'' Reggie Strong/Jacques Krieger II for the GRPL+ World Television championship? Put it on the board ⚡
⚡ After the shenanigans that went down earlier, the real La Flor gets another shot at the Crush championship now held by Sohla Patel ⚡
⚡ The rest of the first round of the Unified Contendership Challenge will feature Beauty and the Beast Mode vs. the International Players and Ian Cook and Gerry Greene vs. Justice Davis and Mason "Razorblade" Savage ⚡
And we haven't even gotten to the main event yet. Strap in for this one.
⚡For the first time in almost 40 years, QCW will have a best of 3 falls title match…but since it's 2023 it's going to be for the Women's World championship – and it's going to be the third time Karyn Tisch-Warren and Cindy Monet face off for the belt.
It was Cindy cashing in at AnIIIversary - Karyn getting her revenge at Devil's Night - and now, at Flashpoint, we will get an undisputed Women's World champion. It's Collipark vs. International Lotus; the Electric Android vs. the Backbreaker Bytch; it's Karyn/Cindy III for the belt ⚡
But before we get to the Flashpoint we have another first round match in the Unified Contendership Challenge, so let's get to
| • the main event • |
Muse’s “New Born” hit the PA and out came “Tiki God” Al Buffett and Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo came out to a good pop, firing up the faithful as they hit the ring. Steve put over the former Unified World Tag Team champions as they posed on the turnbuckles while Naz grumblemuttered about them for obvious reasons.
The mood in Quality Arena shifted as the music stopped and the End Times made their way to the ring through the lower concourse led by Summer Rose, looking increasingly more feral by the week and especially with her charges facing the Game Changers. The doomsday prophets hit ringside and set aside their THE END IS NIGH and BUT MY REVENGE FIRST signs in the timekeeper’s area.
The match started off pretty evenly in the opening minutes, leading to an in-ring Pier 4 that was won by the black hats; they eventually tossed both Buffett and Szabo shoulder first into ring posts and took over the match from there by focusing on Szabo and employing quick tags.
Danny Castle knocking the Tiki God off the apron gave the Times an opening to spike Ashley with a double flapjack for 2. As Dr. Martin Williams continued to work over THEE Influencer, Naz mentioned on commentary that should TET win the UCC, it would put Danny Castle on the opposite side of the ring from his former partner Serge Batroc for the first time since they lost the belts three years or so ago and he’d probably been lying in wait for an opportunity for payback. The End Times kept the upper hand and looked as if they were going to put a bow on the opening round fight when Williams tagged in Castle, only for Ashley to first Saito suplex Williams and then Saito suplex the now legal Castle onto Williams. Ashley rolled over and tried to tag out, only for both members of the not a cult to pick her up and cut her off – still, Szabo used her core strength to counter out and hit a double DDT that laid out all opposition and gave her the space to tag in the Tiki God.
The pocket powerhouse of the Game Changers started throwing suplexes on his opponents while the Quality Controllers “TIKI GOD!” chants got louder and louder in the Arena. Even when it looked like the End Times had bottled him up and were going to uncork a double superplex to prove it, Al used his strength to deposit them both on the canvas with a double gourdbuster before hitting the legal Castle with a nice 450 splash. Buffett hooked the leg to end it, but Castle rolled over to pull Al off of the cover at 2 ¾.
Ashley came into the ring to go after Castle, who seemingly had her in his sights - but when she ducked, Castle accidentally floored Dr. Williams with a clothesline. Castle went to check on his partner, but that gave Al the opening he needed to tag in Ashley. Szabo went up to the top rope and Al put Castle in an electric chair position, but Castle slipped out the back and shoved Al into the corner, slipping Ashley from the top and sending Buffett down in a heap in his own corner before he rolled out to the floor limply. Castle focused on Szabo, pulling her some distance from the ropes before delivering a rope hanging version of his Carnage rolling neckbreaker, Szabo folding like a K/3 offsuit into the mat.
Dr. Williams was on the apron demanding the tag and got it, but when they went for their finisher Al tackled Castle and it left Dr. Williams to come down from the top rope and toss Buffett – but it left him open to walk into a small package from Szabo, who held hm down…for 2 ¾. Both got to their feet at the same time, then Dr. Williams tried to charge Szabo with a lariat that she ducked. Williams kept moving as fast as he could, bouncing off the ropes where Szabo matadored him on the rebound and sent him flying into the ropes – but it was too close to Castle, who tagged himself in and got a running start down the apron to PK Al Buffett and almost sent the Tiki God’s head into the second row. Castle ascended to the top as Williams snuck up on THEE Influencer and chop blocked her, then put her on his shoulders for the Electric Chair. Castle gathered himself on the top rope before flying off with a vicious tornado DDT to complete what his squad calls the Reckoning. Al tried to get in the ring for a save but Summer Rose tripped him on the floor, the three count went down, and the End Times had advanced to the semifinals of the UCC. ***
| • #3 the End Times (w/Summer Rose) d. #6 the Game Changers in a first round Unified Contendership Challenge match • |
Al looked as despondent after the replays as Summer looked full of unhinged joy, the referee’s raising the hands of her nonplussed lackeys in victory. With the victory, the End Times advance to the semifinals of the Challenge to face the winners of Gerry Greene & Ian Cook vs. Justice Davis & Razorblade. The End Times took their signs and left through the lower concourse holding them high while Al and the referee checked on Ashley, who was just getting to a sitting position. The credits box came up as the End Times disappeared into the night, with Steve encouraging us to set our DVRs for extra time next week for what was going to be an epic Ruckus presents, a Flashpoint that would determine the future of Quality Championship Wrestling. See you next week when QCW continues to bring the mother loving Ruckus!
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