Quality Arena 🤼 Parts Unknown, FL
Aired live on GRPL+ 📺 November 1st, 2024
Ruckus opened up with a Dia de los Muertos recap package. Stills of “Explosive” Emily Bennett and Justice Davis after they won their respective preshow matches gave way to video of the rowdy crowd in Mexico City and brief highlights from the main card, which included:
💀 Orion making a successful PPV debut by beating Avión III 💀
💀 Omar Littlefield having a bruising match (literally and figuratively) with Lucha Salvaje’s Campeon de Campeones, the statuesque MalicÃa Fernandez who managed to bust him open and kick out of the Face Eraser but ultimately he prevailed with a flurry of Vader Bombs and multiple Face Erasers 💀
💀 The National Championship match going the way no one expected, with “the Purifier” Caleb Grey largely dominating the legendary Jupiter Jones and even hitting him with his own Bolt From Olympus before finishing him off with Repent - a clean win that had the Chosen jubilant, Surrender Cobras in the crowd and a stunned Jones getting consoled by a shell shocked College Park Family 💀
💀 A longer clip here, Luz Cruz being flocked by Hysteria while Lolo Vuitton got a waterfall of golden streamers from the crowd as she came out to defend the Women's World championship - both women landed bombs, and Lolo managed to land Bloody Shoes on both Justine Danek and Bella Jolie when it looked like they might interfere but that opened the door for Cruz to hit a double jump poison rana to win the belt to the joy of Hysteria and the unconsciousness of Lolo 💀
💀 A Cut Above’s alleged open challenge turning into a squash of two random masked jobbers; when they tried to unmask them post beating to further piss off the Arena Coliseo crowd the International Players sent them packing and told them whenever they were done playing games they were ready to take the belts off them 💀
💀 The ¡lucha muerte! match for the QCW World championship saw Nazir el-Fadal come out to a shockingly positive reaction (a whole section in the upper deck had a tricolor Nazir World Order banner draped over it) and Razorblade out to the pop of the night with the Fifteen Pounds of Gold - Razorblade swatting away an attempted Naz handshake (¿!) before they went to war - Razorblade wearing Naz out with a chair, Naz raking Greetings From Hayt Corner across Razorblade’s forehead to make the mask more crimson…then we got alternating shots of a black screen, followed by fans yelping/cringing/psyched/a little frightened…a black screen though you could hear Steve yelling “Nazquil through the table!”...more black screen…then a shot of a flaming table for two seconds tops…Steve yelling “DON'T DO THIS!”... followed by two black and white stills of a bloodied and battered Naz in a stretcher giving a charred thumbs up as he got carted out of Arena Coliseo…and Savage on his knees with the QCW World championship under him almost having been baptized in his/their blood 💀
The standard open rolled from there with some tweaks (a little more of the Chosen, Orion taking Avión III’s spots on the reel, bizarrely no Omar and Luz Cruz cackling as she held up the Women's World championship on Sunday night was the only change in the Cavalcade of Champions), then we went live inside Quality Arena. Steve Vandeblanche and Carl Christensen were holding it down at the announce table per usual, and Steve hyped that we’d get an update on both The Champ and Naz as well as hear from the new Women's World champion, but he threw things to the Voice of QCW Duck Eko to make the introductions for the opener…
1. “Night Sky” Diana Spare [c] d. Fiona Fogg at 9:16 to retain the Crush championship 4️⃣ We opened up with the night’s only scheduled title match; here, Fogg was coming off a dominant win on Unleashed but couldn't stop the reign of the woman once known as the Dark Princess. This was closer to a showcase than a squash but outside of maybe 90 seconds there wasn't much doubt how this would end: with Spare's trusty Nightfall getting her another win. Post match Spare told the camera that she was holding Luz Cruz’s old belt and vice versa, but as soon as she could, she was taking back her Women's World championship…and hell, she might even have some help along the way.
Nonpoint's “Bullet With A Name” brought out the All Starr Stable to a standing ovation from the crowd, if this was Bizarro World. But it didn't matter as the three men and their manager came down to the ring and outside of the stoic Jacques Krieger they were all wearing big grins. Starr asked for the “common people” to settle down and welcome Krieger and more importantly theiÃiiir tag team champions of the world - “Upper Class” Broderick Palmer II and Evan O'Neill, A Cut Above!
This was met by more boos as O’Neill told them to either shut up or shove more popcorn in, either way the Oracle of Off-Book was going to bless their sad little lives. The best tag team IN THE WORLD had a hard fought win to keep their titles Sunday – the crowd started booing and there was even an undercurrent of “Bullshit!” chants considering all they’d done was squash a couple of jobbers in masks to put a thumb in the eye of the Mexico City branch of Quality Controllers. O’Neill looked salty but continued on, saying that with a reception like that in front of ungrateful (then he got bleeped) no wonder they were taking the night off.
But a sudden buzz and some cheers from the crowd alerted the Stable to the Qualitron 9004 - where Commissioner Holmes was, beaming in live from his office. Holmes told Evan that neither he or Starr set his schedule, he did. So since they pretended to face champions on Sunday and picked their opponents, tonight he would use his powers as the Commish to make them face a pair of former tag team champions in the main event - and they wouldn't find out who until they showed up.
The fans gave the idea the sort of cheers the tag champs felt like they should've gotten earlier before Holmes asked O’Neill if he was okay with that, and when Evan started responding hit him with a “Oh, right: I don't care” and blipped off the Tron, leaving O’Neill to get bleeped a few more times before Starr marshaled his forces to get them out of the ring and maybe head to the Commissioner's office to protest this decision. Steve and Carl wondered who the former champions Holmes had in mind were, and if they would be the World Tag Team champions again at the end of the night by beating A Cut Above.
2. w @ s t 3 l a n d e r s d. The Wonderful Ward Brothers at 11:19 For the first time since the post apocalyptic scavengers arrived in QCW they found themselves having not a squash, but an actual match to fight through thanks to the Canadian former World Tag Team champions. The Wards fought 50/50 with w @ s t 3 l a n d e r s early and were able to employ some quick tags, but the masked f @ l l 0 u t hit a FO on Rich Ward that started to turn the tides in their favor. They kept beating on Rich and managed to keep Jason the Great at bay the rest of the match, eventually coming out on top after hitting Rich with a strong lariat and leg sweep hi/lo combo that saw him get Wasted.
Maybe ticked off about the fact that they weren't able to dominate, w @ s t 3 l a n d e r s continued beating on the Wards after the bell, but a figure slid into the ring and started laying them out with crisp European uppercuts. The scavengers were eventually sent from the ring while the recovering Wards looked up at the helping hands of a now unmasked Anton Stahl, who pulled them up off the canvas. While the baddies were scuffling off into the night, the crowd gave a good reception to the once (and maybe future) allies reuniting in the ring.
More Ruckus after this.
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We came back from the break to see the lights slowly rising in a darkened Quality Arena, and the crowd booed seeing the familiar fivesome in the ring having put on about 15 pounds since they were in the Arena last. Nancy Crowley welcomed them to the dark coronation, as there was a new Women's World champion - La Reina of the Ropes, Luz Cruz!
Cruz stepped out from a corner to boos and said that she loved it when a plan came together, and that Sunday night was the culmination of that plan she made in exile last year. Now, no crying, no masks, and no more watching Lolo hog the spotlight while the best of the division was stuck in the shadows, no no no no NO no no. Now was the time for Luz Cruz to show what a REAL Women's World Champion looked like and for she and hers to usher in the Era of Hysteria because they weren't done just because she won the Women's World championship. To run the women's division they needed both the Women's World and Crush championships. Maybe Bonnie could regain it; maybe it was Bella’s turn or Justine's or Nancy's. But the golden rule her time away from QCW taught her was that those with the gold made the rules, and once they had both titles they would rule amongst themselves and equally share the power they had.
Luz seemed to be ready to continue when a voice said “But you don't have all the power, do you?”
Hysteria looked towards the ramp where “Explosive” Emily Bennett stood holding her Ace in the Hole. Emily actually congratulated Luz on her win but said that she had the real power…and she was going to use it to show Luz a little bit of her future. Luz cut her off, saying that she wasn't going to get cashed in on tonight and damn sure not by some smiling bottle blonde Barbie who should’ve stayed on Wednesday nights because any member of Hysteria could shove that Ace down her throat. Emily took a couple seconds before bursting out in laughter, calling Luz a perv. Cruz got indignant and said as The Champ, she couldn't have a coronation without a present so later on tonight she’d send a member of Hysteria to beat her up and wipe that stupid grin off her face.
Bennett agreed to the singles match, saying maybe the stupid grin was because she’d already beaten Bonnie and Bella in singles matches then spent Wednesday night beating Justine and Bella in a tag match so as good as Hysteria was, Em was the one who's power was growing. And when she came back out, she’d kick even more Hysteria butt no matter who Luz threw at her. Because while Luz had her schemes, she had yet to play her card, didn't she? In fact, she could do it tonight and really Ace this. Emily told Luz it was something for her to think about, smiled and left, leaving a seething Cruz watching her go back to the back while her coven got in a huddle to talk about who would get the match against Bennett and stop her winning streak against them.
3. Ashok Banjerjee d. Dr. Martin Williams (w/the Chosen) at 11:14 Ashok's quest to get a rematch for “the Purifier” Caleb Grey’s QCW National Championship was dotted all over Quality Social this week but Grey sent one of his acolytes to try and nip that idea in the bud. Dr. Williams used his technical skills to ground the Boundless Banjerjee and it worked until Ashok got free from a hold, dodged a couple of striking attempts then snapped off a Destroyer DDT that sent the Analyst acolyte spilling to the floor. Martin got to his feet only to be the victim of Ashok turning what looked like a wrecking ball dropkick into a huracanrana that sent the white-clad doctor flying into the ring steps. That didn't close the door on Dr. Williams but a couple more minutes of Ashok's high octane offense led to a Decolonizer Driver and a win.
Ashok couldn't even get his hand raised by the referee before Dr. Williams’ partner in the End Times Danny Castle and the slimy “Paragon” of the Chosen Drake Tremble hit the ring to wipe him out; just as Ashok showed signs of being able to fight off the two on one Dr. Williams blasted him from behind. The acolytes forced Ashok to his knees as Grey started to enter the ring with championship in tow but as he stepped between the ropes he got to see Justice Davis slide into the ring with a pair of nunchucks and uppercut Castle down. Davis used the chucks to clothesline Tremble over the top rope and Dr. Williams rolled to the floor at Goody Gardner’s feet.
The appreciative “JD!” chants from the crowd got cut off by the man himself, who said that if the Bible thumpers wanted to fight, he’d show them the gospel of throwing hands and challenged the End Times to face him and Ashok next week. The Chosen scowled their way to the back while Justice helped Ashok up and checked to make sure he was okay.
Ace in the Hole cash in tucked under her arm, “Explosive” Emily Bennett moved quickly down the halls backstage towards the ring. She’ll try blowing up Hysteria's attempts to keep her down in a match up next…but who from the coven is she going to end up fighting?
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4. “Explosive” Emily Bennett d. Nancy Crowley by disqualification at 14:16 Hysteria sent the perpetually Feral Crowley to try and stave off the rising Bennett. But that idea ran into problems almost instantly, as Crowley charged Emily right at the bell only to get stopped in her tracks by a superkick and dumped out to the floor in front of Hysteria. Luz Cruz looked especially furious but Emily's grin that the new Women's World champion called stupid earlier was back out in force. Crowley got her bearings about her and got back in the ring, only to have Emily show off her technical skills to keep Crowley behind the eight ball. With Emily rolling, Bonnie Agrippa took a swipe at her from the floor and barely missed. That got Bennett's attention and opened a window of opportunity for Crowley. Nancy ran into Emily full speed and sent the Ace in the Hole winner flying into the security barrier multiple times.
Nancy turned in time to see the ref ejecting the rest of Hysteria due to her friend Bonnie's attempted interference and screamed at the ref before taking to the floor and taking it out on the bubbly Minnesotan by throwing her into the security barrier two more times, then Nancy bundled up Emily and tossed her back into the ring before hitting a Code Black that got her 2½.
Crowley continued working Emily over aggressively, almost as if ejecting her friends gave her some additional fire. Nancy continued to beat on Bennett and sent them both flying over the top rope with a running crossbody. Nancy got to her feet first and climbed up the stairs before launching herself at Bennett again but this time Bennett was not only able to catch Nancy but counter with a barrier bomb that left Crowley in a heap on the floor. Emily rolled in the ring to break up the count before rolling back out to the floor; she got Nancy in her sights and ran up the barrier before planting an enzuigiri on Crowley.
Bennett looked like she was going to toss Crowley back in the ring but pivoted and tossed Hysteria's wild dog into the steps instead to a pop from the Quality Controllers. After that landed, Emily got Nancy back in the ring and proceeded to light her up with offense. The Ace in the Hole winner snuffed another Code Black attempt by turning it into an Alabama Slam and followed up moments later with her signature Time’s Up elevated powerbomb, but before the referee could count to 3 Luz Cruz was burying the Women's World championship in the back of Emily's head and the rest of Hysteria were back out to stomp away at the upstart to trigger a DQ.
As Carl pointed out on commentary, for women claiming to be unconcerned about Emily and her Ace…this was the second week in a row they were going five on one to try and take her off the board. The difference was that last week they were able to drop Emily uninterrupted; this time they wouldn't be so lucky.
Lolo Vuitton jumped the barrier in street clothes and slid into the ring before making a beeline for Luz Cruz; Vuitton took her down to the mat and got in as many punches as she could before she got swarmed. Hysteria was enjoying a healthy 5 on 2 advantage when Bonnie Agrippa's stomps got cut off by the sudden emergence of Shelley LaVey and more importantly a Fresh To Death cutter that put Bonnie down to the canvas. Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo was only a few steps behind Shelley and the Crush champion “Night Sky” Diana Spare was right on Ashley's heels. The Pier 10 didn't last long and when it ended, Hysteria was booking it through the concourse while the unlikely unit of their opposers stood tall. Spare and LaVey were on opposite turnbuckles mocking Hysteria for running while LaVey and Szabo helped up an unsteady Bennett, who was happy to see them as you might expect.
At the desk, Steve said that he had injury updates after Dia de los Muertos stemming from two matches. First, the hard hitting affair between Omar Littlefield and MalicÃa Fernandez that came about thisclose to being a hardcore match saw MalicÃa rattle QCW’s resident juggernaut so hard he required 14 stitches in his scalp; the flurry of Vader Bombs and trifecta of Face Erasers Omar won the match with left Fernandez with a broken rib and we saw subtitled footage of a saddened and infuriated MalicÃa forfeiting the Lucha Salvaje Campeon de Campeones championship earlier in the week as a result.
But those were light work compared to what happened between Razorblade and Nazir el-Fadal. The longtime rivals went to war in ¡lucha muerte! and the PPV ended with Naz getting stretchered out of Arena Coliseo. But we would see here what happened after the PPV - a bloody Razorblade celebration cut short when he passed out, hit the ringpost on his way down, bounced off the bottom chunk of the ring stairs and then was unmoving face down on the floor. While he got moving after a scary couple of minutes, more medics came out and stretchered The Champ out of the building as well.
After consulting with the medical staff throughout the first half of the week, Naz’s injuries (second degree burns included) would put him out of action for a couple of weeks, but the concussion Razorblade suffered on top of his own second degree burns would see him out of action for something closer to a month with hopes he would be cleared by Thanksgiving. Steve mentioned that the match was so brutal the network wasn't airing the conclusion or the aftermath for understandable reasons so a fan’s only* option to see the latest and maybe last chapter of the greatest rivalry in QCW history was to order a replay of Dia de los Muertos on PPV.
5. The Proper Villains d. Hawk Carter and Prince Ootsuka at 12:44 Last year, Ootsuka was a champion alongside the Villains but tired of being viewed as their sidekick and eventually turned on them. The haughty Ootsuka used Quality Social to find a partner for this fight against the recently reunited Villains and got some help from an unlikely source in QCW’s resident cowboy. The big man proved to be a difference maker in the early going but the more the tag fight tagged on, the more he found himself victim to the cohesiveness of the Brits as well as the fact that Ootsuka didn't have the stomach to get his pretty features hit by his ex partners. After eating a Jim Jaspers pump knee strike, the Prince tagged Hawk back in and bailed out on the match. Carter fought his best but wasn't going to win that uphill battle and the Proper Villains put him away with a Windsor flapjack into a Fury Road from Jaspers.
On commentary, Carl floated the idea that with such a dominant victory that we might see them back out for the main event soon. Jaspers and Windsor celebrated their victory up the ramp before some ads.
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We came back from the last commercials of the night to see a pissed off Omar Littlefield and his 14 staples pacing the Quality Arena parking lot while dragging something along the concrete. He noted this whole week pissed him off good and proper; Friday night and he should be chumping some fool but Holmes is too scared to let him in the building - Sunday Razorblade sends himself to the ICU rather than face him and some big ass Mexican half undead woman busts him open and calls herself a champion?! Nah, it don't work like that.
He held up what was in his hand (which turned out to be the old Unified World championship) before turning towards a streetlight and smashing the belt against it repeatedly until all the remaining pieces scattered across the parking lot. Littlefield let out a grunt of satisfaction and said this time last year he’d just shown up, now that he’d smashed the main event scene he’d keep smashing QCW from the top down until Warden Holmes gave him what he wanted. He’d keep winning ugly…and QCW would lose everything. Omar stomped off into the night, leaving the destroyed belt in his wake.
Carl hyped some of what's to come on next week's QCW TV, with Unleashed being headlined by Shelley LaVey and Lolo Vuitton facing Bonnie Agrippa and Nancy Crowley from Hysteria.
Steve added that next week's Ruckus would have a live interview with Nazir el-Fadal, a trios match where the Culture would go up against Women's World champion Luz Cruz and A Cut Above and the Crush championship would be on the line when “Night Sky” Diana Spare defended against Nancy Crowley as Hysteria looks to bring both women's titles in house.
Would A Cut Above be able to enter the trios match still as the World Tag Team champions? They hit the ring looking pissed in a marked contrast to how they came out earlier when they thought that they’d have the night off. The World Tag Team champions stood in the ring while S. Mark Starr was yelling at the entryway to bring out whoever they were going to beat on in the main event they deserved. Starr’s ranting was cut off by Muse’s “New Born” and a pop from the Quality Controllers - not only had The Commish found former champions, he’d gotten two time ex champions the Game Changers to provide the challenge. “Tiki God” Al Buffett and Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo walked down the ramp looking focused while the Stable was anything but judging by their reactions (well, not Krieger).
Just to throw another pepper into the gumbo, the champs attacked the challengers while Duck was making the introductions for the titles match. The referee stepped in and backed off the champions just in time for the challengers to leap around her and return fire; when the Pier 4 showed no signs of stopping the zebra called for the bell to officially kick off the titles fight.
6. A Cut Above (w/S. Mark Starr and Jacques Krieger) d. The Game Changers at 14:31 to retain the QCW World Tag Team championships Ashley and Al showed off why they were going for a third title reign as they mopped up Broderick and Evan, eventually driving the black hats from the ring and out to the floor. Starr tried to rally his meal tick–uh, clients, but there was nothing he could do when the Changers flew off the top from parallel corners and wiped them out with stereo tope con hilos. Szabo bundled up O’Neill and got him back in the ring before working him over with forearms. A tag to Al saw them team up as she catapulted Evan into a big uranagi from the Tiki God, and the Game Changers spent the next few minutes halving the ring and employing quick tags. At one point Starr even went to his old spot at the announce desk to complain about Holmes stacking the deck against his All Starr Stable.
But things started to turn around for the champs when Broderick managed to save Evan from a Face Reality and the champs turned things around with a leg drop/Stun Gun combo that gagged Ashley on the top rope and had Starr pounding the mat exhorting his men to take advantage. As A Cut Above swung things back in their favor Steve added that Jacques Krieger vs. Jim Jaspers of the Proper Villains had been added to the Unleashed card for next Wednesday. After eating some double teams from the champs, Al found himself exactly where he didn't want to be: hemmed up in their corner seemingly a time zone away from Ashley. But Al started throwing back elbows and then fists, and when they went for a 2 on 1 Tiki God managed to kick O’Neill in the guts before giving Palmer II a uranagi onto his partner to lay them both out. Buffett began crawling for the corner while Starr freaked out on the floor, and his screams joined the rest of the crowd's when the lights suddenly went out.
Everyone in the Arena braced for a signature Hysteria attack but when the lights came back on, Ashley was at the bottom of the ramp with a steel chair ready for them.
Except they were nowhere in sight, and Al’s attempted tag caught nothing but air. To add insult to injury, he turned around and ate a Face Reality from the champs, who dragged him towards their corner and tagged one more time to set up and deliver their Final Cut on the out of it Tiki God. Ashley dropped the chair and slid into the ring only to get wrecked by an O’Neill spear that allowed Palmer II to cover Al for the win. Crowd didn't like that one bit, nope.
After replays, we saw Ashley and Al use each other to try and pull themselves up as THEE Influencer’s face skittered between anger and sadness - even without showing up Hysteria managed to keep her from championship gold. But on the ramp, the Stable celebrated jubilantly with O’Neill yelling at some fans lined up by the ramp if they believed ACA were the best tag team in the world now and Starr bragging to the camera about how his squad had notched two titles wins in five days. After Steve hyped the World tag champs teaming with the Women's World champion to face the Culture in trios action and the Spare/Crowley championship match on next week's show, Ruckus went off the air.
