Quality Arena | Parts Unknown, FL
Aired live on GRPL+ | March 15, 2024
Ruckus opened with a Golden Rule recap video package; stills of the International Players and the returning Witchfinder General celebrating their victories on the preshow gave way to short video clips of the following highlights from the main card:
🇨🇦 The Wonderful Ward Brothers were the crowd favorites in Calgary but Savage Justice managed to retain the Unified World Tag Team titles; afterwards all four men shook hands 🇨🇦
🇨🇦 Shelley LaVey successfully defending her newly won Crush championship against Fiona Fogg 🇨🇦
🇨🇦 The Match of the Night was probably the four corners elimination over the Women's World Championship: Luz Cruz and Lolo Vuitton teamed up to eliminate champion Karyn Tisch-Warren without Sohla Patel coming to her partner's aid - then Cruz pinning Vuitton later after her signature triple jump moonsault - but Patel rolled up Luz before grabbing the tights and putting her feet on the ropes to steal the belt which sure won't make things weird in International Lotus 🇨🇦
🇨🇦 The Culture fended off the Proper Villains and Fiona Fogg to retain the Ambassadors Trios championships 🇨🇦
🇨🇦 Omar Littlefield issued a challenge to the locker room for anyone to try and take the GRPL+ World TV title from him; Il Postino crashed and burned, then Omar kept the challenge going - “Swamp Pride “ Ted Holland provided a tougher challenge but suffered Postino 's fate - as Omar kept the challenge going again it turned out Ashok Banjerjee answered it to make his debut and won over the Calgary crowd not to mention almost the belt before Omar got himself intentionally DQed to end his undefeated streak but keep the title 🇨🇦
🇨🇦 And “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter calling the Unified World title match between Autumn Powers and Nazir el-Fadal down the middle before they didn't, accidentally (?) laying out Autumn with a chair after Naz spit in their face, then when Naz tried to use that to their advantage Mirror put him in Look Inward until he was out and then counting a three count on them both to end Golden Rule standing tall 🇨🇦
The opening rolled the same as usual, the biggest change being that Sohla is now slotted in to the Cavalcade of Champions. But when it quit rolling, we were at the QCW Control Center with Julius Duquesne III and Enya Face, who welcomed us to the 2024 Duquesne Classic.
Enya explained that once they were done setting things up and running them down, the ‘24 Duquesne would begin…and this would be the biggest Classic in QCW history.
JD3 took over from there, saying that for the first time ever 16 wrestlers would be involved, and for the first time ever they would be split into four blocks named for QCW legends. Every match would come with a 20 minute time limit: wins were worth 5 points, time limit draws 2. The four block winners would face off in two semifinals on the April 12th Ruckus with those winners facing off on the 19th to determine who would hold on to the cup named after his grandfather.
Julius continued, and talked about Tommy “King” Berger as not only a QCW legend, not only the man who had his grandfather's back but someone who loved QCW until his dying day that came too soon. In his honor there is the Berger Block, who's wrestlers are 2022 Duquesne Classic winner Serge Batroc, former multiple time Crush champion Luz Cruz, former multiple time World champion Nazir el-Fadal and former multiple time Unified World Tag Team champion, Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo. Cruz & Naz will face off later tonight.
Opposite that Berger Block is the Gunn Block, named for former sixties champion Ray “Rocket” Gunn. The four wrestlers competing in this block are newcomer Ashok Banjerjee, last year's Duquesne Classic winner “Dark Mirror “ Beckett Carpenter, former multiple time World TV champion “These Hands” Roy Fade and the returning Witchfinder General. Old rivals Dark Mirror & These Hands will renew hostilities in tonight’s main event.
Enya took over to do the other half of the Classic, starting with the Jones Block named for QCW icon “Sweet” Curtis Jones. You might know of his son, Jupiter, who somehow ended up here. Joining the former multiple time QCW champion and future Hall of Famer are former multiple timeUnified World Tag Team champion “Tiki God” Al Buffett, the GRPL+ World Television champion Omar Littlefield and Ambassadors Trios champion “Dashing” Pierce Moore. Once Blockology is over we'll see Buffett vs. Moore in another Game Changers/Culture war.
The last block is named for “Cowboy” Jack Powers, who dominated the seventies and eighties as a multiple time QCW champion. Competing to win it are former Unified World Tag Team champion Pyotr Caviar, former multiple timeUnified World champion Mason “Razorblade” Savage, former multiple time Women's World champion Karyn Tisch-Warren…and her former partner, former multiple time Women's World champion Lolo Vuitton. You’ll get to see Razorblade vs. the Notorious KTW later on in the show.
Enya & JD3 were together in the Center and hyped up the star studded field as well as the debut of the round robin element to the Classic giving us weeks of great matches. JD3 threw in a quick “Go, Jupiter!” before throwing things to Duck Eko in the ring to introduce the opener…
1. “Tiki God” Al Buffett (w/Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo) v. “Dashing” Pierce Moore (w/the Culture) in a Jones block cycle 1 Duquesne Classic match
Between the Game Changers and the Culture, they have a quarter of the Duquesne field (more if you count GC emerita Dark Mirror), and with the Culture coming together in part to go after the GCs it made sense that the tourney would start with Al and Pierce picking up where their rivalry left off.
Moore came in even more cocky than usual after a successful Ambassadors Trios championships defense on Sunday but it was the Archduke of Aloha who got off to the hot start and sent the Californian flying around the ring with a series of armdrags. Moore tried to bail out of the ring but Al spotted him and ran down the apron to hit him with a PK before following up with a cannonball that had the Arena rocking with chants of “Tiki God!”.
As it turned out, the rest of the match went predominantly in Al’s favor as well; Moore had problems stringing offense together and even cheating didn't bail out the Dashing one for long. With Ashley THEE Influencer leading the cheering crowd, Al put the finishing touches on the fight by following up a pop up Codebreaker with his signature Inner Strength to get the first win of the Classic.
“Tiki God’ Al Buffett d. “Dashing” Pierce Moore in 1240; Buffett has 5 points
After replays, they showed the previously online exclusive footage from after Golden Rule of International Lotus, as the Women's World championship moved from Karyn Tisch-Warren to Sohla Patel. Sohla was happy to have kept the title with their brand but offered up a terse “no comment” when asked about cheating to win the belt; Karyn said all the right things like she was reading a PR statement then offered up her own “no comment” when she got asked if she would try to win the title back and set a record by becoming a four-time champion. However, the clip ended with them plugging their websites as usual and Sohla polishing up her newly won championship.
2. Mason”Razorblade” Savage (w/Justice Davis) v. Karyn Tisch-Warren (w/International Lotus) in a Ppwers bracket cycle 1 Duquesne Classic match
The second chunk of the show started off with more Duquesne action from two competitors who had drastically different nights at Golden Rule. It looked like Savage's week of big wins would continue as he used his power advantage to gain the upper hand on Tisch-Warren. Razorblade continued to press his advantage but overestimated how far ahead he was.
Tisch-Warren dodged his corner charge and left Mason to shoulder the ringpost, then got on the apron and ran down to deliver a shotgun dropkick that sent Razorblade’s head into the post as a follow up. With Razorblade knocked for a loop, the notorious KTW charged and hit him with an STO backbreaker before following up with a cover that got her 2.
Karyn kept the advantage for a couple of minutes but Razorblade powered out of her attempt at the Circuit Breaker and a few beats later nearly sent her flying out of the ring with a Pounce (period). Savage dominated the next couple of minutes, then put Karyn away with the Soul Crusher.
Mason “Razorblade” Savage d. Karyn Tisch-Warren in 10:09; Savage has 5 points
Razorblade got his hand raised and the announce put him over as a strong favorite to win the Classic.
From there we went TOTHEBACK~!, where JD3 was standing by to bring on his guest: the World Television champion, Omar Littlefield. Omar's so big he kind of dwarfs JD3. Littlefield congratulated JD3 on interviewing the man who was going to win the Duquesne and add the Cup to the TV title - and soon he’d give QCW a scar they couldn't recover from when he became Unified World champion.
JD3 asked him about getting intentionally DQed at the PPV, and Omar just glared at him until he started stuttering. Omar held up his title and said that he didn't need to be undefeated, he needed to be champion. And no newbie was going to walk in his place and take his belt. Come Unleashed, he’d make the mighty Jupiter Jones the latest person he planted into the mat, and the title would remain his until he decided to give it up. And until then…well, let the list of victims grow. Omar stomped off the set and JD3 threw it to Duck Eko for the next match.
3. Shelley LaVey [c, w/the Culture] v. Jane Doe (w/Cindy Monet) for the Crush championship
QCW Rewind reminded us before the match that Shelley won the belt on last week's show through brilliance, chicanery or both then successfully defended it at Golden Rule. LaVey again showed her craftiness by flooring Jane with a John Woo dropkick right after the bell rang and didn't let Doe get out from under. Shelley kept the pressure on and went for her stablemate’s Fresh To Death cutter but Jane put a stop to that by countering with a release German suplex.
Jane put together a few moves and seemed to have LaVey on the back foot, bailing out of the ring. When Jane chased her to the apron, Shelley went for another Fresh To Death and got it to send Jane crashing into the hardest point of the ring. LaVey got Jane back in the ring and hit the Fallen Angel splash to retain her title.
Shelley LaVey d. Jane Doe in at 9:49 to retain the Crush championship 2️⃣
After replays, Shelley slapped Jane around a couple of times until Jane’s partner, former Crush and Women's World champion Cindy Monet ran Shelley off with a chair.
As Hour 1 came to a close, Cindy was daring Shelley to try that crap with her while Shelley held up both the Crush championship as well as her share of the Ambassadors Trios championships & bragged that she was the kind of double champion Cindy couldn't even dream of touching on her best day.
We came back to Enya Face, who wasn't teleporting but welcoming her guest at this time - “Dark Mirror * Beckett Carpenter. QCW’s most notorious firebrand walked on set to a loud and mixed (but mostly positive) reaction. Enya wasted little time in asking Carpenter why they laid out both halves of the main event at Golden Rule when they were the special guest referee.
Carpenter - perhaps tongue all the way in cheek - said that they provided a necessary help given the evenness of the matchup, so it was only fair & dare they say right down the middle to end the match the way they chose to. Fans, stans and haters would all have their opinions but they stood here proud of the job that they did. And if Autumn and/or Naz had a problem with that, they weren't hard to find.
In fact, they could find them in the main event tonight when they began their quest to defend the Duquesne Cup and beat Roy Fade once again. Fade has done well for himself: his own bootleg Game Changers, technically an Ambassador of QCW and above average theme music. But he didn't know what it took to win the Duquesne, and as they took handling things in the main event of the PPV on themselves they would handle Roy in tonight's main event themselves. It would only be a matter of time before they made These Hands Look Inward. Beckett clapped Enya on the back and left to get ready for the main; Enya threw things to Duck for the next fight.
4. Ian Cook & Gerry Greene v. The International Players
The Catch Hell alumni acquitted themselves well, using Cook’s power to their advantage and got the upper hand but they couldn't maintain it. Lucius Patton and Benjamin Valentino not only cleared them from the ring but hit a series of four topes to wipe out both Brits twice. That gave the Players momentum that they wouldn't lose for the rest of the match, eventually putting away the larger Cook with a catapult/guillotine leg drop combination.
The International Players d. Ian Cook and Gerry Greene in 8’06
Post replays, we saw the Players celebrating in ring and a cut to the back showed Jupiter Jones and Science Fiction Double Feature clapping for their Collipark comrades.
From there we got more previously Online Exclusive footage from after Golden Rule, this time with Ashok Banjerjee who made his debut at the show. Ashok thanked Calgary for the warm reception but was pissed that the big, bad Omar Littlefield had to get himself intentionally DQed to save the World TV title.
He said he would love a rematch where Omar actually defended his title without any BS, but his coming priority is showing QCW just like he showed Calgary who he is and what he's about in the Duquesne Classic. Winning that would guarantee at least a shot at Omar, and maybe more, so he was going to be even more Boundless than usual to secure the Cup.
5. “La Flor” Luz Cruz v. Nazir el-Fadal in a Berger bracket cycle 1 Duquesne Classic match
Both Luz and Naz came into their first ever match against each other in salty moods, both having gone for the 2 major singles titles on Sunday and gotten screwed out of them; obviously they wanted to use the Duquesne as a springboard to future title shots as well as having a king sized bullet point on their resumes.
The opening minutes were a coin flip with both competitors trading hard strikes, but neither got an advantage until Naz cracked Luz with a stiff back elbow before following up with a nasty Saito suplex. On commentary, Carl noted that he was relatively new to the modern era of QCW but even he knew there were few things more dangerous than Naz when he had the upper hand.
el-Fadal wrestled the next few minutes as if he’d heard Christensen, peppering Cruz with big European uppercuts. Luz managed to put together a brief rally that Naz snuffed out with a buckle bomb version of the Outsider's Edge.
Cruz kicked out at 2 ¾, but the upper hand had been established. Naz was winning the match, but he couldn't win the match - not after another Saito suplex dumped Cruz on her head, not after he put her in a cobra clutch and added a Lungblower, and not even after he hiptossed her into a Michinoku Driver. Naz went for Nazquil but Luz countered by pivoting and dropping him with a DDT.
el-Fadal got to his feet first but walked into a jawbreaker. The former World champion was staggered but it was Luz's follow up leg lariat that put him on his ass. Naz rolled out to the floor but Cruz followed him out and further tilted the scales in her favor with a Orihara moonsault that wiped Naz out and popped the crowd.
Luz got to her feet first and rolled Naz into the ring before opening up her offense on Naz. With the clock coming into play down the stretch, Cruz threw her arsenal at Naz but in a reversal from earlier it was el-Fadal who pulled off multiple kickouts and frustrated Luz. With a few seconds left Cruz planted Naz with a rewind rana and hit her triple jump moonsault, but the bell rang before she could cover the fallen Naz, sooooo…
Luz Cruz & Nazir el-Fadal fought to a 20 minute time limit draw; both earned 2 points
Before we hit the main event, Steve and Carl hyped up the next week of QCW TV chock full of more action in the Duquesne Classic.
Unleashed will complete cycle 1 in the Classic with Ashley THEE Influencer vs. Serge Batroc, Lolo Vuitton vs. Pyotr Caviar, Ashok Banjerjee vs. the Witchfinder General and not only a cycle 1 match but a defense of the World TV title as Omar Littlefield goes up against the legendary Triple Crown holder Jupiter Jones.
RUCKUS will kick off cycle 2 with the following matches: Ashley THEE Influencer vs. “La Flor” Luz Cruz, Ashok Banjerjee vs. “These Hands” Roy Fade, “Dark Mirror “ Beckett Carpenter vs. the Witchfinder General and Razorblade against Lolo Vuitton; in addition to that, an all star trios match with Nazir el-Fadal and International Lotus facing off against Autumn Powers and Mean Season. That card’s more loaded than me on my birthday.
Before we get to all that Classic action next week, we’ve got one more right now in tonight's main event:
6. “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter v. “These Hands” Roy Fade (w/the Culture) in a Gunn bracket cycle 1 Duquesne Classic match
The show began with a Culture vs. Game Changers match in the Classic and would end with a different member of the Culture facing the cofounder of the Changers to kick off the Gunn block.
As Fade come out, stills of he and the rest of the Culture retaining the Ambassadors Trios championships at Golden Rule rolled…and we all know what Mirror did at the PPV. Fade took down Mirror a few times and posed to boss from the Controllers and cheers of his running buddies.
As Fade continued to show off the upper hand early, a buzz grew in the crowd and then turned into a pop as the Game Changers arrived on the scene to neutralize Pierce Moore and Shelley LaVey on the floor.
Fade tried to no sell their arrival and went for a superplex, but Carpenter fended him off before showing him crotch first onto the top rope. A higher pitched Fade soon found himself on the business end of an Inner Strength from Carpenter, who built upon those moves to muster a rally.
Using a combination of their usual offense and a few moves cribbed from their Game Changers brethren, Dark Mirror soon had things tipped in their favor. Moore did save the match for his partner by putting Fade’s foot on the ropes during a Mirror nearfall out of the referee's eyeline - but that quickly led to a Pier 4 with Al and Ashley against Pierce and Shelley and all four of them brawling either through the concourse or up the ramp.
Roy complaining to the ref about his friends getting jumped came to a sudden stop as the crafty Carpenter chop blocked him from behind. Fade staggered to his knees only to get pummelled by 20-30 seconds of Mirror hammer and anvil elbows; Look Inward followed that up and you got a sense Roy was almost grateful to tap out
“Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter ds. These Hands Roy Fade in 13:12; Carpenter has 5 points
We didn't get the full slate of replays. A cut back to the ring in live time showed Naz pulling a celebrating Mirror off the turnbuckles and planting them with an Outsider’s Edge. el-Fadal mocked the booing crowd before barking at Beckett to get up. Once they did, Naz cinched them up and planted them with Nazquil but the Quality Controllers cheering loudly raised Naz's eyebrows. He turned around and got wiped out by a Hazy Shade of Autumn.
The Champ smacktalked the fallen Naz while the Arena chanted her name. Powers finished putting the bad mouth on Naz and started to leave the ring when they saw Carpenter starting to pull themselves up off of the mat.
Autumn smiled thinly before getting a running start and wiping out Dark Mirror as well to a loud (but mostly positive) response. Autumn looked around the ring standing over the bodies she dropped before she headed out of the ring and slapped a few fans’ hands on the way to the back.
Ms. Powers just reminded the world of one very crucial detail: The Champ is still The Champ.
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