A video package opened the show focusing on Ashok Banjerjee beating Nazir el-Fadal to retain the GRPL+ World TV title at Cruel Summer but then them fighting to a time limit draw on last week's show.
Steve Vandeblanche and Carl Christensen on commentary, the Voice of QCW Duck Eko handled the ring announcing.
1. Hysteria (Crush champion Bonnie Agrippa and Nancy Crowley w/Justine Danek and Bella Jolie) d. Women's World champion Lolo Vuitton and “Night Sky” Diana Spare at 11:50 In ring action for the last Ruckus in July started with a fast paced opening tag featuring both women's singles champions. Returning former Crush and Women's World champion Spare was going up against her former partners, current Women's World champion Vuitton is trying to escape the attempts of Hysteria to take over the women's division and her title (which you assume Spare might want back) and Hysteria - back from exile - want to take over as recompense for their time away and gained another step towards total dominance here.
Longtime partners Agrippa and Crowley showed off their chemistry early in this brawl. Spare hung with Crowley early but Bonnie blind tagged her way in the match and the black pointy hats teamed up for a double reverse suplex that dumped Night Sky on her ribs. That gave Hysteria a target to the focus on and they spent the next few minutes targeting the guts of Spare while they cut the ring in half. Agrippa kept Spare from reaching for the tag and pulled her into a fireman’s carry gutbuster as we got a mini rematch from Cruel Summer. Agrippa cinched up her former friend and hit her with a pair of rolling suplexes but got dropped suddenly with a Spare brainbuster that left both women out on the mat.
It took most of a 10 count for either one to recover, but once they did Bonnie managed to tag in Nancy first. Crowley rushed into the ring and picked Spare’s ankle but Diana landed an enzuigiri and tagged in Lolo to a big pop. Crowley flew at The Champ but Vuitton sidestepped her and let her crash to the mat. Vuitton dominated the next couple of minutes and rocked Nancy with a ripcord knee but Agrippa dove into the ring to save her from getting pinned. This brought in return fire from Spare, and the ex partners brawled until a flying crossbody sent both her and Bonnie to the outside. Justine and Bella were hovering around their flight on the floor right up until Lolo drilled Nancy with a ring rattling buckle bomb; Lolo started winding up for the Bloody Shoe before Bella jumped up on the apron. So Lolo hit Bella with it instead, then pivoted to wipe out Justine with another one…but that opened the door for Nancy to jump The Champ from behind and execute a Chaos Theory that got Hysteria the win to the disapproval of the crowd.
We weren’t done there, however - with the numbers advantage, Hysteria put a beating on both Diana and Lolo to add injury to injury, Nancy rolling out of the ring to lawn dart Spare into the ringpost while in the ring Bonnie pulled off a brainbuster on Lolo that got spiked by Justine and Bella flying off the second rope at the same time to further help drive The Champ into the mat like a railroad spike. As she did at Cruel Summer, Agrippa held both the Women’s World title and the Crush championship over her head before surprisingly handing the Women’s World title to Crowley, who bit into it like an ice cream sandwich on a hot day while cackling. Justine and Bella got the mic from Duck before passing it over to Bonnie, who let loose a cackle of her own to boos. No sooner had Bonnie started to talk about Hysteria running the women's division than Prince hit the PA and cut her off.
The crowd popped as Shelley LaVey parted the Qualitron 9004 with a steel chair in hand and stood on the top of the ramp. Shelley pointed it at the ring as the announce wondered how smart this was ahead of her singles match up next. Turned out that Shelley didn't give a rat’s ass what they thought and started running down the ramp.
Before she could hit the ring, Bonnie snapped her fingers and the lights went out in the Arena. When they came back on, Hysteria had once again disappeared in the darkness. A frustrated LaVey threw the chair to the floor before checking on Vuitton and Spare. Shelley called for refs to come out and help them to the back but as the other zebras streamed down the ramp “These Hands” Roy Fade and “Dashing” Pierce Moore trotted down to back up their running buddy in the Culture (with the longtime rumors being that LaVey and Moore are more than friends). Shelley was busy looking at her stable helping the officials and completely missed getting blindsided by her opponent as Sohla Patel seemingly appeared out of nowhere and laid out Shelley from behind.
2. Shelley LaVey (w/Beauty and the Beast Mode) d. Sohla Patel (w/International Lotus) at 11:48 Shelley spent most of the year as a double champion, Sohla spent a big chunk of the year as Women's World champion, so this was a high wattage match coming right on the heels of Hysteria, who've been targeting Shelley and crowding out Lotus a bit.
Things got off to a fast start when Sohla dropped Shelley with a spinning heel kick out of nowhere right after the bell. Replays showed that Sohla had snuck out amidst the stream of referee's and then hid at ringside while Vuitton and Spare were getting helped to the back. Patel continued upping the pressure in the opening minutes as the announce sold a win by Patel here would get her back to a rematch with Lolo or at least closer to one. Patel got a few nearfalls and looked to hit her signature sunset flip buckle bomb on Shelley but LaVey countered by cocooning herself in the buckles before flying off with a second rope Meteora to drop Sohla. When both women got up, Patel whiffed on a couple of offensive attempts and then got rocked by a Pele kick that caught her in the temple and collapsed her to the canvas. Once Shelley had the momentum of the match in her corner, she didn’t lose it the rest of the way and used an impressive pop up Fresh To Death cutter to set up her trusty Fallen Angel splash that earned her a hard fought win.
The rest of International Lotus helped a dazed Patel to the back while Beauty and the Beast Mode got in the ring to join Shelley in her celebration. The announce team put over Shelley’s bruising W and wondered what would be next on the Culture’s to-do list as we hit the first commercial break of the evening.
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Back from the break, Steve let us know that tickets for AnnIVersary sold out in under 20 minutes and thanked the fans. QCW’s biggest show of the year happens September 8th and unless you were lucky enough to snag a ticket, you’ll have to catch it on PPV. Back to the ring….
3. Drake Tremble (w/Goody Gardner) d. Mr. Teknik at 7:12 Unfortunately, Tremble reemerged for the first time all year at Cruel Summer; even worse, a now clean shaven Tremble bowed down before Witchfinder General and Goody Gardner to pledge his allegiance to their not a cult. Now announced as being from the Colony of Massachusetts and entering to Mozart, Tremble responded to the crowd’s boos by repeating “I forgive you.”. Teknik came out to the laser light show and European techno music then proceeded to school Drake on the mat with his technical skills. Tremble ended up bailing from the ring but smartly moved away from a Teknik dive. The masked German landed on his feet but the former QCW & World TV title holder wiped him out with a spinning back elbow that sent Teknik flying into the ring steps. Tremble dominated the rest of the match and put Teknik away when he lifted Teknik into a reverse crucifix and turned it into a cutter for 3.
After the match Witchfinder and Goody showed up on the ramp with the National Championship and the Duquesne Cup in town. Tremble got on his knees and bowed before Witchfinder, who looked pleased as Gardner cackled and gleefully clapped her hands. The three of them departed as the announce talked about Witchfinder adding another acolyte as his flock not only grows but adds a multiple time former champion to it as well.
After that we went TOTHEBACK~!, where Julius Duquesne III was standing by ready to interview Mean Season. Gaia Green and Winter Wonderland were bummed about losing to Justine Danek and Bella Jolie from Hysteria last week – but then again, a couple weeks ago they were the ones who got their hands raised. If they wanted to settle this once and for all next week, Gaia and Winter would be in the middle of the ring ready to turn their lights out.
4. El Vengador de Gente Jr. vs. Prince Ootsuka never started Vengador is a former Lucha Salvaje Campeon de Campeones who was supposed to make his QCW debut tonight after a highly publicized signing and weeks of highlight reel packages. As Gente was coming down the aisle and slapping hands on the way, a pair of hands shot out from the crowd and pulled him hard into the barricade. Two figures suddenly jumped over and started throwing hands and stomping on Vengador and within a few seconds you could recognize the assailants: Super Avión and Roberto Villalobos. They ran Vengador into both sides of the barricade a couple of times before lawn darting him into the retaining barrier. Avion grabbed the top of the steps while Roberto laid Vengador over the bottom half, but Quality Controllers’ cheers stopped whatever nefarious plans they had. Ricardo Villalobos (Roberto’s brother, Avión's ex partner and the former Crusazdo del Oro) ran down with a chair and started swinging for the fences; Avión threw the steps at him to give him and Roberto time to flee through the concourse. Referee's and Ricardo were helping Vengador get to his feet as we went to commercials.
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Back from the break, Steve teed up footage from Earlier Today as The Champ cut a pre taped promo from the roof of Quality Arena. Omar Littlefield said he was on top of the Arena the same way he was in top of QCW, and ended up getting two main points across: after smashing Lolo Vuitton a couple of Unleasheds ago in a champion vs. champion match, there was no doubt that he was the champion of champions so far as QCW went…so as far as Razorblade was concerned, he needed to keep Omar’s name out of his mouth before the next thing he smashed was that has been’s mouth. Littlefield smiled evilly and held up the Fifteen Pounds of Gold to end the footage.
5. Savage Justice d. Team Batroc at 11:40 As Team Batroc came out QCW Rewind remind us that last week they came out to interrupt and jump longtime rival Razorblade only to have his partner Justice run in for the save. The rivalry from late last year and into the early part of 2024 revived here, with a Pier 4 brawl amongst all four men breaking out before the bell could get rung. Once it did, Justice took the fight right to the massive Pyotr Caviar and had the Tracksuit Tsar on his heels. But all it took for Caviar to turn the tide was a seismic running crossbody that almost eclipsed JD. Caviar followed up with some hammer blows and stomps before Serge began to bark at his protege to tag him in. Pyotr fixed Serge with a hard stare and waited a few beats before giving a hard tag to Batroc - but the heels missed JD crawling over to Razorblade and making the tag.
Savage hit the ring and immediately started peppering Serge with right hands before sending him flying through the air with a press drop. Razorblade was rolling for the next couple minutes until he ducked down too soon off of a whip and Serge put on the brakes before dropping to his knees and blasting Savage with a European uppercut. The French Assassin grabbed Savage and threw him into the Team Batroc corner before tagging in Caviar once again.
This time there was no awkwardness between them and Pyotr just went to work, blasting the Triple Crown winner with a series of European uppercuts. The next few minutes saw Razorblade take a restaurant quality beating from Caviar, getting cut off from any substantial comeback repeatedly. For a moment after a bell clap and some hard forearms it looked like Razorblade had created enough separation to turn the tide but he ended up walking into a pop up European uppercut that sent him heels over head. Caviar looked to have the match won until Justice came in with a leg drop to make the save, which caused Serge to hit the ring. Batroc dodged the Battle Ground Battler and hit him with a snap German suplex; the recoil sent Davis from the ring and kept Team Batroc in control.
Pyotr tagged Serge back in and they continued to work over Razorblade for a bit longer before they went for the Denouement, but as Pyotr went for the springboard European uppercut and Serge went for the German to complete their finisher Razorblade managed a standing switch and pushed Batroc into his protege, sending Caviar flying to the floor and giving Savage enough breathing room to tag in a refreshed Justice. Davis jumped in the ring and lit up Serge, who got his power meter depleted in short order. Serge lashed out with a double thrust chop to the throat to slow down JD’s momentum, but Justice not only snuffed out a discus European uppercut but turned it into a half and half suplex that turned the 2022 Duquesne Classic winner into a grease spot on the canvas. The good guys rolled on merrily from there, Razorblade neutralizing Caviar by hitting a Davisesque cannonball off the apron that sent Caviar into the ring steps. Davis drilled Serge with a double arm DDT before tagging Razorblade in and they hit the Verdict for first time in months to a huge pop from the Quality Controllers. Between Davis’ Air Raid Crash and Savage’s double stomp off the top, Serge would’ve been down for a 33 count.
Pyotr helped Serge to the back after the match while the winners celebrated on the turnbuckles and Steve mentioned that the former Unified World Tag Team champions were back together and back to their winning ways. Carl pointed out that while QCW had had double champions before, no one had been World tag champ and held the World title at the same time before…but if anybody had the grit to pull it off Razorblade would be that man.
Enya Face caught up to the Culture as they were about to jump in a luxury SUV and leave the Arena. Enya congratulated Shelley on her win earlier and the former Crush champion said it felt good to shut Sohla up and put her in the rearview. So with that behind her, she was going to refocus on taking dead aim at Hysteria. Shelley was used to being a champion and would be again, just like her boys.
“Dashing” Pierce Moore pointed out that they hadn't forgotten about what had happened to them at Cruel Summer and lamented that the Unified World Tag Team championships had fallen out of fashion since S. Mark Starr and A Cut Above had stolen them, so he and his boy Roy were going to bring luxury like those titles had never seen before. “These Hands” Roy Fade added that he hadn't grown up in South Central to lose some chump named Broderick, and in a fair fight Beauty and the Beast Mode would get their hands raised and raise up the tag belts right after. Shelley concluded the interview by saying it wasn't that long ago when they all had a belt, and when they ran it back they'd do it for the Culture because they WERE the Culture. Roy gave Enya a once over (that looked like it got reciprocated) before they sped off into the night bumping some GloRilla. Enya said that the main event would be up next after the night’s last commercial break.
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Before the main event, Steve hyped up some big matches to come on next week's Ruckus: Asesinos Aereos will go up against Beauty the Beast Mode - hopefully the El Vengador de Gente Jr debut against Prince Ootsuka will go off without a hitch this time - and Bonnie Agrippa of Hysteria will defend the Crush championship against Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo from the Game Changers.
On the heels of that was Ashok v. Naz III - as opposed to last week and most World Television championship matches the time limit has been bumped up to 20 minutes from the usual 15.
6. Ashok Banjerjee and Nazir el-Fadal fought to a time limit draw at 20:00; Banjerjee retains the GRPL+ World Television championship But the additional five minutes didn't help us get a winner this time either, despite both men’s best efforts.
Even with a longer time limit than usual, the feeling out process in this one was minimal. Both men went for their finisher in the opening five minutes only to have the other man bat it down or swat it away. It looked like Naz was going to get the upper hand on a rope running sequence until he got surprised by a rebound handspring back elbow that gave the World TV champion the upper hand. Ashok spent the next couple of minutes executing his stick and move offense, using his speed to keep the Grand Slam winner off balance.
Naz got out of a cravate and tried to rally but a Boundless headbutt crumpled him to his knees. Ashok signaled that it was over and went for the Decolonizer Driver only for Naz to float over and counter, stopping the Brit in his tracks with a cobra clutch into a Lungblower to successfully complete his Heat Check and keep himself in the fight.
Naz took over a big chunk of the match even when things progressed past the 10 minute mark and continued to make Banjerjee's title defense hell. Carl pointed out the extended time limit have a dangerous guy like Naz more time to game plan and maybe even worked to his advantage a little bit. It looked like after getting free from a cravate that Ashok was making progress but when he went for another handspring back elbow the One Man Jihad knocked him out of the sky with an enzui European uppercut and followed it up with a hip toss Michinoku Driver that got 2 ¾ and almost made Ashok’s reign go Night Night.
el-Fadal looked peeved that the crafty move didn't regain him the belt but he continued to put his foot on the gas; after a nasty Saito suplex dumped Ashok on his head Naz barked to the crowd that he only needed one more move to put Ashok to sleep before turning around and getting absolutely floored by a Destroyer DDT that took all of Ashok’s adrenaline surge and left both men flat on the canvas with a little under five minutes left (at around the same point their match ended last week).
Both men got to their knees at 8 and started trying to lay each other out with forearms, then exchanged hard slaps and laughed at each other before breaking out into a hockey fight as Duck announced there were four minutes remaining - it was a little hard to hear him over the roar of (most of) the crowd rallying behind Ashok. Both men went for the biggest moves in their arsenal late: Naz dodged another Destroyer DDT attempt and hit Ashok with a smooth Outsider’s Edge only to have the champ kick out at the death - Ashok turned his subsequent try at Nazquil into a catapult that temporarily shut up the “Greatest Man Alive* by sending his face flying into the bottom turnbuckle before a beautiful Orange Crush bomb dropped Naz in the middle of the ring and he didn't kick out until 2 ⅞, almost giving Steve a full on heart attack at the desk.
Ashok was in disbelief but with the clock running out, he wanted the win. Again he went for the Decolonizer Driver but Naz raked his eyes on the way up. A smirking el-Fadal hooked up Ashok to hit Nazquil but Ashok got loose and hit a rewind rana on Naz only for a reeling el-Fadal to suddenly hit a poison rana of his own that left both men face down on the mat while the crowd cheered.
The referee was in the middle of their 10 count when Duck announced that the time limit had expired and this match was once again a draw, which cut off the crowd pop and inverted it with a quickness. The Quality Controllers let loose with a “BULLSHIT!” chants that got bleeped out on G+ while out friendly announce team didn't agree with the verbiage but agreed with the sentiment. Ashok was just coming to and getting his belt handed back to him when he saw Naz staggering towards the center of the ring waving him on, saying he didn't have the balls (also bleeped) to stop the Jihad. Ashok carefully folded up his title and set it down in a corner before flying at Naz and kicking off another hockey fight as the crowd went back to roaring.
The referee tried to separate them only for both Ashok and Naz to shove him down before going back to throwing hands, and that was enough to draw QCW’s entire referee corps out to separate Ashok and Naz, eventually herding Naz to the floor while Banjerjee fumed at the half dozen zebras keeping him at bay in the ring. The credits box came up as Steve and Carl debated what would come next as a result of these draws and assumed we’d have to tune into Ruckus next week to find out.
Right before the show faded to black Ashok broke free from his clutch of referees and dove over the top rope, laying out Naz with a Boundless tope con hilo that was on point to the decimal. Ashok was getting swarmed by referees as he punched away on Naz and the show went off the air, which was thick with Parts Unknown humidity and a rollicking “LET THEM FIGHT!” chant.
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