Last Week On Ruckus: Malicía/Orion III for the National championship featured the highest of highs (Orion coming back from getting the brakes beat off of them to perfectly time an inside cradle and apparently win the belt) and the lowest of lows (Omar Littlefield smashed up the title before he, Ig de Catur and the rest of the Republic retreated with what was left of the belt saying that the win didn't happen and he would never recognize Orion as the National champion)
The normal opening began to roll but got cut off halfway through, as we had to go to the ring where Ig and the rest of the Republic were in or around it ahead of his face to face summit with Scott Holmes. Ig was between the ropes, saying that just as easily as he shut down and took over the opening, the Republic would make his hostile takeover official after LockUp at AnniVersary. Who would stop him? Razorblade? Pyotr would take care of him in the main event and give the Republic the team advantage inside his LockUp next Sunday. Nazir el-Fadal? The only thing that man would team with was a picture of himself. He was a lost cause and would cause his side to lose. And Orion?! Well, maybe the referee and all the Ig haters had missed it, but he saw Orion have a handful of tights AND Razorblade holding down Malicía's legs (neither of which actually happened, but, yunno, Ig logic) so he couldn't let that miscarriage of justice stand and took it upon himself to have his associate Mr. Littlefield destroy the belt. There wouldn't even be a National Championship for QCW to have around were it not for him, and it had already been sullied by Razorblade enough this year. But by someone he couldn't even Google?! That was the last straw. He wouldn't let his intellectual property be defamed like that and once the Republic took over after AnniVersary, Malicía would be reinstated as the National champion and any trace of Orion - or Razorblade, or the One Man Clown Show, for that matter - would be erased from the QCW history books and there was no one who would stop Ig or the Republic from seizing the reins of QCW.
Soundgarden's “My Wave” cut off Ig’s rant before it could get any further and brought out Scott Holmes to waves of applause from the Quality Controllers. Despite literally being outnumbered 10:1, it didn't stop Holmes from getting into the ring and getting into Ig's face. Holmes said that Ig might be able to hide the National championship behind his lawyers for a couple of weeks, and maybe the people he had lined up would fall to Ig’s goon squad but win or lose de Catur had to understand one thing - he would never have the reins of QCW. QCW would always belong to the people who supported it like him instead of vultures like Ig who bought something trendy without building it themselves. The crowd cheered but Holmes talked through it, saying that he had such faith in QCW that he was willing to send some of QCW’s best into Ig’s torture chamber to fight for it and win it back; he put over Orion’s dominance in their first year at QCW, and Naz and Razorblade being half of QCW’s all time Mt. Rushmore. Ig looked thoughtful for a few beats, then sneered “Too bad none of them are here right now” right before Pyotr surged forward and wiped Holmes out with a Russian sickle, shocking the crowd who began jeering him roundly. Ig cackled through the noise, saying there would only be 9 days until the old QCW would be dead and gone for good, and it was all for the better because long live the Republic, that's why! Referees and the medical staff came out while Ghais Guevara played the Embassy out. .As Steve and Carl ran down Pyotr for his actions and Ig for his words, you could see Holmes using the ropes to pull himself up. Refs and the medical staff checked on Scott, who took a minute before walking off under his own power while holding the back of his neck.
Vandeblanche and Christensen welcomed us to the show and put over the Caviar/Razorblade team advantage match for tonight's main event as well as the #1 contendership match between former Women's World champions Luz Cruz and Lolo Vuitton as they both try to regain the Fifteen Pounds of Gold before throwing things to Duck Eko in the ring, as the Voice of QCW made the introductions for tonight's opener…
1. Jonathan Livingston Clipper Esq. d. “Dashing” Pierce Moore (w/Beast Mode) at 7:25 Debut of the sultan of smooth sailing, Clipper Esq. up against a former champion in Moore. Pierce clearly didn't take JLCE seriously early on until Jon rolled out of the ring and commandeered the mic from Duck Eko and got approval from the fans by suggesting he was a little bit more Dashing than Pierce was. That infuriated the vain Moore, who then proceeded to walk into some judo throws and open handed palm strikes as the crowd got behind Clipper. It took a timely distraction from Lolo Vuitton a few beats later to allow a window for Moore to land a blindside cheap shot and start going to work, firmly pushing things onto his side of the ledger when he fended off a facebuster attempt and countered with Lolo’s signature buckle bomb. After driving the air out of Clipper and playing with his food for a couple more minutes, Moore called for the end and set up for his Fresh To Death cutter but got distracted by the sudden arrivals in a skybox of Sky's the Limit along with some members of Quality Force Security. Moore and the rest of Mode started taunting Limit, challenging them to come down and fight them after what had gone down last week when Mode had laid them out. While that was playing out, Clipper suddenly rolled Pierce up…but Moore kicked out a little bit after 2. Both men were up but JLCE shot out with a shotei looking strike right in the kidney before underhooking Moore and laying him out with a sudden Wing Clipper that got him his first win in QCW and had the rest of Beast Mode losing their minds on the floor. Clipper scrambled out of the ring as “These Hands” Roy Fade and Lolo Vuitton hit it, shaking the referee’s hand after getting it raised and backing his way up the ramp.
We went from the ramp to a skybox, where Naomi Lee started to interview Sky's the Limit. Theoretically she was there to interview all four of them but Tre Boyd took it over and made sure to clown Moore for losing to Hall or Oates or onenadem. He said he wanted to get their hands on Mode after they jumped them from behind last week, but instead he went to Scotty Boy Holmes and cut a deal: they wouldn't get physically involved in Beast Mode matches tonight and would chill up here in the VIP…so long as come AnniVersary, he and Kam could get their get back on Bitch Made. When Naomi pointed out while stifling a laugh that they were called Beast Mode, Boyd said the Gospel had to call it like he saw it. Once they put those boys in the rearview, it wasn't like he forgot - he was still coming for the National championship no matter who had it, because they were just keeping it warm for him. He had another laugh at Beast Mode’s expense right before Naomi teed up the first commercial break of the evening.
2. “The Purifier” Caleb Gray and “the Righteous” Justice Davis (w/the Chosen) d. The International Players at 6:42 Another sadly listless loss for the former champion Players, as has been the case for the last few months. This was the first time old rivals Gray and JD had teamed in traditional tag action but the last two winners of the Duquesne Cup got along well enough, save the end where Gray demanded the tag after JD had laid out Benjamin Valentino with his Busiaku knee. Justice stewed for a few beats before making said tag, allowing Gray to add an unnecessary Deliverance and get the pin. Justice seemed ready to back him up but Lucius Patton didn't even try to break up the fall.
While Caleb and Justice got their hands raised, the End Times and Drake Tremble hit the ring to pile on and stomp out Benjamin. This finally seemed to get Patton out of his stupor, but things turned into a 4 on 2 when Caleb helped while Justice looked conflicted about what was happening. Interestingly enough, Goody Gardner didn't look super enthused about what was going down either. Suddenly a man in a hoodie jumped in the ring and began pulling the Chosen off and when Drake Tremble stepped to him, “the Paragon” blocked a Superman punch with his face. The hood slid off his shoulders…to reveal JUPITER JONES.
…well, then!
The Quality Controllers went nuckfuts as the sudden reemergence of the QCW legend Ig de Catur fired back in the spring took the whole Arena by surprise. And it wasn't like there was only one Bolt From Olympus in the chamber, as both members of the End Times went for a double team maneuver on Jones only for both Danny Castle and Dr. Martin Williams to eat Bolts themselves. Jones turned his sights towards victim #4 but when he went to drop Caleb Gray with one, “the Purifier” pulled Justice in its path and bailed out of the ring as Davis ate it and went down in a heap. Caleb looked rattled on the floor as he went “to protect Goody” as the crowd roared, but as Jupiter went to pull up his students the Players the reaction turned 180° as Quality Force Security hit the scene. Jones had some words of encouragement for his boys before QFS removed him from the ring, and Jones put up no resistance on his way to the back. Caleb and Goody steered clear as the purple shirts led Jupiter up the ramp and out of the building, the chants of “WE WANT JUPITER!” echoing loud and proud from the capacity crowd for at least a full minute straight.
Steve and Carl were plenty agog at the desk over Jones’ save having not seen him in months before eventually throwing to a highlight package centered on last year's AnnIVersary show, which somehow feels like it happened in the Paleolithic Era: Caleb Gray beat Ashok Banjerjee in a title unification match to entrench the National and admitted to setting the Black Friday ‘23 fire of Quality Arena in a moment that would officially birth and name the Chosen 💫 Nazir el-Fadal cheated to beat Autumn Powers in a #1 contendership match to force her to leave town (will we ever see her again? It's her time of year and everything) 💫 Luz Cruz shockingly turned heel in an eight woman tag to reveal herself as the leader of Hysteria (like most things in life, that worked until it didn't) 💫 and Razorblade became the first person in QCW to pin Omar Littlefield after a bloody street fight to end his first reign of terror and win the World title. Babyfaces came out to celebrate, then Commissioner Holmes handed him a new and unscarred title belt; a beautiful moment ruined by Naz coming out to sarcastically golf clap at the proceedings. The subsequent face to face staredown to end the show would kick off a series of events that led to last year’s ¡lucha muerte! World championship match at Dia de los Muertos the next month that won nearly universal acclaim as QCW’s 2024 Match of the Year.
3. Lolo Vuitton (w/Beast Mode) d. Luz Cruz at 9:29 to become the #1 contender to the Women's World championship Vuitton kept up her winning ways in this battle of former Women's World champions and will now get to face “Night Sky” Diana Spare at AnniVersary for the Fifteen Pounds of Gold as a result.
It was a coin flip in the early moments, both women pulling out multiple counters to the other's offense before Vuitton got a shady upper hand by barrel rolling into Cruz. Luz tried to retreat into a corner to recover but Lolo hit a flurry of chops and then body blows before dismissively sweeping Cruz’s legs out from under her to set up a facewash that almost sent Lolo’s designer wrestling boots into the camera. As Lolo began to take over the fight, a cut to backstage showed Spare watching on a monitor; her face didn't give away any rooting interest but crackled with her trademark intensity. Lolo continued chaining together offense and even cribbed a high altitude dropkick from the Cruz playbook for a nearfall. Lolo went after Cruz and earned a solid upper hand with a couple of minutes of hard work, snuffing a brief La Reina rally with a powerbomb followed by a buckle bomb. Lolo came around to end it with a Bloody Shoe only for Luz to catch her coming in with a Stun Gun. Cruz followed up by flying off the second rope to take Lolo down with a huracanrana. Keeping the pressure on, Cruz hit a massive dropkick that sent Vuitton out between the ropes and spilling to the floor. Luz got her motor revving before wiping out Vuitton with a step up tope con hilo.
With things in her favor now, once she recovered from the dive she tossed Lolo back in the ring and went to work, wearing Lolo down and hitting a nice dragon whip kick that got a nearfall. Luz went for a Gory Especial neckbreaker late but Lolo looked like she would be able to reverse it into a poison rana until Cruz powered up and delivered a sort of hybrid buckle bomb and inverted Alabama Slam that looked like a back alley dental exam and sent Vuitton reeling out of the corner. Luz made the sign of the cross behind Vuitton’s back and went up to deliver ¡MUERTE! but when she went for the second part of her double jump poison rana, Lolo shoved her and sent her face first into the steel connectors between the ringpost and the turnbuckles. Cruz fell back in the ring looking like a pile of dirty laundry and had to use the ropes to pull herself up in the corner; it took maybe a second and a half after she did for Lolo to connect on a vicious Bloody Shoe to win the match and punch her ticket to AnniVersary. As the referee checked on a slightly bleeding Cruz, Vuitton hit some buckles and celebrated, saying loudly it was only a matter of time until title #4 came home to her. A chyron came up for the Spare/Vuitton Women's World championship match to come a couple of Sundays away at AnniVersary before FDSN Florida fired up some commercials.
4. Glam Squad d. Glory Days at 5:37. Our return from the break began with a showcase match for the newly formed Squad, who bonded over a shared interest in being mean zaddies to their haters and looking fabubu while doing it. The “Whoa, Bundy!”s didn't put up too much of a fight before Cliff Foster went down to a double chickenwing x flying bulldog combination they call Too Damn Glam and “Fahrenheit” Freddie Valsada secured the win. The announce pointed out their continued success and wondered if they could keep it up long enough for them to angle their way into titles shot contention…right before the lights flickered in QA and a simple two word message began flashing on the Qualitron 9004:
t a r g 3 t s a c q u 1 r e d
And just like that, w @ s t 3 l a n d e r s attacked Freddie and Cole Grant from behind after running in from the crowd. They put up a decent fight but the fresher heels won and laid them both out with their Wasted finisher. The Quality Controllers showered them with boos but it's not as if f @ l l 0 u t or m 3 l t d 0 w n have ever cared about that sort of thing, and they stomped off to the back the moment some of the referee corps hit the scene having made their point.
Before the break we took a trip in the wayback machine, as On This Date In QCW History in 1956 “the Iron Irishman” Paddy O’Grady won a one night tournament to become the first ever QCW (eventually World) champion, besting Guiseppi “the Modern Day Caesar” Giuliani in a best of 3 falls final that went nearly an hour and a half before he won. Pretty dope to see the old footage get digitized and Ruckus rolled on after the break.
5. Bonnie Agrippa & Nancy Crowley of Hysteria (w/Justine Danek & Bella Jolie) d. The Wonderful Ward Brothers (w/Anton Stahl) at 9:06 in a non-titles match Out to make a statement now that the champions vs. champions match for the QCW World Tag Team championships is official for AnniVersary, Bonnie and Nancy not only showed why they were the current champs and the Wards were former champs, they seemed to ratchet up their already sadistic glee a level against the Canadians. Jason and Rich weren't as pretty once this one was over while both Agrippa and Crowley were loud enough to be heard without mics that this was what was in store for the Undaunted when they tried to take their belts from them come next Sunday. While it wasn't an outright squash, Hysteria easily controlled >70% of the match and put things to rest with their trademark spike brainbuster, Crowley hooking both of Rich’s legs on the winning pinfall. The champs showed off their belts and yelled “BEST. TAG TEAM. IN THE WORLD!” before disappearing in their usual temporary blackout bit.
💫 Next week’s Ruckus 💫 is the last one before the biggest show in company history and we’ll see not only a preview of AnniVersary | but in a preview intergender trios match, Beast Mode will go up against the Cooper Brothers from Sky's the Limit and the Women's World champion “Night Sky” Diana Spare | and the main event will see Nazir el-Fadal and Orion team up for the first time to face off against the Republic in the World champion Omar Littlefield and Malicía Fernandez
With the four of them engaged next week, it left two men to fight over which side would walk into LockUp at AnniVersary with the advantage.
6. Pyotr Caviar (w/Ig de Catur, the Republic and Republic Enforcement) d. Mason “Razorblade” Savage (w/Orion) at 15:25 in a team advantage match Unfortunately for all decent minded people, Caviar used a little help from his new friends to secure victory; the Republic now have secured the upper hand at AnniVersary. As you might expect given the participants, this was less catch as catch can and more catch this fist with your face. The bout began with both men throwing haymakers that connected more often than not, a slugfest that took a couple of minutes to go Caviar’s way. Once it did, however, it happened in a flash: Razorblade ducked too soon when he was maybe looking for a spinebuster, and Caviar booted him up before enveloping him with a running crossbody. The bigger Caviar played bully ball for the next couple of minutes, and every time it looked like Razorblade would about to be getting out from under Caviar would once again target the midsection or in one impressive counter floor Savage with a pop up European uppercut that got him 2⅔. Ig barked marching orders at Pyotr, who hit consecutive rolling gutwrench suplexes before putting the former World champion in a bearhug. Orion rallied the crowd behind Razorblade (they didn't need much prompting for that) and Savage began showing off his steadfast fighting spirit, rocking Pyotr with a series of bell claps to get free. The newest member of the Republic tried to drop Savage with another running crossbody, but this time Mason not only caught him but managed to power him over with a ring rattling fallaway slam.
With both men down we got a couple of replays of Razorblade's feat of strength. Both men got to their feet at nearly the same time but it was Savage who was quicker on the draw, landing a Cactus clothesline that sent both men over the top rope - but he landed sitting on the apron while Caviar hit the floor. As de Catur was yelling at Pyotr to shake it off, Razorblade was busy going to the second rope before flying off with a crossbody of his own that sent both of them through the announce table to the massive shock of everyone in QA. As that wore off and gave way to “Holy shit!” chants, replays fired off without commentary. The referee looked for a long while as if they were going to be ruling over a double countout, but Razorblade eventually got out of the wreckage and rolled in at 8. Caviar was right behind him and almost stumbled towards Ig, who pointed him to the ring so that he could get in at 9 ⅞ to save the match. Razorblade hit the ropes once he confirmed Pyotr had beat the count, then hit the ropes behind Caviar. The Tracksuit Tsar went for a Russian sickle that Savage ducked so he could hit a third set of ropes before coming off with a massive lariat of his own that sent the massive Russian corkscrewing through the air before splattering on the mat. Razorblade got a cover and hooked both legs but Pyotr still managed to kick out at 2¾.
Now with momentum on his side, Razorblade emptied the offensive tanks to try and keep Pyotr down for three: he snuffed out a pop up European uppercut and hit a double arm DDT, then quickly followed it up with another - but Pyotr kicked out late again. Ig tried to get involved but Razorblade scared him off the apron; this distraction allowed Caviar to hit a Russian sickle but Razorblade didn't go down. Instead, he fell back into the ropes before bull rushing Pyotr and planting him with a spinebuster. Both men were down for a few beats before Savage was able to flop on him with a lateral press…but at 2.9 Caviar snaked his adidas onto the bottom rope much to the relief of the Republic. It looked like a barely recovering Caviar was trying to get out of the ring but it turned out to be a ruse so he could snap the top rope into Savage's neck and buy himself some much needed time. Caviar charged in with another try at a running crossbody but Razorblade countered it with a big boot to the jaw. Caviar began to fall on him but Mason got low and slowly began to power Caviar up. His legs began to wobble a bit before he let out a yell of his own then powered Pyotr up and dropped him with a Death Valley Driver that had Steve and Carl freaking out behind the shards of the announce table. Razorblade used Pyotr’s fallen body to help himself get vertical, then pointed to the corner and made a throat slash gesture. Savage dragged Caviar towards the ropes and began to set up the Soul Crusher…right before Omar and Malicía bum rushed Orion and started cheap shotting the Cosmic Superstar. Razorblade's head pivoted towards the fight on the floor right before “So Be It” from Clipse hit the PA.
Nazir el-Fadal not only parted the Qualitron 9004, he came armed with a steel chair. REnforcement came up the ramp to try and stop the One Man Jihad but he started swinging like Ohtani and the blue shirts starting going down like Mary J. Naz was trying to make his way towards Orion as the referee focused on the fight on the floor, saying they couldn't bring that to the ring - and missed Ig on the other side of the floor tossing up a fountain pen to Pyotr, who immediately jabbed it into Razorblade's forehead before the zebra could turn around. On the floor Malicía and Orion were throwing hands against each other just like Omar and Naz were but in the ring, Caviar not only slipped free from the Soul Crusher after the pen jab - he came down with all 280 pounds on Savage’s back to drive his banged up midsection into the top turnbuckle. Razorblade fell into the ring and Caviar lumbered his way down from the top rope. Ig yelled out something in Russian, and Caviar yelled something back before leveling Savage with a discus Russian lariat. Pyotr hooked both legs and to the disgust and shock of the crowd got the three count; the Republic gain the advantage for LockUp next Sunday.
Ig hit the ring to celebrate with Pyotr, and about two seconds after he got his hand raised by the referee Naz absolutely walloped him in the back with a chair shot. Caviar went down in a heap as Naz smack talked him, paying no mind to Omar Littlefield sneaking up on him with a piece of the broken commentary table…but Omar completely missed Razorblade staggering to his feet and Savage surged forward and wiped him out with a Pounce straight out of the Littlefield playbook. Fernandez came into the ring to try and salvage things for the Republic only for Naz to make her take a couple of steps back by swinging the chair at her. Malicía backed up just enough to get spun around and laid out by an Orion satellite DDT. Ig was on the mat screaming at his personal army to recover…and slowly looked up to see Orion, then Naz and Razorblade looking like fraternal twins with evil grins. “Whaddya think?” said Savage. “We ain't locked up yet,” said Naz, and then all the babyfaces rushed Ig. de Catur was running for his private jet as the unofficial Team QCW chased him through the concourse. Ruckus ended with that chase still on and the members of the Republic trying to recover in the ring 9 days out from AnniVersary.
