📺 live on FanDuel Sports Network Florida
📍 Quality Arena in Parts Unknown, FL
Instead of the usual open, we saw a vignette with the Glam Squad and John Arneson that played out more like TGIF opening credits than a usual vignette. Coming on the heels of having each other's backs for the last few weeks, Cole Grant and Freddie Valsada asked John to join up. When John asked if there were meetings they said only if he wanted there to be and that seemed to sway him into joining the group. Arneson pointed out that he was the least glam out of the three of them, and Valsada not subtly suggested he had an idea. We got some makeover montage action before Arneson decided to go with a look that gave him black paint around his eyes coming down his cheeks a bit. They got their hands all in and said Glam Squad on three before Arneson asked if they wanted to go get in some mini golf. Cole and Freddie agreed with enthusiasm and the new three man Glam Squad went off for some putt putt..
“Invincible” and the standard opening rolled after that; once we zoomed inside Quality Arena and popped some pyro, Steve Vandeblanche and Carl Christensen welcomed us to the show. Tonight, the main event will see Tre Boyd go against Beast Mode’s Roy Fade in a continuation of that months long feud, and “Night Sky” Diana Spare defending the Women's World championship in the main event tonight, and she’ll put the Fifteen Pounds of Gold on the line in an open challenge. But the action this Friday night began with Diana’s long term rivals.
Lights on.
Lights off.
You guessed it: Hysteria had arrived.
1. Bonnie Agrippa and Nancy Crowley of Hysteria (w/Justine Danek and Bella Jolie) d. The Game Changers at 6:45 A few minutes later, they vanished the same way they came but with a victory in their back pockets. The matchup between former World Tag Team champions had plenty going for it - the Changers had just won a Ruckus main event a couple of weeks ago days after QCW’s resident coven lost their straps. But it seemed that no matter what Al & Ashley threw at them in the fast paced opening tag, Hysteria was a step ahead throughout - if it wasn't cutting the ring in half to maximize their side of the ring, it was quick tags - if it wasn't quick tags, it was a distraction from Justine or Bella on the outside - and if it wasn't that it was Agrippa's sheer rage over having lost at Dia de los Muertos and then the chaos filled National championship match against Orion in last week's main event coming through as she ratcheted up the aggression in her arsenal. Bonnie would pin Al after she and Nancy combined for their signature spike brainbuster, Crowley using a whirling dervish attack to drop Szabo and keep “THEE Influencer” from coming in for the save. Afterwards most of Hysteria stood over the Changers scowling while Justine walked over to a camera, held it like a fine glass of brandy, and said “We’ll see you at the battle royale.”. Lights off…lights on…but of course Hysteria wasn't there when they came back up.
We went from the ring to a segment with the Chosen, who were all glaring at each other before Caleb Gray raised his hand. He said he’d hoped things wouldn't have come to this but last week had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the expansion was a shambles. That meant there would be a reckoning…and that would come next week. Next week he would win the battle royale to prove his mettle as the Chosen's leader and leap into history when he captured the World title - but after weeks and weeks of infighting, Davis and Tremble wouldn't be in the battle royale. Both began to protest before Gray raised his hand again and said since they wanted so desperately to fight that’d happen next week…and the loser would be excommunicated from the Chosen as a result.
Gray snidely reminded Drake that he knew all too well what it was like to be forced out into the wilderness before wheeling on Justice and reminding him that since he has possession of his contract, a loss would force him out of QCW as well. Goody Gardner looked on nervously in the background as Caleb focused on how tight knit the flock would be once it had clipped the weakest wings loose and stressed how the best platform from which to preach and reach was made from championship gold. Come next week a glorious new day would dawn for the Chosen atop Quality Christian Wrestling, a place for World champion Caleb Gray and those like-minded to personify faith over fear. Tremble gave JD a dismissive once over before going “Next week, then” and walking away; this year's Duquesne Cup winner stared daggers into his back before going “Next week, then” and heading off in the opposite direction. Gray looked relieved while Gardner looked thoughtful and the End Times held their usual stoic silences as we headed to commercials.
We came back from break with entrances for the participants in the first singles match on tonight's show…
2. Tre Boyd d. “These Hands” Roy Fade (w/“Dashing” Pierce Moore and Lolo Vuitton) at 9:18 Boyd, one of the many people on the roster saying they're going to win the Black Friday battle royale and dethrone Omar next week, earned a hard fought win over former Golden Glove winner Fade here. Tre might be the fastest man on the roster and got to show that off in the early moments of the match; on commentary Carl brought out the old chestnut that you couldn't hit what you couldn't catch. Fade couldn't bottle up Boyd and Tre landed some hit and run offense while clowning Roy as old, slow, yesterday's news. Boyd avoided a corner charge and landed a pendulum kick, then sent the man from South Central bailing out of the ring after eating a stiff legged missile dropkick. Fade recovered on the floor as Lolo Vuitton jumped up on the apron to distract the referee or maybe get after Tre. But it definitely allowed “Dashing” Pierce Moore to slide in the ring and drop Boyd with a Fresh To Death cutter. Once that piece of business was done, Lolo roused Roy and encouraged him to get back in the ring and finish Tre off.
Fade used the retaining barrier to pull himself up before darting into the ring and laying into Tre with rabbit punches, coming pretty close to being DQed by the ref. Fade used his educated hands to do damage to Tre, buckling him with some hard body shots that popped throughout Quality Arena and giving him some hard crossfaces across the jaw and nose. Fade continued to wear Boyd out over the next couple of minutes and went to end things with his vaunted Decision, but Tre dodged it at the last second and turned defense into offense with a Blue Thunder bomb that left both men down for most of a 10 count. Both men staggered up and backed into each other - Fade spun Boyd around only to get surprised by a flash Fresh To Death from Boyd, who made sure to let Pierce know about it as he fumed from the floor. That was the turning point, as the Gospel cruised from there and even tossed Moore over the top rope when he tried to save his partner. Lolo had to check on Pierce, leaving the door open for Boyd to come off the top with a beautiful Say Hallelujah to get the win with his Spiral Tap. A cocky Boyd flexed and strutted his way to the back, saying to the camera that you weren't just looking at the man who was going to win the battle royale - you were looking at the next QCW World champion and y’all needed to quit playing about it.
Between matches there was a This Week In QCW History segment focused on November 11th two years ago when Karyn Tisch-Warren retained the Women's World championship in an instant classic, beating Cindy Monet in a best of 3 falls match 2-1. It received consideration for 2023’s Match of the Year. Appropriately enough, we went to women's division action right after this recap.
3. Malicía Fernandez (w/the Republic) d. “Explosive” Emily Bennett at 5:59 Remember, the former National champion is half of the Republic’s “Omar insurance* in the battle royale next week. She tuned up here and got a pretty decisive win over the plucky Bennett, who went after Malicía aggressively right after the bell. But when Fernandez caught her moonsault attempt and turned it into a Snake Eyes that was the beginning of the end for the Minnesotan. A dominant Malicía ended things with a somersault axe kick and the Death Warrant. The Republic celebrated the victory by filling the ring and standing tall as we headed to commercials with the announce wondering if we would end up looking at an all Republic main event next week.
4. the Cooper Brothers (w/Kam Ellis) d. Hellraisers at 5:04 Earlier in the night, Tre Boyd notched a big victory; here his (former?) friends picked up a victory of their own. In fact, the Coopers dominated the bulk of the match against the former Catch Hell Wrestling League tag champs. Speed kills and the Coopers employed quick tags to isolate Ian Cook, completely inverting the usual game plan against Hellraisers and taking them completely out of their comfort zone. The big Cook tired in short order trying (and failing) to catch either of the Air Force alums, and when Gerry Greene tried to save his partner the Coopers backdropped him into an unwitting senton bomb on his own partner before clearing him out from the ring. Cook went down for the count not too long after that, the Coopers taking the win after the Aim High 450° splash and guillotine legdrop combination. The Coopers celebrated on the turnbuckles post match while Kam clapped it up for his friends.
As Sky’s the Limit headed to the back, they passed Commissionership Holmes and Julius Duquesne III in front of the Qualitron 9004, to the side at the top of the ramp. Julius asked for and got some cheers for the always popular Commish, then revealed they were here to spin this tumbler and determine who the first two entrants in the Black Friday battle royale would be. Holmes spun the tumbler a few times, then picked a ball out and handed it over to JD3 to crack. Duquesne announced that the person who drew #1 would be representing the College Park Family…Benjamin Valentino! A picture of the International Lover took up half the Tron, then they repeated the process to reveal who would start off with Valentino from the #2 spot…”the Proper Villain” Richard Windsor!
The crowd booed the turncoat Windsor and the boos only intensified after “Manifest Destiny” hit the PA and brought out Windsor in the flesh. Windsor read the riot act to Holmes, saying he’d won at Dia de los Muertos and dropped the dead weight of his ex partner; such accomplishments merited a better spot than #2 and fighting off the field while having to keep an eye out for the so-called Fury to blindside him. He accused Scott of being biased against him and Holmes responded with a bit of bite in his voice, saying that Windsor had cheated his way to that win and any unbiased observer could see that. But if he wanted to see what it was like when he was biased, hell, he could call for a referee to come out here (after a few beats, one jogged out) and Richard could prepare for the battle royale with a rematch against “the Fury” Jim Jaspers…right now!
“I Predict A Riot” hit the PA and Jaspers came sprinting out from the back, greeting his turncoat ex partner with a flying tackle that probably looked familiar to Calvin and Hobbes lovers and sent both men flying down the ramp. A fired up Jaspers was first to his feet and tossed Windsor into the retaining barrier, then tossed him across the aisle into the barrier on that side. Windsor staggered away on his knees, begging off to Jim. As Jaspers began closing in, Windsor shot forward with a drop toe hold that sent Jaspers bouncing face first off of the steel steps. Windsor got his bearings about him before tossing Jim into the ring and following close behind; once both Brits were between the ropes, the ref called for the bell to officially start things…
5. “the Fury” Jim Jaspers and “the Proper Villain” Richard Windsor fought to a double disqualification at 8:06 This was a crazy brawl the whole way as the Proper Villains exploded and left all the World of Sport stuff on the other side of the pond. The shot into the stairs opened up a cut over Jaspers’ right eyebrow and Windsor went after it with surgical precision, at multiple points digging into it and making it worse. Richard made Old Jim an increasingly bloody mess and even had him in a hanging rear naked choke from the second rope and milked the five count. Windsor let go at 4.8 before circling Jaspers and dumping him with a half and half suplex, but Jaspers kicked out at the death to pop the faithful. Windsor got in the referee's face about it for a bit, completely missing Jim pulling himself off the mat. Jaspers staggered over and spun Windsor around before planting him with a headbutt you could hear in the ninth row, then staggered back into the ropes gathering deep breaths before suddenly lashing out with a pump knee that dropped his ex partner like a bad habit.
Suddenly in the driver's seat, Jaspers grabbed Windsor’s arms before letting out a mad cackle and stomping away repeatedly; his blood came down on the battle royale’s #2 entrant but that was almost a side appetizer to the main course of shoe leather Jaspers served up. The referee almost had to pull Jim off after a five count, and Richard rolled to the floor while a bloody Jaspers backed the official into a corner. Jim looked at Richard and slid out of the ring, leaving a red streak on the apron as he turned the corner behind Windsor. Richard got picked up and his jaw almost broken off the force of a flapjack into the apron, and Jaspers added injury to injury with a release German suplex that sent Richard bouncing off the announce table to the ground as the crowd cheered. Jaspers stepped on the back of Windsor's head until the ref’s count made it to 8, then threw him in the ring and followed his way in. Windsor tried to stagger up, but Jim was running as fast as the blood loss would allow, hitting the ropes three times before crowning the former “Proper King” with a trip down to Fury Road. Jaspers flipped Windsor over after the kneedrop driver and hooked a leg - but this time it was Windsor who kicked out at 2.99 this time.
Jaspers eyes narrowed as he stared down the ref, who insisted it was a near fall and not the end of the match. Old Jim again stalked the referee into a corner, completely oblivious to Windsor pulling himself off the deck behind him. Richard got up and next to Jim, and the former friends exchanged a quick look - then they both punched out the ref! Jaspers and Windsor continued brawling, Jim winning for a little bit before Windsor tackled Jim and they both went between the ropes out to the floor. Quality Force Security came streaming out from the back as the Brits continued to throw haymakers at each other, completely missing the referee in the ring calling for the bell. Duck Eko announced that the match had been thrown out due to both of them striking the official and was therefore a double disqualification. Jim and Richard had to have heard the announcement before the crowd's boos but kept fighting until multiple members of QFS pulled them off each other. Like most things in life, the pull apart worked until it didn't, Windsor looking like he was willing to be led to the back until he exploded away from his share of the detail and landed some more punches on Jim’s wound, leading the rest of QFS to come out and pull Windsor off. But that led to a suddenly freed Jaspers cracking Richard with another headbutt, leading to him getting swarmed and taken down by a half dozen guards. Windsor tried to pull himself off the floor again, a .4 Muta covered Jaspers was getting bleeped out every third word about making Richard pay, and the Quality Controllers were chanting “Let them fight!” as Ruckus went into the last commercial break on the evening.
We came back from break to a sizzle reel highlighting Omar Littlefield’s almost year long path of destruction back to the World title, injuring multiple wrestlers on the way to taking lead in Ig de Catur's Republic and the Fifteen Pounds of Gold. As a barrage of Face Erasers and Omar raising the belt rolled, Littlefield added a voiceover. He said the whole roster was coming at him next week, but the so-called winner of that battle royale was really just going to win a trip to the ICU. He would destroy whoever and whatever he wanted because nobody on the roster could stop him. Come Black and Blue Friday, some fool would regret their temporary win when he left them in permanent pain. Ask Naz about Omar Littlefield. Go to the ICU and ask Razorblade who QCW’s real hardcore hero was. Omar was in the business of dining on legends…so whoever won the battle royale would be just a light snack for him.
Another championship main event on the way but first Steve and Carl hyped up next week's Black and Blue Friday supershow - with an additional half hour run time and limited commercial interruptions from Memphis’ FedEx Forum. 💫 After months of discord, Justice Davis and Drake Tremble will face off - and the loser will leave the Chosen, with Caleb Gray letting JD know he’ll have to leave QCW as well should he lose 💫 the show will kick off with the 20 person Black Friday battle royale which will be “Rumble style” for the first time ever - and the winner gets a shot at Omar and the QCW World championship in the main event.
“you should see me in a crown” brought out “Night Sky” Diana Spare to a big pop from Quality Arena. The Women's World champion had her usual steely focus as she grabbed the mic from Duck Eko and hit the ring, holding the Women's World championship up high. Spare said last week's main event saw Orion - you know, Orion, the National champion in the skybox, that Orion. A spotlight found the Cosmic Champion where Spare said they were, and the crowd pop for Orion matched if not exceeded Diana's, even if Orion was content to tap the title belt glittering over a shoulder. Diana said last week Orion was standing in this spot, defending the title successfully. Nothing against Orion, and who knows, maybe they’d see each other in the battle royale next week - but for now, this was the part where she would do something a rung above Orion's win last week and would win this open challenge against any woman who came out to face her…because they would end up counting the lights and find out the hard way that QCW belonged to the night.
Diana paced in the ring ..right up until “Shall We Gather At the River?” cut through the Parts Unknown air. Out strode Diana's polar opposite in QCW, Goody Gardner, flanked by the End Times and the leader of the Chosen, “the Purifier” Caleb Gray. As Gardner made her way down the ramp, the announce noted that (1} both Justice Davis and Drake Tremble were nowhere in sight and (2) Goody had clearly taken to heart Caleb's earlier words about bringing championship gold back into the arms of the Chosen. Gardner was introduced by Duck and our main event was underway.
6. “Night Sky” Diana Spare [c] d. Goody Gardner (w/Caleb Gray & the End Times) in an open challenge to retain the Women's World championship at 11:40 In the early stages of the contest, the announce talked about how it was shocking that Gardner answered the challenge - that she and Caleb had maintained an air of somehow being above her frequently competing in the women's division for nearly two years - but with an opportunity at the Fifteen Pounds of Gold, Gardner opted to step up even while her chosen flock were fraying around her. Spare has built her reputation as a hard hitting but clean fought battle, and Goody surprised many by going at Diana head on in that aspect even with plenty of backup on the floor. Spare broke the early stalemate a couple of minutes in by catching an attempted crossbody by Gardner and turning it into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker; before her opponent could get a base under them, Diana was coming off the ropes with a penalty kick to the small of the back. Most of the match played out similarly, with Diana pressing her size advantage and working over Goody’s back. But Gardner hung in tough, taking the punishment and continuing to try and fight from underneath.
At one point, it looked like Caleb was going to interfere in the contest but Goody waved him off and he slowly returned to the floor - and Diana capitalized by hitting the distracted Gardner with a pop up Michinoku Driver that Goody ate for a long two count. The Champ tried to follow up with a Black Hole Slam only for Goody to slip out the back and cinch Diana up before making her eat a Lawn Dart. Goody moved as quick as her back would allow before following up with a Busiaku knee out of the Justice Davis playbook that got Goody her first solid two count of the match. Gardner continued going after Diana, laying into her with some cracking open handed chops and even hitting Caleb Gray’s Inherit the Whirlwind cyclone kick. But when she tried an avalanche kneedrop, Spare rolled out of harm’s way and Goody screamed in pain after whiffing. Diana hit the ropes and sent Goody head over heels with a massive basement forearm smash, then picked her up and delivered on Nightfall to get another win, Carl saying that with the Quality Awards around the corner you had to figure Diana as a candidate if not winner of the Wrestler of the Year award.
After replays, Diana was getting her hand raised when Gardner limped in her direction…and surprised everyone by extending her hand. Spare looked suspicious before casting her gaze to the floor but Caleb Gray looked as confused as everyone else, and that may’ve been what caused Spare to shake Goody's hand to a decent pop from the faithful in the stands. As Gardner left the ring using Gray to help her to the back with the End Times trailing behind, Spare hit the turnbuckles with the Fifteen Pounds of Gold in hand but she wasn't in the mood for a celebration. She was pointing up at Orion in the skybox, and the National champion was standing and pointing at her in a mirror image of last week. Ruckus went off the air with Steve hyping the Black and Blue Friday supershow next week and the champion vs. champion staredown continuing.
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