📺 live on FanDuel Sports Network Florida
📍 Quality Arena 💫 Parts Unknown, FL
A video package opened the show recapping the first half of first round Duquesne Classic action, as a banged up Bonnie Agrippa got past a banged up Shelley LaVey, Luz Cruz pulled off a massive upset over Pyotr Caviar, Nazir el-Fadal bounced Caleb Gray and Malicía Fernandez pinned Razorblade in the main event. The package ended with footage of all four winners celebrating their victories, followed by a slow pan of the Duquesne Cup and a voiceover promising that after tonight the number of people who would be able to hold the Cup in 2026 would be cut down to eight.
The usual “Invincible” open began to roll but suddenly stopped midway through. We were quickly ushered inside Quality Arena where Drake Tremble was in the middle of the ring with a mic, whining over being forsaken by Caleb Gray and the rest of the Chosen and made him lose his way – until last week, when he had finally gotten off the schneid And now that he was in the Duquesne, he would get his ultimate revenge on Caleb by succeeding where he had failed: he would win a Classic Caleb couldn't even get out of the first round of, then he would get his revenge on all the idiot fans who’d forsaken him by beating their hero Jupiter Jones and becoming the QCW World champion for a fourth time. But in order to win the main event at Mayday Payday, he had to win tonight and he wasn't going to wait around for it to happen. So bring out his “mystery opponent”, soon to become a footnote in the redemption of Drake Tremble.
A murmur went up in the Arena as Drake tossed the mic aside. A beat happened, then another, then Mastodon hit the PA and caused Drake's jaw to drop. The camera followed his gaze up the aisle, where Orion parted the Qualitron to a huge pop, Steve Vandeblanche on commentary wondering how the hell Commissioner Holmes had managed to keep this a secret. The National champion hit the ring as a referee slid into it and our opener kicked off…
1. Orion d. “The Forsaken” Drake Tremble in a non-title first round Duquesne Classic match at 2:53 The National champion made quick work of Tremble in a showcase match; a pair of massive release dragon suplexes set up Orion’s Nebula and that got the win. Orion's win means that they have a date in the quarterfinals next week against the High Priestess of Hysteria, Bonnie Agrippa. Call me crazy but after the most dominant first round victory so far this year, I doubt that Orion’s sweating it.
We went to the announce desk, where Steve reintroduced himself alongside long time partner and former QCW champion Carl Christensen. They hyped the remaining first round Duquesne matches tonight - Jacques Krieger v. Summer Rose, Nancy Crowley v. “Night Sky” Diana Spare and the main event tonight: Tre Boyd v. Omar Littlefield.
Appropriately enough, a cut to backstage showed Ig de Catur addressing the Republic and Republic Enforcement as they formed a half circle in front of him. de Catur was dressing down Pyotr Caviar for losing both the tag titles and his first round match in the span of the same week before pointing out that Malicía Fernandez had won her match last week over that street trash Razorblade and Omar would win the main event tonight over the annoying Tre Boyd. Just because Pyotr failed them all was no reason to lose sight of the big picture - now Malicía or Omar would win the Classic, and once that happened they would headline Mayday Payday against that fossil Jones and once they gave him a Republic retirement party, the World championship would be back in Ig’s trophy case and the Republic would rule over QCW once again. Ig declared the meeting dismissed, and everyone got up and left before Pyotr could join them. Once his head was up, Pyotr had only one thing to say: “You fine with Malicía fighting Omar next week, bro?”. With that question hanging in the air, Ruckus went to its first commercial break tonight.
2. Genesis King d. Kam Ellis (w/the Cooper Brothers) at 8:40 While the Duquesne takes up a lot of QCW’s oxygen as it does every spring, it's not the only thing that goes on in the company. Here, the cocky King was looking to rebuild his name after coming in with a lot of hype months ago only to come up short against Orion in his attempts to capture the National championship. Similarly here, he bit off more than he could chew against the power man from Sky’s the Limit and spent most of the match getting dominated by Ellis. Special K had things in hand when he went to the top rope, but King drop kicked the top rope to undercut Kam’s balance and crotch him in the high rent district. Genesis quickly hit Crowned to steal a victory while a post match cut to backstage showed S. Mark Starr watching the proceedings on a monitor.
From there, we went TOTHEBACK~! for an interview segment as Naomi Lee brought on Serge Batroc and “the Proper Villain” Richard Windsor as her guests. She asked if they'd heard the challenge that the Undaunted had put out for a rematch and Windsor responded that after their dominant win at Golden Rule, what the Undaunted were offering up wasn't a challenge at all, so they could have the honor of losing to them again on next week's Ruckus. When Nao pointed out that they’d barely won at Rule and had to cheat to do so, Richard hand waved it away, saying that the important thing was that they'd won and would do so again next week - and once they prepared a proper victory party with fine dining and world class decor, maybe a delicious little tart like her would like to join then? Nao looked disgusted and flatly said the word “achoo” before braining Richard with the mic, drawing a pop from Quality Arena and a “Zut alors!” from Serge, who quickly gathered up Windsor and made their way off set. Lee shook her head a few times as they left before throwing things to Duck Eko in the ring so he could do the ring introductions for the next match…
3. The End Times (w/the Chosen) d. Science Fiction Double Feature (w/Collipark) at 8:41 Caleb Gray may have failed to take the World title off of Jupiter Jones at Golden Rule, but his acolytes beat Jupiter's proteges here. Both teams' associates were on the floor for this one to make this a de facto lumberjack match. SFDF came out of the gates hot, looking every bit like the former World Tag Team champions they were as they used their quickness to put Danny Castle and Dr. Martin Williams on the back foot early. A series of dropkicks and double dropkicks sent them out to the floor and got the crowd feeling like a Collipark win was only moments away. But while they cheered, Gray was in the Times’ faces and browbeating them, saying that of course they were going to lose wrestling at their opponents' pace - they had to wrestle their style if they wanted to come out triumphant.
It took some time for that to come to pass, but only about a minute for the tides to change in the favor of the Chosen as Castle went for a cheap shot only to be scared off by Jane Doe. However, that opened the ATLien up to get a spinning falling back suplex from the Analyst, who quickly tagged in Castle so they could hit a double back suplex elbow driver on Doe. The Times spent the rest of the match working over Jane's neck while preventing her from being able to tag out to Cindy Monet. Jupiter and the International Players tried to provide some coaching, but the Times merely bent the rules as far as they could get without breaking them to keep Collipark at bay. Things ended when they threw a double big boot at Cindy to knock her off the apron before taking Jane out with the Reckoning. Despite an up and down record with the company, nobody has ever kicked out from Castle and Dr. Williams' tornado DDT Doomsday Device and Jane wasn't going to be the first. The black hats gathered on the floor and Caleb had nothing but praise for the Times in victory while the rest of Collipark checked on the downed Jane in the ring. With a small smirk on his face, Caleb took off his hat and bowed in Jupiter's direction before leading the Chosen up the ramp and to the back as Ruckus went to commercial break.
Back from the break we got a decent sized video package for the returning Emily Bennett, who confirmed the online rumors of her returning home last summer after the government overreach led to one of her childhood friends being arrested and detailed. Emily admitted to having rose tinted glasses about the way the world worked before that happened, but if she had learned nothing else she had learned to get loud and raise hell for the right reasons. It was possible someone watching her right now had never seen her before, or had forgotten who she was, so she’d help them out. Her name was Emily Bennett and she wasn't just Explosive anymore - she was Minnesota strong.
4. Summer Rose (w/”Sinister” Sarah Fowler) d. Jacques Krieger in a first round Duquesne Classic match at 9:33 A few years ago Rose was the runner up for the Cup; this year, having just won her way back to an official position with the company at Golden Rule, she went over Krieger here. At first the match seemed to be all Krieger due to the size and power discrepancies between the two that frustrated Rose early; he mostly shrugged off her early offense and kept moving forward. A massive back body drop counter on his end sent Summer over the top rope and to the floor. The New Jerseyite followed her out to the floor and went for his vaunted heart punch, only for Rose to scramble out of the way and for Jacques to accidentally punch the ringpost. You could hear the sickening crunch of bones cracking in the skyboxes as QCW’s resident heavy hitter ended up cursing while trying to get some feeling back in his hand. Obviously distracted by the massive pain jolting down his arm, he didn't notice Rose had gotten up onto the announce table - until he turned around and Rose launched herself into a huracanrana that sent him flying head first into the steel steps.
Rose crawled back in the ring more than content to win by countout but unfortunately for her, Krieger managed to get back in at 9½. Unfortunately for him, that left him wide open for Rose to attack his hand and arm in any way she could, using everything from joint manipulation to a Fujiwara armbar to wear him down. Rose barely let go of the armbar in time to avoid disqualification and had words with the referee about it before turning around into a pump knee strike from Krieger that sent her down to the mat. Krieger sank to his knees still trying to salvage his arm but it looked like he was having trouble even moving his fingers. One Eye gathered himself and went back on the attack, only to get caught as Rose kicked his ankle out from underneath him and sent him face first into her protruding knee in a modified basement facebuster. Most of the rest of the match played out the same way, with Summer’s devious technical abilities being a mountain that Krieger couldn't climb (especially after taking an Omar sized beating at Golden Rule and from almost all the Republic last week). Rose continued wearing Krieger down until she had him in position for a basement rana driver that put a bow on things and sent Summer off to the quarterfinals where she’ll face off against the red hot Luz Cruz of the Forbidden Book Club. As Rose and Fowler slithered to the back with crooked grins, Carl put over Summer huge and called her a good dark horse pick to walk away with the Duquesne Cup this year.
Before the last commercial break we got a This Week In QCW History video package. You might have heard about this one before once or seven dozen times here and there on a Ruckus - on April 4th, 1991 beloved jobber Carl Christensen madehistory at the King Berger Tribute Show by first winning a 20 man battle royale by getting knocked between the ropes before the final two runner ups took each other out, thus earning a shot at QCW champion “the Golden One” Neil Everhardt in the main event. Carl gets destroyed but when Neil goes for his finisher Christensen sneaks in an inside cradle to win the belt and end Neil’s reign at 941 days in the biggest upset in QCW history to this day. Neil would win the two rematches handily and Carl never won another match in his remaining four years in QCW, but he's fine at the desk doing color commentary - the same desk from which the all-time call of “Christensen wins! Christensen wins! My God and King in heaven, Christensen wiiiiinnnnnnsssss!" came from.
5. Nancy Crowley (w/Hysteria) d. “Night Sky” Diana Spare (w/Forbidden Book Club) in a first round Duquesne Classic match at 10:18 When the Forbidden Book Club beat Hysteria in the extreme rules elimination match at Golden Rule it looked like the FBC had won the war between the factions and maybe end the rivalry - but the Duquesne has seen someone from Hysteria beat someone from the Club two weeks in a row. Crowley eked out a hard hitting victory over Spare in the semi main, one that started off with a hockey fight to the joy of the crowd and the seconds at ringside. Spare switched levels and slowed down Nancy with a knee to the breadbasket, but when she tried to follow up off the ropes she ran into a back elbow smash from Nancy. Crowley got in the mount position and rained down wild swings before biting Diana, as Crowley's usual Feral attack gave her early control of the fight. While Diana got in her licks, Nancy's willingness to cheat combined with her reckless offense had her ahead on points as she eventually knocked Spare loopy with a headbutt that sent “Night Sky” rolling out to the apron to try and regain her faculties. Still attacking, Crowley went for an inside out sunset flip bomb that would've driven Diana to the floor had Spare not jumped up and buried a knee into Nancy's neck and driven it into the ring apron. Things went from bad to worse as Spare got a running start on the apron and almost took Nancy's head off with a PK that you could hear at the concession stands.
We got replays of the PK as Spare looked like she was going to put Nancy back in the ring; instead she made sure she had Crowley hung out to dry over the apron before she got another running start and buried a million dollar knee lift upside Crowley's head. Diana went after her ex partner as if the betrayal had happened moments ago instead of years and took a hollow eyed intensity to unleashing her offense over the next few minutes, including killing a brief Crowley rally in the crib with a massive textbook pop up Michinoku Driver that Nancy barely got her shoulder up on at 2¾. Spare kept punishing Nancy over the next few minutes and got some more nearfalls, but even when Spare blocked a Code Black with an Alabama Slam that ragdolled the Cauldron of Chaos into a Black Hole Slam, Crowley managed to survive even if the kick outs were getting narrower and narrower. After surprising Nancy with a Pele kick out of the Shelley LaVey playbook, former five time champion Spare let out a war cry and cinched up Crowley for her trademark Nightfall - and that's when all hell broke loose. Seeing Nancy in trouble, the rest of Hysteria jumped into action and up on the apron but that didn't last long until Luz Cruz and Shelley LaVey pulled them down and kicked off a Pier 4 on the floor. In the ring, before Diana could end things in her favor Nancy looked like she was biting the eye of Diana to make her let go before she could hit her finisher. A blinded Spare staggered around until she walked into Devil's Wings from Nancy, and that set up the Salem native to hit Bite Me that got her the pin and the win to the surprise of the crowd and announce team.
No sooner had Nancy gotten her hand raised than Diana jumped her from behind, a full on Pier 6 in the ring and on the outside that looked like 2 Golden 2 Rule…but after being able to toss LaVey head first into the steps, Bonnie Agrippa snapped her fingers and the lights went out in QA. As usual, when they came back on, Hysteria was nowhere in sight and the Club was left to lick their wounds. Lost in all this chaos is that at the top of the bracket, Nancy's advanced to face Nazir el-Fadal in the quarterfinals.
Ahead of the main event, Steve hyped up the big matches we’ll see on 💫 next week's Ruckus 💫: in a rematch from Golden Rule, Serge Batroc and Richard Windsor will face off against the Undaunted 💫 and the quarterfinals of the Duquesne Classic will kick off with Orion vs. Bonnie Agrippa and Malicía Fernandez against the winner of tonight's main event – but would that be her stablemate in the Republic or QCW’s cocksure fastest rising star? Time we found out.
“Just Wanna Rock” brought out Tre Boyd to a mostly positive if still mixed reaction. The Gospel wasted little time hitting ringside and sidling up next to the Cup, saying that at the end of the tournament he’d have it in his trophy case. Boyd was in the middle of continuing his monologue to the camera when he got cut off by “The Old Guard Is Dead” bringing out the small army of black hats known as the Republic. Ig de Catur hyped up the two time former World champion Omar Littlefield as they headed to the ring flanked by Ig’s rent-a-uhhh, Republic Enforcement, completely ignoring Pyotr Caviar and Malicía Fernandez despite the fact that she'd won her first round match over Razorblade in last week's main event. Tre wasted little time in getting face to face (well, face to chest) with Omar, who piefsced Tre and sent him flying. The referee kept a snack talking Boyd from making any contact with Omar and backed the Gospel into a neutral corner before calling for the bell…
6. Tre Boyd d. Omar Littlefield (w/Ig de Catur, the Republic and Republic Enforcement) in a first round Duquesne Classic match at 11:33 Upsets continue busting the brackets of QCW fans but somehow I don't think they'll mind this one as Tre gets another massive win against a former multi time World champion to punch his ticket to the quarterfinals. Despite coming into the match squarely as the underdog Tre didn't shy away from the moment or show any fear of the size discrepancy, managing to avoid big shots from Omar and deploy a hit and run attack primarily using short kicks to the thighs and knees to maybe get Omar off balance and closer to the mat to make the matchup more even. Omar couldn't catch Tre early, which gave the Gospel room to operate and continue working Omar over in short bursts to the delight of the crowd and the shock of the announcers. Boyd finally made his way to the top rope before landing a stuff legged missile dropkick for his first big move of the match that wobbled Omar a bit. Tre went back up top and connected with another one that put Omar down to a knee. Boyd went up to a different set of turnbuckles and tried a third, but Omar not only caught Tre - he picked him up and threw him over the top rope and Boyd crash landed on top of the announce table to gasps and murmurs. It took another couple of seconds before the table collapsed under the weight of the throw, leaving Tre in a heap on the floor and Ig cackling maniacally on the outside.
Inside the ring all Omar did was glower as we get replays of him shot putting Tre from the ring to the announce table with one mighty biel. Steve and Carl came back on scene and tried to check on Tre, as did the ringside physician, but Tre waved them all off and crawled on his knees to get to the steps to crawl up them and beat the referee's count just before 10. Boyd’s reward for his tenacity was walking into a sitout choke bomb from Omar, and an uneasy silence washed over the crowd seeing how Tre was splayed out on the mat barely moving. Steve and Carl got back on air after some choppiness and fuzziness, saying that Omar had broken their table in half and now it looked like he was going to break Tre the same way. Omar spent the next couple of minutes alternating between barking out demands for a World title rematch against Jupiter and further dissecting Boyd. Biels across the ring that should've come with an in flight movie. Not even gutwrench suplexes but gutwrench throws where Omar never left his feet but his opposition landed on his ass. And then it was torture time: Omar with a massive Vader Bomb - and another - and another - and another - and seemed to be getting ready to uncork another when Republic Enforcement started hitting the ground at the hands of a tire iron swung by Jacques Krieger who again got involved in the business of the Republic, still looking for revenge on Omar for taking his partner Ashok Banerjee out at Golden Rule. Krieger was in a stand off with the rest of the Republic when Quality Force Security came out to drag the heavy hitter and his tire iron away from the scene. But Krieger pulling focus away from the match and getting Omar's attention allowed Tre to land two massive low blow kicks behind the referee's back that drove Omar to his knees. Krieger offered up a wry grin as he dropped the tire iron on the ramp and left right before Tre slowly got up to the top rope and landed another stiff legged missile dropkick that actually put Omar on his back. Tre moved as fast as he could to the top rope and came off with Say Hallelujah and it connected…but Tre wasn't done there as he went back to the top rope and delivered another Say Hallelujah on the button…but Tre wasn't content there as he went back up ASAP and connected on one more Say Hallelujah from the rafters. The crowd counted along with the referee but everyone in the building seemed shocked when they got to three and the bell rang.
Omar kicked out at five but it was too late as the Republic hit the ring furiously and Boyd and the referee went out to the floor. Omar literally ripped a ring rope off and threw it at them as they moved up the ramp where Tre finally got his hand raised to a huge pop from the faithful. Carl kept exclaiming how he couldn't believe Tre had pulled that one off while Steve updated the bracket for us, as Tre’s win puts him in a quarterfinal match next week…against Omar's stablemate Malicía Fernandez (the winner of that will get the winner of Nancy Crowley vs. Nazir el-Fadal in the semifinals). Ruckus went off the air with the crowd as hot as it had been to start the show, with Tre crowing about how he’d just eaten Omar's lunch and Ig demanding he come back with a real referee and r
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