We
got a much different opening than usual, culled from a bunch of
contributions to Quality Social over the past week – wrestlers packing
bags, flashing passports, walking through the airport (funny stuff of
Steve Vandeblanche asleep in an airport chair waiting for his flight to
board while Nazir el-Fadal emptied a can of whipped cream on his head)
before seeing the Pacific from 20,000 feet high - then landing in Japan,
taking in the scenery, Tokyo humming at night, cherry blossoms falling
from trees in the afternoon before we took a drone shot view into
Budokhan, where the building was sold out full of clapping hands and a
few cheers before the stage exploded with red and white pyro for a good
half minute.
Once
it died down to more cheers, Steve & Naz welcomed us to Ruckus
presents Live From Budokhan with limited commercial interruptions thanks
to GRPL+. Steve hyped up tonight as a PPV level event with five title
matches and Jupiter Jones trying to liberate the Unified World
Heavyweight Championship from the Revenant in the main event, but said
we’d get things underway with the first title match of the night and
someone Jupiter knew real well before “Dance Or Die” hit the PA and the
Crush champion came out to a good response.
|
• Cindy Monet [c] d. Winter Wonderland (w/Gaia Green) to retain the
Crush championship 6️⃣• | Another Ruckus, another opening successful
title defense for Monet. This match spun off from last week's show,
where Cindy successfully defended against Gaia and raised Winter's
hackles by dropping her partner.
This
was ostensibly an all babyface match but Winter fought with an edge
throughout, even after Cindy opened off the match well and got a couple
of quick nearfalls in. Wonderland fought back and put Cindy on her ass a
few times but couldn't deliver Nuclear Winter while Monet fought out
from under and got the win with the Tightrope a few seconds before the
halfway point of the time limit. ** 1/2
Gaia
consoled Winter while Cindy took the Crush championship and celebrated
up the ramp, Steve noting that she was only a few more successful
defenses away from being able to cash it in for a shot at the Women’s
World championship.
From
there we definitely didn’t teleport TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face
welcomed her guests: the Wonderful Ward Brothers! The former Unified
World Tag champs got cheers and waves of respectful applause as Rich and
Jason the Great came into frame to exchange greetings with Enya. That
out of the way, Face asked them what was next after losing to Team
Batroc last week with the titles on the line. Jason began to answer
when he was cut off suddenly by “These Hands” Roy Fade, and the other
half of Beauty & the Beast Mode “Dashing” Pierce Moore was quick to
be by his side. As the teams faced off, Fade wondered why Enya was
interviewing these losers when she could be talking to the hottest tag
team in QCW right now: them. These two ugly puckleheads needed to
realize they had a nice moment, but last Roy saw of them last week that
big-ass Russian boy was taking their heads off. So if they had any kind
of sense (Pierce: “You know they don’t”) they would step aside and let
the next men up succeed where they failed.
That
got Rich’s ire, and he started throwing verbal jabs at B&BM when
the International Players from College Park Family showed up. Moore
& Fade immediately got salty about this but Lucius Patton said they
weren’t here to fight - in fact, while they were arguing over here
they’d just gone to see Commissioner Holmes to see what was next for the
Players and he had some news that involved everybody here that Enya
could break.
Benjamin
Valentino said that on next week’s Ruckus, there was going to be a #1
contendership match to determine who got the next shot at Team Batroc.
Them…vs them (gesturing to Beauty & the Beast Mode)...vs y’all
(pointing square at the Wards). Applause and cheers for this, as each
team looked at the other two suddenly realizing all three of them were
going for the same thing in a triple threat in seven days. Lucius added
that soon Collipark would be dripping with gold between the Crush
championship, the Unified World Tag belts and Jupiter taking the 15
Pounds of Gold of Big Spook in the main event – this obviously drew the
ire of B&BM, as Moore stated that no team had the answer for their
finesse and fury – and that drew the ire of the Wards who quickly
pointed out that for all the talking the other four men were doing, the
only ones who actually knew what it was like to be tag team champions
were them. The words got chippier and Quality Force came onto the scene
to separate the teams, who were still chirping at each other as they
all got led off of the set in different directions. Enya shrugged once
everyone was gone but said it should be a great triple threat match next
week back in the Arena.
We
went back to Duck in the ring, who let the attendees know that the
following contest was scheduled for one fall with a thirty minute time
limit, and would be for the Women’s World championship!
"Roar"
hit the PA and brought out a focused looking Karyn Tisch-Warren,
flanked by the rest of her International Lotus cronies. The crowd's
disapproval didn't stop Sohla Patel and Scott Warren-Tisch from pumping
up Karyn as "you should see me in a crown" took over the sound system
and brought out the Women's World champion to hefty cheers.
"Night
Sky" Diana Spare came down the ramp but Tisch-Warren surprised everyone
by making a beeline to the woman who took the title off of her and in
short order they were engaged in a hockey fight on the ramp. The
referee called for the bell as Diana tried to send Karyn into the
ringpost (yes already) only for Karyn to reverse and drive Spare into it
so hard it sent the champ to her knees. A furious Karyn started
throwing hands from Diana’s blindside until she was fully down and then
started to stomp her out with gusto. Karyn punctuated the moment with a
stiff paintbrush shot to the back of Diana's head before hearing the
referee's count hit 7.
Tisch-Warren
tossed Spare in and went to work trying to regain the belt, starting
the match off by trying to keep Spare either on the mat or a couple of
inches off of it. Spare threw a couple back elbows when Karyn whipped
her in the corner, but when Diana flew off the top with a crossbody
Karyn countered out into a nice tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and got 2 ½ off
it.
Karyn
started to deploy her arsenal of backbreakers to wear Diana down while
her cronies continued to obnoxiously root her on from ringside. While
Spare was fighting her best from underneath, it looked like KTW was
going to put her in the Circuit Breaker but the champ managed to land a
series of upkicks that staggered Karyn into a corner. Spare slowly drew
herself up before getting a running start to deliver double knees to
Karyn's chest, and a buzz grew in the crowd as Diana started dishing it
out instead of taking it.
Spare
got in a couple knockdowns, then sent Karyn so high up on a backdrop
that the First Lady of Fitness landed square on her tailbone. Night Sky
followed that up with a Sliding D, appropriately enough, and though
Karyn kicked out at 2 you could feel the tide turning in Spare's
direction.
Diana
started to push Karyn's power meter closer to the red to the point that
Tisch-Warren tried to scramble away to the outside (Spare snatched her
up and dumped her with a German suplex in response). Karyn seemed to be
rattled and on her knees, but she wouldn't be there for long after
Diana blasted her with a hesitation buzzsaw kick. Spare called for the
end and let out a war cry, which got Sohla up on the apron. A roaring
elbow later, she was no longer on the apron. Spare snatched up Karyn
for Nightfall – but Tisch-Warren not only slipped out the back but
hooked up Spare and put her into the Circuit Breaker.
The
crowd booed as Karyn stretched Diana in the elevated Cloverleaf and
made things worse by parking her knee on the back of Diana's neck. The
crowd clapped to rally Diana, who almost but didn't tap out but instead
crawled along the mat trying to make the ropes. Spare got herself
closer and closer over the course of a tense half minute, getting within
a foot of the ropes before Karyn let out a wordless scream and pulled
her back to the center of the ring to pull back as far as she could.
It left Karyn in perfect position; perfect position to block a Lolo Vuitton Bloody Shoe with her cheek.
|
• Karyn Tisch-Warren (w/International Lotus) ddq. “Night Sky” Diana
Spare [c]; Spare retains the Women’s World championship • |
It took a couple of minutes for Duck to make that official, however, and in that period even more chaos broke out.
Lolo
sat on Karyn and then started baptizing her with right hands, right
before Sohla Patel clobbered her from behind with a timely forearm. A
livid Patel ditched her earrings and grabbed Vuitton for the Ninth
Incarnation but the Miami native caught her in the back of her head with
another Bloody Shoe. The crowd seemed to be a little confused and
murmuring concernedly as Lolo ripped the Women's World Championship out
of the hands of the ref and raised three fingers and the belt high to a
very mixed reaction.
Right
before Karyn Tisch-Warren jumped on her from behind and started laying
into her with crossfaces, which is what is what she was doing right
before Diana Spare spun her around and lariated her down to the mat to a
pop. Spare set up for Nightfall, but Patel pulled her partner to
safety and the heels bailed out on the ring, Karyn fuming about Lolo
costing her the belt again. Both Spare and Vuitton seemed to be waving
International Lotus on as the referee handed Diana the belt back, Lolo
clearly gazing at it as it transfered hands. Spare got right in Lolo's
face and raised the championship up high, right as International Lotus
rushed the ring and started throwing hands.
A
Pier 4 broke out in the ring but not for too long, and there was some
light booing as Quality Force Security came streaming down the ramp and
separated the 4 women. The action died down enough for Steve to put
over the cutthroat excellence of the women's division before teeing up
the first major commercial break of the night.
✨
We
came back after ads to the Collipark locker room, where Julius Duquesne
III was hanging out to interview the challenger in tonight's main event
Unified World title fight, Jupiter Jones. There was a massive pop for
Jones, who stopped doing pullups and came over to JD3 for the interview
smiling a little bit at the pop.
After
they shook hands, JD3 brought up the fact that the Rev jumped Jupiter
last week and called himself Mr. QCW before wondering how much that
played into Jones's mindset tonight.
Jupiter
responded that it took a weak man to jump somebody from behind, but not
just weak - scared too. He said JD3 knows about Jupiter's reputation,
because he started building it almost 15 years ago right here in Japan
and has been grinding hard to not only live up to a legendary father but
in some ways surpass him. Jones continued that he'd been fortunate
enough to fight his way towards many titles in his career, and while the
Unified belt might be newish, it held his old QCW title. 15 pounds of
redemption, of proof, of pride, and he could have it…so long as he beat
an undead land monster. The Rev got in the first shots last week, but
when he hit the big spook with the Bolt From Olympus, the gods would
destroy a so-called Immortal and Cindy wouldn't be the only World
champion in Collipark. Jones thanked JD3 for his time before saying he
had to get back to his pregame workout - as Duquesne threw things to
Duck you could see the International Players putting kinesio tape on
Jones's lower back.
|
• Autumn Powers [c] d. Serge Batroc (w/Pyotr Caviar) to retain the
GRPL+ World Television title 6️⃣ • | This match came about largely
through Quality Social; feeling himself after the successes of the past
few weeks and last week, Serge endeavored to become the first person in
QCW history to concurrently hold a tag title and the TV title; Powers
took the offense to this that you might expect, teeing this one up for
the Japan chapter of Quality Controllers.
The
early moments saw a back and forth that slightly went in favor of the
domineering leader of Team Batroc - he does have the power advantage
after all, and while Autumn was more than willing to throw hands both
members of the announce team were in rare agreement that Autumn’s usual
willingness to fight anybody to the teeth might be a losing one against
Serge. As if to prove the point, Autumn seemed to go for an early Hazy
Shade only for Serge to see her coming and give her such a ferocious
Stun Gun that Powers not only gagged on the top rope but bounced over it
and off the apron to the floor with a thud. Serge preened to some boos
in the ring while Pyotr lurked menacingly over Autumn on the outside.
Replays showed the massive impact while in real time Batroc was being
held back by the ref, keeping the French Assassin from getting to Autumn
since he’d yet to fully start the count.
On
the floor, Powers looked in the ring, then back at Pyotr – then sort of
threw herself into the stairs?! Powers rolled to her side and barely
lifted a finger at Caviar, while the ref turned around and saw a fallen
Powers up against the steel with the Tracksuit Tsar barely two steps
away from her. The referee and Pyotr got into a back and forth, and
despite being innocent Caviar got ejected from ringside to the cheers of
the crowd while Powers allowed a small smile at upholding the first
tenet of Guerrero Babyfacedom. A livid Caviar yanked one of the
ringside spotlights and went to brain Autumn with it, but Serge had to
talk him down since that would cost him the belt. After the back and
forth, Pyotr stomped up the ramp while Serge upbraided the referee about
the innocence of his enforcer. Batroc went between the ropes to grab
Autumn, only to get clocked upside the jaw with a Powers gamengiri that
drew more cheers.
As
Serge recoiled back into the ring and Autumn used the bottom rope to
pull herself in, replay showed the tip of the boot connecting with Serge
right behind the ear with the rest of the boot slamming into his jaw. A
disoriented Batroc was never the same after it hit, and with his
support system no longer around Powers broke him down in sections,
targeting his legs to get him down to a manageable height before cuffing
him with crossfaces, rabbit punches, and even a couple of headbutts;
anything to cut down the size advantage and keep him disoriented.
Powers wore down Serge some more as a cut to the back showed S. Mark
Starr taking notes while watching the fight on a monitor with Jacques
Krieger stonefacedly watching on behind him. Powers prepared another
Hazy Shade but Serge dodged this one as well then topped it off with an
enzui European uppercut to set up an inverted suplex that dropped Autumn
front-first onto the canvas.
Batroc
got up first and put together a rally of his own, and it really looked
like he was going to come away with the title when he set Autumn up for
the Arc de Triomphe…but Powers countered out into a poison rana that
spiked Serge into the mat, and the follow up Hazy Shade was on point and
secured the hard fought W for the Final Woman. ***
After
replays, Powers stood on the buckles and held up the World TV title to
waves of cheers and applause, while the referee checked on Serge on the
mat.
The flashing lights and Euro techno beats mean somebody is still Coming Soon – this week what was in neon and bold was MR. TE. The stinger took us to commercial and wrapped up the first half of the show.
✨
Muse's
"New Born" brought out all three Game Changers as a full unit to a
positive reception to the crowd. As "Tiki God" Al Buffett, "Dark
Mirror" Beckett Carpenter and Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo slapped
some hands on their way to the ring, Steve set up the stakes for the
night's only non-title match; after last week's challenge, the Changers
look to exile Summer Rose permanently from QCW with a win here after she
probably cost Carpenter the World TV title at Cruel Summer.
Danny Castle & Dr. Martin Williams came through the crowd in their grey worker jumpsuits toting their usual THE END IS NIGH signs, and in formation behind the End Times was the inaugural Women’s World champion with a sign of her own: BUT MY REVENGE FIRST.
To
the shock of no one, Carpenter wanted to start off the match for their
side and called for Summer so that they could scrap and settle this.
Rose vaulted into the ring, squared up – then turned around and tagged
in Dr. Williams. Rose cackled as she went back to the apron while
Carpenter glowered at her, but who ended up paying the price was Martin
as Beckett proceeded to whip his ass for the better part of a minute.
After another glare at Summer, they tagged in Ashley THEE Influencer,
and they used most of the ref's five count to batter the Analyst with
hammer and anvil elbows before Beckett left the ring.
The
Changers continued to rack up hit points on Williams while Summer paced
on the apron, but when Al and Beckett set him up for Face Reality, the
baddies ran in for the save: Rose chop blocked Buffett out of his
gorilla press while Castle powerbombed Dark Mirror nearly through the
ring. Castle then rolled Williams closer to their side of the ring,
where he crawled over and Summer tagged herself in. Rose attacked
Carpenter almost ferally with multiple ground and pounds; while we
couldn't hear all of her trash talk the cameras did pick up a "make you
remember" as she went on the attack. Summer even busted out some
Kawada kicks while maintaining control of Carpenter's arm before tagging
out, and the heels began to take over the fight. Danny Castle was no
bruiser but he was the biggest man in the match, and the black hats
started to run their offense through his impact moves, Dr. Williams' mat
work, and Rose's borderline feral attacks.
It
looked like Rose/Castle would take Carpenter out, but Dark Mirror
matadored Castle into Rose and laid them out with a neckbreaker and DDR
combo. Carpenter eventually pulled themselves up and forward rolled
before tagging in the Tiki God to a big pop.
Al
Buffett hit the ring and started putting meesters on keesters; Castle
might've been the biggest man in the fight but Al was the strongest and
he got to show it off in front of an increasingly amped crowd. The Tiki
God brought the thunder in dropping both members of the End Times and
when Summer Rose tried it she went down, too.
When
Al took offensive control, Ashley and Beckett were rooting him on from
the corner and when Al had dropped all three of his opponents in turn,
who he wanted to tag in was Beckett. And once they got in the ring,
Summer Rose didn't need a watch to know it was Ass Whoop O'Clock.
Carpenter
whooped that ass like it was their job and they were going for a
promotion, Naz pointing out on commentary that this was exactly what the
baddies didn't want because of the wide gap in Rose's in ring time
since last year and Carpenter literally having just gotten back to full
power after the Best of 5.
Dark
Mirror got Summer in position after an Exploder and proceeded to
unleash a torrent of hammer and anvil elbows before securing the Look
Inward. Castle and Williams hit the ring only to be cleared out by the
Game Changers, then the ref went to get them out of the ring. And Dr.
Williams grabbed one of their signs and jabbed it into the base of
Carpenter's neck, breaking up the hold and sending them down in a heap
to boos. The Changers sped back into the ring and a Pier 4 broke out,
both fights spilling to the floor.
In
the ring, a loopy Rose got to her feet before deciding to add injury to
injury and put Carpenter into their own Look Inward. Steve was already
working himself into an arrhythmia as the referee was checking
Carpenter's arm, and he blew his stack when their arn fell limply to
their side and the zebra called for the bell. **1/2
| • the End Times & Summer Rose dtko. The Game Changers • |
There
was audible booing as the announcement was made in both languages,
Summer Rose cackling before jumping up and down in a giddy circle while
Castle and Williams remained stoic. Steve continued to rail against the
injustice that returned Summer to QCW while Naz stood and applauded
(every time Beckett suffers, a Naz gets his wings, never forget). The
End Times and Summer picked up their signs and left through the
concourse while the Game Changers checked on Beckett Carpenter trying to
get their bearings about them on the mat.
From
there the power of television whisked us TOTHEBACK~! where Enya didn't
teleport in; she was too busy bringing on her guests, the Unified World
Tag Team champions: Team Batroc.
Serge
and Pyotr Caviar strolled onto the set, each man toting a title over a
shoulder. Enya began to ask Serge about losing to Autumn earlier in the
show, but Pyotr said that she should be congratulating them on
retaining the titles last week and stared her down.
Enya
cleared her throat and pivoted, asking them if they had a prediction
for who would win the #1 contenders' triple threat next week. She
probably wasn't prepared for the response she got, which was loud,
booming laughter from Caviar and almost high pitched wheezing from
Serge. Once they collected themselves, Serge put an arm around Enya and
said he would state the obvious since she was too pretty to understand
what was actually happening: that match wouldn't make contenders, it
would just name their next victims or give them yet another chance to
splatter the Wards. No one had his intelligence, no one had Pyotr's
power and ruthlessness, so whoever won next week had the honors of
losing to them on QCW's biggest stage. So long live the Unified
champions, and Viva Team Batroc. Pyotr added an "he's right, sis"
before Enya threw things to Duck for the next titles match.
The
crowd gave the biggest ovation of the night for Duck announcing the
semi-main event as being for the Ambassadors trios championships before
“Pray For Me” brought out Beauty & the Beast Mode for the six-man
tag – but the mystery partner they promised all week didn’t materialize
as Roy Fade & Pierce Moore took over the ring. The referee seemed
to be asking them where their third was right before “King Kong vs.
Godzilla” hit the PA to the pop of the night to bring out the champions –
the Proper Villains and the proud Ainu Katsuji Ootsuka, clearly moved
by returning to his home country as a champion.
It
was a beautiful moment, and the only thing that could ruin it was
Jacques Krieger running down the ramp to lay Ootsuka out from behind
while the Mode team jumped out of the ring to brawl with the Villains.
Steve seemed stunned but then noted that the black hats got a high
quality mystery partner and former TV champion for their third. With
absolute chaos outside in the ring and Krieger tossing the Prince of
Punishment in the ring, the ref called for the bell.
|
• the Proper Villains & Katsuji Ootsuka [c] d. Beauty & the
Beast Mode & Jacques Krieger (w/S. Mark Starr) to retain the
Ambassadors trios championships • |
It
looked like we were going to crown the third ever Ambassadors champions
as the bad guys (as Naz called them, Beauty and the Cheat Mode) got off
to a hot start bolstered by One Eye's sneak attack. Cameras caught S.
Mark Starr cackling on the floor as the Dashing One tagged in and
continued to beat on Ootsuka, saying he was going to make him as ugly as
a haberdasher.
Moore
kept the advantage and tagged in his partner Fade so they could hit
Katsuji with a double snap suplex. B&BM continued dominating
Ootsuka, and as it went on it kept happening to the exclusion of Krieger
- who was getting increasingly frustrated on the apron. Despite that,
it looked to be the end when Moore sized Ootsuka up for his Fresh To
Death, only for the former TV champ to pick off with a rewind rana that
left them both flat on the mat. Both men crawled for their corners and
tagged out - but Jim Jaspers actually had to put on the brakes, because
while Fade had caught the tag, Krieger had immediately tagged in Fade.
The heels started arguing with each other, giving Jaspers the chance to
run Krieger into These Hands and send Roy spilling to the outside.
"The
Fury" and One Eye threw hands at each other in the ring while on the
outside Moore was checking on Fade. Roy was more annoyed than hurt; so
annoyed, in fact, he told Pierce he was out. When Pierce asked if he
was sure, Fade spat out a "forget him" and started heading to the back.
The Dashing One was a couple of steps behind his partner, much to the
joy of the crowd and the rancor of S. Mark Starr, who was complaining
that his client was being left swinging in the breeze. B&BM heard
him but they didn't care, and soon the Qualitron 9k04 swung shut behind
them.
Krieger
was a coin flip to win a fight against Jaspers but against all three
champions he was as doomed as Pompeii; once Jaspers took down Krieger
with a pop up headbutt, he was able to tag out and the rout was on. The
last few minutes saw a flurry of tags and double teams before Krieger
played a losing round of Finisher Bingo; "the Proper King" Richard
Windsor hit him with a half and half suplex, then tagged in Jaspers who
took him down to Fury Road, then after goosing the crowd for it, a tag
to Ootsuka who flew off the top with Magical Sky to secure the three
count and keep QCW's longest reigning champs exactly that. ** ½
Huge
ovation for Ootsuka getting the win while on the outside it looked like
Starr was looking for a straw boater to punch through. The babyfaces
got their belts back and hands raised in triumph before taking to a set
of turnbuckles and thanking the fans, all three men showing off their
hardware. Steve put over their win before setting up the last
commercials of the night - the Unified World title fight is up next.
✨
One match left tonight, but next week the march towards AnIIIversary ramps up even more.
🖥️
Next week's Unleashed will feature "Superfine" Reggie Strong in action
as well as Beauty and the Beast Mode up against the Hard Way 🖥️
🌟
On next week's Ruckus, Cindy Monet will defend the Crush championship
and Autumn Powers will defend the GRPL+ World TV title 🌟
🌟
And there'll be a triple threat match to determine the new #1
contenders to the Unified World Tag Team championships: Beauty and the
Beast Mode vs. the International Players vs. the former champions the
Wonderful Ward Brothers – winners get the titles shot at AnIIIversary
against the domineering Team Batroc 🌟
That's
next week for positioning against the Unified World Tag Team titles,
but the 15 Pounds of Gold and the Unified World title are on the
line…right now.
| | • the main event • | |
"B.O.B."
hit the PA and you could hear it for maybe four seconds before the roof
came off the dump and Jupiter Jones parted the Tron. He stood at the
apex of the ramp and took Budokhan in, clearly moved. Jones cracked his
neck, yelled out a "Let's DO this!" and started coming down the ramp.
As the former QCW Champion came to the ring Steve put over the fact that
Jupiter got a kickstart to his career in Japan over a decade ago before
coming back to QCW and you probably know the rest. Jones stood on the
buckles and raised a fist in the air right before the lights cut out.
With dry ice
fog rolling across the stage, the Hellevator and Nick Cave playing
brought up and out the Revenant with the 15 Pounds of Gold in his red
right hand. He slowly strode to the ring and stepped over the top rope
into the red spotlight center ring.
The spotlight switched to white while Duck made the prematch introductions, with the crowd deep in Jupiter's back pocket.
The bell rang and the men went face to face (well, face to chest) as the chants for Jupiter rang out in the sold out arena.
|
• The Revenant [c] d. Jupiter Jones to retain the Unified World
championship • | It felt like the entire arena (and down the stretch,
the entire country) was against the Rev, but he managed to come out of a
low-level war with the belt intact in an instant classic.
Both
men peered around Budokhan after the opening staredown, the Rev clearly
getting less amused with all the Jupiter chants while Jones pointed out
at the audience that was clearly firing him up. JJ threw a hard right
hand that would’ve put me in the hospital for two days, and the Rev
barely budged before throwing a red right that would’ve put me in the
ICU for a week. Jones took the hit but kept firing back, the Rev did so
in kind, and as Budokhan started to test the limits of their decibel
meter a hockey fight broke out to start things off.
The
Rev got the upper hand and then got in a knee to the breadbasket before
throwing Jones into a corner and starting to tee off on him with body
blows that landed with sick thuds. The Rev pressed his boot against
Jupiter’s throat for the entire count and then told the crowd he had
something to shut them up, bieling Jones halfway across the ring. Jones
rolled over onto his stomach and started to try to pull himself up
while the Rev preened, barking at a camera that that was why HE was Mr.
QCW.
Jupiter
fought back but honestly got swallowed up in the opening minutes of the
contest, with occasional cuts to the back showing the College Park
Family showing concern over the beating. The Rev probably could’ve won
this thing clean in the opening 10 minutes if he wasn’t, yunno, THE REV,
and kept shutting down Jones with a combination of power moves and
shady tactics – at one point he even ripped the kinesio tape off of
Jones’ back and used it to choke him out for a four count, just because
he could. Steve expressed concern at the desk while Naz enjoyed the
scene in front of him given his own history with Jupiter.
At
one point it looked like Jupiter had caused enough separation to get
the upper hand, and he wasted little time when he saw the opening to
uncork the Bolt From Olympus, but even then the Rev was there to not
only pick him out of the air but convert his signature into a pop-up
powerslam that drove Jones to the canvas like a speeding elevator down
an empty shaft. The Rev signaled for the Red Right Hand, and got
Jupiter into the goozle – then was as surprised as the rest of the world
when Jones s l o w l y but eventually powered the Rev’s hand off of his
neck and got a release after a bit. Jones started rocking the Rev with
forearm shots from both sides, and while the Rev never covered up he
was certainly in retreat. He shoved Jones off and went for a big boot,
but Jones not only ducked it but busted out a handspring elbow of all things, and Steve and Budokhan erupted in stunned joy.
The
Rev was rattled and Jones pressed the advantage, powering him into the
corner to land shoulders to the gut before teeing off with more hard
forearms. The Rev reversed a whip to the opposite corner but Jupiter
ran up the buckles and pivoted, flying off with a clothesline that
finally dropped the Rev to a big pop.
Jones
emptied his tanks, using short range knees, hard kicks, and everything
else he could think of. The Rev went for another Red Right Hand a
couple minutes into this onslaught only to have his hand kicked away,
and Jupiter rocked the ring with a massive release German suplex that
had the Rev down. Jones fired up the faithful and called for it, moving
out of swiping distance of the wounded Rev before finally delivering on
the Bolt From Olympus.
The
only problem with that was that it only managed to knock the Rev down
to a knee, and there was a brief look of confusion on Jupiter’s face
before determination set in; gesturing for the ref to move, Jupiter got
loaded up and then rocked the Rev with an even cleaner Bolt From
Olympus, and now the Unified champ was on both of his knees. Jupiter
bellowed at the Rev that it would be him who gods destroy, and went to
hit him with a third Bolt –
– it never made it.
The
Rev sidestepped it and plucked him cleanly with a goozle, then
delivered a Red Right Hand. That was bad enough, but what was even
worse was that even after driving Jupiter in the mat the goozle was
still on. The Rev got to a knee and then pulled himself up with one arm
and Jupiter with the RRH (Steve got away with a “Je-SUS” on commentary)
before spiking Jones into the canvas with a second Red Right Hand, and
he wasn’t done there.
He
pulled Jones off the canvas by the throat and showed him off to a
couple of sides of Budokhan, clearly ignoring the helpless ref’s pleas
before he did the same thing to Jupiter that he did to Razorblade at
Cruel Summer, hitting him with a double pump Red
Right Hand that stilled Jones. Budokhan got so quiet you could hear
the ref’s three count cleanly, and everyone knew it was going to be a
three. ****
Replays
of the hard hitting throwdown played but when we went back to live time
in the ring it was the Rev, the 15 Pounds of Gold in his red right
hand, and the fallen body of Jupiter Jones laid out underneath the Big
Bad’s booming cackle. Steve reluctantly put over another successful
title defense for the Rev against a QCW staple before thanking their
Japanese friends for having them and saying he & Naz would see them
back at their stomping grounds of QCW Arena next week, where QCW would
continue to bring the ruckus.
The
credit box looked like it was coming up, but then we saw some world
class culture spots – a lovely aquarium, a nice zoo, a museum in a
forest - but then we started to hear a mid aughts hip hop classic as we
heard Ludacris welcome us to Atlanta as we started to see Certain
Popular Soda’s Logo, the Georgia Dome, Olympic Park and the MLK
historical site before we got a shot of the Center Stage Theater from
overhead at night with cars zooming around at 25x speed. Eventually the
AnIIIversary logo appeared on the roof of Center Stage, with a prompt
across the bottom of the screen that tickets would go on sale Monday at
noon EST for QCW’s signature event of the year. Then we got the credit
box briefly before we said goodbye to Budokhan.
