LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS
The End Times put a beating on the Hard Way instead of having a match
In two Crush Rush qualifying matches, Jane Doe and Karyn Tisch-Warren won fatal four ways to advance to next week's championship match
Jacques Krieger beat "the Proper King" Richard Windsor to retain the GRPL+ World TV title but got dropped by "the Fury" Jim Jaspers post match
We're back in Parts Unknown, FL from the Quality Arena and the crowd is raucous for the return of Ruckus. Steve Vandeblanche and Nazir el-Fadal (well, the former moreso than the latter) hyped up the Crush Rush qualifying matches and the Krieger/Jaspers G+ World TV title main event.
Then they hyped up the opener.
How could they know how bad things would get in less than five goddamn minutes?
| • the Wonderful Ward Brothers ddq. the End Times • | For the second straight week, the End Times left a pair of former champions laying, but the Canadians got it even worse than the Hard Way did.
The Wards came out for the match first, but to the shock of everybody watching Danny Castle & Dr. Martin Williams came from the back instead of out from the concourse like usual to sneak attack the Wards and beat them down with their THE END IS NIGH signs. Once Jason the Great and Rich had been beaten into near unconsciousness, the End Times took things too far and literally threw one Ward off one side of the stage, leaving them to crumple on the floor to the shock of everyone. DUD
You can tell it’s messed up when even Naz won’t support it. As the medical staff came to take the Wards to the hospital, the End Times walked to ringside and made a shaking Duck Eko hand over the mic. Once he did, Danny Castle spoke in a Rorshachian monotone, asking Summer to come back to them so that they could bring about the end as promised. Until they hear from her, sacrifices will continue to be made. The end is coming, but they will help us all work through it. Quality Force security came out as well to make sure there would be no further attacks, but it was now that Castle & Williams stepped over the barricade and headed out through the concourse while the former Unified World Tag Team champions were getting stretchered out of the Arena. There was nothing wonderful about that.
A vignette started off with a slow, organ based instrumental of a children's song but the footage was of the Revenant's almost year long reign of terror as he ascended to the top of QCW's mountain. Off camera, a voice asked a question.
"You've rained hell upon QCW for a year, kept Razorblade from ever becoming World champion again and just got done digging the grave of the Final Woman…what are you going to do next?"
The Unified World champion let the Fifteen Pounds of Gold scrape against the concrete before letting out a long, raspy laugh.
"I'm going to –"
And that gave way to a chyron; less mouse ears, more devil's horns because
DEVIL'S NIGHT
Orlando, FL
O c t o b e r 2 2
where nightmares come true
We went back to the announce, where Steve again condemned the End Times and hoped that we would have an update on the medical status of the Wonderful Ward Brothers before the end of the show. Steve then pivoted, and said that the next match on the show would be a QCW first stemming from a few things that happened on Unleashed a couple of nights prior.
Ted Holland fighting Lucius Patton to a no contest got both the outside members of the College Park Family and the Red, White & True involved; when the cosplaytriots found themselves outnumbered they found some unlikely help from Karyn Tisch-Warren (out for revenge on Cindy Monet) and eventually Sohla Patel of International Lotus to even the sides up. Unleashed concluded with Sohla beating Fiona Fogg followed by both members of Lotus beating up on Fogg until Science Fiction Double Feature (Cindy x her longtime partner Jane Doe) made the save for Fogg. The past couple of days on Quality Social have seen smacktalk fly before Holmes made this match around breakfast time today – a first-ever 10 person intergender match.
International Lotus and then the Red, White and True came out to boos, Sohla a couple of steps behind the rest of the flock. Naz accused Steve of stirring the pot when he brought up the possibilities of fissures in Lotus after Karyn pinned Sohla to win the Crush Rush qualifier last week but between that and this even Ray Charles could see that International Lotus had problems even if they were standing together. Both Karyn and Drake Tremble seemed to be coaching up their respective underlings when “B.O.B.” by Outkast brought out the whole of the College Park Family in a unified front to a big pop.
Jane Doe, Jupiter Jones, Lucius Patton, Benjamin Valentino and the Women’s World champion Cindy Monet hit the ramp looking focused and ready. The heels bailed to the floor and huddled while Collipark took over the ring.
Once the bell rang, the Family had Jupiter Jones start off the match for them, and it looked like Tremble would start things off for the black hats but he only teased going against eternal rival Jupiter before tagging in Bobby Bash.
The hoss fight started the fight in earnest, and while both men threw bombs early it was the Family who would eventually get the upper hand. Ted Holland actually ended up eating the lion’s share of their offense from the Family, including a double suplex from Science Fiction Double Feature.
While that succeeded and got Cindy a two count, Holland turned the tides in his team’s favor by laying out Cindy with a pop up headbutt. International Lotus wanted in and they got it, with first Patel and then Tisch-Warren especially laying in the shots on the Women’s World champion. The notorious KTW chained together a trifecta of butterfly backbreakers and then went to lock in her signature Circuit Breaker, but Monet pivoted and fought it off before using her core strength to spin Karyn off of her. Both women up - both missed clotheslines - both didn’t miss crosssbodies and they flew full speed into each other with an audible thump, causing them both to be laid out in the middle of the ring and sort of putting a reset button on the match.
When the tags were made, it was as if fate had ordained who'd get them: Jones and Tremble.
But before they could throw hands, the rest of the Red, White and True and the male persons of Collipark jumped in. Soon International Lotus was in the ring as well as Science Fiction Double Feature, and once Cindy threw a forearm into Sohla's face a Pier 8 broke out to the joy of the Controllers and the chagrin of the ref. The outside fighting gave Tremble the opportunity to land a cheap shot on Jones and the ever scheming Voice of Freedom continued the assault from there as all the other fighting spilled out around ringside.
Tremble fought Jones and even had Jupiter set up for the Truth Bomb before Jones slipped himself free, but to the shock of the crowd not only did Drake dodge a Bolt From Olympus, he managed to upend Jones with his own Bolt that sent gasps through the crowd and made Steve livid at the desk – but before a three count could happen Cindy dove in for the save. The crowd ovated at the match continuing but then turned 180° when Drake backhanded Cindy, who went down in a heap to boos before rolling out towards the apron. Tremble mocked the crowd by making boo boo faces at them before scooping up Jupiter and going for another Truth Bomb. But Jupiter slipped out the back door and kicked out Jones' leg out from under him before getting a running start - and a blind tag from a pissed off looking Cindy - and rocking Tremble with a Bolt From Olympus that left Tremble reeling before Monet hit him with a Tightrope that had its emphasis on tight. Both Holland and Patel went for saves only to get shut down by Patton and Doe, and that's how the Women's World champ pinned the cosplaytriot. ***
| • College Park Family d. International Lotus and the Red, White and True in a 10 person intergender match • |
After replays, Sohla was almost to the Tron with Karyn in hot but annoying pursuit while Tremble's associates helped him to the back, leaving the ring for all of Collipark to celebrate in. Cindy flashed the title as camera phones snapped or took video, and then started to leave before the International Players blocked her way and Jupiter got the mic from Duck. Jones said he would apologize for holding Cindy up, but they had Family business to get to…as soon as the commercials were out of the way bum bum BUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
✨
We came back from the break with Cindy having a mic of her own and saying that now that ad time was over, why was her squad trying to hem her up, especially after she won another big match? Jupiter maybe was able to hold a scowl for a second and a half before breaking out into a big grin and saying that they weren't there to hem her up - they were here to celebrate the Android!
Gold pyro fired out of the buckles and Cindy's face went from ready to scrap to a little embarrassed as Jones said that ever since they've come back, Cindy's been the one holding down the Family. It even happened at AnIIIversary - the guys fought their asses off and maybe if a couple of things had gone differently, the Unified World Tag Team championships and/or the GRPL+ World TV title would be in the ring with them. But look at Cindy! Not only did she walk in a champion, she walked out the Women's World Champion! Old heads who used to come to the Arena knew the Fam had a special gift for anyone who used to earn a championship with them, and now Cindy was going to join their championship club.
The Players pulled a Collipark letterman jacket out of a duffel bag, but this jacket was gold and cream, featuring an embossed ANDROID on the back. Cindy slipped it on with tears in her eyes while Jupiter said that she was the one carrying Collipark into the future right now, but then he promised that all of the Family would end up holding gold before long; it’s what they came back for. Jones then said enough prattling from an old man - it was time to hear from Cindy.
A visibly emotional Monet started raising up the mic to her mouth only to be alerted by the crowd’s reaction that something unpleasant was going on - sure enough, Karyn Tisch-Warren was parting the Qualitron 9004 to boos with a mic in her hand. Cindy immediately started burning her on the mic, wondering why her narrow ass was out here to try and ruin this before angrily yelling that Miss Nine Seconds had something to say to The Champ, she damn sure better say it now. Tisch-Warren fumed from the apex of the ramp, but her death glare at Cindy never wavered before she said what she had to say:
“SOON.”
Tisch-Warren dropped the mic and stomped off to the back before “B.O.B.” got everyone’s spirits back up. Jane Doe put the Women’s World championship over Cindy’s shoulder before Collipark posed on the buckles, Cindy especially yelling out and proudly hitting the front plate of her championship.
After that we got a highlight package of last week's Crush Rush qualifying matches that saw the up and coming luchador La Flor pull a low level upset to punch her ticket for next week's elimination match, and Karyn Tisch-Warren bounced back from losing the Women's World championship at AnIIIversary to earn her way in to recapture the belt she brought to QCW. Two women in, and after tonight the field will be full. In fact, slot #3 is up for grabs right now.
| • Shelley LaVey d. Winter Wonderland, Midsomar and Veronica Vespa in a Crush Rush qualifying match • | As the introductions were being made, the announce noted whoever won this one would notch the biggest win of their singles career. It turned out to be LaVey, but it took her a couple of segments to pull it off.
Midsomar routinely got her masked ass kicked and a double superplex by LaVey and Winter of Vespa onto Midsomar took them both out of the rest of the match, though Shelley and Wonderland spent the next minute fighting for pinfalls before out and out fighting. The Ice Queen looked to put down Shelley with her signature Nuclear Winter but LaVey surprised her with a scorpion kick before dropping Wonderland with a cutter. Shelley got up to the top and flew off with her Fallen Angel splash to get the duke. **
Replays fired off of the match's big moments before we returned to the ring and saw LaVey celebrating on the turnbuckles. She got added to the Crush championship chyron alongside Jane Doe and Karyn Tisch-Warren, with one spot left to go before the night ended. Steve Vandeblanche put over Shelley's win before teeing up the commercial break.
✨
| • Beauty and the Beast Mode d. Blockhead Ferguson and Cliff Foster • | Hour 2 kicked off with tag team action, but it was really more a showcase for Beauty & the Beast Mode than anything else. Ex NFLers Ferguson and Foster have strong Whoa, Bundy! vibes and had the strength advantage here, but “These Hands” Roy Fade as well as an increasingly aggressive “Dashing” PIerce Moore had roughly 90% of the match in their pockets despite giving up some size. Team Mode went over in a few minutes with their hybrid Fresh To Death into the Decision finisher, and after the match both members of the announce put over the fact that they were steadily climbing the tag power rankings and might have something to say very soon about Team Batroc’s promise to hold the belts the rest of the year. * ½
We saw their in-ring celebration turn into something seen on a monitor, but the person who was watching them celebrate wasn’t Serge Batroc or Pyotr Caviar; rather, it was the recently victorious Shelley LaVey.
| • La Flor d. Bettie Rokker, Hilary Highnote and Christine Kent in a Crush Rush qualifying match • | The newcomer luchador who's been lighting up recent episodes of Unleashed got her biggest win yet and filled out the four way elimination title match next week.
The colors of Puerto Rico moved speedily around the ring every time that Flor was able to gain traction with her lucha libre, but she didn't dominate the match. Bettie Rokker came into this match on a losing streak and fought like it, at separate times laying out Kent and Highnote on the outside.
Rokker got increasingly heelish as things went on, turning it into a series of nearfalls. Bettie went for the Slamdance but Highnote picked off Rokker and put her into the mat with a Destino. With both of those women down and Kent laying limply on the mat, La Flor hit a double jump moonsault on Highnote and Rokker before pinning Bettie and earning the last spot in the Crush championship shot to come in next week's main event. **
Replays fired off before we went back live and saw La Flor stagger to the back with her fist raises; seconds after that we saw Rokker in the ring screaming to nowhere and everywhere while seemingly trying to tear her hair out. Steve said that they were going to try to get an interview with La Flor after her big win but there'd be commercials to get out of the way first…
✨
Ruckus came back from the break and we were immediately whisked TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face hadn’t teleported in; she was standing by to welcome her guest who would be competing for the Crush championship next week, La Flor!
After they exchanged pleasantries, Enya asked Flor after the biggest win of her career, what was her mindset going into next week’s four way elimination main event. La Flor spoke in Spanglish so I didn’t catch all of it, though I did note her shoutouts to la raza and the opportunidad she had coming in a week. Unfortunately for her and us all, Karyn Tisch-Warren showed up to complain about the nobody who was trying to stand between her and her getting her title back. Karyn started crowing about how it was going to be the Autumn of Karyn, as she was going to be the first double champion in women’s division history.
KTW could’ve kept going, except Jane Doe showed up and pushed back against La Flor being a nobody, and considering they both were going after their first championship maybe next week Karyn would end up being the nobody. Karyn got as offended at that as you might expect, but then Shelley LaVey walked onto the scene and said she’d been a nobody - afterthought in the Forbidden Book Club, floundering forever after they imploded. But now, she was going to take titles. Now people were going to find out who she was. Now – she blindsided Jane Doe, who went down in a heap. KTW waited a second and then went after La Flor, and then Shelley helped with that, but when they both got done with that they started throwing hands against each other. La Flor and Jane recovered to get back some of their own licks and by the time Quality Force security was on the scene to break up the fisticuffs the Quality Controllers were busy chanting “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!” like a bunch of Homers. The four women got dragged off set, leaving a shrugging Enya to throw things back to Steve at the desk.
I don't know if you know this or not, but QCW is doing bidnass, and with Devil's Night a month off shows are starting to ramp up like next week's; Steve ran down some of the big matches to come:
🖥️ Unleashed will see Sohla Patel vs. Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo in singles action as well as this match just booked – Shelley LaVey and Karyn Tisch-Warren against Jane Doe and La Flor 🖥️
✨ Next week's Ruckus will feature Justice Davis vs. Drake Tremble and the main event will see the elimination fatal four way to crown a new Crush champion between Jane Doe, La Flor, Shelley LaVey and Karyn Tisch-Warren; we already saw that spill over backstage a few moments ago ✨
| • the main event • |
“I Predict A Riot” by the Kaiser Chiefs brought out a grim-faced “the Fury” Jim Jaspers, with his fellow Ambasssadors trios champion and long time tag partner “the Proper King” Richard Windsor in tow with him. GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week Jacques Krieger was defending his newly won G+ World TV championship against Windsor and won, but when he tried to pile on after the match Jaspers spiked Krieger with Fury Road and dared him to try that crap on him tonight - and so here we were.
As the Proper Villains paced in the ring, Beartooth’s “Hated” brought out the GRPL+ World TV champ and his fixer, S. Mark Starr. Krieger stopped at the apex of the ramp to slowly bring up his belt, setting off gold pyro on the stage before he continued his usual stomp down to ringside. Krieger took maybe two steps into the ring before Jaspers swarmed him; the man from Atlantic City started covering up before a brief moment of daylight allowed him an opening to absolutely crack Jaspers’ ribcage with an audible body shot before he started raining down hammer shots to the back. With no other real option, the referee called for the bell.
Steve said that this wasn’t going to be anything but a fight straight down the middle and he got it further proven when Jaspers got to his feet and tackled Krieger between the ropes, sending both men tumbling out to the floor before the match was even officially half a minute old. A reeling Krieger still managed to dodge out of the way of a charging Fury, who went flying into the steps as a result. Krieger upped his HP by picking up Old Jim and giving him a Stun Gun into the barricade, overshooting it a bit so that the impact landed more squarely on the ribs. Jacques rolled in and out of the ring before bringing Jaspers back in.
With a compromised body part or two to tee off on, Krieger went after it for the next few minutes like a shark does to chum; even when Jaspers staggered him with some right hands and looked to surprise him with a Fury Road attempt, Krieger saw it coming and yanked the rug out from under the Brit. Jaspers splattered chest first against the canvas and to add injury to injury, Krieger followed up with a punt kick in the ribs before getting a nearfall with Jim out of there before 2 ¾.
Krieger continued the offense before loading up his Ace in the Hole, but Jaspers surprised Jacques by countering it with a judo throw to the mat. Both men got up at around the same time but it was Jaspers who exploded with a pump knee that sent both men back to the mat.
Windsor pounded the apron to fire up the faithful while Starr yelled orders at his client. It was Jaspers who was up first, beating Krieger to the punch by blocking his punches before laying in stiff forearm shots from both sides of the plate. Old Jim even took advantage of Krieger ducking too soon after an Irish whip and gave him a facebuster into the knee before bouncing off the ropes and almost taking Krieger's head off with a lariat that got him the longest two count of the match.
Jaspers kept building on his momentum, and after a clothesline from the second rope sent Krieger heels over head to the canvas he called for the end and dropped his Union Jack kneepad. It was at this point that Starr baited the referee by jumping on the apron, but Windsor ran from around the corner and pulled him down before shoving him into the barricade as the crowd popped. Jaspers went for Fury Road but Krieger sidestepped it again and blasted the back of Jim's head with the Ace in the Hole shotei. Jaspers staggered into the middle rope, which got kicked into his neck by Krieger - then the TV champ cinched up Jaspers and planted him with his newest favorite torture: a delayed suplex turned into a spinning uranage that kept the Fury down for 3. ** 1/2
| • Jacques Krieger [c] (w/S. Mark Starr) d. "The Fury" Jim Jaspers (w/"the Proper King" Richard Windsor) to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship 2️⃣ • |
Krieger got his hand raised by the ref before continuing to pummel Jaspers, and when Windsor tried to save Starr spun him around and uncorked a volley of pepper spray in his face. With the Proper King screaming on the floor clutching at his face, Starr took a chair from under the ring and slid it in to his client. Jaspers was using the ropes to pull himself up and Krieger was lining up a chair shot when the Arena started buzzing.
A familiar face was sprinting down the ramp with his own chair in hand, and when Krieger turned to see who it was, Katsuji Ootsuka blasted the chair out of his hands, causing Krieger to bail to the outside so he could collect his fixer and his belt. Ootsuka got the mic from Duck and after checking on Jaspers said that he had something to say to Krieger after the past couple of weeks.
He knew this was happening because Krieger couldn't get the Ambassadors Trios championships off of Prince and Proper, so now he was trying to flex on them now that he had a new belt. But here's the thing - that belt might look a little different, yet Katsuji knew it real damn well. Matter of fact it was around this time of year 365 ago that he was flying off the balcony to make Roy fadeaway and retain the TV title - that clip in the intro that people wanted to see instead of Krieger's ugly mug. Katsuji was tired of seeing him disgrace his former title, so if Krieger had the stones, he'd show up next week and defend it against him. Hell, leave Starr in the back, he'd leave his boys in the back, and then that way once he got done whipping his ass there'd be no excuses. He then asked Jackie Boy if he was going to hide behind his I.T. guy or if he wanted to get the punishment he had coming at the hands of the Prince.
Despite the fact he wasn't miced, a camera on Krieger and Starr saw them talk it over; Starr psyched up Krieger, saying that he'd already dropped two of them and nobody got up from the Jacqueshammer, so put up the belt because it'd be oh so sweet when they – uh, he shut up that court jester. Krieger nodded and said "Next week" to Ootsuka before heading to the back. Steve went into hype mode for next week as the chyron box came up: Ootsuka/Krieger for the GRPL+ World TV title, the four way elimination match for the Crush championship and Justice Davis v. Drake Tremble to boot. Vandeblanche thanked us for watching and encouraged us to tune in next week for another loaded episode where Quality Championship Wrestling would continue to bring the Ruckus!
