LAST TIME ON RUCKUS:
The show looked like it was going to start off with the normal open, but it got broken up by a flash of red followed by the word EINHERJAR in bold white. It went back to rolling as usual for a few seconds, then another flash of red before we saw RAZORBLADE in bold white, then back to usual before being interrupted even faster by another flash, and this time the name that came up was JUPITER JONES before the open completely broke down – to show a pile of dirt. A pile of dirt that got bigger a couple more times, as you could hear a man grunting while adding to it.
“Do not let the shiny baubles of others fool you mortals when I hold QCW’s Crown Jewel.”
We got a shot of a grave from overhead, the signature red right hand of the Universal World champion helping wield the shovel in the darkness to dig a fresh grave.
“All year long your disposable heroes have tried, and all they have managed to do is become sacrifices that I’ve added to my lengthy body count.”
The Revenant threw a couple more piles of dirt up before starting to emerge from the grave, grabbing the Unified title as he departed to scoop up the 15 Pounds of Gold in his notorious crimson claw.
“If you think you can do better than the biggest names in QCW – “
Suddenly we were face to face with the 7 footer, who had a gleam in his eye and a smile far too wide to be friendly, just for this warning:
“--come have a seat with them.”
We heard a loud, booming cackle that split the skies and caused lightning and rain to fall on the grave with an unmarked tombstone, but the Rev had already tossed the Unified championship over his shoulder and started walking into the night.
By the time the static had faded from that, Steve was already in the middle of introducing himself and Nazir el-Fadal, and hyped up tonight’s main event with Autumn Powers defending the GRPL+ World TV title against longtime rival Jacques Krieger as well as International Lotus going up against the Women’s World Champion “Night Sky” Diana Spare and Lolo Vuitton before throwing things up to Duck Eko in the ring - we’d be starting off with men’s division tag team action tonight, with the Unified World Tag Team champions dans la maison.
| • Team Batroc d. The Hard Way in a non-titles match • | Not exactly a massacre, since the former champions of the Hard Way have too much talent to just roll over for people, but if you wanted to call this an extended squash you’d probably be more right than wrong on that.
As has been the case in the tag division for months, no opponent has had an answer for Pyotr Caviar and most haven’t even been able to get him off of his feet – Serge was feeling himself so much in this one he tagged in earlier than usual just to dominate Fifita & Goodish with European uppercuts and suplexes while Naz talked about how frustrating it must be for the former champs to have no answer against another man who had been working years to get the straps back until he struck gold in mentoring Pyotr. Again, good fight from THW, but a Russian sickle set up the Arc de Triomphe to put a button on this one. **
Serge went out of his way to taunt the Quality Controllers off mic after the win, saying he and Pyotr would run the division for the rest of the year at a minimum before they hit their usual in-ring pose with their belts on their shoulders.
From there we went TOTHEBACK~!, where Julius Duquesne III brought on Justice Davis to a good pop from the Quality Controllers. JD3 gave him kudos on his debut a couple of weeks ago where he took Razorblade to the limit. Davis said it was the greatest moment of his life so far, but that was only the beginning. He didn’t sign on to QCW to have competitive losses, he came to QCW to win matches and championships. Plenty of people have been asking him what’s next, and while he won’t pretend to know what the future holds for him, priority one is getting a win on the board - and that’ll be happening sooner rather than later. Justice clapped JD3 on the back and left the set, leaving Duquesne to tee up our first commercial break on the evening.
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| • Cindy Monet [c] d. Bettie Rokker (w/Val Curry) to retain the Crush championship 7️⃣ • | Another successful showcase for the champ as she gets closer and closer to the magic number; Rokker had the upper hand at one point but Monet sidestepped her tope and she hit the security barrier pretty hard. Cindy dominated the rest and again won with the Tightrope. **
After that, we definitely didn’t teleport TOTHEBACK~!, but we did see the lovely Enya Face hanging out backstage. She wasn’t by herself for long as she brought out the Ambassadors Trios champions – “the Fury” Jim Jaspers, “the Proper King” Richard Windsor and Katsuji Ootsuka – Prince and Proper. Jim and Enya exchanged #respectfully glances while she congratulated them on retaining the belts on last week’s special episode. Jim said that it was light work and mentioned that they were the Ambassadors of QCW, and had been for some time – and then Katsuji sort of picked up the baton, saying that not only were they the Ambassadors (and the longest reigning Ambassadors at that), but last week’s win meant that the three of them had a Unified World Tag Team titles shot coming to all of them when they picked their spot.
So it was real interesting that there was going to be a #1 contendership triple threat coming up later in the show without them being in it. But that was fine for now, fine for now – because no matter who won the #1 contenders match or whether or not they handled Serge and his pet monster, the power in the tag division lied with them, and soon they’d have ALL the gold to prove it – and it was just a matter of when. Ootsuka bowed towards Enya and sauntered off, the Proper Villains followed suit with their titles behind him, and Enya threw things to Duck in the ring.
Muse's "New Born" hit the speakers and the crowd gave a good pop for the Game Changers, "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter out in support of "Tiki God" Al Buffett and Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo for this tag match. The Game Changers hit the ring and Ashley and Al posed on the buckles, but all three Changers got hit by their ostensible opponents - the End Times walloped Al and Ashley with their signs, and when Beckett tried to have their friends' backs, Summer Rose rear naked choked her out. The bell rang several times. Neither Summer or her charges did anything differently and in short order the ref called for the bell, so forgive me if this result is a little off…
| • the Game Changers (w/"Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter ddq. the End Times (w/Summer Rose) • |
Quality Force Security came out to break it up but by that time the dirt had already been done and all 3 Game Changers were laid out on the canvas. Danny Castle and Dr. Martin Williams left quietly with their now blood splattered signs while Summer cackled her mind away a little more.
Announce had the reactions to that you've come to expect before we were whisked back TOTHEBACK~!, where JD3 was again conscripted into interview duty and brought on another rising star in QCW’s ranks: “Superfine” Reggie Strong.
He came on the set to a pop and exchanged a five step handshake with JD3 before saying he knew what JD3 was going to say, so he’d answer the question right now: yes, this is what it looks like when you catch G5s to Monaco to get your suit made. It’s called being the pastor at Our Father of Immaculate Drip, and the church is made from the bricks haters throw at you. JD3 thanked him for the knowledge but said he was actually going to ask him about his goal of becoming World TV champion. Strong gave his laugh and said that nothing had stopped that goal because nobody had beaten him recently, and while he heard his name coming out of other people’s mouths he also saw them get shut up with a fat-ass Bolt From Olympus, too. So it didn’t matter if it was a hater like One Glass Jaw or the Final Woman kicking ass and taking names, sooner rather than later he was going to be showing up and showing out with the GRPL+ World TV title around his waist, and he bet it was going to fit around his waist like a pocket square in a fine suit.
JD3 thanked him for the interview, and then surprisingly Reggie did his job for him, setting up the triple threat #1 contenders match coming up next after the commercial break. Duquesne laughingly asked if he was coming for his job and Strong shrugged and said he couldn’t help it if he made everydamnthing look good before strutting off set, drawing apprciative laughs from JD3 and the crew alike before hour 1 wrapped up.
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Big implications for the next fight, with the winners earning a Unified World Tag Team titles shot at AnIIIversary. "Gasoline Dreams" brought out the International Players to a good pop, the Collipark representatives hitting the ring trying to work their way back to championship gold.
When "Pray For Me" hit the PA, the crowd's mood shifted as Beauty and the Beast Mode entered, both "These Hands" Roy Fade and "Dashing" Pierce Moore looking focused and secure in the fact that their recent winning ways were one more away from making them #1 contenders.
When the Wonderful Ward Brothers came out to "We Made It" you could see the hunger and maybe apprehensiveness in their eyes - a few short weeks ago they'd been champs but then ran into a Russian brick wall to lose the belts and the rematch. If Jason & Rich couldn't find a way to win here…
Steve went over the rules as the match began: two men in the ring at all times with tags from any team legal, but a team couldn't face off against itself. Moore held down the center of the ring, and Lucius Patton started off to the cheers of the Quality Controllers while the Wards watched from their part of the apron. Moore & Patton started off with some feeling out maneuvers, but things steadily ramped up to the point where they both threw dropkicks at the same time and missed before landing on the mat and getting to a knee, fist cocked. It was a great moment that got ruined by Moore blasting Patton with a knee strike that knocked him loopy enough to put him close to the Wards where Jason the Great tagged in.
The next few minutes saw the most recent ex-champions put on a clinic at poor Moore’s expense – Jason quickly using his mat skills to take Pierce down and keep him there before tagging in his brother Rich for an alley-oop pendulum backbreaker that got some positive murmurs from the crowd. The Wards fought with urgency and even worse for the Baron of Bel Air kept the fight going either in the neutral corner or their own, employing frequent tags.
Moore got pounded and it looked like the Canadians were going to punch their ticket to a rematch with the Cutting Express, but as Rich went to seal the deal Roy Fade leapt into the ring and picked him off with a spear – Moore went flying past where Rich would’ve been and bounced off the ropes before catching Jason with a rolling cutter that put the Great face first on the mat. Fade quickly ran back for their corner as Moore rolled over and eventually tagged out to These Hands, who quickly cinched Jason up and powered him into the corner to work him over like a punching bag from his Golden Glove days.
Fade brought Jason out of the corner with a double underhook suplex and continued to dominate his smaller opponent, and once Moore recovered he obviously wanted in on the fun. BBMode continued beating on the former tag team champion, and once they splattered him against the top rope with a two man Stun Gun they immediately pivoted and laid out the Players to boos. B&B Mode kept their feet on the gas, and after wiping out Rich on the apron seemed set to put his brother to bed. Fade tagged Moore back in for their hybrid finisher – but before either part of it could hit the International Players reasserted themselves with a pair of springboard dropkicks that not only gave them a measure of revenge, it cleared the board enough so that Lucius could drag the out of it Jason to their corner.
Benjamin Valentino tagged him to get in the fight and he wasted little time in dusting Pierce with some left jabs before dropping him with a big right hand. Fade charged into the ring to hp his partner but got hip tossed into a neckbreaker for his trouble, causing Valentino to let out a joyous roar that the Controllers responded to in kind.
Benjamin took a couple more bites of Moore's lunch before bringing in Patton for dessert - the long time friends teaming up for a backdrop into a Patton sitout powerbomb. It got 2 ½ and might have gotten the 3 had the Wonderful Ward Brothers not both dove onto Patton to save the match for themselves.
What was left of the match broke all the way down from there - Fade rejoined the fray and a Pier 6 broke out amongst the teams. The Wards tried the Cutting Express only for Moore to make Rich Fresh To Death with his counter cutter. Jason came for the save but Fade pushed him towards Patton, who laid him out with the Bass Drop. These Hands tried to surprise Patton but the International Players countered his attempt at the Decision with another backdrop bomb. Patton covered Fade, only for the referee to inform him that These Hands wasn't legal. Behind this you could see Moore drop Valentino with the Fresh To Death and scoot closer to Lucius – Moore spun him around for another Fresh To Death - and Patton spun away, hooked his arms and gave him a backslide.
It worked.
No, seriously. *** ½
| • the International Players d. Beauty and the Beast Mode and the Wonderful Ward Brothers in a triple threat match to become the #1 contenders to the Unified World Tag Team championships • |
Patton rolled out of the ring and gathered Valentino as the crowd popped and Duck announced them as the new #1 contenders. As they got their hands raised at the bottom of the ramp a chyron came on screen announcing the Unified World Tag Team championships match for AnIIIversary as the Players try to get the belts from Team Batroc – the same men who were watching this on a monitor, the big Russian shaking his head while gripping his belt tighter and his French teacher who was noticeably scoffing at the next set of challengers he feels sure they'll conquer.
oonce oonce flashing lights MR. TEK IS COMING SOON flashing lights oonce oonce
"Roar" unfortunately brought out International Lotus, both Sohla Patel and Karyn Tisch-Warren looking pissed, and GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week Karyn seemed to be seconds away from regaining the Women's World Championship when Lolo Vuitton got involved…and the title doesn't change hands on DQs. We went back to the ring where they stood barking towards the entryway, the ref trying to back them up from the ropes then getting a double barrel earful from them. We've got a few final commercials to endure, but after that, the semi-main: International Lotus vs. Lolo and the Women's World champion is next!
✨
We came back from the break with Lotus still pacing in the ring, and their faces only got grimmer when “Bodak Yellow” came on over the PA to bring out Lolo Vuitton to a really good pop. Vuitton parted the QT9K04 and was already talking smack, so Lotus returned fire and eventually left the ring to get the fight started early. Vuitton didn’t back down an inch and returned fire, but even the Miami native didn’t have a magic potion on her that let her overcome a 2 on 1. Lotus were laying in the shots and started dragging Lolo towards the ring when “you should see me in a crown” hit the system.
Lotus threw Lolo into the barrier and waved Diana on, but the Women’s World Champion wasn’t coming in through the Tron – she was running down the stairs to get her enough momentum before she jumped up onto the retaining barrier and flew off with a tope con hilo that took down Karyn and Sohla alike. Diana went after Karyn, a recovering Vuitton reversed a Patel whip to send the Bollywood Diva into the steps, and the ref called for the bell.
Diana presumably heard it but she didn’t wrestle like it, picking up where things left off last week in beating down the woman she took the title off of at Cruel Summer while Steve put all over all 4 women as the centerpieces of the women’s division most if not all of the year. Night Sky had control of the fight until she whipped Karyn into a corner – Patel came down the apron and pulled her partner out of harm’s way, causing Spare to fly shoulder first into the ringpost. The referee admonished Sohla but had no choice to allow her legal tag moments later, and for someone possessed of unusual grace Sohla left all that behind in the dressing room and pounced on Diana with falling forearms, punches, and at least two dozen stomps. Patel even took a swipe at Lolo, drawing Vuitton in the ring so that Karyn could sneak in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker behind the referee’s back and scurry back to the apron before Sohla brought her into the match legally.
Tisch-Warren wanted to bring back the parts of last week that she liked, so she started tuning Diana up with her arsenal of backbreakers while yelling at her that she didn’t deserve to be the champion. Lolo got increasingly frustrated on the apron as Lotus took over the match, Sohla deferring to her tag partner/employee? as the increasingly unhinged First Lady of Fitness did everything she could to target the back and leave Spare flat. Even when Diana mounted a brief comeback, Sohla managed to land a cheap shot from the apron; when Spare went after her, Patel dropped off the apron to ringside and Tisch-Warren furthered the gap with an admittedly nice looking STO backbreaker. In short order, Tisch-Warren had Spare in the Circuit Breaker for the second time in seven days, but maybe locked in should have been in quotation marks: Spare used her leg strength to not only power out of the hold but send Karyn flying into Sohla, who this time dropped to the floor due to gravity and not her own sneakiness.
The crowd buzzed as it looked like Spare was going to finally be able to tag out…but Karyn picked her ankle and kept her from advancing. Spare tried to surprise Tisch-Warren with an enzuigiri but Karyn ducked. Ironically enough, that small window was all that The Champ needed to hoist her up and deliver Nightfall, causing a big pop in the crowd. Spare dove for her corner, came up short, then her and Vuitton locked eyes. The two frenemies stared at each other for a couple of beats before Lolo tagged herself into the match to another big pop.
Karyn tried to beg off and Lolo almost took her face off with a running knee strike. Patel was just started to scramble up onto the apron when the Floridian sent her flying almost into the announce desk with a pitch perfect Bloody Shoe. Scott Warren-Tisch went to check on his sugar momma patron on the floor as his wife begged off in the ring, even offering a handshake. Lolo looked around at the Controllers as if to say “DAR. RYL.” but leaned over and gave Karyn a kiss on the forehead before shaking her ex partners hand.
Then she kicked her in the face real hard. And again. Then another five times because fuck her, that’s why. Tisch-Warren collapsed to her side as the fans roared and Lolo prepped the Bloody Shoe – only for Spare to tag herself in. Lolo and Diana argued about it, both getting increasingly heated right before Karyn rammed Diana into Lolo (I heard a cry out in the universe, as if a thousand fanfics were launched…) and rolled her up for a sneaky pin. But just like last week, this left Karyn wide open to block a Bloody Shoe with her face, and that reversed the O’Connor roll to have Spare with the pin attempt. Unlike last week, Sohla Patel was there for a save.
To the shock of no one, things broke down from there. Where the match swung was once Diana and Lolo got on the same page to take down Karyn once they won their individual fights, and then they took turns punching her in the face leaving a desperate Karyn staggering towards her corner, which turned out to suit their purposes just fine. Patel popped up briefly only to collapse on the apron as Vuitton went corner to corner with a Bloody Shoe before tossing her into Spare’s arm so she could get another Nightfall off and drop Karyn.
But then suddenly Sohla vaulted into the ring, the ref counted three, and wait WHAT!?
| • International Lotus d. "Night Sky* Diana Spare & Lolo Vuitton • |
Steve sounded as confused as the rest of us, and while International Lotus started regathering at the base of the ramp, Naz walked us through what happened over the replays – Sohla tagged in when she popped up, then Karyn took the hits, but while Lolo was busy kicking Karyn’s body out of the ring not only did Patel launch herself into the ring on a sunset flip, she got her feet on the middle ropes and Scott the Simp held down her legs with his towel. Even Naz missed that part in real time but started cackling through the end of the replays, Steve protesting that Warren-Tisch had stolen the match for them before el-Fadal replied he had to be around for a reason, and you saw it right there. Heartbreaking: The Most Annoying Color Analyst You Know Just Made A Great Point. *** ½
Sohla crowed about how she should get next crack at Diana, but Spare was too busy arguing with Vuitton about the match’s end to hear her the same way Sohla wasn’t paying attention to the look on Karyn’s face. The referee was stepping in between Vuitton and Spare and it looked like they were going to go, but it didn’t happen (at least not this week).
Ahead of the main event, Steve highlighted some more big matches coming up next week from the Arena on Unleashed and Ruckus:
🖥️ Unleashed will have Razorblade in action as well as the Wonderful Ward Brothers against Beauty and the Beast Mode 🖥️
💫 Cindy Monet will continue her push to 10 with the Crush championship 💫
💫 In a tornado rules rematch, the Women's World champion "Night Sky" Diana Spare and Lolo Vuitton will try to even the score against International Lotus 💫
💫 And in a non-title Cruel Summer rematch, Razorblade will face the man who bested his Last Stand - the Unified World champion, the Revenant
Next week will have a defense of the GRPL+ World TV title; it has that in common with right now.
| | • the main event • | |
The dulcet tones of Link Wray's "Rumble" elicited boos from the Quality Controllers; they knew it was going to bring out Jacques Krieger and his fixer S. Mark Starr. Ever since losing the World TV title in the final of the Duquesne Classic under shady circumstances months ago, a hardened and increasingly frustrated Krieger has had nothing on his mind but regaining the title and obviously was out to do so here. Starr bragged to the camera that his client would be walking out with the belt –
–the belt held by the Final Woman, who came out to the pop of the night with her World TV title as "Mota" blasted over the PA. Autumn Powers took in a familiar sight at the Arena and then headed down the ramp for the fight. With it main eventing, it got the solo spotlight and in ring intros from Duck Eko; the pop that Autumn got almost changed his hairstyle.
| • Autumn Powers ddq. Jacques Krieger (w/S. Mark Starr) to retain the GRPL+ World TV+ title 7️⃣ • | And then into every Ruckus, a little rain must fall. The match was good, but the ending and the post match put it in its shadow.
Before that, though, we had a corker. Early going ons went back and forth until Krieger used his power advantage and trucked Autumn coming off of the ropes. Under Starr's direction, Krieger focused on wearing down Autumn on the mat and even showed off a few submissions up to including a grounded sort of full nelson camel clutch. Naz snarled that for somebody named Powers, Autumn was sure getting out powered.
Almost on cue, Autumn fought out from under the hold and landed a flurry of short range forearms to stun Krieger. Powers ran into the ropes but when she came off One Eye snatched her up and planted her with a spinning slam to further reinforce that he was the Big Boss of the match. Krieger was quick to the cover but Autumn got out at 2 ½.
Krieger looked frustrated but kept on the attack, and a couple of minutes later looked like he was uncorking his Ace in the Hole, but Autumn stunned him with a rolling Koppu kick to block it and hurt his hand. Krieger might've been able to recover quickly from that, which probably explains why Autumn cinched him up and threw him shoulder first into the post.
The crowd popped for that as Steve told Naz not to give up on Autumn just yet. Powers began to rally and in contrast to Jacques focused on short, quick bursts of strikes. It was the death by a thousand cuts strategy, and while Krieger fended it off a couple of times in the early stages of it within minutes Autumn had him ass over teakettle with a basement dropkick to the knee to set up a somersault axe kick (!) off the ropes. Powers fired up the faithful before dropping Krieger with the Hazy Shade. Powers went for the cover – and it got broken up by Starr, who not only dove in the ring to save his client but slammed the TV title into Autumn's face.
Obviously, the ref called for the bell, handing Powers the win via DQ. Starr landed some shots on Autumn, until she landed a bigger one by giving him a one day trip to Yambag City. Starr folded like a J-3 offsuit and the crowd roared - right before Krieger took the air out of the Arena with the Ace in the Hole. Starr's voice was an octave higher but he barked out the order and One Eye followed it, kicking the TV title underneath Powers before hitting a Roll of the Dice on it that laid Autumn out. Krieger picked the title up off the canvas to boos, then let out a cackle and put it over his shoulder. Steve was already livid at the desk, and Starr and Krieger heading up the ramp after stealing the title sure didn't improve his mood.
Starr said to the camera that this was just the beginning of he and Krieger starting to fix QCW as Steve got furious about their stealing but not winning the GRPL+ World TV title as the credit box came up; we went off the air with Krieger and Starr parting the Tron as Powers barely started to stir in the ring.
