LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:
Both Drake Tremble and Super Avión qualified for the Duquesne Classic and took the top two spots on the leaderboard
We were introduced to QCW's newest signee, the nattily clad and silver tongued "Superfine" Reggie Strong
The Revenant retained his TV title but continued his path of destruction by chokeslamming Ashok Banjerjee off the stage through a couple of tables
Standard open this week; it's Friday night in the quiet town of Parts Unknown, but nobody is sleeping on how good the action should be tonight live from the Quality Arena. Steve Vandeblanche and in his second week on the color analyst job Nazir el-Fadal welcomed us to the show, where we’ve got two more Duquesne Classic qualifiers and a Unified World Tag Team titles rematch to main event the show…but we kick things off tonight with a different type of title fight…
| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare [c] d. "Island Flower" Luz Cruz to retain the Crush championship 3️⃣ • | Good TV match to open up the show with Spare registering the win over former Crush champion Cruz; however, it did not come without a bit of controversy.
The early part of the match saw the women going hold for hold and on a couple of occasions counter for counter, drawing applause from the Quality Controllers. The fight eventually went from the mat to the top rope, where Cruz was thought to have the advantage. But when she shoved Spare down, the Crush champion rolled through and landed on her feet before dropkicking the top rope to take Cruz’s balance away. Spare followed up with a superplex that rocked the ring and left both women down.
At this point, Sohla Patel showed up and lightly stepped down the ramp while Naz pointed out that things were going to get interesting here with Cruz (a former Crush champion in her own right)’s former tag partner suddenly interjecting herself into the bout having no love lost for Spare herself.
Recovering first, Spare saw Patel, who offered up a sarcastic wave from the floor. Spare started barking at Patel and Cruz took advantage by snaking around Spare and taking down with an around the world armdrag that sent Night Sky between the ropes and to the floor – Cruz followed up with an absolute bullet train of a tope that had both her and Spare reeling while Patel looked like she was plotting something in the background. However, Cruz had some unkind things to say to the soon-to-be-offended Patel in Spanish before she went into the ring and continued her offensive against Spare. The Island Flower kept things on her side of the ledger, gained a few nearfalls, and looked to be set to win back the belt with her signature Asai moonsault only for both Spare and the referee who was checking on her to go down in a three woman heap.
It was exactly the sort of moment you’d expect Patel to strike and she did - sliding into the ring before blindsiding Spare and laying her out with her Ninth Incarnation. Theoretically this should have opened the door for Cruz, but when she got in her ex partner’s face about it, she too ate the Ninth Incarnation. Patel sashayed up the aisle to boos while the Crush championship fight continued on with the referee and the competitors recovering while the announce tried to parse Patel’s motivations. Spare & Cruz got up around the same time, backed into each other, then Spare immediately spun around and kicked Cruz in the gut before hitting the Nightfall and retaining the title. ** 1/2
After replays, we returned to the ring where the victorious Spare stood holding a mic in her black nailed hand. She thanked Cruz for the fight, saying that she was aware it was going to take every fiber of her being to best a former Crush champion and that she was proud to fight with respect and retain this title. But who she didn't have respect for was Sohla Patel, who was more focused on movie screens or hit and run attacks than getting in the ring and backing up her big mouth. So Diana would cut to the chase – if Sohla wanted a shot at the belt, and wanted Diana to beat her again it was just fine by her, "because QCW will belong to the night and your ass will belong to me." Spare tossed the mic aside to cheers while Steve and Naz hyped up the potential rematch.
A night full of big matches continued on with the first Duquesne Classic qualifier of the evening, featuring two men who’ve seemingly been throwing hands against each other in some form or fashion all year long…
| • Anton "Teknik" Stahl (w/the International Workrate Consortium) d. Katsuji Ootsuka (w/the Proper Villains) in a Duquesne Classic qualifying match • | Really good clash of styles here with Stahl sometimes being able to ground Ootsuka and show off his technical prowess interspersed with the former TV champ being able to land some high flying maneuvers to put the patterned German on his heels. The opening five minutes were a coin flip that had everybody on the outside pacing since their man couldn’t hold an advantage, but Ootsuka would finally land the match’s first big blow out of nowhere; Stahl & Ootsuka were fighting on the apron when Katsuji landed a big kick that wobbled Anton. He quickly followed up with a rana from the apron to the floor that popped the Quality Controllers as we went into the break.
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Ootsuka was in control coming back from the break and looked to be going up top (possibly to finish things with the Magical Sky) but Anton blistered him with a European uppercut to stop his momentum then followed it up with a couple more before setting Ootsuka up. Naz pointed out that this was where you didn’t want to be against a mat monarch like Anton, and he proved it by spiking Ootsuka into the mat with a rope hung avalanche hangman’s neckbreaker that drew oohs and aahs from the crowd and groans from Ootsuka. Anton went for the cover and got 2 ½ but didn’t let the kickout deter him, continuing his focus on wearing down the neck of Ootsuka. Stahl reached into his well-worn book to continue punishing the Prince of Punishment, at one point even keeping him grounded with a full nelson version of a camel clutch.
The Villains fired up the faithful from the floor and it helped spur on a serge – sorry, surge for Ootsuka, who managed to get somewhat vertical before throwing his body into the corner a couple times to sandwich Anton in the buckles and make him release the hold. Both men were woozy for a while, then Stahl grabbed for Ootsuka (who fired a tight back elbow into his face). Stahl tried it again, got back elbowed again, then Ootsuka suddenly shot out and sunset flip powerbombed Stahl into the bottom turnbuckle. A groggy Anton rolled over a couple of times and tried to get his bearings on the floor with the Consortium encouraging him but Ootsuka put a stop to that noise by hitting a tope con hilo over the ring post to wipe out Stahl and make everybody lose their minds for a few seconds. With the Villains and Consortium barking at each other, Ootsuka got Anton into the ring and followed it up with a springboard 450 that Anton somehow got a shoulder up on – but what remained of the match was fought at Ootsuka’s pace and not Stahl’s. Katsuji pressed Anton throughout and pressed his shoulders to the mat a few times before spiking him into the mat with a basement rana driver. Ootsuka went up top and flew off with the Magical Sky…unfortunately for him, Stahl rolled towards the corner he flew from and Ootsuka splattered himself all over the canvas. Stahl used the ropes to pull himself up and then snatched up Ootsuka before executing a Chaos Theory that drove the Prince of Punishment into the mat. Ootsuka kicked out at 2.9.; Stahl simply repeated the move from a different corner and again bridged his German suplex but this time got the necessary three count. ***
After replays, the leaderboard showed Anton’s time coming in third behind Tremble and Avion’s – meaning if the other qualifiers couldn’t win as fast as he could, he would still get the last chance to pick a first round opponent. It looked like Pyotr Caviar was going to go after the Villains and the fallen Ootsuka but it was surprisingly Anton who waved him off/talked him down, opting to hold up three fingers and a sneer to Ootsuka’s face before rolling under the bottom rope and heading to the back. The rest of the Consortium soon followed suit, with Serge looking a couple of times between Anton and the fallen Ambassadors champions before following the IWC to the back.
Speaking of TOTHEBACK~!, that’s where we caught Enya Face not teleporting but rather welcoming her guest: Autumn Powers!
Autumn walked into the frame to a quality pop from the Controllers, and she and Enya exchanged greetings before Enya asked Autumn about what was on her plate tonight: a Duquesne Classic qualifying match against longtime rival and the QCW Women's World Champion Lolo Vuitton.
Powers gritted her teeth for a couple of ticks, saying that it had been months since she'd been able to get her hands on Lolo's neck after OnlyFitness stole the title from her at Season's Beatings. Lolo is holding her title, sure, but it's really the OnlyFitness championship since wherever one of them go, they all go. They loved to brag about all their subscriptions and their little fitness programs? Well, tonight Autumn's program was simple: "fitness whole foot up Lolo's ass", then turn being in the Duquesne into winning the whole damn thing. Autumn thanked Enya for the time and left; Enya threw things to Duck in the ring before definitely not teleporting elsewhere.
| • the Proper Villains (w/Katsuji Ootsuka) d. the Red, White and True (w/Ted Holland) • | Disappointed off of the loss by fellow Ambassadors champ Ootsuka in the prior match, the Brits took it out on the sad, low energy cosplaytriots here.
Ootsuka actually kickstarted the fight by snatching up a kendo stick from beneath the ring, where he basically beat Ted Bundy Holland up the aisle to a righteous pop from the crowd. The Red, White and True complained about it instead of fought and the Brits took it to them early and often. It looked like they might polish off Drake Tremble in the opening five minutes but Bobby Bash was able to make a timely save for his boss. Yet that just got him swarmed by Jim Jaspers and Richard Windsor, who threw a barrage of alternating European strong style uppercuts until he flumped between the middle and bottom rope before falling to the floor.
The Villains then applied the pressure to Tremble until he fell prey to a devastating combo that should be the Villains' new finisher: Windsor half and half suplexing a victim so they're upside down for Jasper's Fury Road (Knee Trembler). Windsor got a measure of revenge for his shady and subsequently quick loss to Tremble in a Duquesne qualifier last week by pinning him here. ** ½
Replays of the Villains' dominant win gave way to them celebrating their way up the ramp as Bash and especially Tremble were left wondering what the license was of the double decker that hit them. Steve said that the International Workrate Consortium had requested time to speak and that we'd hear from them right after the commercial break.
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We came back from the break INTHEBACK~! where Julius Duquesne III welcomed the International Workrate Consortium to boos. JD3 couldn't even get a question in before Anton Stahl uncharacteristically took over the interview, obviously feeling good about having punched his ticket to the Duquesne Classic earlier in the show.
Stahl said it was why they were the greatest group that QCW had on offer today - even when molehills happened like Serge not even making the tournament (Batroc's face next to Anton's after he said that is exactly the one you're picturing in your head) they were a group who climbed mountains, and at the end of this year's Classic he would be the one keeping the Cup in the Consortium's trophy case.
Jason the Terrible took over the interview from Anton, putting over his win before saying that the night of Consortium dominance wasn't over yet - they still got to embarrass the Game Changers AGAIN in the main event with the Unified Tag titles on the line. He continued on saying that Golden Rule proved that the Game Changers were a cute little fairy tale but against a team of brothers with a decade of championships under their belts, midnight fell on their title reign. "The Wonderful" Rich Ward uncharacteristically took over the interview there, saying that while he might not like being under Serge's eye, he loved being a Unified Tag champ. He knew Al and Ashley would bring a fight to them once again but he'd fought ever since getting to QCW to be able to hold this title no matter what the circumstances were. So if they thought that they could take it away from him when he was just getting used to the joy of the weight of it in his hands? Then friendship or not, he'd show them there was plenty of Terribleness in him waiting for a Wonderful reason to run riot.
Anton wrapped things up by saying that the Game Changers would fall just like Ootsuka did, and after that happened these ugly Americans would know where true power resided in QCW. Long live the Consortium! Stahl, then the Wards, then Serge and Pyotr Caviar walked away from the set with decreasing amounts of spring in their step while Julius threw things to Duck Eko in the ring…
| • the Revenant d. Chris Kent to retain the GRPL+ World Television title • | We went from the Consortium to the ring where Kent was already in the ring with "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" playing behind him. The winsome smile on his face represented his final moments of joy on this evening.
Tonight's chokeslam count got to 5. DUD
The Revenant got back his title and scared the referee out of the ring, before holding it over his head and cackling.
The lights went out, and the crowd buzzed then roared when the only light on in the Arena was the QT9k04 and the only face you could see was that of The Unified Champ, Mason "Razorblade" Savage.
He was not pleased.
"So, the big bad Rev is the longest reigning TV champion of all time and sends people to the hospital because he's bored. I wish I could say my buddy Vengador is bored – he's too busy healing up in the ICU, a particular hell I know all too well, and that falls at the man behind the Red Right Hand."
Savage spat on the ground and if anything got more intensely focused.
"Because, see, if anyone's bored around here, it's me.
I'm bored waiting for you to try to cash in on me…but then again, an Immortal like you wouldn't daaaaaaare let themselves get in a position where they would get humbled in a fair fight with a lowly mortal, now would they?"
Even in the darkness you could hear the Quality Controllers pop and laugh (a few particularly brave souls even chortled).
"Because you might be a big, bad, pissed off S.O.B….but I'm a big enough bad, pissed off S.O.B. that has this (here Savage held up the Fifteen Pounds of Gold by his side) and until I'm put in the ground, you damn well better realize that when it comes to QCW's real resident Big Bad?"
This time, Savage spit through his teeth before letting out a short bark of a laugh.
"Why…why, everyone knows you're looking right at him."
The crowd nearly popped the roof off the joint as Savage popped off the screen and the lights were restored; a livid Revenant chokeslammed poor Kent a sixth time before snatching up the TV title and stomping towards the back. Steve put over the possibilities of a Savage vs. Revenant title or titles fight while a sneering Naz said that frankly he hoped they killed each other.
On that cheery note, we went back to Duck in the ring, who announced a 30 minute time limit for the second Duquesne qualifier of the evening. Lolo Vuitton came out first with the rest of OnlyFitness and a cascade of boos rained down upon them as the QCW Women’s World champion strutted out with her side pie–er, lackeys in tow. Naz put over Vuitton strong as having been the champion all year long and having beaten Autumn Powers the last two times they met (Season’s Beatings and the sadly already slept on January street fight rematch). But as Autumn came out to a big pop from the crowd, Steve agreed with Autumn’s argument earlier in the show that Karyn had been instrumental in both those wins and she was lurking around ringside to probably help Lolo win this one, too.
The bell rang and a hockey fight broke out, much to the approval of everyone watching. Not content to punch each other, Vuitton uncorked a big slap that sent Autumn reeling - for a bit. Lolo got done strutting after landing the slap, then got slapped herself to a bigger pop, then they both slapped each other at the same time. Both staggered off before running forward, then they each clotheslined the other down and the crowd popped off the hot start to the fight.
However, it looked like Lolo was going to be the winner of it overall – she recovered first, started laying in even more shots to Autumn, and eventually landed multiple series of stomps to a fallen Autumn in the corner before landing a crisp facewash that sent Powers tumbling through the ropes to the floor. The crowd booed while Lolo jumped up to the buckles closest to Autumn on the floor and hit a double bicep pose while OnlyFitness applauded and we hit a run of commercials.
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We came back from the break with Vuitton keeping Autumn grounded on the mat in a sort of modified cobra clutch; with the crowd clapping furiously to rally her, Autumn got out from under and eventually slipped the hold and got to send Lolo flying face first into the top turnbuckle. Powers shook off the cobwebs, her face advanced a couple of steps up the rageometer, and then she hit Lolo with a version of Vuitton’s Bloody Shoe that sent the champion reeling over the top rope and smashing into the floor even worse than Autumn had earlier in the match. Karyn and Scott rushed over to Lolo’s side to try and aid in the recovery but all three members of OnlyFitness would soon get wiped out by Autumn – who audibly hit the buckles in one corner before going on a diagonal run that set up a perfect tope to take down all three of them at once.
Powers used the barrier to help pull herself up, then snatched up Lolo and tossed her into the ring. Scott charged Autumn with the hydroflask but she blocked it before throwing him into the steps to a huge pop. Autumn then climbed up to the top and waited for Lolo to get up before hitting her with a flying crossbody that got her a 2 ½.
True to her own championship pedigree, Autumn then controlled the rest of the match (in part helped by the fact that a furious Karyn was more concerned about Scott and getting him medical help than being able to interfere). Lolo never really recovered from getting blindsided by her own move, and while she survived it, she didn’t get the tables turned again back to her side and Autumn took vengeful glee in breaking down Lolo piecemeal. While Karyn went off with the medical staff and helped Scott to the back, Autumn finished off Vuitton and punched her ticket to the Duquesne. The first Hazy Shade of Autumn drilled Lolo so hard she went ass over teakettle, almost melting into the mat – but Autumn pulled her slumped over body up to almost being on all fours so that she could catch her with an enzui Hazy Shade and fold her up to win the fight. Good, good TV match here and you gotta put Powers right at the top of the list for possible Duquesne ‘23 winners after this. ***
| • Autumn Powers d. Lolo Vuitton [c] (w/OnlyFitness) in a non-title Duquesne Classic qualifying match • |
After replays we saw Lolo staggering off to the back while Autumn yelled out to the Arena in triumph and we saw that she had bested Stahl’s time earlier in the show to get the third seed spot and last possible pick of first round opponents, with the announce putting over the fight and the possibilities of Autumn hoisting the cup.
After that we got a stinger for "These Hands" Roy Fade that was slightly longer than a usual one: him working over a heavy bag with his Golden Glove winning hands was interspersed with his rehab work and also with in-ring footage of him hitting the Decision repeatedly and him holding up the TV title on two separate occasions in the recent past. The stinger concluded with a sweating Fade with a towel over his shoulders, glaring at the camera. His message to the camera was terse:
"See y'all next week."
The stinger ended with one simple reminder (threat, maybe?)
THESE HANDS AIN'T DONE JUST YET.
Next week's Ruckus is going to be another jam-packed two hours as we continue moving towards Mayday Payday…
📺 Both Diana Spare and the Revenant try to keep their respective strangleholds on the Crush championship and the GRPL+ World TV title 📺
📺 Lolo Vuitton has issued another open challenge for the Women's World Championship but after a rocky past couple of weeks for her and her squad can she hold onto the gold? 📺
📺 And we have the last two qualifying matches for the Duquesne Classic – longtime rivals face off when Ambassadors trios champion "the Fury" Jim Jaspers goes against the returning former two-time TV champ "These Hands" Roy Fade; the other will see Jacques Krieger against the power man from the other side of the Nile, Atum Pharaoh 📺
All that and somehow more to come next week, but before any of that happens we have to see who rules the tag team division…
| | • the main event • | |
Muse's "New Born" hit the PA and the Quality Controllers rose to their feet as the former champions the Game Changers came out looking focused. "Tiki God" Al Buffett and Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo left their usual smiles in the back, looking absolutely ready as they posed on buckles down the line from each other and raised three fingers high.
The opening notes of the Canadian national anthem were soon subsumed by the creepy whistling and industrial menace that came with "Engel" by Rammstein. The Wonderful Ward Brothers appeared on the scene with the Unified World Tag Team championships and the rest of the Consortium in tow. All five men stood in front of the Qualitron 9004 and accepted the rancor of the crowd, but then a huddle happened between the Wards and the rest of the IWC. When it broke it turned out that Pyotr Caviar, Anton Stahl and even Serge Batroc were being left behind and the Wards were going to be handling the title defense themselves. Steve enthused about this being a fair fight and no one will be shocked to find out Naz derided the plan and advocated for even the threat of backup especially for a first titles defense.
They killed the lights and focused a sole spotlight on the ring while Duck made the introductions; the Game Changers remained poised despite the roars of the crowd in the darkness and the Wards were their usual blend of Jason's petulant swagger and Rich's quiet determination.
| • the Wonderful Ward Brothers [c] d. the Game Changers to retain the QCW Unified World Tag Team championships • |
A night of great wrestling ended with another really good match, but as with the other title matches on the card no switching hands of the belt(s) happened and the Game Changers were left without the tag straps. Of course after a match like this, they’ll probably be clamoring for a rematch whether or not the Wards feel like granting them another shot.
The opening minutes were pretty much a coin flip, but that changed when Ashley tagged Al into the match for the ex champs. Neither of the Wards had a match for his surprising power and right before we went to break we saw Buffett press slam Rich from the ring onto Jason on the floor, the Wards in a heap and the Game Changers celebrating getting the upper hand in the ring…right before the QT9K04 parted and Pyotr Caviar came back out (though he remained in front of the Tron at the time).
However, Pyotr coming out as muscle for the Wards just seemed to fire up the Game Changers, who cut the ring into thirds and isolated Rich. Naz pointed out that it was the sort of thing that at their best the Wards had inflicted on their opponents for years, so it was almost as if they would have to counter themselves to hold onto the gold. But the Changers continued weaving their offense mixing power and speed, and began to press for nearfalls in the middle part of the fight.
Seeing the Changers establish and then build upon their lead then brought out Anton Stahl, but right on his heels was Serge Batroc, who bypassed his subordinates to head down to ringside and animatedly pound the mat while (presumably) cursing in French at the Wards. Ashley kicked at him from the ring and then promptly walked into a Wonder Cutter that dropped her like a canceled celebrity from a PR firm. Both Ashley and Rich were groggy in the ring but it was the Canadian who made a tag and Jason the Terrible leapt into the ring to defend the Consortium's honor.
The self appointed team captain took the ball and ran with it, first sending Al flying off the apron with a cheap shot before bobbing and weaving to fend off Ashley's offense. Ward even turned an Irish whip into a springboard Meteora that took a little bit of the concern off of Serge's face and soon Mr. Terrible was rolling. Pyotr and Anton made their way down to ringside while the Wards maintained their control over the proceedings in the ring. In fact it looked as if the Wards were going to retain their titles when they hit their signature Dynamic Express, but the Tiki God flew into the ring at 2 ⅞ and saved the match much to the delight of Steve and the crowd.
That, of course, was the crack in the door leading to a full on Pier 4 and a breakdown of the match which saw everybody involved fighting their asses off until Jason laid out Ashley – then he got laid out by Al – who walked right into a Wonder Cutter. Rich went for the pinfall but had to be told by the referee that Al wasn’t the legal man. Jason knew that, of course, and immediately started kicking at Al to get him out under the bottom rope while Rich didn’t look exactly pleased at the kicking his brother was giving someone he considered a friend.
But he also considered Ashley a friend too…and he completely missed Pyotr Caviar sneaking in the ring and turning her ass over teakettle with a Russian sickle before rolling under the bottom rope and getting repositioned on the floor. The Wards and the referee missed it but the jeers from the crowd showed that they hadn’t; too bad the crowd wasn’t in the zebra stripes. Rich went back over to the fallen Ashley, slowly pulled her up off the mat and hit another Wonder Cutter to win the fight. ***
The reaction from the crowd honestly probably would’ve been worse if Jason had won the bout, let’s be fair. But while Serge, Pyotr and eventually Anton exchanged evil grins on the floor, the Wards celebrated the titles defense in the ring, Jason especially animated in barking at the crowd while Rich looked at his share of the titles with pride over winning the match. Caviar, Stahl and Batroc eventually joined the Wards in the ring and praised their efforts before they all got in their group pose with the Wards holding up the Unified Tag Team belts. We got quick shots of Al and Ashley recovering on the floor and against the barricade before we saw Serge (you could even hear him a bit despite his being off mic) bellowing LONG LIVE THE CONSORTIUM! to put a button on this week’s episode of Ruckus.
