The show started off with a Mayday Payday recap package – stills of Hilary Highnote celebrating her win over Midsomar and the Game Changers alongside the Proper Villains celebrating their win in an eight person over Danny Castle, Martin Williams, and Ted Holland + Drake Tremble of the Red, White & True gave way to brief b-roll of Las Vegas and the screaming Quality Controllers from the Thomas & Mack before we got some video snippets from the main card:
The PPV began with “Superfine” Reggie Strong getting revenge in his PPV debut by almost boatracing “Dashing” Pierce Moore, the Nephew of Style smiling, styling and profiling on his way to the back after the W
Another successful Diana Spare Crush championship title defense
Anton Stahl calling things right down the middle in the Unified World Tag Team championships match between Team Batroc & the Wonderful Ward Brothers, a coin flip that saw Rich Ward deploy the right counter at the right time to barely keep Serge’s shoulders down for 3; post match saw Team Batroc stomp out Stahl with the Wards making the save, the brothers shaking hands with Anton before leaving with the belts and celebrating
The crazy-ass Vegas $treet Fight for the GRPL+ World Television championship in a triple threat between “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter, Jacques Krieger & Autumn Powers that went all around ringside before Carpenter laid out Krieger with a chair shot again - except this time they threw Autumn on top of him to let her win the TV title to the shock of the crowd and an apoplectic Naz before they left the scene behind and a dizzied Powers lifted up the TV title
Lolo Vuitton beginning to issue her open challenge for the Women’s World Championship before getting interrupted by Sohla Patel, who Lolo was teeing off on – right before Karyn Tisch-Warren turned on her with a chairshot and then laying in a few more for good measure; Patel revealing her International Lotus brand had bought out and dissolved OnlyFitness so that there could be a “less urban” champion – the turncoat Karyn, who quickly pinned Vuitton for the title and celebrated with her husband and new patron to the jeers of the crowd
The main event buried alive match with the Unified World Championship on the line, Mason “Razorblade” Savage throwing heavy hands defending his belt against the Revenant – even busting open the former tag & TV champ for the first time in his QCW career to the shock of the crowd and everyone watching at home; both men brawled by the mini graveyard on the stage and sent each other into the LED before the Rev was able to goozle Razorblade, who had a shovel in his hand – Savage drilled the Rev with the shovel but it didn’t stop him from getting chokeslammed into the grave and getting dirt dumped on him to end the match and his title reign - the show ended with a bunch of disappointed, sad and angry fans…but more importantly with the Revenant roaring before holding his new championship up high
The lights went out in the Arena and “Red Right Hand” started playing over the PA to the jeers of the crowd. But the booing only intensified when the Tron started to show the Unified World Heavyweight title…then panned out to who’s Red Right Hand was holding it.
A full pan out saw that the Revenant was standing in a moonlight graveyard with the 15 Pounds of Gold, black tongued smile in effect. The Rev snorted and spit on the ground then let the title fall around his shoulder.
The new Unified Champ said that this was a place for mortals, and this would always happen to mortals – sooner or later, they came to their end. Mason Savage fought like a son of a bitch, but in the end he ended up in a grave just like these poor souls and his title reign died a noble death at the hands of a better fighter.
It's why his celebration was taking place in a spot that held meaning for him, far away from the sad mortals who wanted to whine and cry over their precious Razorblade losing. Because he was the most dominant…EVERYTHING that QCW had ever seen. He carried a jamoke and was still the engine for the most dominant tag team in QCW history - it was already clear that he was the most dominant Television champion that there ever would be - and now, he was at his rightful place on top of the wrestling world.
So Razorblade and a list of others would surely be trying to take his newest and shiniest bauble out of his grasp. But Savage and everyone else looking for this gold should look around at where he stood. At where he was the only one standing. Because he didn't just shorten careers, he choked them out with the same red right hand that earned him a Triple Crown. And if you were fool enough to step to the Big Bad Champion…and suddenly the Rev hit a cackle so deep you half expected thunder to follow. The Rev cleared his throat and spit again, before finishing his thought:
If you're fool enough to step to the Big Bad, then I'll bury you alive too.
TRUST ME.
He passed the belt off into his other hand and subsumed the camera with his red right. The crowd booed. If you're looking for all the effs the Revenant gives about it, you can book an appointment on February 39th..
| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare d. Shelley LaVey to retain the Crush championship 9️⃣ • | Your increasingly expected Spare showcase here, augmented by the fact that this was a meeting of former Forbidden Book Club members. Having gotten kicked out by Shelley & everyone else, Diana’s career has soared while the rest of them have either floundered since or left the company entirely and Spare took it to LaVey here like she had the memory of an elephant. As she tormented her old friend the announce talked about the shocking events of Mayday Payday that saw Karyn Tisch-Warren win the Women’s World championship by knifing Lolo Vuitton in the back and selling out to Sohla Patel, wondering if the new champ changed Diana’s goals any. If it has, you couldn’t see it here, and Spare won in a little over five minutes with a buckle bomb to set up Nightfall for the increasingly downtrodden Shelllllllllllley here. **
After replays the announce noted that Spare had now successfully defended the title three times in the span of a week, with her now being a victory next week away from being able to cash in the Crush championship for a shot at Karyn Tisch-Warren. With her ever defiant glare, Spare held up the championship while standing on the top of the steps and bellowed at the Quality Controllers before heading to the back.
Steve said after Diana headed to the back that QCW was fortunate to have had Enya Face sit down with “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter earlier in the week for a hard-hitting sitdown interview. Naz gave an overwrought sigh over Carpenter’s conflicted mental state then reverted to a Ruby Rhod impersonation when Steve foolishly tried to get a non-negative feeling about the Duquesne Cup winner out of el-Fadal. Finally recognizing he should give up the ghost, Steve then thanked Enya for her time and showed the interview.
We cut to what looks like the set of Between Two Ferns, except instead of Zack Galifanakis and the celebrity indulging his humiliation kink, we have Enya Face and “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter. Enya looks fabulous as always, but Mirror is looking pretty battered after competing in that Vegas $treet Fight at Mayday Payday. They winced whenever they shifted in their chair.
Enya started by asking the question that all the Quality Controllers asked themselves: “Why did they willingly gift the GRPL+ World Television Championship to Autumn Powers after they had it won?”
Mirror winced again as they faced the camera.
“In the run up to the Triple Threat, seeing Autumn again reminded me of the person I once was. The vain primadonna who hid from their true self under layers of MAC and Instagram filters. The mean girl who hated themselves so much, they lashed out at everyone around them. The complete monster who would drop a cage on someone who threatened to steal their spotlight. And I was ashamed.
“That cage. The cage that still makes Autumn trip up on promos and walk with a limp on hot days. The cage I saw in my sleep EVERY! GODDAMN! NIGHT! The cage that buries ME in my dreams. You’d think that after Autumn ‘humiliated’ me in front of the Indianapolis crowd with the worst haircut I ever had, we would be even. But she met my cruelty with kindness that night. She set Beckett free from the cocoon of Becky. And I still owed her.
“I was doing okay during those periods when Autumn would up and disappear from QCW for long periods. But when she came back, so did the dreams. And when I blasted Jacques with the chair to win the Duquesne Cup, not only did Autumn haunt me in my dreams, but Becky did too.
I averaged maybe 90 minutes of sleep a night between Duquesne and Mayday Payday. I was lashing out at Al and Ashley for no reason. I had to do something. So yeah, I gifted Autumn with a title that was mine to lose. But I got something even better than a title that night in Vegas.
“EIGHT! HOURS! OF! SLEEP!”
Mirror grimaced in pain on the last sentence. After they gently eased themselves back into a relaxed position, Mirror’s uncharacteristic intensity receded, and the composed Carpenter returned..
“My conscience is clear. My balance is paid in full.
Autumn is one step closer to achieving her dream of holding the big belt. When the time comes, I’ll take my belt back the right way. And if you thought the street fight at Mayday Payday, or the War Games match were great, then strap in, fans, stans, and haters! The past is prologue, and our inevitable final confrontation will be peak television.”
Enya leaned closer to Mirror.
“Surely Autumn isn’t the only person you feel you might have wronged along the way to your spot? Do you owe Krieger for costing him the title? Winter Wonderland for the cage and Dorothy Rubyslipper for blowing up the Storybookers? Maybe even Naz for…?
Mirror bursts into laughter (earthakitt.gif). Even Enya corpses a little bit.
“I was an agent of Karma for Naz and Krieger. You’re probably right about Winter & Dorothy, though. Hell, Ashely probably deserves to get a few good hits in on me too. So when I win the TV title… and I will win the TV title… they are all welcome to cash in their title shot coupons. It’s only fair.”
Speaking of the devil, Dorothy Rubyslipper came out, as if on cue.
“Carpenter, I don’t need your open challenge on a title you don’t even have. We’re gonna settle the score tonight. And after I click my heels three times into your already busted face, I can take that title off Autumn myself! So let’s ease on down the ramp to that ring, Witch!”
After Dorothy stomped out of frame, Mirror shrugged with yet another wince.
“Sorry Enya. Time to send Dorothy home. Still on for Game Night?”
Enya gives Mirror the finger guns as Mirror follows Dorothy offscreen.
“You know it! I’ll bring Twister!”
The interview ended there, and we went to our first commercial break tonight.
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| • 2023 Duquesne Classic winner "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter ds. Dorothy Rubyslipper • | We came back from the break to find this fight already in progress, and a little bit of picture of picture showed us why: During The Break, Dorothy laid in wait by the Tron for Beckett to come out before waylaying them from behind and starting a fight down the ramp.
Back to live action, where we saw Carpenter reverse a whip and send Dorothy flying over the steps to the cheers of the crowd. Mirror followed up with a shotgun dropkick off the steps that sent Rubyslipper careening into the barricade to the astonishment of Steve (safe to say at this point Naz is still not a believer). Carpenter managed to get their bearings about them and toss their longtime rival back in the ring as Steve noted the symmetry of the first two matches being hard-hitting while Naz laughed off the understatement and said that they were bringing the hate and the rabble were getting what they paid to see.
The next couple of minutes were dominated by Carpenter, who eventually went up to the top rope and paid for it when Dorothy managed to dropkick them and sent them spilling to the apron. Rubyslipper recovered enough to grab Carpenter and Irish whip them down the apron into the post, which sent the Duquesne Cup holder down to the floor off the recoil and gave Dorothy a little more time to recover. Rubyslipper waved off the referee and instead went all the way to the top rope before flying off with a crossbody that wiped out Dark Mirror on the floor.
Dorothy recovered first and tossed Carpenter back in the ring to get a two count, then continued the offense. But now it didn’t seem to affect Dark Mirror that much; in fact, she started laughing and waving on Dorothy, demanding that Rubyslipper hit her more, hit her harder, demanding if that was all that she had. It might not have been, but Dorothy was so rattled by Beckett shaking off her damage and firing up that it left her mouth agape. It also left her wide open to a Cracked Mirror headbutt that drove her to her knees, and then Carpenter started building a comeback. Rubyslipper went from wobbly to helpless under the weight of Dark Mirror’s offense, and the fight ended after Beckett threw a series of hammer and anvil elbows to set up a Look Inward that Dorothy barely had the strength to tap out to. ** ½
Replays played as Carpenter got their hand raised to the cheers of the crowd, Steve willing to give them the credit that won’t be coming from el-Fadal.
Steve then put over the double main event of Mayday Payday before admitting the obvious - between a street fight and a buried alive match, there were sure to be injuries coming out of Vegas. The worst of the injuries went to the now former champion Razorblade, who is going to be out the next couple of weeks after the extent of his blood loss, exhaustion, and getting 20 stitches, though rumors have popped up online that he’s already tried to leave the hospital multiple times. Similar rumors have said that the Revenant and Beckett Carpenter have also suffered injuries, though the people involved there have played things too close to the vest for any official confirmation there. Autumn Powers did suffer an undisclosed leg injury but vowed to defend her newly won GRPL+ World Television Championship in the main event here tonight. After the rundown Steve threw things to Duck Eko in the ring for the next match.
| • "Superfine" Reggie Strong d. "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland (w/the Red, White and True) • | After his dominating win over “Dashing” Pierce Moore in Vegas, newcomer Strong made his return to the Arena a victorious one over fellow rookie Holland.
Strong got big cheers on his way to the ring but almost immediately started exchanging words with Drake Tremble on the outside. Of course, this was the opening Holland needed to blindside Strong and send him down to the mat.
It’s fair to say about ¾ths of the match went this way: Strong couldn’t provide sustained offense and even when it looked like he would start gaining momentum one of Holland’s buddies would find a way to interject themselves. This culminated with Tremble jumping up on the apron to argue with and distract the referee at one point (possibly to keep Reggie from hitting his finisher) so that Bobby Bash could get in the ring and almost destroy Strong with a spear. Bash slid out of the ring as fast as he could but the zebra did end up ejecting both he and Tremble shortly after that to the cheers of the Quality Controllers.
Things were teed up for Holland but without his support system his offense started coming in fits and spurts. He still looked like he was going to pull out the win when he was setting up for the Grouch Bomb, but Strong was able to not only reverse it but turn it into a Code Red that Holland didn’t kick out of until the penultimate second. Holland survived the nearfall but was on his heels for what was left of the match, Strong popping the crowd after following Holland into the ropes and getting a measure of revenge with a rebound spear. The Nephew of Style finished off Holland right after that with his Fine & Dandy finisher, a spinning Michinoku Driver. ** ½
Strong cleared the ring when Bash & Tremble came back out to check on their fallen patriot, and got his hand raised on the ramp before brushing a little dirt off his shoulder and laughing at the Red, White & True on his way out. Tremble scowled and shook his head at Strong before Steve threw us to commercials.
✨
We came back from the break to a little vignette from Quality Social - in this case, we got a bit of previously online only footage filmed after the conclusion of Mayday Payday featuring Jacques Krieger, who's gone from undefeated TV champion to maybe in the outside looking in for shots at his old title.
Filmed at a slant, we saw Krieger backstage on his phone complaining to someone about how unfair it was that everybody was trying to hustle him just because he put pressure on the whole place. First they screwed…well, whoever was on the other end of the call and now they were screwing him out of his undefeated streak and his belt?! Did they know who the hell they were dealing with? Krieger listened for a bit, then explained that after they found him a lawyer to help him out before he thought that they could help him out again; that it was a problem that needed to be fixed.
Unfortunately for the cameraperson, Krieger spotted them when he turned around and quickly proceeded to chase them away, and a few beats after that we got a TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES - PLEASE STAND BY chyron.
| • Danny Castle and Martin Williams d. Blockhead Ferguson and Robert E. Moonshine • | For the first time since their re-emergence a few weeks ago, Castle and Williams actually had a match instead of just pummeling their poor victims with their THE END IS NIGH signs. Mismatched jobbers Ferguson & Moonshine found themselves on the wrong end of Castle and Williams’ highlight reel here, their end nigh a few minutes into the match when Moonshine was forced to tap out to dueling submission holds by way of Castle’s inverted Boston crab and Williams’ crossface. **
Castle and Williams got their hands raised but no sold it, then picked up their signs and wandered back through the concourse the way they had come.
We saw a video package, and if you’re just skimming along you want to pay attention right about here.
“Ooh LA LA” by Run the Jewels & DJ Premier started playing, and we started seeing quick fire shots of Jane Doe – then Cindy Monet – followed by Lucious Patton. They all stepped into the frame together and walked similarly towards the camera. But they weren’t just walking towards the camera, they were walking past it and towards a ring with maroon and cream colored bunting. We saw Jupiter Jones pull himself up with the ropes and ask a figure “You good?”
Jupiter extended his hands, but the figure stood up in front of him and revealed himself to be a sweaty but smiling Benjamin Valentino.
“Getting there.”
We went to commercial break with the reemergence of the legendary College Park Family seeming on the horizon, and if the International Player is back to being a wrestler and not just a mouthpiece, then they got a little bit stronger than they were when they went home at the beginning of the year.
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| • Pyotr Caviar (w/Serge Batroc) d. Atum Pharaoh • | We came back from the break to see Atum coming out to a decent pop, the announce putting over that last week he went toe to toe with the Revenant 24 hours before he won the belt as he entered the ring. By contrast, Pyotr stomped out to the ring still salty over being unable to lift the Unified Tag titles off of the Wards in Vegas, and his beeline meant that the hoss skirmish was going to get underway even quicker than anybody expected.
Atum didn’t mind the fight the Tracksuit Tsar brought and actually matched or outpaced him early in the meat slapping department, Serge looking a little piqued at ringside seeing Caviar catch the heavy hands of the power man from just this side of the Nile. The match hit a turning point when Pharoah went for his Claw of Horus finish a bit prematurely and Caviar overpowered him – first breaking the Iron Claw before hitting Pharoah with a huge Russian sickle that clearly grew fog in his brain. Caviar ran for the ropes and bounced off of two sets before hitting another, even more impactful sickle that actually sent Pharoah spinning through the air before he crash landed on the mat to the shock and awe of the crowd. With Serge encouraging him to empty the tanks at ringside, Caviar put a shocking button on things by yanking up the massive Atum and dropping him with a short range spinebuster that he maintained the grip of to pull Pharoah into a second short range spinebuster before chaining that into a Hit My Music that shook the ring and got him the three count. ** ½
Replays of the hard hitting and Caviar’s power being too much played, and when we came back from break Serge was raising Pyotr’s hand while “Engel'' blared over the PA. Naz said it was a pretty clear reminder for anyone looking to change their minds after the PPV that Team Batroc and its young Russian bear were as dangerous as ever, titles or no titles.
Next week Ruckus will have a lot going for it:
📺 If Diana Spare wins yet again she hits the magic number to be able to be the first Crush champion to cash it in for a shot at the Women's World Championship 📺
🎙️ We'll hear from the Unified World Tag Team champions the Wonderful Ward Brothers 🎙️
🎙️ And after selling out to Sohla Patel before winning the Women's World Championship, we'll hear from Karyn Tisch-Warren 🎙️
And the GRPL+ World Television Championship will be on the line once again like it's about to be…right now.
“Pray For Me” brought out “These Hands” Roy Fade, and as he came out to the ring GRPL+ Helpfully Took Us Back To Last Week where he and Jacques Kreiger beat “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter & Autumn Powers and the post match saw Krieger try to jump Fade before getting laid out himself. As he did last week in the video, in real time we saw Fade on the buckles making A Very Familiar Gesture around his waist while holding three fingers sky high. Fade came down from the buckles and started to shadowbox in a corner of the ring before "Mota" by the Offspring churned out over the PA and brought out Autumn Powers to the roar of the crowd - a roar that only got surpassed in a few moments when Duck announced her as the new World TV Champion. Autumn took a slight shuffle towards the center of the ring and let out a yell before holding up the title in the middle of the ring.
The crowd's cheering only died down when Autumn went down in a heap, and the lights came back on with Fade slapping his chest and smirking over Autumn. The ref backed Fade into a neutral corner while the replays showed Fade chop blocking Powers while she got introduced because of course he did. Back to the ring, where the referee was checking on Autumn in the corner and she was handing off her belt to Duck. Powers used the ropes to pull herself up and waved Fade on to defend the title for her first time.
| | • the main event • | |
At first, it looked like Fade’s cheap shot before the bell was going to backfire on him - Powers got a running (well, semi running) start once the bell did ring and lit into him with a tight forearm, then rocked him with a series that backed him up to a corner. But Autumn kept the offense going and used her good leg to stomp away on Fade’s midsection until he slumped down in the corner, then just continued to stomp away while the crowd cheered lustily and Powers almost got DQed for brushing up against the zebra’s five count.
Powers relented, but when she came back in Fade gave her a drop toe hold that sent her careening into the middle turnbuckle. These Hands followed it up by using the ropes to get more air into a stomp on Powers’ injured leg, and Autumn let out an uncharacteristic howl after Fade’s stomp connected. Again the referee checked on her and Powers didn’t relent, but Naz pointed out at the announce desk that he was pointing this out during the street fight on Saturday where Powers was getting handed the belt and Fade was in catering or somewhere watching the carnage.
Fade spent the next few minutes of the fight mixing up his Golden Glove winning punches along with targeting the increasingly bum wheel of Powers; at one point for nearly a minute he had her hemmed up in a corner, alternating heavy body blows with occasional stomps to the bad leg weakening Autumn even more. Feeling himself, Fade went in for a corner charge but Autumn was able to backdrop him over the top rope and out to the floor to buy herself some time.
Autumn obviously went to check on her injured leg and the referee again asked her if she was fit to continue fighting, but we knew Autumn was going to say to yes to that. What we didn’t know was that Fade had recovered on the outside enough to trip Autumn, and he pulled her close to the ringpost before slamming it into the steel on a couple of occasions while the referee tried to yell to the better angels of his nature. In response to this, Fade rolled in the ring…then rolled back out and delivered another posting of the bad leg for good measure.
Fade rolled back into the ring while the crowd booed, helpless to help Autumn, who now was noticeably limping around the ring. The last couple of the minutes of the match were a bit hard to watch, with Autumn flailing but failing to even hit Fade, who showed off his dodging ability while cackling and occasionally jabbing Powers in the face while dancing around her. Powers caught up to his rhythm and managed to land a double thrust chop to the throat before getting a running start and hitting a Blockbuster that put an audible hopeful buzz in the crowd. Seeing Fade down and knowing the state she was in, Powers tried to put one in the upper deck with a short range Hazy Shade but Fade’s right hand punched her bad leg at the moment of impact and Autumn went down howling, clutching her leg with both arms while the fans were bummed and concerned. Despite Autumn’s screams, Fade was close enough to a corner that you could hear him yell at a lower tone “Three times!” before he dropped his kneepad and silenced Autumn’s screens with a nasty version of the Decision that sent her flying face-first into the bottom turnbuckle. Powers was almost an inverted snow angel across the bottom buckle and ropes; the cagey Fade pulled her out of the corner and waited on her to recover just so he could run her down with a second Decision that led to his third reign as TV Champ to the shock of Steve and all the Quality Controlllers. ** ½
| • "These Hands" Roy Fade d. Autumn Powers [c] to win the GRPL+ World Television championship • |
You almost couldn’t hear “Pray For Me” over the PA or Duck’s announcing These Hands regaining the title over the boos. But you know the former Golden Gloves winner didn’t care, immediately jerking his hand away after the ref raised it so he could cradle and admire the gold he’d fought for the better part of a year to regain. Replays played of Fade’s domination of the injured Powers before putting a button on things, then when we went back to live action we saw Fade make his way up the turnbuckles while holding the TV title up with one hand and three fingers up with the other. Behind him, Autumn was limping out of the ring with the referee supporting her under her weaker side, but Powers getting helped to the back got interrupted by gold pyro exploding around and from the Tron while Fade barked at the audience about how he wasn’t done and what were they gonna say about These Hands now? Steve’s praise was a little more begrudging than Naz’s, but the announce sold big the achievement Roy Fade pulled off of becoming the first three-time TV champ in the history of the company. Ruckus went off the air with Fade’s celebration and Steve wondering what was going to be next for QCW when every singles championship had changed hands this week; the latest champ in These Hands made sure to brag to the jeering fans as the credit box popped up and we faded to black.
