GRPL+ presents QCW Ruckus [s2e13 • January 13, 2023]

"QUEUE CEE DUB!  QUEUE CEE DUB!  QUEUE CEE DUB!  QUEUE CEE DUB!"

LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS

• “Dashing” Pierce Moore racked up another victory and continued mocking former Unified World Tag Team champ & crowd fave “Tiki God” Al Buffett

• Both Einherjar and Anton “Teknik” Stahl notched wins to get added to the ladder match for the vacant World TV title at Cold As Hell

• Despite some weirdness, the Insurgency retained the Unified World Tag Team championships against the Hard Way…only for Buffett and the rest of the Game Changers to come out and make their presence known

We got the new G+ open (with a little bit more Moore and SciFi DF) before we whooshed into the Arena and blew up some purple, gold and red pyro – Steve & Starr wished us happy Friday the 13th and promised some action that would chh chh your ahh ahhs: the last two qualifiers for the TV title ladder match happen tonight, and Anton "Teknik"  Stahl will face off against the World Champion Razorblade in the main event, but before we went to the ring – a major announcement courtesy of Commissioner Holmes.

He popped up on the Qualitron 9004, beamed in from the office.  He welcomed us to Ruckus and said while he didn't like starting off the show, announcements like these required it.  He noted they always tried to put on an episode of Ruckus that never wasted the viewer's time, and that he especially felt that way when it came to the handful of limited commercial interruptions editions of Ruckus QCW put on during the year.

New year, new network, and something new for every single limited commercial interruptions edition of Ruckus in 2023…

QCW is going even more international!

The Quality Controllers popped (even a few "Holy shit!" chants were heard on the broadcast) and Holmes let it die down before saying that fans from around the world were clamoring for months for QCW to be closer to them than the Arena; thanks to G+ those dreams will be fulfilled for thousands around the globe.  Next month will have a limited commercial interruptions edition, which means the Consortium is on the clock; all LCIInternational Ruckus will feature defenses of the Ambassadors trios championships – and the IWC is lucky to have them after the crap they pulled in the Unified Contenders Challenge.  Holmes again thanked the fans and G+ before throwing things to Duck, who intro'd the opener.

| • OnlyFitness (w/Scott Warren-Tisch) d. Autumn Powers & Winter Wonderland • | As OnlyFitness came out we got a brief split screen that folds in like the new Tron does, showing us footage from two weeks ago where Lolo earned a spot in the ladder match at Cold As Hell – and there’s nothing stopping her from holding both the World TV title and the Women’s World title.  

This match was predominantly setup by online sniping (it is 2023, after all), with the mean muscle mommies daring Autumn to find a partner if she could and hadn’t burned every friendship she ever had.  And it turned out that she didn’t – her longtime rival turned ally Winter Wonderland, who’s been predominantly focused with trying to capture the Catch Hell Wrestling League’s Women’s title in her homeland returned to the Arena and even got a few “Mean Season” chants going early as she got the upper hand on Karyn Tisch-Warren in the opening moments of the match. 

Unfortunately for Powers & Wonderland, Fitness had what they didn’t: a good little simp to provide referee distractions, let the Women’s World champ run in and get a cheap shot in before they took over proceedings.

Lolo made sure to duff up Winter Wonderland and took control for several minutes with her power game, Wonderland having to kick out a couple of times and Autumn having to save the match once.  Lolo and Autumn exchanged glares after that but Vuitton went right back to work and kept an upper hand until she ducked too soon after whipping Wonderland into the ropes; Winter came back with her Nuclear Winter implant DDT and that bought her enough time to tag out to Autumn.

Powers came in hot and dished out the sort of beating Vuitton was putting on Wonderland; the Quality Controllers were rocking and rolling with her every move and she even got in a shot to knock Karyn’s superfine annoying ass off the apron.  It looked like Scott was going to try to interfere again a little bit after that and Autumn knocked him down to the floor, too…but behind her back, Karyn blind tagged herself in by slapping Lolo’s muscular back and then lying in wait.

Powers obliterated Lolo with the Hazy Shade of Autumn only for Karyn to get a running start and lay her out with a STO backbreaker, then a Complete Shot before she applied the Circuit Breaker elevated Texas Cloverleaf.  It looked like Autumn was going to make it to the ropes, but then Karyn pulled her back to center right before  Winter took her out of the picture.  Lolo absolutely walloped Winter with the Bloody Shoe a couple of seconds after that, then OF hit Only Finished This on Autumn and Karyn got the pinfall with Lolo counting along while making sure Winter couldn’t make another save, which she sadly didn’t.  ** ½

Post match the heels went wild and targeted Wonderland.  Scott actually shoved Duck out of his chair before passing it along to his wife, who wrapped it around Winter’s neck.  As the crowd buzzed and the announce pleaded, a smirking Lolo Vuitton barked out the orders to Karyn for positioning, and she got ready to leap off the second rope before she got waffled off of it by another chair - this one belonging to Autumn.

Karyn managed to duck an attempted shot but Autumn absolutely walloped Scott with a chair uppercut that sent him flying into the air before he landed seconds later with a thud, OnlyFitness both grabbing him from the edge of the apron while dodging Autumn’s swings.  A furious Powers got the mic from Duck and said that she was tired of OF’s BS, and damn sure sick and tired of seeing Lolo hold her title for her, so next week here in the Arena she was going to get back what was hers and become a two-time Women’s World Champion.  There was none of the former champion’s usual grin as she slammed down the mic, making sure that OF was retreating up the ramp before she and the official checked on Winter while the announce got excited about the title rematch and hoped that they would have official word on it before the show ended.  Autumn helping Winter to her feet to cheers was the last thing we saw at home going into the break.

Back from the break, where Duck announced the next match with a 20 minute time limit as a World TV title qualifying match before “New Born” hit the system and the crowd popped huge for the arrival of the Game Changers.  With Al Buffett suffering a narrow loss to Roy Fade a couple of weeks ago it fell to “Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter to try and secure the Changers a spot in the ladder match coming up at Cold As Hell.  Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo and the Tiki God hyped them up right before the lights cut out…soon to be replaced by the dulcet tones of Johnny Cage’s “Ain’t No Grave”.

The crowd kept the roaring going as the Immortals came onto the scene, and as they made their slow walk down the ramp we got a G+ split screened picture in picture that Took Us Back To Last Week where Einherjar vivisected Drake Tremble to earn his spot in the ladder match the Revenant & Carpenter would be fighting to get into here.  When the bell rang, both participants stared down the other but eventually bumped fists and got down to business.

| • the Revenant (w/Einherjar) d. "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter (w/the Game Changers) in a World TV title qualifying match • | As Carpenter tried to stick, move and employ the five Ds early on, announce put over the fraught if respectable relationship both sides have had for months,  including the Game Changers winning the Unified Tag Team championships over Einherjar.  

Carpenter started the match at a disadvantage but caught a lucky break when the action spilled to the floor and they ducked a roundhouse kick that connected with the post to the shock and mild disgust of the crowd.  The impact was so big that it would’ve crippled a normal man and even started causing QCWs resident Big Bad to limp slightly upon coming back to the ring.  Dark Mirror showed off their ring generalship by focusing on the injured leg and pressed the Rev with several nearfalls, but when they tried to make the big man Look Inward he powered up and slowly got them into position then Tombstoned them into the mat.  It took the better part of a ten count for both of them to stagger up, then the Revenant blocked a Carpenter attack and planted them with the Red Right Hand.  That was enough for the victory, although Dark Mirror “kicked out” at what would have been 4 ½.  ***

After the replays, the Revenant joined “These Hands” Roy Fade, the Women’s World Champion Lolo Vuitton, Anton “Teknik” Stahl, and…would you look at that…Einherjar in the ladder match at Cold As Hell to fill the vacant World TV title.  Despite some fraught moments postmatch, ultimately the Immortals and Game Changers ended up shaking hands to the cheers of the crowd, the Game Changers ceding the ring while the Immortals exchanged sly smiles and maybe a little smacktalk between themselves; having dominated the tag division for so long, they are now bringing that same level of dominance with eyes on the World TV title.  If they can keep it together in a couple of Sundays, there’s a one in three chance that the belt ends up as Killed By Death as most of the Immortals’ poor victims opponents. 

We got a stinger for "Bollywood Diva" Sohla Patel, who was sitting pretty in a production chair that only had her first name on the back.  She tossed her hair and smiled at the camera, informing us that she'd been away filming her latest opus; with production wrapping tonight, it's time she returns to the ring and blesses her lotus blossoms.  With a new network and more exposure, it's the time for her to come back to the combat sports that helped her make a name.  "Details to come, darlings.  Ciao for now!" Sohla!

| • Jacques Krieger d. Atum Pharaoh • | Here's what happened: Atum charged at the bell and whiffed - massive leaping Krieger knee right under the jaw - Roll of the Dice.  Fin.

S e v e n seconds, the second fastest win in QCW history.  Is this a DUD or a HOLY FUCK?

Everybody freaked out, Starr hilariously saying he was going to start rooting for Krieger out of fear alone.  Surprisingly, not only did Krieger stick around for more than getting his hand raised…he even asked Duck for the mic.  And yes, the KRIEEEEEGEERRRRRRR chants means the people are probably wondering who's next.  

Krieger said that he didn't have a plan for Cold As Hell, but he had an open contract.  But a word of warning to anyone who stepped in between the ropes against him: he's had more wins than minutes in the ring, it's bad luck to test One Eye.  Krieger headed to the back after that, while poor Atum was barely coming around and had to be informed by the referee that he didn't win the fight.

| • Lucius Patton (w/the College Park Family) ddq. Pyotr Caviar (w/the International Workrate Consortium) • | For the majority of the match it looked like the IWC were going to join the Immortals in having two bites at the TV title apple come Cold As Hell.  It wasn’t a shock given that Patton’s had far more tag team than singles success and that once in Soviet Russia Caviar separated a Volkswagen with his bare hands (allegedly).  It should’ve been a layup for Young Pyotr…and yet, despite his initial flurry Patton managed to not only stay alive but stretch the match past 10 minutes into a second segment to keep the Quality Controllers hopeful he could score the upset.

Down the stretch Patton looked like he was starting to rock Caviar with a flurry of chops and punches only to get absolutely obliterated by a running Caviar crossbody that made me Arena recoil and went to end it, but 2 ½ ain't 3.  Caviar waited for the loopy Patton to get up then hit him with a Russian sickle that sent him corkscrewing through the air, but 2 ⅚ ain't 3, either.  The crowd roared – Jupiter Jones at ringside pounded the mat while Serge barked out orders through the noise - Caviar took Patton around the ring before taking him down with Hit My Music.

Patton got his foot on the rope at the death causing another huge pop, Jupiter clapping his hands and encouraging Patton to stay in the fight.  The referee informed the increasingly heated Pyotr about the foot on the ropes and the match continuing as he slowly pulled himself to his feet.  Caviar looked sympathetic and nodded twice, then almost Russian sickled the zebra’s head into the third row.  ** ½

And as it tends do sometimes in Parts Unknown, four different types of hell broke loose.  

Caviar stood over the zebra’s body, yelling at him that he’d messed up, bro; then Serge hit the ring to inform Pyotr that the one who messed up was him, when he just threw away his s–and then both Jupiter and Lucius Patton were in there throwing hands on the two of them to the roars of the crowd.  Duck made the announcement of Patton’s win and the bell kept ringing and they kept fighting – most notably, Anton Stahl and Jason the Terrible came into the fight and with the four on two advantage, the Consortium had Collipark on their knees.

That’s when “Unscripted Violence” hit, and everyone’s heads whipped towards the entryway for the arrival of the World Champ: Mason “Razorblade” Savage.  But the Quality Controllers even louder roars gave away his location - he was coming down the stairs as fast he could sprint them, holding a barbed wire baseball bat in his right hand. 

Savage vaulted the barrier, slid in the ring and swung until the Consortium had fled to the floor, but Savage stalked them in the ring and dared them to try and see what The Champ looked like with a short temper.  He yelled that Serge was going to get Anton wrecked tonight, which is probably what he wanted after last week.  As the chyron went up showing the final field for the ladder match (Einherjar/Fade/Patton/the Rev/Stahl/Vuitton) you could see Anton sort of side eye Serge, who was too busy yelling at the Champ to notice.  Team Teal and some referees came out to separate the IWC from Razorblade & College Park, with the announce putting over the Savage v. Stahl main event still to come tonight.

From there, we went ALLTHEWAYTOTHEBACK~! into the parking garage, where Julius Duquesne III was standing by with the Game Changers, and JD3 asked them about what's next after tonight.  Beckett gave reluctant kudos to the Revenant but then in a very un Tiki God move, Al Buffett took over and was focused on Pierce Moore.  One lucky win over Jupiter and Pierce thinks he's the man, thinks it's cool to mock him?  If Moore wants to stop posing for the cameras and has the pineapples to fight him, Al will make him less Dashing and bring the aloha.  Al then apologized for his salty language before the Game Changers got into a Town Car leaving the Arena.

| • Katsuji Ootsuka d. "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland (w/the Red, White and True) • | Hard fought win for Ootsuka, who had to overcome attempted interference and the perpetually tricky Holland to notch this win.  Ootsuka closed things out with his signature basement rana driver and a Magical Sky.  ** ½

Katsuji had barely gotten his hand raised when Bobby lived up to his last name Bash and Drake Tremble wasn't far behind; the Red, White and True gang stomped Katsuji while Steve told the viewers that with the Proper Villains in Catch Hell tonight, the former TV champion didn't have his usual support.  He was right: Bash, Holland and finally Tremble all hit their finishers before a few zebras finally came out to stop the carnage.  "Stranglehold" blared while Tremble crowed about getting rid of another dirty cheating foreigner.  Apologies to anyone who hears my eyes rolling.

Announce had the reactions to Tremble and crew's antics that you might expect, then hyped up next week's show:

🌟 With the PPV happening two days after, we'll be taking a special look at Cold As Hell 🌟

🌟 Autumn Powers gets her rematch against Lolo Vuitton for the Women's World Championship 🌟

🌟 And a massive eight person intergender match will be the last match before Cold As Hell; the College Park Family will team up to face off against the International Workrate Consortium's Serge Batroc & Pyotr Caviar as well as the Unified World Tag Team champions, the Insurgency of Super Avión and Nazir el-Fadal 🌟

But as Steve pointed out after the creepy whistling from Rammstein's Engel came up on the PA, the Consortium had to get through the toughest kind of fight - one against The Champ.

| • | • the main event • | • |

The Consortium came out in full, but the look was a little bit different; both due to his having the match and beating Serge Batroc in the qualifier last week, Anton "Teknik" Stahl carried himself and was treated like the point man for the IWC.  Starr barely had time to notice and stir the pot by calling him "the once and possible future leader of the Consortium" before "Unscripted Violence" came on over the PA and the roof came off the Arena.

Despite the fact this was a non-title fight, the Thirteen Pounds of Gold banged off of Mason Savage's shoulder as he power stomped down to the ring with Quality Controllers slapping his shoulder and cheering raucously as Savage stepped into center ring and started jawing with Anton.  The characteristically quiet Stahl looked offended at first but then (this is a guess) starting firing back at Savage, even pointing to Lucky 13 a couple of times before pointing to himself and getting chesty with Razorblade.  Steve worried about things getting physical before we even got to the main event –

– so the last thing this moment needed was Arcarsenal.

And yet another pepper went into the gumbo as after a few beats, Nazir el-Fadal came out with his share of the Unified World Tag Team championships hanging loosely from his arm and if the events in the ring were affecting him he was going to great lengths not to show it.  It was actually The Champ who had the first response to Naz's arrival, as he pivoted and dusted Anton with a meaty forearm shot.  The zebra rang for the bell over the protests of the Consortium and things got underway.

| • Mason "Razorblade" Savage d. Anton "Teknik" Stahl in a non-title match • |

To the shock of this reporter, Naz wasn't a major factor in the match and technically didn't involve himself in it at all.  (As the early part of the match happened he walked down to ringside, and he and Savage ended up in a staredown that gave Stahl an opening to sneak up on Razorblade and give him a release German on the floor, but Naz kept his hands clean for a change.)

That broke up what had been a mostly 50/50 match to that point, with both men showing some depth in the battle: Anton's never going to beat Savage in a brawl but held his own thanks to the velocity of his European uppercuts; Savage is never going to win a technical wrestler of the year award but was able to stymie and reverse some of Anton's early holds.

Post German, however, Anton was on the attack and going after Razorblade's neck with impact shots.  The Champ had to escape a couple of nearfalls but managed to survive.  The match turned on an unusual moment: an Irish whip. 

Now, depending on your viewpoint, “the Wonderful” Rich Ward is either a savvy saboteur or an unwilling impediment - either way, since he wasn’t paying attention when Savage reversed the whip, Stahl ended up tripped up by Ward.  Rich looked apologetic even as the rest of the Consortium flanked him and started giving him the business…completely ignoring the fact that in the ring, Savage scooped Anton up in a running Air Raid Crash and had however narrowly just pinned their boy.  ***

Naz let out an audible choked off laugh when the bell rang, while the Consortium all got up on the apron and looked like they were going to dissect Razorblade when Serge waved them all down and they all surrounded Rich on the floor.  Despite The Champ’s warnings and Rich’s apology, the Consortium jumped Rich and started laying into him; this of course drew Razorblade into the fray.  

With a four on two happening, something would have to happen to even these odds.

Like some Bombs Over Baghdad, for example.  

And out sprinted Jupiter Jones & Lucius Patton (well, moreso Sweet Lu) down the ramp to make the odds even and help out their occasional running buddies.  Naz put his hands in the air and turned on his heel to walk away, but in and around the ring chaos was reigning – Pyotr Caviar’s bull run sent he and Razorblade through the barrier and almost ran over poor Duck in the process, and that was moments before Collipark sent Serge through the announce table in response (drawing a solid half minute of “HOLY SHIT!” chants).  The show ended with the fight continuing amongst those who could still fight while both Steve & Starr tried to check their mics with choppy results.

Next week is the Women’s World Title rematch and what should be a chaotic eight person tag with the Game Changers teaming with the College Park Family to face Serge & Pytor of the Consortium and the Unified World Tag Team champions the Insurgency, but that’s a week out; Ruckus went off the air this week with the crowd cheering after Jupiter laid out Jason the Terrible with a Bolt From Olympus only for them to do a quick 180 when Anton dropped him from behind, and the fight continued presumably well after we faded to black on GRPL+.

GRPL+ presents QCW Ruckus [s2e12 • January 6, 2023]

Scott Lang Syne, everybody!

There was a black screen after the GRPL+ logo went across, then you could hear chants of “Queue Cee Dub!” before the disembodied voice of a female robot (best description I got for ya) said LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS and purple static pulsated across the screen in time with her/their/its voice before we got to see some short clips of the following;

• Jupiter Jones dropping Serge Batroc in the main event with a Bolt From Olympus to win

• Both “These Hands” Roy Fade & the new Women’s World Champion Lolo Vuitton winning qualifying matches to get into the six pack ladder match for the vacant TV title at the upcoming Cold As Hell

• Mason “Razorblade” Savage celebrating regaining the QCW World Championship and thanking the fans who helped made it possible while the ex-champion and his longtime rival “the One Man Jihad” Nazir el-Fadal watched wordlessly on a monitor in the back

Two loud pulses flashed purple static on the screen - repeated - two more times and powering down.

Before powering up a thousand fold, purple, a little gold and even some (I think) blood splatters rolling for a half a minute straight behind footage of QCW superstars from the recent past: Katsuji Ootsuka flying off the balcony with Midnight Sky through Roy Fade and two tables, the Consortium in their usual mid ring pose, the Immortals smiling evilly with Einherjar rubbing his hands together and the Revenant tipping his duster, little snaps of the roster like that.  Pulsating electronic music played with some unknown B+ rapper dropping bars over it, and the action got interspersed with the roster posing, flexing and roaring to the hi def cameras on a soundstage with the new color scheme firing off lasers in the background – and in a nice touch, G+ wrapped the new open with the chain of (all new!) QCW champions:

🌟 Lolo Vuitton flexing with one arm holding the belt, the other one kissing the back of a peace sign before pointing at the camera and smirking while Karyn Tisch-Warren and Scott Warren-Tisch looked admiringly at her behind at her admiringly from behind the Women's World Champion 🌟

🌟 Super Avión strutting with his half of the Unified World Tag Team championships while Naz looked at the camera with a full glare, his share almost scraping the ground 🌟

[World Television champion footage not found]

🌟 And Razorblade – in street clothes – wordlessly laying down the Thirteen Pounds of Gold and waving on any and all comers before letting a small grin seep out from the corner of his mouth 🌟

And then the pyro went off and you might as well have hit the Jeffersons theme song because a fuckton of purple, gold and red pyro went off on the stage before revealing the…let's call it the Qualitron 9004.  It's a Tron that's actually a rounded oval that folds in for the entrances then a steel ramp leading to ringside. 

Steve and Starr will never make a GQ cover but they were more nattily clad than usual, and welcomed GRPL+ viewers to the first Ruckus of 2023, the first episode of their being on the network.  They promised a special look at Jacques Krieger to come in the program which would be main evented by the Insurgency defending the Unified World Tag Team championships against the Hard Way but "Fly Like Me" meant that the GRPL+ era is going to get off to a Dashing beginning…

| • "Dashing" Pierce Moore d. Il Postino • | Moore was somehow even smugger than usual on the way to the ring, bragging to the cameras that of course GRPL+ wanted to start things with the Face of QCW.  The next Postino win will be his first one, so this was a showcase for Moore’s sliminess and skillset.  Didn’t even go five minutes before he put it to bed with the Fresh to Death cutter.  DUD

After the match, Moore rustled around under the ring before finding a Hawaiian shirt — he then put it on the groggy Postino, waited for him to stumble to his feet, and then hit another Fresh To Death to his great amusement and the crowd’s loud jeering.  Moore smirked his way up the ramp, the announce mentioning him continuing to clown “Tiki God” Al Buffett before they threw things TOTHEBACK~! and backstage interviewer Julius Duquesne III, who was standing by with the challengers of tonight’s main event, the Hard Way.

Paul Fifita & John Goodish got a good pop as they came on, Jules asking what the game plan was for them to walk out of the Arena as the new Unified World Tag Team champions tonight.  Fifita said that they came up short last year in trying to get the belts, but even though the year is different and the champions are too, their goal is the same – to regain tag gold.  Goodish added that they’d probably had more title reigns than the Insurgency had matches as a team, so that’s what the plan was – show Super Avión and Naz that as talented as they are, the tag team belts would be more at home with the Hard Way, and would be home with the Hard Way after tonight.  On to the next fight!  They thanked JD3 and took their leave to another pop.

| • Science Fiction Double Feature d. The Angel Twins • | The currently hapless Angel Twins on loan from Room 237 served as fodder to introduce to the G+ audience to SciFi, with the unusual friendship between Jane Doe and Cindy Monet getting pushed as well as everyone but Cindy having come from the late, great Crush Wrestling all women’s league that QCW acquired a little over a year ago.  SFDF got the duke when Cindy flew off with a double stomp off the top rope onto Sara on Jane’s shoulders; Doe followed that up with a running Samoan drop and the Feature won in a rout.  **  Cindy and Jane got their hands raised and celebrated their way up the ramp while Steve promised more QCW Ruckus after a word from their sponsors…

THIS WEEK IN QCW HISTORY:

1974: "Cowboy" Jack Powers wins an inaugural one night eight man tournament known and dedicated as the Duquesne Classic; as a result he wins a new car given to him by former tag champion (and Duquesne's partner), Tommy "King" Berger

1976: The semi-retired Berger stuns the field and wins the Duquesne Classic, then stuns the audience by officially retiring from the ring having "won one for ol' Jules", though Berger remains an avid QCW fan until his untimely passing in 1991

After that video package ran we unfortunately saw “the Voice of Freedom” Drake Tremble stood flanked by his support system: “Great American” Bobby Bash and “Swamp Trash'' Ted Holland, the rest of the Red, White and True.  Tremble paced a little bit as he said it should be criminal on a fine night like tonight for a former TV champion like himself to have to participate in a qualifying match, let alone against a dirty foreigner.  But fortunately for all the silenced patriots out there, Drake was on the job, and it was only a matt–uh, a mat–the camera followed Tremble’s eyes and then we saw what he saw: the Immortals - one of whom Drake is about to face in Einherjar.  Einherjar, who would have gotten a TV title shot at Season’s Beatings had he not gone to his uncle’s wake, walked up to Drake, sniffed him, and got right to the point: foreigner yes, dirty no.  And all the grief, rage and pain he’s felt lately?  Drake’s going to get hurt tonight.  Hurt badly.  

Bobby and Ted got in Einherjar’s face, then the Revenant got in their faces, and all five men started glaring each other down with both Tremble and the Revenant exchanging a few threats in their own right before Team Teal appeared on the scene to provide a human wall between them lest they not save the fighting for the qualifying match later on in the show…but the first qualifying match of the night was up next. 

Rammstein's Engel came on over the PA, bringing out the International Workrate Consortium as a unit despite the fratricidal nature of the match to come.  The announce explained that all the qualifier matches were determined by random draw, thus two of their five members would face off here.  Starr stirred the pot for new G+ viewers by noting Serge was leader now because he'd beaten Anton 357 days ago clean in the middle after a hard fought match that became known as the Consortium Especialé – the Consortium wrestling internally for leadership because they're that cocksure that their technical style was stronger than any other mat discipline.  

After handing off their tracksuits to unwilling member "the Wonderful" Rich Ward and putting him on ring gear duty to further humiliate him, Anton and Serge shook hands before beginning the fight…

| • Anton "Teknik" Stahl d. Serge Batroc in a World TV championship qualifier • | …and it would be one that Anton won clean.

This was the longest of the qualifying matches so far, going a little over three (!) segments as both Consortium members went hold for hold, counterhold for counterhold, and quite possibly at times having counters to the counters to the counters.  Unlike the first two sprints that began the action tonight, Anton and Serge seemed to be almost having fun the more the match went on and the more their stablemate could draw out of them.

Serge went for his Arc de Triomphe but Anton not only landed on his feet but responded with a Mt. Everest release German suplex of his own; Stahl went for the Matter of Time only for Serge to reverse out into sort of a rolling cradle into the prawn hold, but Stahl shot out an arm to kick out at 2 ¾.  Batroc got the upper hand from there and looked to have things wrapped up with the Arc but Anton countered again, this time leveraging the French Assassin into a cross legged victory roll that of all things actually got the victory and advanced him to Cold As Hell in a minor upset. No blood…not even a whisper of foolishness or black hattery…but if you just want to watch two elite technical wrestlers kick out the jams for almost a solid 20 minutes, get some bread and butter because this decidedly will be your jam.  *** 1/2

After replays showed Anton having pinned Serge however narrowly, Stahl offered his hand to Batroc.  Serge looked at Anton up and down for a couple of beats, then allowed a small smile and shook Anton’s hand before raising it, Jason the Terrible off to the side yelling at the crowd that Anton would do the Consortium proud and walk out with the TV title.  The non Wonderful members and Starr applauded Serge’s leadership literally while Anton looked…so much less dour than usual it got close to joy.  The Consortium shook hands with Anton (Serge making Rich) before joining in their group pose, Serge pulling Anton a bit closer to him than usual.  Steve promised that Ruckus would be right back with the other TV title qualifying match, and Starr hoped it would live up to the technical exhibition everyone in the Arena and at home just witnessed.

Back from the break we got a stinger for “Night Sky” Diana Spare similar to the one last week, though this one got a bump up in production value thanks to our new friends at GRPL+.  More brief highlights were shown this time of Diana in the ring, as well as her sort of becoming the overseer of the women’s division since she was turfed out of the Forbidden Book Club last year.  In a voiceover, Spare swore that her watch was just beginning…that she saw all even when she couldn’t be seen…and that sooner or later, QCW would belong to the night.

| • Einherjar (w/the Revenant) d. "The Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble (w/"Great American" Bobby Bash & "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland in a World TV championship qualifier • | This was supposed to be a match; what ended up actually occurring was Drake Tremble having a far less fun January 6th than he was hoping for.  I don’t think Tremble got even four offensive moves in, one of which was an eye rake; the Immortals came out stomping down to ringside while Lemmy was still blaring, and the Revenant went after the outside men.  Inside the ring, Einherjar treated the former QCW & World TV champ like he was a speed bag much to the delight of the crowd.  On the outside, the Revenant managed to matador Bobby Bash into Ted Holland then took the Great American down and out with a chokeslam into the apron, the Revenant looming over the fallen Bash and smiling evilly as Einherjar wrapped things up by battering Tremble for the better part of a minute with forearm strikes, then crisp knee strikes, then a troika of urakens set up a vortex backbreaker that advanced Einherjar into the title match at the PPV.  ** ½ 

After the replays fired off, Einherjar joined Stahl, Fade and Vuitton in the graphic for the ladder match to determine the QCW World Television champion at Cold As Hell - announce mentioning it was possible that after next week, the Revenant would be joining him in that ladder match.

Before we hit some commercials a stinger rolled out highlighting Jacques Krieger arriving in QCW by way of Atlantic City and laying fools out in under a minute, usually less than half of one - we heard the announce marvel over his fast wins - see him getting his hand raised and quickly heading to the back afterwards - the crowds are cheering for him, but he's still an island upon himself:

 K R I E G E R

| • Pyotr Caviar (w/the International Workrate Consortium) d. "The Fury" Jim Jaspers (w/"the Proper King" Richard Windsor) • | In the early moments of the match the announce clued the newer viewers in as to the IWC being a tentpole of the modern era in QCW with Windsor’s place being taken in the Consortium (at least in part) by Caviar and them being always at odds with Jaspers.

Jaspers put up the fight you knew he would, but simple math and physics reared their ugly heads; Caviar not only caught Jaspers’ finisher Fury Road coming in but turned the running knee into an absolutely vicious elevated powerbomb.  Jaspers managed to kick out of that around 2 ¾ but for obvious reasons wasn't a threat to the bigger man after barely surviving the powerbomb.  Caviar opened up the throttle on Jaspers, and after a Russian sickle/lariat crumpled the Fury like a beer can Caviar delivered Hit My Music on Jim and pinned him for the IWC W.  *** 

Post match, Caviar making fun of the fallen Jaspers drew Windsor in a beeline to throw hands at the Tracksuit Tsar.  Even without Rich Ward willingly participating, the Consortium had a four on two advantage over their longtime rivals in the Proper Villains and put a beating on them that only stopped after Team Teal security came out to finally save Jaspers & Windsor from hospital visits and the referee of record threatened to overturn the match.  

While the medical staff checked on the Fury and the Proper King in-ring, the announce put over Caviar as a land monster and used that to segue into next week (for some reason Danny Castle was walking through the shot behind them in the concourse holding a THE END WILL COME sign):

🌟 In one of next week's World TV title qualifiers, Caviar will face off against Lucius Patton from the College Park Family🌟

🌟 The other World TV title qualifier will see the Revenant of the Immortals go up against "Dark Mirror" Beckett Carpenter of the Game Changers 🌟

🌟 And in a non-title main event fight, Mason "Razorblade" Savage will be up against the International Workrate Consortium's possible future World TV Champion, Anton "Teknik" Stahl 🌟

All that with another major announcement to come from the Commissioner's Office and more on GRPL+ next Friday night, but this one still has a title match left before we put it to bed – we went TOTHEBACK~! where Enya Face was standing by with the new Unified World Tag Team champions the Insurgency.  

Enya Face welcomed the new champions, who were roundly jeered (a third of the crowd is gone and probably never coming back).  Enya asked if they heard what the Hard Way had to say earlier and what they are going to do to hold onto their newly won tag titles.  Enya rolled her eyes and put the mic out towards Naz so he could hog it, but he let out something that most closely resembled a screech before skulking further back in the shot.  Super Avión looked back for a second, then came closer to Enya and said Naz is ready to go for the fight tonight.  Avión's the only one around here with the cojones to say it but the Hard Way are washed.

Up.

Cute little dogs that belong in an attractive woman's purse.  Not nothing…it's that they used to be something – in fact, they were tag champs once, no?  But they weren't UNIFIED TAG champions…and they didn't have the talent to pull it off in their first match together as a team.  End of the day, the Insurgency was going to be all over GRPL+ showing you pinche gringos what the gold standard in wrestling was going to be for 2023, 2024, 2043 and all the rest AND looking good while doing it.  And as for Na – el-Fadal walked past Avión and out of the shot and presumably the locker room.  Avión spared a look back at Enya and gathered up his half of the belts before yelling behind the former World Champion to wait up for him.

| • | • the main event • | • |

When Nate Dogg sang “Oh, no / players ain’t scared to hustle” the Tron parted and Naz looked at it as if he was a grandpa and it was a TikTok account while Avión ran out past him and pulled up, rocking to the beat of the song.  Naz came into the Arena then got jolted when a bunch of gold pyro exploded behind them and cascaded down, Avión laughing with his arms outstretched and his share of the belts up in the air while Naz looked around the new set as if he expected to get jumped.  The Insurgency hit the ring and Avión posed on the buckles while Naz sat on an opposite side turnbuckle and looked towards the entryway.

“Buried Alive” from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Dr. Octagon brought out the Hard Way to a good pop, Fifita and Goodish marching to the ring in their own right and getting right in the champions faces (well, Avión’s – Naz remained seated in a neutral corner).  They killed the lights and spotlighted the ring while Duck made the introductions, Naz only coming to life when the champions were announced, making sure to get right next to Duck and glare him down to non-verbally remind him of how he got the mask on his face; Eko made a nervous if accurate announcement to get the fans booing and Naz to back up a couple of steps.  The bell rang and Naz ceded the ring to the fired up Avión, who asked him a question; while el-Fadal nodded, once the match began he wiped his eyes and then laid his head down on the buckle almost as if he was a schoolchild falling asleep at their desk.

Avión held his own against Fifita early and made sure to crow about it when he had the upper hand, but after showing off some of his lucha libre Fifita dodged a couple of moves and landed a vicious running back elbow to slow him down.  From there, it looked like it was going to be the Hard Way’s night, finally – the former tag champions showed why they’d been the gold standard of QCW’s recent past by employing some double teams, quick tags, and keeping Avión on their side of the ring.  At one point while this was going on, Naz tired of resting and sat on the steps, not even facing the match and glaring at the announce and Duck.  Starr made a crack that if he could distract Naz by just doing commentary that maybe he’d lose the belts tonight and we wouldn’t have to hear another word out of his rotten mouth ever again.  

In the ring, however, Avión was starting to wear down, pushed by a series of Hard Way nearfalls and absolutely no help from his ostensible partner.  In fact, it looked like the former champions were setting up for Down to Earth to win back tag titles when Avión essentially saved himself with a counter – spiking Goodish with a rewind rana before dropkicking the incoming Fifita down, and crawling for his corner.  Naz looked on passively as Avión got close, pulled himself up with the ropes – then slapped Naz across the face to the shock of everyone and the delight of most.  

“¡HELP ME, PENDEJO!” yelled Avión, and even if you don’t speak Spanish, you get the gist if I had to guess. 

Naz rubbed his jaw and slowly entered the ring while the crowd waited, but once they were done waiting they probably didn’t like what they got – a snarling el-Fadal running wild with his staples like the Sudden Death/Sling Blade Flatliner but also some new tricks up his sleeve like a hiptoss into a Michinoku Driver and some brutal Saito suplexes.  Fifita saved Goodish and dragged him towards his corner before tagging himself in, but Fifta got immediately laid out with a chop block off the ropes from el-Fadal, and things didn’t improve from there.  A sadistic former World Champ picked apart Paul with a couple more chop blocks, shinbreakers and even a ringpost figure four before locking in his rarely seen Black Lotus cobra clutch STF.  Goodish came in for a save, but Avión duffed him up afterwards and spiked him with a running up the ropes tornado DDT.  Naz looked up at Avión but then reapplied the Black Lotus, with Avión starting to shove Goodish out of the ring.  The referee made Avión get back on the apron at 5, just in time for Naz to tag him in with a hard chop to the chest.  Avión looked askance at it, but ultimately it didn’t matter – Naz threw the Outsider’s Edge into Avión’s Backstabber, and Goodish was stirring before the zebra got to three but couldn’t save his partner.  ***

| • the Insurgency (Super Avión & Nazir el-Fadal) [c] d. the Hard Way to retain the QCW Unified World Tag Team championships • |

The crowd deflated as Duck reluctantly announced the #AndStill Unified Tag Team champions, but Naz got in Avión’s face after the belts were handed back to him before wheeling on him without a word and started to leave the ring.

Cue “New Born”?!

The crowd popped huge for the arrival of the former Unified World Tag Team champions the Game Changers as they emerged from out of the Tron and stood on the rampway looking down towards the new team they lost to at the Season’s Beatings PPV last month..  All three of them (“Tiki God” Al Buffett/“Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter / Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo) stared down their longtime rival el-Fadal, all their faces stony seeing Naz with their old belt.  Avión got to the ropes closest to the ring and where Naz was on the ramp and started yelling Spanglish at the Changers as well, willing to fight if they felt froggy.  Naz looked up the ramp at his challengers…then back into the ring with his partner smacktalking the ex-champs.  The show ended with el-Fadal’s eyes narrowing and still surveying the scene - as usual, looking out for #1.

QCW Ruckus [s2e11 • December 30, 2022]

The last Ruckus of the year (and before the network promotion coming next week) was the first one since Season's Beatings went in the books.

So stills of another Jacques Krieger sprint and Jason the Terrible costing his Wonderful brother Rich a match against "These Hands" Roy Fade in the preshow matches turned into brief video clips of the main card:

 

Einherjar sprinting out of the Arena due to a death in the family and the Revenant going to support him meant that Jupiter Jones got his 10th decision even if by forfeit - Jones expressing condolences before saying that since cards were subject to change, that he would be cashing in tonight against Naz and trying to regain the World championship - the aforementioned Naz teaming up with Super Avión and looking out at the Greensboro crowd with the level of contempt you'd expect - the Game Changers came out with the Unified World Tag Team championships to a huge pop - Avión and Carpenter fighting it out - Buffett going full throttle at Naz - Naz having to tag Avión back in and the Insurgency landing a combination Outsider's Edge and Backstabber on Tiki God to win the belts, el-Fadal tackling Avión after the pinfall - the Game Changers looking sad in the ring and trying to help Al out while the Insurgency celebrated on the ramp with the championships • • Naz big timing Mason "Razorblade" Savage in the back ahead of Savage's fight against Pyotr Caviar, showing off the Unified World Tag Team championship and the World title until Razorblade headbutted two months off his life and there was much rejoicing •• the Red, White and True looking happy coming down to ringside, Drake Tremble waving to his fellow January 6th conspirators fans - the Hard Way coming out grim faced as usual, occasionally slapping a ringside fan's hand - the former champs doing better than worse against "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland - "Great American" Bobby Bash providing a timely distraction to allow Holland and Tremble the chance to sneak attack John Goodish behind the ref's back - Tremble sneering when he had the upper hand - Goodish landing an avalanche overhead belly to belly to save the match for his squad – Paul Fifita going on a tear and the Hard Way laying out Bash on the outside before dropping Holland Down to Earth and securing the W, both of them saying to a cameraman that they weren't going to stop until they were holding the tag team titles once again •• the International Workrate Consortium on the floor flanking a sneering Pyotr Caviar in the ring for the impromptu lumberjack match - Katsuji Ootsuka and the Proper Villains pacing on the floor but allowing room for Mason Savage to get in the ring and get in Pyotr's face - the Tracksuit Tsar getting the upper hand and putting the badmouth on Razorblade - Razorblade reversing the tides and yelling at Pyotr that he was going to enjoy this beatdown - Caviar using his power to send Savage to the outside - hey, guess what, the Consortium got in some shots on Savage – hey, guess what, Ootsuka & the Villains ain't like that – like, it's the first QCW PPV in Greensboro, the 45th Amendment clearly states there must be a bunkhouse match with plenty of clubberin' - Savage maybe gassing the rookie a little bit – hitting the Soul Crusher?  Oh, yeah, that's why you have s l o w m o and a big screen - Razorblade's extent of posing on the turnbuckles being to make A Familiar Gesture around his waist •• OnlyFitness coming out ahead of the Women's World Championship match, Karyn giving Lolo a kiss good luck that lesbihonest got a little friendly - Autumn Powers coming to the ring as QCW's longest reigning champion with the fans solidly behind her - Lolo and Autumn running into each other, neither budging, and staring each other down - Lolo using her power to get ahead - Autumn fighting out from under, starting to match then get ahead of the #1 contender - cue OnlyFitness running interference - and Autumn got swallowed up by the numbers - Lolo sniping Autumn with the Bloody Shoe and winning back the Women's World Championship, then Lolo going for a kiss with the belt in hand but Karyn kinda snubbed her for some reason •• Jupiter Jones coming out for the main event and looking focused on winning the World title - Nazir el-Fadal with the 13 Pounds of Gold coming out - Surprise #1: "Unscripted Violence" bringing back Mason Savage before - Surprise #2: Commissioner Holmes coming out to make the main event a triple threat match for the World title - a furious el-Fadal had words with the Commissioner, most of which get children's ears covered – Naz tried to lay down to get Jupiter and Razorblade to fight but they didn't take the bait – Naz tried to get counted out, at which point the Commissioner made it a falls count anywhere match - Naz got busted open, whooped on and ate a Bolt From Olympus but it was a Soul Crusher that won the fight and helped Razorblade regain the World title - Holmes and Duck exchanged fist bumps as Jupiter and Razorblade shook hands - the show ended with el-Fadal and Savage next to each other in the ring where snow had started to fall, both on their backs, Naz bloodied and barely moving, Savage raspily laughing while he made snow angels next to his Lucky 13

Inside the Arena, Duck Eko couldn't hide his smile as he stood in the ring and asked that at this time we help him welcome the newwwwww QCW World Heavyweight Champion: Mason "Razorblade" Savage!

"Unscripted Violence" blasted out over the PA, and out came the now two time World champ to the sort of ovation reserved for award winners at Cannes.  Savage stomped down to the ring in a Blackhawks jersey and black jeans with a small smile on his face, and when he got to the ring apron he held up the 13 Pounds of Gold with pride, the Quality Controllers roaring and snapping shots on their phones.  Once he got the mic from Duck, Savage proved in short order that while this was going to be a different title reign, the same Razorblade was running QCW.

"I’m gonna keep this short an' sweet– When I lost this title a few months ago?

I’m not gonna lie, I was a little lost.

I had the QCW title for so long at that point I had almost forgotten what it was like to not be champion. To say the least, it was humbling losing it. And losing it to someone like Naz, well…

Well, it, uh…it made me think I might be all washed up at this. Then while I was away I had some sense knocked into me by a good friend and I realized it. I realized I only needed one thing to motivate me enough to get that belt back, and that is all you QCW faithful out there.'

Of course Starr grumbled a little over the Foley pop, but The Champ Once Again was actually almost done.

"I knew that with your continuing and undying support it would only be a matter of time before I found my way back to Naz and beat him to within an inch of his life to take back what is mine. 

Now that that has happened, there’s only one thing on my mind, and that is some sweet unadulterated violence with gold on the line. So if you want a shot at the champ?

 Just step right into this ring and you too can find out why everybody bleeds." 

Razorblade handed the mic off to Duck and shook his hand before standing in the middle of the ring and again raising the World Heavyweight Championship overhead only this time causing gold pyro to explode from the turnbuckles and fall from the overhead rig.

We went from seeing the celebration live in the ring to seeing it happen on a monitor backstage.  Next to that monitor, Nazir el-Fadal watched the screen with a Unified World Tag Team championship hanging loosely from his arm and almost scraping the floor.

His face was a brick wall.

The open ran after that with one major change to note: since every title changed hands at Season's Beatings the cavalcade of champions that ends the open now went Lolo Vuitton | the Insurgency | Razorblade.  

It's cold outside so light the pyro and let's Ruckus one more time in 2022.  Steve and Starr welcomed us to the show and put over The Champ once again before saying that there'd be a big announcement tonight and a fine main event of Serge Batroc vs. Jupiter Jones, but tonight's action would start with the mysterious man out of Atlantic City…

| • Jacques Krieger d. "The Analyst" Martin Williams • | Another truck job by Krieger, who won in about the time it took you to read this sentence.  Only difference is that this time Jacques not only showed off a top rope cartwheel before a spear but employed a inverted facelock swinging cutter – the Roll of the Dice came up snake eyes for Williams in 19 seconds.  DUD

Following an emerging pattern, Krieger stuck around just long enough to get his hand raised and not much else, Starr noting he was in the back before he could even hear the crowd start to chant for him.  A visibly shaken Williams had to be consoled by the referee and helped to the back though he wasn't visibly bleeding or suffering from anything besides getting housed.

The announce put over Krieger as a beast before providing an update on the World TV title, which Jupiter Jones vacated when he cashed it in for a World title shot at Season's Beatings. From the Commissioner's Office, this breaking news: the World TV title will be decided in a six way ladder match at Cold As Hell next month | year.  Starting tonight, Ruckus will have a six pack of qualifying matches with the winners advancing to the ladder match on PPV.  Tonight's qualifiers will see "Tiki God" Al Buffett taking on two time former champion "These Hands" Roy Fade and the new (and now two time) Women's World Champion Lolo Vuitton facing off against former TV champ Katsuji Ootsuka.

Speaking of Al, he was on the floor for the next fight (the first one of the night that went over 20 seconds).

| • the Game Changers (Carpenter/Szabo w/Buffett) d. The Red, White and True (Bash/Holland w/Tremble) • | The former Unified World Tag Team champions were in an understandably salty mood and took it out on the stable geniuses in the RWT much to the frustrations of Drake Tremble on the floor while Al celebrated during the showcase for the ex champs.  The Changers went over in short order after making "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland eat their finisher and Face Reality.  **

Post match, a seething Beckett Carpenter cut a promo…well, I don't know if it counts as a promo if it's only a sentence, but they said: "We're getting our damn belts back.  (mic toss)" Muse's "New Born" came on over the PA and the Quality Controllers cheered for their favorite stable, with the announce noting that after the PPV they had a rematch coming and a shot at getting those championships back as promised.  We got a few shots of them acknowledging their fans as we went into the first big ad break of the evening.

Back from the break, we got a stinger for who turned out to be "Night Sky" Diana Spare, intermingling night footage of a metropolis with Spare's helping her then allies in the Forbidden Book Club rule the women's division giving way to Spare watching recent women's division developments from the Crow's Nest or the highest rafters inside the Arena and alternatively scoffing or watching things before walking off into the darkness.  In a voiceover Spare blamed herself for putting QCW and their women's division in this position before stating that her road to redemption would have to be born in the shadows - that her desire to be a champion in QCW hadn't abated even if she was on her own now - that on her watch, sooner or later, QCW would belong to the night. 

Back to the ring, where a masked Duck Eko put a little bass in his voice announcing that the following two matches would both be TV title qualifiers…

| • QCW Women's World Champion Lolo Vuitton (w/OnlyFitness) d. Katsuji Ootsuka in a World TV championship qualifier • | Lolo came out with her OnlyFitness brethren and had even more runway walk in her entrance than usual while a picture in picture showed some stills of her recapturing the Women's World Championship from Autumn Powers at Season's Beatings (with a little help from Karyn and Scott, match).  The crowd popped for the Prince of Punishment, but outside of a few fives for younger fans Katsuji was focused on the ring and trying to beat the champ in it.

This one…turned out to be a really, really good TV match.  It's bizarre, since this seemed to be kinda a random draw of a match but they had pretty good chemistry in short order - I think because of Lolo's height and Ootsuka being a pretty solid cruiserweight.  It was believable when Lolo was throwing hands and even a couple of suplexes since Ootsuka is one of the lighter roster members - likewise it was believable when Ootsuka's high flying flurry got him upper hands multiple times.  In fact, nearly 10 minutes into the match it went to commercial break after Ootsuka landed an Orihara moonsault from the ring post where the only thing missing was an in flight movie.  Starr was practically squealing and he sure wasn't alone in that.  (It's only now occurring to me that break may have been caused by the audible "HOLY SHIT!" chants that went on for quite some time after Katsuji added to his highlight reel.)

Of course, what it ended up coming down to was a simple case of math: possibly due to the pre-PPV melee with the Consortium, Ootsuka was out here solo, and when Lolo was in position for the Magical Sky Scott and Karyn did their jobs like good little simps partners; Ootsuka got racked by Karyn while Scott occupied the ref, then Lolo sniped him with a Bloody Shoe that sent him tumbling into the ring.  Karyn yelled encouragement from the floor as a second Shoe floored Katsuji; the crowd jeered the entire three count then some yelps were heard before Bodak Yellow kicked in.  ***

The announce had the reaction to this that you might expect, then a graphic added Lolo Vuitton in a space leaving five CAW outlines for the winners of the other qualifying matches to come.  Back live, Karyn not only raised Lolo's hand in victory but had Scott put the Women's World Championship around her waist.  Once he did, Karyn raised Lolo's hand again then gave her a slap on the butt in celebration.  Sure, let's go with that.  Lolo got a wicked smile on her face and bade Karyn come over to her (phrasing!) then ran a hand through her hair before turning on her heel and leaving up the ramp.  

But that only happened for a moment before she turned around and laughed having pulled a prank on her favorite couple, who both rolled their eyes but joined her on the floor in a group hug.  "Poor Katsuji," noted Starr, "you'd think getting screwed by Lolo Vuitton would be more fun!" *** 

Once Katsuji got helped out of the ring by the poor ref from his match, it was a rare TV airing of the Changing of the Referees as Duck got in the ring to announce the night's second qualifying match…

| • "These Hands" Roy Fade d. "Tiki God" Al Buffett (w/the Game Changers) in a World TV championship qualifier • | Another fun one befitting people going for the TV title (in Fade's case getting it back yet again).  Credit where it's due, Starr gave this one to Fade early and was proven correct in the end.  

But Fade got taken into deep water at Buffett's hands, and this too went nearly the 20 minute time limit as the other qualifying match did.  Fade got the upper hand early and bounced around on the balls of his feet, taunting Al, the Game Changers and Quality Controllers alike as he did.  Fade stayed in control for a couple of minutes after that, only to get surprised by a desperate Buffett spear that sent them both flying through the ropes and tumbling out to the floor.  

Al took a hard fall in the process, but was able to matador away Fade's subsequent charge and left These Hands eating the steps.  The crowd began to fire up with increasingly loud Tiki God! chants as Al started to gain then expand his lead, with the rest of the former Unified World Tag Team champions rooting him on from the floor.  

Buffett started pressing Fade for nearfalls and looked to have things nearly put away but when he went for his Inner Strength Roy raked his eyes before spilling out to the apron and then the floor.  Al regained his equilibrium and refocused to fly off and attack Fade on the floor…but the crafty ex-champ pulled Beckett and Ashley into the line of fire with him and they took the brunt of the tope con hilo.  With Al disoriented and confused, Fade snuck up on him and ran him into the ring post, then tossed the Tiki God in the ring and dropped him with the Decision.  Shady-ass wins; it's what Roy Fade does.  ***

Replays fired off then Roy got added to the Cold As Hell ladder match graphic while Starr put over the first two people in the fight being a current champion and the most decorated former TV champ QCW had. As Fade celebrated on his way to the back, "Dashing" Pierce Moore came out for his scheduled match.  He and Fade exchanged wary looks before Fade disappeared behind the curtain and Moore began to cut a blistering promo on the beloved Tiki God.  

Moore ran down Buffett for losing the qualifier just like he lost at Black and Blue Friday, then pivoted to wondering how many more chances Al's ugly mug was going to get in a place called Quality Championship Wrestling – if these people truly desired quality action and wanted to root for a future champion, they would need look no further than his exhibition forthwith.

| • "Dashing" Pierce Moore d. Atum Pharaoh • | Moore did live up to his promise of winning the match but the always game Pharaoh made him sweat to get there and almost notched his first victory in QCW.  The fight actually went two segments and featured a cheering Arena going into the break with Atum having the upper hand.  But Moore used some shady tactics to get the advantage back and eventually drilled the rookie with his Fresh To Death cutter…only for Pharaoh to manage to sneak his foot onto the bottom rope at 2 ¾.  Moore complained about it to the ref, but when a groggy Atum almost got himself vertical Moore drilled him with a second Fresh To Death and secured the W.  **

Moore checked his jaw but celebrated his victory.  Then ahead of the main event, the announce hyped up the big matches coming up on the first episode of Ruckus on GRPL+ next year | week:

🌟 Two more TV title qualifying matches will take place - one featuring a revisited Consortium Especiale when Serge Batroc faces off with Anton Stahl and the other featuring the returning Einherjar of the Immortals going up against former TV champion "the Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble 🌟

🌟 And in the main event, the Hard Way try to capture the Unified World Tag Team championships from the newly minted champions Super Avión and Nazir el-Fadal, the Insurgency in their first titles defense 🌟

But that's a week and a new year from now; right now there's a #1 contenders match and the dulcet tones of Rammstein's Engel to wade through…

| • | • the main event • | • |

| • Jupiter Jones (w/the College Park Family) d. "The French Assassin" Serge Batroc (w/the International Workrate Consortium) • | The Consortium took up formation in the ring as the crowd ovated for the mainstays of the College Park Family.  Jones came out focused on the ring, and once they hit the ring the crowd started buzzing over the sniping between the IWC and the Family.

But they didn't start to really pop until "Unscripted Violence" hit the system and Mason Savage came out from the back in civvies with the 13 Pounds of Gold over a shoulder, on his way to provide color commentary for the main event between two of QCW's best.  After exchanging greetings with commentary, Starr asked The New(ish) Champ what brought him out to the desk and he put over Jupiter's career renaissance and recent hot streak as the former TV champ.  The opening stretch of the match saw Jupiter catch Serge off guard by matching the Duquesne Cup holder on the mat, and Serge had to feint a clean break into a European uppercut to gain the upper hand.  The crowd booed this as Serge stared down Razorblade before going to work on Jupiter with an array of holds that showed off his mat skills.  

At one point Serge had Jones tied up in a full nelson camel clutch (!) while sneering at Savage; the Family started to get the Quality Controllers fired up to fire up the former QCW champion and get out from under to catch a spark and ignite a comeback.  Mason noted as Jupiter started throwing hands that Jones' connection to the fans was something else, and he knew a little something about the feeling of them having your back no matter what.  

As Jupiter staple gunned a comeback together, Steve mentioned how uncanny it was that it was almost 2023 and Jupiter Jones was still on the top floor when it came to QCW's roster.  Almost on cue, Jones rocked the ring with a Bass Drop lifted from his partner that almost got him the duke and had the Consortium shook on the floor.

Serge was crafty and hung in the from that point, but Jupiter steadily took the measure of the match and seemed to have things wrapped up with a bone rattling Bolt From Olympus…only for Anton Stahl to sneak Serge's foot under the bottom rope and draw the referee's attention to it and save the match.  This understandably pissed off the Family, who started exchanging words with the IWC.  As these things tend to go, words turned into threats turned into brawling, the crowd roaring and chanting Collipark!  as the fists flew.  At one point it looked like Anton "Teknik" Stahl was going to end up in the ring to help Serge steal a win, but "the Wonderful" Rich Ward tripped over one of the notorious ringside invisible potholes and almost accidentally* sent Anton careening into Serge.  Who did so on purpose, sending Serge info Anton.  Stahl flew out of the ring and Batroc into the waiting arms of a snap German suplex – Jones followed that up with the Bolt From Olympus and put another W in his books.  *** ½

After replays, we could see the Family hold the high ground in the ring while the Consortium alternated between moping and shit talking at Rich.  The crowd buzzed as Razorblade entered the ring, but Savage merely hoisted the title higher up on his shoulder before offering a handshake to Jupiter, who accepted it readily to the cheers of the Quality Controllers.

Despite a barn burner main event, Ruckus ended with some footage of QCW's latest and greatest moments interspersed with footage of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the like – followed by a bunch of fake snow falling over QCW footage, followed by a bunch of Hollywood landmarks and fake snow to hype up the fact that Cold As Hell will be coming from the Hollywood Palladium with tickets going on sale Monday at noon PST/3 EST.   If you're thinking about going and you've never been to the Palladium for a show, do it.  Ruckus wrapped up with some highlights of The Champ Razorblade and went off the air with more hype for QCW going Hollywood quicker than certain other competitors; we'll see you next week on GRPL+ for the first Ruckus of 2023!