GRPL+ Presents QCW Ruckus [s2e21 • March 10, 2023]

 LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:

• The underlings of the International Workrate Consortium interrupted Autumn Powers during a promo and laid her out

• The Wonderful Ward Brothers won a four corner fight to earn a Unified World Tag titles shot at Golden Rule

• The Revenant introduced Katsuji Ootsuka to his red right hand and retained the GRPL+ World TV title 

Roll the open and spark the pyro - where would you rather be on a Friday night than inside the Arena with a few hundred screaming fans alongside Steve Vandeblanche and S. Mark Starr?  They hyped the Rev/Avión TV title main event and the champion v. champion Golden Rule appetizer between El Vengador de Gente Jr. from Lucha Salvaje and Evan O'Neill out of Evergreen Wrestling League – but tonight's action would start off with a make good from last week.  

And unfortunately that meant we were kicking things off with Stranglehold, Drake Tremble, and the Red, White and True.  Tremble actually dismissed his underlings and let out a few laughs as he got into the ring and riled up the faithful.  Beckett Carpenter completely shifted the tenor in the building and they came out with a laser focus on Tremble in the ring.  GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week this match that should've happened didn't because "Dashing" Piece Moore planted "Dark Mirror" into the ramp twice with the Fresh To Death.  Carpenter got in the ring and immediately got in Tremble's face…but all he did was smirk in response.

| • "Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter ds. "The Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble (w/the Red, White and True) • | But very soon, he wouldn't be smirking; he would be tapping out to Look Inward.

A pissed off Beckett got out to a hot start and soon had him on his heels.  Even bailing out on the match didn't happen, which is when Tremble called his goons back out.  Carpenter took the high ground in the ring and Tremble huddled up.  Then all three of them got on the apron and surrounded Dark Mirror.  The crowd started to murmur but then popped as the Hard Way ran down to ringside and cleared Bobby Bash and Ted Holland from the periphery and started to brawl with them on the floor (revenge for a recent best down suffered at their and Tremble's hands).  Tremble took his eye off the ball due to his boys getting beat down on the outside and Carpenter was quick to seize the opportunity and spent the next few minutes hurting Tremble.

There was much rejoicing.

The close of the match saw Carpenter string together a punishing combo platter: a straightjacket tranquilized Tremble to the point where Carpenter then launched almost a half minute's worth of hammer and anvil elbows that set up the Look Inward and Tremble's sad, feeble tap out.  ** ½

After replays, Carpenter spoke directly without a microphone to a camera and pointed behind themselves to where Tremble was living up to his surname and said that if PKO could find his way to the PNW next Sunday, then Carpenter would give them the full Tremble.  Looking Inward isn't a thing you can run from, at least not for long.  Trust them.

We went from Carpenter's challenge TOTHEBACK~!  where Enya Face brought on Autumn Powers to a big pop.  Autumn apologized to Enya but said she was pissed off and not so much in the mood for talking, but she'd talk about a fight she wanted: against Serge.  At Golden Rule. 

Serge might have a bunch of sycophants but it doesn't disguise the fact that between he and her she's the one with the bigger set, because when she won her championships she did it on her own.  So it's perfect that if he accepts her Golden Rule challenge, she'll show him the difference between what it's like to fight like a champion against fighting like a coward.  Powers stomped off after that to a big pop and we went back to the ring.

| • Nazir el-Fadal d. “Tiki God” Al Buffett (w/Ashley “THEE Influencer” Szabo • |  Really good TV match here between the longtime rivals, and a rematch of a Black Friday fight where Naz was World Champ & Al had a shot at Lucky 13 (the match where Duck interfered and almost cost Naz the belt).  Al again got close to beating Naz but in the end the Grand Slam winner narrowly won – it still took him three (!) segments and most of the time limit to do so.  

Al actually charged Naz at the bell and had him reeling in the opening couple minutes laying in shots to the point where el-Fadal was covering up in the corner and had his head between the ropes to force a break.  That bought him a couple of seconds but Al continued the good work, at least until Naz surprised him by following him into the ropes.  Al came to an empty ring and when he turned around the One Man Jihad surprised him with the Sudden Death Slingblade/Flatliner combo and took him down.

Naz was especially sadistic in his offense, repeatedly rubbing Al’s face in the mat or paintbrushing him, and those were light offenses compared to the rabbit forearms or the especially tight Saito suplex that almost got him a victory in what turned out to be the opening half of the fight.  Ashley tried to rally Al from the floor but Naz kicked the ropes by where she was to further antagonize the Game Changers.  el-Fadal continued grinding down Buffett as Szabo got the crowd into it and Al briefly got out from under; Nazir pulled Buffett’s hair and then hiptossed him into a Michinoku Driver (!) but Al kicked out at 2 ½.

After a couple of more high impact moves, Naz started to try to lock in the Black Lotus, but Al first kicked away Naz’s cobra clutch STF then back elbowed out of it when Naz tried a follow up.  Al managed to stick and move for a time to build his strength back up, then it was his turn to catch Naz off the ropes with a surprising Spanish Fly that hit a reset button on the match with both men down.

Naz beat Al to his feet and moved in for the kill only to be suddenly laid out by a textbook dropkick from Al, and for a while after that it certainly looked like it was going to be Al’s night as he threw the kitchen sink at Naz to bigger and bigger pops, at one point before a commercial break landing a second rope Spanish Fly that got him 2 ¾.  Buffett continued the attack and it looked like he had Naz set up for the Inner Strength that would secure him the victory, but Naz not only reversed out – he slipped behind Al and then ended things emphatically with an avalanche Saito suplex chant that would’ve gotten louder “Holy shit!” chants had Naz not been able to recover relatively quickly to cover and win the bout.  Bumping this one up a bit for the finish.  *** ½

Not content to take his victory and leave, Naz immediately continued hammering Al a bit more after the bell and went to apply the Black Lotus on him, but when Ashley slid in the ring with Duck’s chair Naz released the hold and bailed from the ring, staring blank faced at the yelling Szabo.  Ashley and the ref checked on Al while Naz put on his chain with Crusazdo del Oro’s mask on it and held it up as a warning – maybe to the Game Changers, and probably for Super Avión.  el-Fadal headed to the back under a sea of boos while the announce begrudgingly put over his leaner look and somehow even more sadistic moveset.

From there, we got a This Week In QCW History segment; on March 4th, 1960, construction on the Qualitorium (the original Quality Arena) was completed.  Back to Duck in the ring, who put special gusto in announcing a QWIC showcase champion v. champion match.  

| • El Vengador de Gente Jr. ddq. “Off Book” Evan O’Neill in a non-title match • | Wasn't even actually a match - O'Neill stalled and bailed a couple of times, the ref finally got him into the ring, then O'Neill baited Vengador into going for a test of strength and promptly punted him in the balls.  DUD, but this was clearly leading to post match shenanigans anyway; O'Neill shoved Duck down & took his chair, than waffled Vengador a couple of times with it.  He added a couple of more shots across the back, then opened the chair across the luchadore's neck to pin him down and cut a promo.  

Much like his stinger, O'Neill took a few more shots at Vengador but saved his vitriol for Florida compared to Portland (understandable), QCW (hey wait a minute buddy), and Razorblade (offense!).  O'Neill said that Savage should be in line at the Dollar General with the rest of this Florida trash, not holding a major wrestling championship…of course, after Golden Rule he wouldn't be.  O'Neill's been calling him out for weeks, but he doesn't have anything to say when the Oracle of Off Book is preaching the gospel in his so-called ring?!  And you idiots call that a champion?

Lights off.

You could hear the buzz in the crowd grow.

Lights on.

Hi, Champ!

The lights came on to show Evan O'Neill standing face to face with Mason Savage, but that only lasted a second before The Champ started throwing hands, knocking the Evergreen Wrestling League's champ on his heels and eventually on his ass.  Savage wheeled around for the chair and went to do further damage, but O'Neill had already bailed out and taken the EWL title with him to higher ground.  Razorblade and the ref checked on a recovering Vengador as Unscripted Violence came on over the PA much to the joy of the Quality Controllers and the seething fury of O'Neill.

We got a stinger for the Women's World Champion, Lolo Vuitton.  Since regaining the gold at Season's Beatings she's been dominating the division, and reminding everyone that she runs this.  A couple of appearances by Karyn in this but Ruckus became The Lolo Vuitton Show for a minute and a half.  The stinger ended with Lolo laying down two facts:

1. Next week's show should be about her instead of some dumb ol' leprechauns, so she'll be in the Arena to get her love and respect

2. At Golden Rule she's putting her title on the line in another open challenge, but it'll end the same way the last one did - strut in champ, secure the bag…and strut out as the champ.  You know, because she runs this.

| •  Jason the Terrible (w/"the Wonderful" Rich Ward) dodq. Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo (w/"Tiki God" Al Buffett) • | Over the past few weeks the Wards have been rising to Serge's titles-or-ejection challenge and find themselves after last week's show the #1 contenders to the belts held by Szabo and Buffett.  

Jason actually didn't cheat in this one, bizarrely enough, but things got chippy a few minutes in to the point where it looked like both Al and Rich were going to jump in the ring but saw the other one listen to the referee and stay on the floor.  Ward controlled the opening minutes but the former Unified World Tag champ probably took the back two thirds after the commercials and punctuated matters with a Smash That Subscribe Button yet Ward managed to get his foot under the bottom rope.  But Rich had to call the referee's attention to it, and it barely came in under the wire.  This back and forth continued for a while, with Al and Rich jawing back and forth around the corner from each other.  

Jason got increasingly desperate at one point and rolled up Szabo then leveraged that into his feet onto the ropes; he did on the side of the ring where Al was and Buffett undercut Ward's legs to break up the pinfall.  That got Rich in the ring to complain to the ref and Al wasn't far behind him.  Words turned into shoves on both sides and that didn't take long to elevate into a Pier 4 brawl.  The referee tried to break one up only to catch a back elbow from Jason; when the zebra accidentally backed into Buffet's back both men turned around but Al was the only one who threw a punch.  The zebra went down in a heap, and Al cringed upon realizing his mistake.  But the brawl rolled on for a while after that until the bell rang repeatedly.  We saw the referee on the floor relay news to Duck, who announced the disqualification of both sides to boos from the crowd.  **

The crowd didn't like it and the wrestlers didn't either, all four of them temporarily ceasing their fisticuffs to complain but the referee didn't budge from their position and left the area to continued complaining from all sides.

After that, the announce threw to a stinger hyping up the imminent return of two time former World TV Champ "These Hands" Roy Fade.  Highlights of Fade working on his Golden Gloved punches interspersed with highlights of him hitting the Decision - a smile giving way to a snarl - Fade holding that version of the TV title over his head - repeatedly hitting the Decision and getting his hand raised - Fade rehabbing his shoulder – Fade glaring down the camera before we saw:

THESE HANDS AIN'T DONE YET.

| • the Hard Way ddq. the Red, White and True (w/"the Voice of Freedom" Drake Tremble) • | We returned to the ring with the semi main in tag action, with two of the teams that cost each other the #1 contenders match last week and since they aren't fighting for the belts at Golden Rule they fought each other here.  Good TV match that had the former champs ahead on points for most of it, but when they went to seal the deal for the win with Down to Earth?

Tremble hit the ring, getting his charges intentionally DQed.  **

Obviously this was a "lose the battle, win the war" situation for the cosplaytriots, who then spent the next couple of minutes laying out the former tag champs until some of the rest of the referee corps came out to break things up.  Crowd booed and Drake mockingly booed them right back between stomps.  Eventually they got shooed away so the medical staff could check on Fifita and Goodish, who looked more pissed off than hurt.  Making his way to the back, Tremble was ranting that no matter what you saw earlier, he wouldn't ever look inward.  Do tell.  The announce threw to commercials after hyping up the main event coming up.

Back from commercials TOTHEBACK~! where Julius Duquesne III was just outside the medical bay with El Vengador de Gente Jr. and in a mild surprise, Mason "Razorblade" Savage.  Vengador thanked Razorblade for his save earlier and apologized, saying he knew O'Neill wasn't an honorable man but he had no idea how low he was until tonight.  Razorblade waved off the apology saying he didn't need to be sorry and the only thing Razorblade was sorry about was the fact that he couldn't wrap a chair around Mr. EWL's head.  But if Evan could actually wrestle and grow the necessary shamrocks in a week, he could grab any partner from anywhere he wanted and see the two of them in the main event next week.  Vengador looked a little surprised but mostly amped, and the two of them thanked JD3 and left.

Next week's Ruckus is the go home for Golden Rule, but there will be plenty of fireworks before we hit the PPV factory…

✨ The last show before the biggest PPV in QCW history needs one last big main event fight, and we just saw the challenge get made: Razorblade will team with El Vengador de Gente Jr. and they're bringing their belts into the fight against Evergreen Wrestling League's champ "Off Book" Evan O'Neill and a mystery partner of his choice (assuming he can get one) ✨

✨ Super Avión and Nazir el-Fadal will participate in the longest tradition of QCW's modern age - Pick Your Poison.  Who'll get to make the stipulation of their Golden Rule fight…and what happens to Naz's plans if Avión finds a way to bring the GRPL+ World TV championship into St. Ruckus' Day? ✨

Hey, speaking of which…

| | • the main event • | |

Avión came out to Aces High and a good response from the crowd.  As he made his way to the ring Starr noted that he was on a roll in his singles career, but rolls tended to come to a dead stop…and then again, a rolling blackout.

"Killed By Death".

A cold blue spotlight fell on the stage to the roars of the crowd, and the World TV champ stomped down the aisle with his title slung over his shoulder like a satchel.  He greeted Avión with his black tongued grin and roared as he put the belt in the air, but the luchadore's eyes went up to the belt instead of his opponents.  Duck announced the time limit and made the intros with Avión remaining focused on the belt and not the…we'll, man is technically accurate but is a little underwhelming here, yunno?

| • the Revenant [c] d. Super Avión to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship 7️⃣ • | Give Avión all the credit in the world; outside of Katsuji (and your mileage may vary here) Avión put up the biggest roadblock to the Rev making it to 10 defenses and a cash in.  He attacked right after the bell and actually managed to get the Revenant down a few times.

When his double springboard huracanrana connected, Avión followed up with a quick cover.  

The Rev bench pressed him off at 2.

Avión went for some more high flying offense, but a red right hand altered his trajectory and possibly shaved a few days off of his life.  And one thing about the Rev: once he gets a lead, you're killing time until he wins.  Avión got in a couple late kickouts and even his foot on the ropes at 2 ⅞…

…so the Rev allowed a small look of respect and a little grin.   Then he picked up Avión in a goozle and put an end to things.

Chokeslam.

Chokeslam II.

Chokeslam III.

It would be Chokeslam the Fourth that ended things by his Red Right Hand, Starr noting during the three count that he was coming up on two straight months as GRPL+ World TV Champ without a single opponent to date seeing what the second half of the time limit looked like.  Oof.  Ta.  **

Replays fired off and we came back to the Rev positioning the belt on his shoulder and walking up the ramp, Starr noting we were at 7 down with 3 to go before a buzz grew in the crowd.

Then in the ring, a camera wrapped itself around Super Avión's head – swung by Nazir el-Fadal.

The Quality Controllers booed lustily as Naz locked the Black Lotus on in the middle of the ring, smiling contentedly as he did so.  The Revenant glared into the ring but before he could possibly get moving back towards the purple shirted security came streaming down the ramp way; it took half a dozen of them to pull Naz off Avión and the hold.  el-Fadal immediately put his hands in the air and told them that he'd gotten what he came for, and crunched a couple of camera pieces under his boots as he left the ring.  He stood on the stairs and mockingly blew a couple of kisses to the fans before heading to the back as Steve and Starr reluctantly closed the show on that bummer and said they'd see us on St. Ruckus' Day(?)

GRPL+ Presents QCW Ruckus [s2e20 • March 3, 2023]

                                                                      LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:

• Super Avión promised to drive Nazir el-Fadal out of QCW

• After Jason the Terrible lost to Autumn Powers, Serge Batroc charged him and his brother Rich with capturing the Unified World Tag Team championships or getting kicked out of the IWC

• The Revenant celebrated another successful defense of the GRPL+ World Television title by turning "Dashing" Pierce Moore into a vapor

Usual open, usual pyro, and the usual suspects at the announce desk welcoming us to another edition of Ruckus live on GRPL+ from the Quality Arena, and there's going to be a big main event as the Revenant faces his toughest test as TV champ in the form of former TV champ Katsuji Ootsuka.  Not only that but there's going to be a big semi main tonight to determine who faces the Game Changers for the Unified World Tag Team championships at Golden Rule, but tonight's action kicks off with action from the women's division…

| • "Bollywood Diva" Sohla Patel d. Winter Wonderland • | Patel was in all of her haughty glory here and won a showcase against Winter, who the announce noted was struggling as a singles wrestler after the slow moving implosion of Mean Season.  Sohla threw off a tornado DDT attempt of Winter's and drilled her with a superkick; a second drove Wonderland to her knees and from there Sohla polished her off with a Falcon Arrow that she calls the Ninth Incarnation. **

Patel made the referee raise her hand three times, then left in a huff after a couple of failed attempts to get the audience to give her a standing ovation.  (Seriously.) Announce mentioned that while she didn't challenge for the Women's World Championship last week she could definitely find herself in a title match with a few more wins under her belt.

Someone who already has a belt and will be bringing it to Golden Rule in the hopes of securing a bigger one is Evergreen Wrestling League's abrasive champion, the Oracle of Off-Book - Evan O'Neill, who got a stinger, and while we got to see flashes of him in EWL rings we mostly heard from the man himself.

O'Neill derided all the other champions and leagues, saying that they were only champions because they weren't in EWL with him and once they saw him, they wouldn't be champions again.  He wasn't some sorry pudgy luchador or a glorified street fighter, but the future of the business whether the suits or the dumb QCW fans liked it or not.  Everyone was losing fact of the sight that they were all coming to his backyard in Portland to do Golden Rule, a house he helped build after the Rona if we're being real honest.  Four champions walk in and they might as well crown him the Unified World champion right now.  Next week he'd be in the Arena against El Chubbo to put on a clinic and show the Florida dip[bleep]s what a real champion looked like.  They better get used to it.

| • Jacques Krieger d. Robert E. Moonshine • | Moonshine charged One Eye at the bell and walked right into a spinning backfist.  A Roll of the Dice later and Krieger had put a nine second win on the board. DUD

Krieger was almost shrugging as he got his hand raised, then he skulked to the back while the fans chanted for him.  Poor Moonshine was asking the ref if he'd won, he got knocked so loopy.  The announce promised that we'd hear from Autumn Powers after a quick break.

After commercials we came back TOTHEBACK~!, where Julius Duquesne III was standing by to bring on Autumn to a sizeable pop.  Julius asked Autumn how she was doing and she replied a hell of a lot better than Serge, who was apparently too busy losing tag title shots and his grip on the Consortium to answer her challenge.  She's been waiting weeks for an an…swer…and suddenly Pyotr Caviar was lumbering into the shot, Powers going nose to clavicle with the big Russian.  Suddenly, Autumn went down from behind thanks to a shot from Jason the Terrible, and he and Pyotr began stomping Autumn out while JD3 called for help.  Anton Stahl ran on the scene to land a few kicks if his own while a smiling Serge and a conflicted Rich Ward walked up on the beatdown.  Caviar held a struggling Autumn in place as Serge walked over…and patted her on the head twice.  

Caviar then laid Autumn out with a Russian sickle while Serge leaned over the fallen Autumn and sneered out "You're welcome." The purple shirted security got there a bit too late for Autumn, but their arrival caused the Consortium to leave (you could hear Jason's off camera cackling before we went back to more in-ring violence):

| • Karyn Tisch-Warren (w/OnlyFitness) dtko. Jane Doe • | Tisch-Warren again did her increasingly usual bit of toting around the Crush championship and trying to get the referee to make it a title match before the bell rang, but once it did she took a few minutes for her to actually get on track.  Doe’s unusual offense and mannerisms took Karyn off her game and sent her bailing out to the floor in frustration.  

When Jane came out to the floor to follow up on her lead, Scott provided a distraction by tossing Jane the hydroflask, and she seemed transfixed with all of the other visions of her she was seeing in the flask’s reflection.  Thus an opening came to fruition, and say what you will about Karyn but she’s not the sort of woman who misses opportunities.  KTW snuck up on Jane and threw her into the steps, then the barricade a couple of times.  Karyn got back into the ring and strutted a bit to boos and wolf whistles but Doe slowly got herself back into the ring and tried continuing her offense, but she came up clutching her back going for a suplex and Karyn immediately went into her backbreaker spam as a result.  Doe seemed to almost shrug off the first couple but Karyn wouldn’t be denied; despite Jane’s best efforts, Karyn locked on the Circuit Breaker.  While Doe fought in the hold and probably lasted longer in it than any other person has to date (seemed to be close to a half minute) she eventually passed out in the hold rather than tap, and the referee had to call the match for Karyn.  ** 1/2

Lolo and Scott hit the ring to join Karyn while the replays fired off, and we went from the OnlyFitness celebration TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face brought on Nazir el-Fadal much to the jeers of the crowd.  Naz asked Enya for the mic and then immediately dismissed her since she was foolish enough to give it to him.  

He said it was laughable Avión was talking about running Naz out of QCW when anyone who's watched QCW in the past 2 ½ years knows that Naz runs QCW. And part of him running QCW means running the weak out, whether it's making Benjamin Valentino a full time sidekick or making the Myth of Mayhem Double Tap out.  So a nobody luchador who couldn't get out of his own way decided to get in Naz's.  Did that work out well for him the last time he dared go to face to face with Naz or did he wake up in the hospital? So since he didn't learn from history, he was going to repeat it and worse.  Naz chillingly ended the promo by telling Avión not to worry about his future since they're doing great things with wheelchairs these days, cackling, and tossing the mic over his shoulder on his way out of the shot.

| • Super Avión d. "Great American" Bobby Bash (w/the Red, White and True) • | The biggest loser as a result of Naz’s promo actually turned out to be Bash in a weird turn of events.  Getting blown off by his ex-partner turned rival brought out a harder, more focused Avión to the ring and he sure didn’t fight like he was on the wrong end of a size disadvantage.  Bash landed a couple of early shots but Avión caught him out of nowhere with a rana off the ropes and then went after Bobby.  Right after we came back from some commercials, Bash did get some help from his buddies – Holland took a hit for Tremble and the Voice of Freedom used that to lariat Avión on the outside, but they got caught by the referee and ejected much to the delight of the Quality Controllers.  

Bash tried to go after the referee after that, only to be cut off by an Avión springboard dropkick that wobbled him and then ate a bevy of roundhouse kicks that slumped him to the mat.  But a fired up Avión didn’t let up, first grounding and pounding Bash before stomping him into the mat and letting out a roar before yelling to a hard camera that this was for Naz.  Avión managed to get Bash up and hit him with the Aces High to the shock of the announce and the joy of the crowd.  Avión counted the count along with the referee, then blew off the referee raising his hand to continue to bark at Naz via the hard cam.  **

Replays fired off while Avión stood on the buckles and fired up the faithful before stomping to the back, voicing a couple more threats to find Naz, hurt him, and drive him from QCW.  Announce hyped up Avión’s aggression being a necessary evil to fight the likes of Naz and then we went back to Duck in the ring.

We were scheduled for a Drake Tremble vs. Beckett Carpenter match, but it never came to fruition – as Carpenter came out for the match, they got jumped from behind by "Dashing" Pierce Moore, who drilled them into the ramp with a Fresh To Death and preened to boos from the crowd.  While Moore was goading the crowd Dark Mirror was beginning to stir, so the Face of QCW snatched up Beckett and drove them into the ramp again with their cutter before taking a sweeping bow over Beckett's body and heading to the back.  The medical staff checked on the former tag champ while the announce had the reactions to Moore's actions that you might expect.

With the Red, White and True already in the ring and Drake Tremble already "coaching up" his squad, we followed up with introductions for the other teams in the semi main - the Proper Villains came out to a massive reaction and were announced as ⅔ of the new Ambassadors trios champions, the Hard Way got a decent reaction and the Quality Controllers didn't know exactly what to make of the Wards based on their mixed reaction.

| • the Wonderful Ward Brothers d. the Hard Way, the Red, White and True (w/"Great American" Bobby Bash) & the Proper Villains in a Unified World Tag Team championships #1 contendership four corners fight • | And it was those same Wards who made themselves problems for the Game Changers at Golden Rule by winning here in an absolutely psychotic and great TV match.  

Down the stretch Starr was hilariously complaining that the match could have been over 10 minutes ago if it weren't for all the saves that were happening and it wasn't like he was wrong; there were a bunch of 2 ½ counts that never made it to 2 ¾ because someone was usually diving in to make a save.  

The Wards find themselves in this position due to the quick thinking of…and I can't believe I'm about to say this…Jason the Terrible.  Seeing Paul Fifita and Ted Holland down by him, Jason tagged himself in and then Rich, and they didn't use the Dynamic Express.  Rather, from a similar setup Rich flew at Holland but hit him with the Wonder Cutter.  The rest of the Consortium came down the ramp a couple of beats after it hit, drawing the attention of the other teams for a beat or two, and that was all the time Rich needed to squeak out the win and immediately bail to the floor after the 3.  ***

The other teams in and around the ring were in shock, hell, even Rich looked a little stunned as he made his way to Jason.  The Consortium met the Wards at the bottom of the ramp, except for Pyotr Caviar who grabbed a section of the steel steps and swung it at the other teams to give the rest of his squad cover.  The announce was stunned and a chyron came up for Golden Rule to make the Game Changers v. the Wonderful Ward Brothers for the Unified World Tag Team championships official.  After that we went back live, where the Consortium were posing in front of the QT9004 to a lot of boos.  Serge Batroc let them have their fun; he was pumping up the Wards while Anton was patting them on the back and nodding along to Serge's words.  Jason was nodding and tapped Rich on the shoulder in hopes that he would lean in more while Starr sarcastically noted Commissioner Holmes must be happy – he wanted the Wards to compete for the tag titles in the Unified Contenders Challenge and didn't get it, but even with their current weirdness they managed to secure the #1 contendership and may be one more decent night from securing the gold.

From there Steve gave the Wards some quick kudos before he threw to a pretape from Earlier Today featuring The Champ, Mason "Razorblade" Savage.  

Savage said he didn't expect anything less than what he got in London - for Naz to take him to war and for him to finally win it.  Doing that for the lunatics in the UK felt great, but being The Champ means you don't get a second of slowdown; now he's carrying QCW on his back once again into Golden Rule and the unification match.  He can't speak to the other champions as of yet but he knows this much: last year's Golden Rule, he became The Champ.  And through all the ups and downs the past year's thrown at him, QCW's top prize is his to hold.  So yeah, everybody bleeds, but the end of Golden Rule is going to look like a rerun…because it will end with Razorblade holding the gold no matter what anyone else can throw at him.  Savage repositioned the gold on his shoulder and walked out of the frame.

Ahead of the main event, the announce hyped up some big doings transpiring on next week's Ruckus:

✨ The winner of the main event will defend the GRPL+ World Television championship (if it's the Revenant, he's knocking on the door of being eligible to cash it in for a World title shot) ✨

✨ One half of the Unified World Tag Team champions, "Tiki God" Al Buffett will take on longtime rival and QCW's only Grand Slam champion, Nazir el-Fadal ✨

✨And in an unprecedented interpromotional champion vs. champion match, Lucha Salvaje's Campeon del Mundo El Vengador de Gente Jr. will face off against Evergreen Wrestling League's abrasive champion we had the pleasure* of meeting earlier, "Off Book" Evan O'Neill ✨

But before that we had a massive main event that ended up splitting the crowd: beloved former World TV champ Katsuji Ootsuka taking on beloved and feared current World TV champ the Revenant, already beginning to establish himself as the most dominant TV champ QCW has ever seen well before his reign looks to be anywhere near ending.

After both men got introduced by Duck and the bell rang, they had to wait out some dueling chants from the Quality Controllers.  I don't know whether or not the Revenant's handshake offer was legitimate or a dark joke, so I think Katsuji sort of no selling it to get to the fight (with a time limit in the air thanks to the belt) was the right move.

| | • the main event • | |

| • the Revenant [c] d. Katsuji Ootsuka to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship 6️⃣ • | Katsuji easily put up the longest and best fight of any of the Revenant's opponents during his title reign but in the end the Immortal reign rolled on.

The earliest moments of the match saw Katsuji trying to employ the five Ds in order to offput the Rev, who got a little more frustrated each time he couldn’t kettle Ootsuji to throttle him.  The Prince of Punishment stuck and moved for a while but eventually the Rev caught him and threw him into a corner before opening up the offense on him with body shots and back elbows before a biel sent Ootsuka ¾ of the way across the ring.  Ootsuka cringed as he melted into the mat, and the Rev wasted little time in repeating the action a couple more times to expand his lead – eventually after getting tossed Katsuji rolled out and tried to gather himself on the floor.  The Rev brushed off the ref and eventually went to stalk Katsuji on the floor, and a Jason/Laurie chase ensued.  Ootsuka eventually made it back to try and rolling inside the ring, but the Rev snatched him up by the legs and then tossed him into the barricade to a big pop from the crowd (and a bit of awed fear from the announce).  

The Revenant walked up the steps and over the top rope to break the count, then laughed at the ref and walked back to the floor to continue punishing the Prince of Punishment.  A woozy Ootsuka stumbled up and the Rev whistled a roundhouse kick that would’ve probably knocked him out had Ootsuka not ducked and the Rev kicked the hell out of the ringpost accidentally.  

Ootsuka looked worried but quickly moved to capitalize, and waved some fans aside so he could climb up the barrier and leap off with a dropkick, and a buzz began in the crowd as Katsuji’s new plan started unfolding.  Ootsuka went to work on the leg on the Revenant by banging it into the apron and then off the ringpost, even locking in a ringpost figure four (!) at one point and wearing down the bad leg for as long as the count would let him.  Steve & Scott put this over as Katsuji doing whatever it had to take to take down a bigger opponent and not as anything heelish, and Ootsuka continued to work over the leg for the next few minutes.

While the Rev didn’t look horribly injured, he was clearly at a bit of a deficit and shoved Ootsuka off, only for Katsuji to run into the ropes and come off with a basement rana driver that hit perfectly.  The Rev looked woozy but didn’t go down, so Katsui repeated it, and then a third time to finally fell the Rev.  He saw he had him in position and shook off the cobwebs before letting out a yell and going up to the top rope penthouse.  Ootsuka steadied himself on the top rope, took a deep breath and flew off with his Magical Sky shooting star avalanche elbow drop.

The former champion flew off with pinpoint precision…right into the waiting knee of the Rev, disfiguring Katsuji before the Ainu melted into the mat. The Rev eventually slowly drew himself up, slightly limping towards Ootsuka before he snatched up Katsuji in a goozle.

It wasn't quite the devastation that he delivered to Pierce Moore, but it took 3 chokeslams to lead the Rev to retaining the title via three count.  ***

Replays fired up of the back and forth match and when we came back to the ring we saw the Revenant standing proud in the middle of the ring hoisting the belt up high.  Murmurs in the crowd got loud and the Rev followed their eyes to the ramp where Einherjar was standing in front of the Qualitron 9004 with a thousand yard glare into the ring.  The Rev stepped over the top rope and draped the GRPL+ World Television title over the top turnbuckle before gesturing towards his ex partner that there was nothing between them but air and opportunity – but Einherjar just scoffed, shook his head and went to the back.  Ironically enough, that caused the Rev to scoff and shake his head himself before he put the TV title over his shoulder and raised a fist in the air.  The crowd popped and Starr put over the Rev as a World Champion in the making while Steve wrapped up the show and invited us to join QCW on GRPL+ next week as the Revenant roared and smiled his black tongued grin to take us off the air - title still proudly in hand.

GRPL+ presents QCW Ruckus [s2e19 • February 24, 2023]

LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:

• The Revenant celebrated another successful defense of the GRPL+ World Television title by defeating one of Catch Hell's finest

• Razorblade beat Nazir el-Fadal in a great main event to retain the QCW World Championship; Super Avión added injury to injury by making a triumphant return and laying Naz out

• Commissioner Holmes announced that the World Championship would join QCW's sister leagues to form a Unified World Heavyweight Championship to be decided by all four of the biggest champions at Golden Rule

We got the usual open (now with a couple of shots of Katsuji Ootsuka & the Proper Villains celebrating winning the Ambassadors trios championships last week) before we made a triumphant return to the Quality Arena and sparked the pyro.  As usual, Steve Vandeblanche and S. Mark Starr are here to help us through another Ruckus, one that’ll have another GRPL+ World TV title defense by the Revenant and an open challenge for the Women’s World Ch–

–Steve got cut off at that point by Iron Maiden’s “Aces High”, which brought out Super Avión to big cheers from the crowd.  But the nattily clad Avión made a march to ringside, where he got the mic from Duck before coming into the ring and looking out over the crowd, some of whom were chanting for him.

Avión said that after last week, it should be pretty clear why he’s back and who he’s back for.  He heard Naz wasn’t in the Arena this week, which worked out fine by him since he wasn’t in the mood to get interrupted.  Because Naz could brag all day long about his accomplishments, but the Unified World Tag Team titles were a big accomplishment to Avión as his first title in QCW.  A title that he won – hell, Naz wouldn’t be able to walk around calling himself a Grand Slam winner if it wasn’t for him! – but the moment they lose the titles Naz doesn’t even wait for the rematch and puts him in the hospital?  When Avión came to in the ICU he was pissed, and then being pissed turned into a plan.  And the plan is to make Naz regret the day he ever laid him out.  Hell, the only reason he didn’t show up sooner last week was because Razorblade was doing a lot of his work for him, and now he was in position to finish off the rest.  Because make no mistake about it, Naz made an enemy for life in Avión, and he wasn’t going to stop until he beat el-Fadal and drove him out of QCW.  Naz is such a culero Avión finds himself agreeing with Holmes about something – QCW isn’t the Naz show, and his hogging the spotlight leaves people like Avión out in the cold.  So it started last week, and it won’t end until he’s won: Avión will drive Nazir el-Fadal out of QCW, and he promised the fans as much before admitting as much as he’d love to say that he’s doing it for them, he’s doing it for him – his revenge, his moment of glory, and his proof yet again that you can put him in the ring with the best of the best…you’ll find out that he looks good and flies better.  !Viva Avión!  He handed Duck back the mic to cheers and took his leave, announce having the reaction to his intentions of driving Naz out of QCW that you’d expect (though Starr did warn Avión how tough an out Naz was).  After speculating what response Naz would have, we kicked off tonight’s in ring action.

| • Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo (w/"Tiki God" Al Buffett) d. Shelley LaVey • | Both women got introductions for the opener, LaVey looking to re-establish herself now that the Forbidden Book Club’s blown up and scattered to the four corners of the earth.  Ashley came in riding the fans’ support as well as backup from the Tiki God, who opted to bring the aloha in a managerial capacity here.  As it turned out, it’s not as if Ashley needed him between the ropes; a focused Szabo put on a showcase effort against poor Shelley, who maybe got in five total offensive moves against half of the Unified World Tag Team champions.  Down the stretch Szabo was even using LaVey to do curls with before she rudely dumped her across the ring with a fallaway slam; that set up Smash That Subscribe Button off the top with the fistdrop securing the win for Ashley in under five minutes.  ** 

The announce put over Ashley’s dominant performance before they showed the stinger for El Vengador de Gente Jr. that we got a small taste of last week - here it lasted for a couple of minutes rather than 30 seconds.  

| • El Vengador de Gente Jr. d. "Swamp Trash" Ted Holland (w/the Red, White and True) in a non-title match • | Vengador came in as Lucha Salvaje's Campeon del Mundo, set to put up that belt in the main event of Golden Rule in the unification match.  Obviously a luchador was going to rub the cosplaytriots the wrong way, and Tremble sent Holland out to do his dirty work.

Ted put up some offense but when Drake and Bobby got ejected from ringside the rookie seemed to be unmoored more so than usual.  Vengador started to gain the advantage and while Holland managed to kick out of a picturesque quebrada from the champion he wasn't a serious threat to win the match after he did.  Vengador put Teddy boy to sleep with another quebrada, except this time he used it to set up a satellite DDT that spiked Holland, made a big swath of the crowd flip out, and won the match.  **

After replays, Vengador got his hand raised and shook the ref's hand before waving to the fans and leaving.  The announce put him over and hyped the unification match at Golden Rule heading into commercials.

We came back from the break to Julius Duquesne III on the stage, who quickly thanked the Quality Controllers for their applause but asked them to save it for his guests - the new Ambassadors trios champions, Katsuji Ootsuka and the Proper Villains!

"Death Or Glory" rolled over the PA as the new champions came out gold in tow, with "the Proper King" Richard Windsor uncharacteristically the loudest and the most demonstrative, further stoking the crowd cheers as "the Fury" Jim Jaspers and Katsuji took in the pop and smiled like they were auditioning for a toothpaste commercial.  All three of them shook hands with Jules, who couldn't even get a question out before "You deserve it!" chants fired up, Windsor jokingly pointing to himself before his partners.  Julius asked them how the past week had treated them, and Jim jokingly (?) said he'd be handling the questions tonight since His Properness hasn't sobered up yet.  

Once Katsuji's laughter tapered off, Jim got more serious and spoke about what a joy it was to go back to the UK and win this in front of his friends, fans, family, wife and little daughter.  He and Richard got together to show those stuck up prats in the Consortium that their way wasn't the only way, and the proof isn't in the figgy pudding, it's on his shoulder, and Richard's, and Katsuji's.  So bad luck to Serge and his boys but there are new Ambassadors in town, and the three of them representing QCW as Ambassadors of the people can only help them with the network and the like.  Jim smirked and gave a cheers before the champions bumped belts and smiled over the achievement.  

JD3 turned to Katsuji and congratulated him on adding these belts to his World TV title reign last year, and Katsuji said that he'd had a great rookie year in QCW that he couldn't have done without the fans taking him in from Minute 1, or Richard and Jim for accepting him in when he was having problems with the IWC as well.  

Hilariously enough, Katsuji seemed to be ramping up to his own heartfelt speech when he got interrupted by Richard, who let out a just-got-banned-from-Chilis sized WHOOOOO! and took over, getting bleeped for whatever he said to the IWC (to a big pop) and then saying he was going to stage dive and enjoy this moment with the people.  Before anyone could stop him he ran down the ramp, paused for a second on the barricade and trust fell into the crowd.  Fortunately, they caught him and crowd surfed him around for a bit while Katsuji shook his head incredulously and Jim literally fell to his knees cackling while watching his usually staid partner wilding out over winning his first championship in QCW.  Katsuji leaned into Jules and said he might want to wrap this up, since Windsor wasn't coming back any time soon.  Julius nodded and asked the crowd to give it up once again for the Ambassadors trios champions; the ones who weren't passing Richard around like a party favor did so.

We went from seeing Richard whooping and celebrating with the people to a monitor backstage…where the Consortium were watching on and seething (not Rich so much).  Serge was about as red as a small town Mississippi judge, and Anton actually looked a little worried about him before he turned to Jason the Terrible and put an arm around him, saying that the three of them were just like her with their mocking and jibes.  A single loss in a hellhole such as England could not and would not define them! So it was imperative that Jason go out there next and take Autumn apart under his eye so that the Consortium would continue to show these uneducated rubes what true wrestling was.  Jason headed out with Rich trudging behind but the rest of the IWC stayed where they were.  Jason asked if they were coming, and Anton asked if they needed to.  Jason seemed like he was going to say something but ended up swallowing it, and "Engel" played to bring out the Wonderful Ward Brothers sans the Consortium.

Jason posed on the turnbuckles while Rich shook his head, but the crowd roaring almost drowned out "Mota" by the Offspring.  Out came Autumn Powers to a megapop, the announce hyping up her continuing to hound Serge for a match on social media that's been met by radio silence from the Consortium's leader.  Autumn stood on the middle rope and fired up a few more cheers while Jason glowered in the corner.

| • Autumn Powers d. Jason the Terrible (w/"the Wonderful" Rich Ward) • | It took a couple of segments but the glowering returned when Autumn dropped the Hazy Shade in about 15 minutes.

Jason actually got the better of Autumn on the mat early on, and you could see Rich visibly restraining himself from rooting for his brother on the outside.  It was Autumn who actually faked a clean break in the ropes and drilled him with a back elbow (the crowd cheered, of course, because fuck him).  It was interesting how Starr chalked that up to Autumn's championship experience but it turned out he wasn't wrong - even when Jason had advantages he spent more time complaining to the ref than keeping the upper hand.  

Jason even went so far as to try out a Wonder Cutter to the two time former Women’s World champion (raising Rich’s eyebrows on the outside), but Autumn countered out of the attempt and snatched Jason up before driving him into the canvas with an elevated reverse DDT.  The crowd popped after Autumn landed it, and it was the turning point in the match; Powers kept Jason away from bailing to the ropes or floor and kept him grounded in the middle of the ring.  A Mt. Everest German set up the Hazy Shade that gave Autumn the victory.  ** ½

Rich came into the ring and checked on Jason as Autumn was getting her hand raised and she celebrated on the buckles – the rest of the Consortium came out looking various degrees of pissed, and Autumn opted to leave through the crowd…but not before she blew a mocking kiss at Serge on her way out.  The announce put over Autumn’s win and the continuing problems within the Consortium as we hit a commercial break.  

Back from commercials and we got a This Week In QCW History segment - on February 18th, 1978 QCW crowned one of the first Black champions in any promotion when "Sweet" Curtis Jones (Jupiter's dad) pinned Billy "Mud Stomper" Porter in a packed Qualitorium.  (Given the company's lengthy history, we're on something like Quality Arena 5.0.)

In a more somber occasion, February 20th, 1991 saw former QCW Tag Team champion "King" Tommy Berger (alongside "Orange" Julius Duquesne, for whom the Classic is named) miss his first QCW show since his daughter’s wedding. Curiosity turned to grief as he and his car were discovered in a ditch halfway between his condo and the Qualitorium later that evening. He was 45 years old.

| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare d. Winter Wonderland • | We kicked off the second hour of the show with action in the women's division with Spare and Neverland renewing hostilities.  While both currently skew better moreso than worse, the former rivalry between the Storybookers & Forbidden Book Club put this one at a bigger fever pitch than you might have expected.  

Winter had a really nice spot where they fought on the floor only for her to stun Diana with a ripcord forearm and then ran up the announce table to spike Spare on the floor with a modified tornado DDT.  Wonderland recovered and threw Spare into the ring, but when she tried to cover Diana rolled onto her side to prevent the count.  Winter let out a frustrated growl and stomped away on Spare before going for her Nuclear Winter implant DDT; Spare slipped it with a go behind, then landed some nasty looking enzui headbutts before dumping Winter on her head with a tiger suplex (!) that crumpled Wonderland and set the stage for Spare's Nightfall.  The powerbomb backbreaker secured the win much to the joy of the Quality Controllers. ** ½ After getting her hand raised, Spare walked over to the ropes closest to the hard camera and mouthed her catchphrase while the announce put over her new found aggression between the ropes.

We saw a dark room and heard heavy grunting, but fear not, FCC - it was merely Einherjar unleashing hell on a heavy bag with strikes, kicks and knees before a leaping roundhouse knocked it to the floor and the former tag champ stomped out of frame.  The bag rolled over a time and a half to reveal a picture of the Revenant's face where Ein had been doing his striking work, and on that cheery note we headed to the ring for Duck and the first of the night's two title fights.  

“Bodak Yellow” brought out Lolo Vuitton and OnlyFitness to boos, both of the muscle mommies strutting down the ramp and smacktalking a lot of the same fans who pay their monthly subscription rates.  Once in the ring, Karyn Tisch-Warren asked the fans to give it up for the greatest Women’s champion in the history of QCW, Lolo Vuitton (that went as well as you’re imagining).  Lolo took the mic and said that the belt proved she ran this, and since she didn’t sweat anybody it was open challenge hours on Ruckus – if you wanted to come out for a title shot and get your head kicked in the opposite direction, that was on you.

Out came “Bollywood Diva” Sohla Patel, but she didn’t get in the ring - she stayed on the ramp and said hello to her little rose petals (us?).  She said that she would love to saunter down the rampway and liberate the Women’s World Championship from Lolo, but in keeping with her luck she’s just booked a shampoo commercial and can’t spare the time for combat sports this evening.  And these people need to work on their standing ovations, but she has faith that when she sees them next they will all rise to their feet as one and bathe in the majesty that is Sohla.  After saying “Details to come, dahlings; ciao for now!” Patel left everyone in the ring behind confused for a bit until Lolo started talking about how she’d just won by forfeit.

That brought out “Island Flower” Luz Cruz, who started talking about how she’d had Karyn dead to rights a few weeks ago except that Lolo saved her little benchpress buddy and handed her a win.  It was bad enough Karyn was walking around with her old title and running her mouth, of course she was next to the only other person on the roster that was worse about it than she was.  Luz smiled and then said that since Lolo had made the open challenge, that it was her that Luz would beat for the belt and show QCW what Karyn and fans of Crush could never forget…Luz Cruz was a champion, and it was time she proved it once more.

| • Lolo Vuitton [c] (w/OnlyFitness) d. "Island Flower" Luz Cruz to retain the QCW Women's World Championship in an open challenge • | Cruz started off hot with her use of lucha libre to fly around the ring and put Lolo almost into retreat mode, and Vuitton bailed from the ring after eating a series of armdrag takeovers.  Cruz continued to follow up with a tope suicida, but Lolo pulled Scott Warren-Tisch in front of her and he ate the dive before essentially dying.  Karyn went Karyn about this and the EMTs eventually came out for Scott, but while they were taking him to the back and Karyn followed, Lolo took advantage of Luz’s being distracted by kicking her leg out from under her leg and going to work.  Vuitton couldn’t completely annihilate the right leg and ankle of Cruz but she could put a stop to the aerial offense of the Island Flower and did so.  The former Crush champion fought back, and at one point fended off Lolo’s attacks with a couple of blocks and countered the champ’s offense with a step up enzuigiri…but she did it with the bad leg, and Lolo recovered from the blow before she could follow up on it.  Vuitton dominated down the stretch and eventually dusted Cruz off with the Bloody Shoe.  ** ½ 

After replays, Lolo strutted around the ring with the belt before leaving with the spotlight entirely on her.  As you might expect she let us know that she ran this.

From there we went TOTHEBACK~!, where Enya Face was standing by a limousine and she started to vamp for time before her guests who were leaving the Arena began to filter in – the International Workrate Consortium.  Since he usually handles the interviews, Enya began to ask Jason about his night, only for the Terrible to wave her off while looking alternately sad and mad.  After a few awkward moments of silence, Serge quietly said that the way things were couldn’t continue, and he put the blame on himself, since if he hadn’t been so busy proving a point instead of maximizing the Consortium’s firepower the Wards would have obviously won the Unified Contenders Challenge last year and the IWC would still have tag titles in their keep.  

He turned and fully focused on Jason & Rich, saying this wasn’t a suggestion but a command: go out in full glory as the Wonderful Ward Brothers and capture the Unified World Tag Team championships to bring them back to the IWC.  Jason nodded while Rich looked confused, and Serge continued that especially after tonight their memberships were under review, and if you weren’t in the Consortium, well…Anton cleared his throat and interjected that maybe their memberships didn’t need to be on the line, which caused Serge to wheel on him and question if Anton was questioning his leader (despite the fact Anton beat him a few weeks ago), and Anton got tetchy over being questioned…but before things could degenerate further, Jason put up his hand and told Serge if that’s what he wanted, he’d get it.  Anything to get the taste of losing to…her out of his mouth.  Rich started to protest this, but Jason turned to him and said that they came to QCW for tag team gold, and now they were going to get it.  The Game Changers holding those belts when they should be ruling the tag division like they have anywhere else they’ve gone?  Ridiculous, and something that wasn’t going to be happening much longer thanks to Serge’s eye.  Outside of Rich the members of the Consortium gave thin smiles as they piled into the limo and it drove off, leaving Enya behind.

Before we get to Moore/Rev in the main event, the announce hyped up some of what's to come on the first Ruckus of March:

✨ The winner of the main event will be defending the GRPL+ World Television title ✨

✨ We'll hear from The Champ, Mason "Razorblade" Savage after his successful title defense against Naz last week and possibly get his thoughts on the unification match coming up at Golden Rule ✨

✨ And in a fatal four-way to get #1 contenders for the Unified World Tag Team championships, the Hard Way, the Proper Villains, the Red, White and True and the Wonderful Ward Brothers will face off to see who'll earn the titles shot at Golden Rule ✨

All that and more to come next week, but now it was time to see if the GRPL+ World Television championship was going to get all that and more Moore, and the crowd wasted little time in firing off waves of boos as "Fly Like Me" brought out Him Who Defines Dashing.

Pierce Moore had a smirk on his face while he sauntered down to the ring; GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week Moore hit the Rev with a Fresh To Death then fled the premises when the Big Bad looked like he was going to get quick revenge.  Moore was in the ring beaming about his misdeeds when the lights cut off.

"Here we go!" yelled Starr right before "Killed By Death" hit the PA and the crowd roared in anticipation of the Revenant's arrival.  

The lights came up…and the Rev was right behind Moore and everybody knew it but the challenger.  The Arena roared as Pierce looked to his left and right and saw nothing but fans.  Then he got spun around and saw a red right hand going right upside his head.

| | • the main event • | |

| • the Revenant [c] d. "Dashing" Pierce Moore to retain the GRPL+ World Television title 5️⃣ • | And then Moore got his ass kicked.  He got it kicked real bad.  He got it kicked so bad members of the Washington Generals started a group chat to mention the guy on GRPL+ getting the crap beat out of him.

The Rev threw him in the corner and lit him up with body blows, then threw him out of the corner and about ¾ of the way across the ring.  He repeated that a couple more times then shocked everyone by climbing up to the top rope before flying off with a lariat that went right across Pierce’s chest, and then he called for the end before delivering on that promise.

Chokeslam.

Chokeslam.

Chokeslam.

Chokeslam, and when you lay somebody out with four Red Right Hands, if you want to pin them with your foot on their chest, you’ve certainly earned the right.  DUD

Crowd looooooved Moore getting his just desserts after last week while the announce joked that they could have replayed the whole match in the replays.  But when we came back from the replays, the Revenant was at the desk, putting the fear of him into both Steve & Starr.  He looked with a black grin to the former QCW Champion as he cut the following two word promo:

“Halfway there.”

The Rev hoisted the GRPL+ World TV title over his shoulder and headed to the back, some of the fans sitting ringside able to give him some attaboys and pats on the shoulder as he skulked to the back, the announce and especially Starr putting over the Revenant bringing a level of dominance never before seen to the TV title, and if you didn’t believe them you could ask Pierce Moore in a couple of hours, since he was barely starting to stir now.  The Rev paused in front of the Tron, then let out a roar and slowly hoisted the TV title overhead to cheers – Steve thanked us for watching and said to come back next Friday when QCW would continue to bring the Ruckus live on GRPL+.