LAST WEEK ON RUCKUS:
Both Anton Stahl and Autumn Powers qualified for the Duquesne Classic with Powers forcing her way into the Beat the Clock discussion
The Wonderful Ward Brothers retained the Unified World Tag Team championships over the Game Changers thanks to some unseen help from Pyotr Caviar
The Revenant retained his TV title but had to hear some smack talk from The Unified Champ - who actually invited a cash in attempt and called himself QCW'S Big Bad
We got pyro to burn and fans to pop; the Quality Arena is packed and we have Steve and Naz here for another big episode of Ruckus - we'll find out who will be the last two to qualify for the Duquesne Classic in two weeks, and there's a PPV worthy main event with Autumn Powers challenging the Revenant for the GRPL+ World Television championship, but tonight's fights begin with a different type of title action.
"Bodak Yellow" was track 1 on tonight's playlist, bringing out the QCW Women's World Champion Lolo Vuitton with OnlyFitness in tow behind her. As they walked that aisle, GRPL+ Helpfully Reminded Us That Last Week Lolo was in an absolute barnburner with longtime rival Autumn Powers in a Duquesne qualifying match but ultimately came up short. From last week's footage we went live to the ring where Lolo said that was a pretty moment for Autumn, but that's all it was. Autumn had to take out Scott and had Karyn worried sick so her focus was split then and it was lasered now. This was still her division and still her title, so that's why the challenge was open for bidNASS. Let any foolish trick mess around and find out that Lolo Vuitton still runs – and then she got cut off by Muse's "New Born" and a big pop from the crowd.
Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo came out with the Tiki God by her side and a mic in hand, waiting for the cheers to die down before pausing halfway down the ramp to address Lolo. She said that Lolo kept dangling her title and tonight was the night that she was going to get caught, because the last time she and Big Al saw OnlyFitness a couple weeks ago she was the one pinning Lolo's little sidekick. This got the oohs and oh snaps from the crowd that you'd expect but Ashley continued through them, saying that this time she was going to pin Lolo and change the game again by becoming THEE Women's World Champion. Ashley tossed aside the mic and headed to the ring to grab her first singles gold in QCW.
| • Lolo Vuitton [c] (w/OnlyFitness) d. Ashley "THEE Influencer" Szabo (w/"Tiki God" Al Buffett) in an open challenge to retain the QCW Women's World Championship • | But Lolo stopped her from doing so and won clean to boot in a good opener that had the crowd fired up from the start.
Both women alternated having the upper hand for the first couple of minutes of the match, but the champ tipped the scales her way when she snatched Ashley by the braid and pulled her backwards into an almost inverted powerslam that left Szabo clutching her ribs on the mat. Vuitton focused her attack on the back and guts of THEE Influencer, using her massive wingspan to really get the most possible torque out of a bow and arrow hold that she could.
Al fired up the faithful and Ashley started getting out from under, but when both women got to their feet Lolo landed a discus back elbow that crumpled up Ashley before Lolo started once again bragging to the crowd about how much she ran this. Vuitton even stomped on Ashley’s hand when she dared reach for her, paintbrushing the back of her head and warning her to stay down.
Szabo didn’t, of course, fighting her way from the mat to land some shots to Lolo’s well defined abs. Ashley started punching up from there, and when Vuitton tried to get away Ashley got a measure of revenge by pulling her by the hair before she dropped her down with a falling reverse DDT.
The Woman of A Trillion Likes kept up the offense and soon had Vuitton reeling and down on the mat for nearfalls. With Al pacing on the outside, it looked as if Ashley was going to fulfill her promise and win the title when she went up to the top rope, but she did it a bit close to where Scott & Karyn were and they quickly started protesting loudly, bringing Al over to try and keep things in the ring for his partner. But Karyn’s partner was the one who took advantage of the situation, blasting Szabo with a Bloody Shoe when she was on the top rope that sent her bouncing off the apron and down to the mats outside in a heap - leaving Szabo conscious but not much else besides that. Lolo seemingly shooed everybody on the outside away after she rolled out to get Ashley and bring her back inside the ring, then she slammed the door shut on the title defense with a second Bloody Shoe. Hopefully now that this is out of their systems they can do a collab together WHO SAID THAT I’ll turn this car around right now, Helen, goddamnit ** ½
After replays we saw the ref and Al help a woozy Ashley to the back while in the ring, Lolo held up the title with one hand and slapped her chest proudly with the other, saying loudly and proudly that she ran this. Karyn and Scott weren’t obviously as enthused as she was but after Lolo talked to them they seemed a little bit more upbeat about things. The announce put over Lolo handling a tough challenge from Ashley but managing to walk out still champion, and then proceeded to wonder what would be next for her and OnlyFitness.
From there we threw to a stinger for hot new signee "Superfine" Reggie Strong, who hyped up QCW as the finest wrestling organization in the land & with a chuckle added that it was only fitting that the finest wrestler in the land would be making his debut next week. The Nephew of Style (I smell incoming merch) pressed anyone watching thanks to the fine folks at G+ to make sure they didn't miss out and gave a friendly warning that wives, girlfriends and in some rare cases pets may become pregnant if they're too close to the screen - so exercise the proper levels of caution if you're worried 'bout it. And as for Pierce Moore?
"(lengthy yet somehow sauve laugh) Who? (more laughing)"
Naz dismissed him as an unemployed gigolo while Steve enthused about his suits and smile – but no matter what kind of way he makes you feel, pregnant or otherwise, "Superfine" Reggie Strong makes his QCW debut on next week's Ruckus.
| • Jacques Krieger d. Atum Pharaoh in a Duquesne Classic qualifying match • | Another trademark Krieger boat racing; that wasn't what was interesting. DUD
The post match might've gone viral.
Krieger grabbed the mic from Duck, but kept him from going back to his seat and asked if he was on top of the Duquesne leaderboard after his win (of course he was). Krieger nodded twice, almost grinned, and then cut a rare promo.
“I’m still undefeated, I’ve got the #1 seed for the Classic, and I’m done waiting around to get fed – I’m just going to go after the biggest guy in the yard and see if his undead ass can do anything about it.
The Rev’s the biiiig bad from what I’ve been hearing, and if he is then he wouldn’t have any problems ending an undefeated streak, would he?”
A buzz grew in the crowd but Krieger talked through it and continued: “I know he’s fighting Autumn in the main tonight, and I suspect he’s winning it. So in that case, he can bring the TV title with him next week and we can see who the real Big Bad of QCW is.
Me.
Rev.
TV title.
Next week.”
Krieger tossed aside the mic and everybody lost their damn minds, including you. Steve almost had an arrhythmia hyping up a potential title v. undefeated streak while Naz erred more cautiously, saying that Krieger would be jumping up several levels of talent to face a being like the Revenant. Still, as “Rumble” blared and Krieger took his walk to the back ignoring the chants and cheers, the announce sent us into the break continuing to imagine what Krieger v. the Rev would look like if it came to pass.
✨
We came back to Duck in the ring, who announced the final Duquesne Classic qualifying match (this is definitely going to take longer than Krieger’s 16 seconds):
| • "These Hands" Roy Fade d. "The Fury" Jim Jaspers (w/"the Proper King" Richard Windsor) in a Duquesne Classic qualifying match • | In the earlier times of the Quarantine Era Jaspers and Fade had a rivalry and it didn’t take them long to get back to renewing hostilities with a Classic slot on the line here.
Despite Jaspers having some background in European chain wrestling, this was two bruisers looking to hurt each other. Fade got the upper hand early, even when things broke out into a brawl on the floor. These Hands used some underhanded tactics to gouge away at the eye of Jaspers before hitting a nasty modified gourdbuster across the announce table that had Jaspers crumple into the floor and Fade back in the ring demanding that the ref count Old Jim out. Jaspers managed to get back into the ring at 8 and put up a rally, but Fade parked a back elbow right into Jaspers’ bad eye when he charged him in the corner and Jaspers went down in a heap never to fully recover.
The returning Fade lit up Jaspers with his Golden Glove earning hands before drilling him with his (and Jaspers’) signature, the Decision slamming his knee across Jim’s jaw and earning him the final spot in the 2023 Duquesne. ** ½
After replays, we saw the full list of who had made the tournament (“Dark Mirror” Beckett Carpenter, Fade, Autumn Powers, Anton “Teknik” Stahl, and Karyn Tisch-Warren) as well as who snagged the top three seeds (Krieger in at #1, with Drake Tremble sliming his way to #2 and Super Avión in the third seed; Krieger can name any first round opponent he wants; Tremble gets second pick after that, etc.)
| • "Night Sky" Diana Spare [c] d. Midsomar to retain the Crush championship 4️⃣ • | The masked newcomer got folded into a cube in the showcase for the Crush champion, who polished off the opposition with a Nightfall in a few short minutes. *½
As Spare was getting her belt back and her hand raised, she got interrupted on the Qualitron 9004 by Sohla Patel, who said she’d heard Diana’s bitter words and after clearing her schedule with her agents would be more than glad to engage in combat with Miss Hot Topic next week. Of course, after she defeated her she would spend next weekend sterilizing the title to get the stench of Diana off of it, and then her subsequent days restoring it to prominence and glory. Next week, the Crush championship belongs to her. The crowd booed this as she blipped off the screen, but a steely eyed Spare found a camera to get her face in front of and said off mic that next week there wouldn’t be a stunt double to save the queen of Bollywood – she’s going to get her mouthy ass kicked and Diana’s going to love every minute of it. Announce hyped up next week’s Crush championship fight ahead of some more commercial messages.
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| • the International Workrate Consortium (w/the Wonderful Ward Brothers) d. The Hard Way & Katsuji Ootsuka • | We kicked off the back half of the show with trios action featuring the Consortium against perennial thorns and former tag champs the Hard Way alongside Ambassador trios champion Ootsuka. Ootsuka couldn’t turn to his usual partners in the Proper Villains with Jim Jaspers attempting to get in the Duquesne earlier in the evening and thus turned to the ex champions to support him here.
With the Unified World Tag Team champions on the outside, the Consortium looked pretty cohesive early on as Anton Stahl took over the offense and used his matwork to tie up both members of the Hard Way but things took a turn when John Goodish managed to counter out of a German suplex attempt and make the tag to Ootsuka; the Prince of Punishment started quickening the pace and making things better with his high flying offense, first disorienting and dropping Anton, then Serge Batroc when he tried to interfere and save his compatriot – but never mind that crap, here comes Pyotr Caviar. Caviar’s illegal entry into the ring led to a Pier 6, and with a combined effort the Hard Way and Ootsuka managed to drive him from the ring and fire up the faithful leading into commercials.
Even on the other side of the break, Ootsuka was maintaining control of the match and of Anton. But the tricky Caviar blind tagged himself in and Anton willingly ate a basement rana driver before Ootsuka found out the hard way (sorry) who the legal man was when Caviar almost bisected him with a 337 pound running crossbody.
The Consortium – well, Serge and Pyotr – took over for the next bit, easily tagging in and out while working Ootsuka over. Ootsuka had to kick out several times but the IWC kept the pressure on.
It looked like things were going to be over when Pyotr delivered a Russian sickle to send a wobbly Katsuji into the waiting arms of Serge’s Arc de Triomphe, but both Goodish & Paul Fifita ran in the ring to save the match for the white hats. Another Pier 6 was on from there, and much as they had before the break Ootsuka & the Hard Way got the upper hand and managed to clear the ring of the IWC – however, Ootsuka still needed to tag out. Even worse, when he went to dive for his corner, both Anton and Pyotr had grabbed the Hard Way off the apron and pulled them to the floor to keep him from tagging out. The former TV champion still threw the house at last year’s Duquesne Cup holder up to and including a swank handspring tornado DDT that got him 2 ½, but when he went to close Serge out with a basement rana driver the French Assassin countered with a vicious overhead powerbomb that almost left Ootsuka coughing up blood on the mat. Serge put an exclamation point on things with the Arc de Triomphe to secure a IWC W. ** 1/2
After replays, Serge and the Consortium stood tall in the ring with Batroc holding the microphone, barely sweating as he said he’d let everyone else have their say last week because he’d rather do his talking in the ring this week, and you saw the results of that. The crowd booed and Serge shook his head at them, saying you’d seen nothing but triumph after triumph from the Consortium recently…and the biggest triumph to come would happen next week. Viva Le Serge (everybody now) and LONG LIVE THE CONSORTIUM! “Engel” came on to boos while Steve and Naz wondered what Consortium triumph would occur next week before we went to the last big block of commercials on the night.
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Back from the break and ahead of the big main event, we got clued in on some big things happening on next week's show:
📺 The debut of the Nephew of Style, "Superfine" Reggie Strong 📺
📺 Diana Spare faces off against Sohla Patel for the Crush championship 📺
📺 The still undefeated Jacques Krieger gets his requested shot at the GRPL+ World TV title regardless of who wins the main event 📺
📺 But next week's Ruckus will kick off with the Pick 'Em Protocol where Krieger, (eternal sigh) Tremble and Super Avión will pick their first round opponents for the Duquesne to come two weeks from tonight live from Center Stage in the A 📺
There are things to come in a couple weeks as well as on next week’s show, but it’s all about the here and now…
| | • the main event • | |
“Mota” by the Offspring hit the PA and you could see the Quality Controllers cheer and whip their heads towards the Tron as Autumn Powers came out, popping the crowd even bigger. Steve noted that the former two time Women’s World Champion was definitely focused coming out to the ring, slapping far fewer fans’ hands than usual. Naz added that if he was going to be in a small space with the personification of Death he might look pretty grim about things himself – before finding a way to win, of course.
Steve groaned, Naz let out a little cackle, and then the lights went out for the most dominant TV champion QCW has ever seen. An elevator appropriately resembling his signature red right hand lifted from the stage and brought out the Revenant to boos with the belt over his massive right shoulder. Steve talked about the path of destruction the Rev had been on since he’d arrived in QCW – half of probably the most dominant tag team in QCW history, driving his now ex-partner out of the company, the chokeslamming of Ashok Banjerjee off the stage to close out Ruckus a couple of weeks ago. Nick Cave’s classic played over the PA as a cold blue spotlight followed the Rev down to the ring, Naz saying that he hoped the people watching at home liked the version of the story where Goliath took David’s head off since that was what was about to go down. Steve put over Autumn, and Naz actually did too to an extent before adding that until he saw the Rev lose he was just going to assume that he would win, and Steve didn’t really have a comeback for that one.
They focused a standard spotlight on the ring while Duckie made the introductions: Autumn got a huge pop from the crowd but merely stared down the Rev and raised a fist in the air when her name was called; you could almost see the word “pathetic” written in the champ’s sneer before he let out a throaty roar and held the fine silver up to the lights.
| • the Revenant [c] d. Autumn Powers to retain the GRPL+ World Television championship • | The bell rang and the Rev immediately drilled Autumn in the face with a big boot to send her ass over teakettle to boos. The boos were so loud you could barely hear the Rev cackle, and Steve sadly noted that this was what you could come to expect from the Rev in this day and age. Naz cackled again, saying that this cruelty was always who the Rev was, it was just taking Steve and the rabble until now to fully see it up close.
The next few minutes would see el-Fadal proven right and the Rev at his sadistic best. Autumn would get in some offense and a couple of brief flurries but it would only take a couple of big overhead shots (and in some instances one good shot) before she was back on the canvas and the Rev went back to peering down at her like a psychopath waiting to take the wings off of a butterfly. The Rev landed a few more shots to drive Autumn’s power meter out of orange and into the red, even setting her on the top rope so that he could fly off the middle one and plant her with a supersized powerslam that would have ended things – but the Rev pulled Autumn up at 2 ¾ to even more boos than before. Smirking, the Rev called for the goozle and made Powers spend even more effort into dragging her limp body up…but Autumn finally couldn’t do it, collapsing in a heap on the mat. The Rev told the ref, who checked Autumn, and after a couple beats decided to let the fight roll onward. The Rev nudged Powers with his foot a couple of times then grabbed her by the head – and Autumn small packaged him for a 1 ½.
The Rev beat Autumn up by half a second but found himself eating a standing tornado DDT that drove him to his knees, and Autumn followed that up with a basement DDT that popped the crowd. Steve noted Autumn had put together a few moves and gotten the crowd back on her side but Naz noted this was her one best chance to slay QCW’s Big Bad and she damn sure better take it.
Autumn swung every part of her body she legally could at the Rev, dropping forearms and elbows, laying in kicks. The Rev shoved her away at one point but Autumn came off of the ropes and landed a buzzsaw kick before actually getting a two count on the champ. The Rev tossed her off right at 2 but Autumn continued in her “ants swarming dropped food” offense, all while trying to keep the Rev grounded. She landed in some shots to a knee to keep him hobbled and then got a running start off of both sets of ropes before druh-hilling the Rev with a Hazy Shade, and while he definitely looked groggy after meeting the Wizard - it left him on his knees. Autumn let out a war cry and went for her leveled up Hazy Shade of Winter and deliver a sequel but on the second attempt the Rev caught the knee coming in, managed to limp up enough to provide the leverage he needed and then splattered Autumn with a powerbomb that took the air out of her lungs and the fans’ cheers. Holding onto her waist, the Rev turned one powerbomb into two, and looked like he was trying to hit the trifecta before converting it into a goozle.
A Red Right Hand later, down went Autumn Powers. ** ½
Steve seemed resigned to the endless reign of the Revenant but a salty champ wasn’t quite done there and snatched the belt from the referee before goozling the poor zebra and sending him down with a Red Right Hand of his own. The Revenant looked around the ring, then opted to grab and chokeslammed the ref again to even louder boos.
If you think the Rev stopped there, I have some loverly NFTs for you to invest in. The Rev snatched up his belt in one hand before tossing Autumn over his shoulder and stomping his way up the ramp. Steve called for Quality Control in the purple shirts to come stop this excess but Naz laughed that off, saying that unless they had tranq darts, Autumn was going to join Ashok in the hospital.
After dropping a couple of security guards and ignoring the rest, the Revenant dragged Autumn Powers to the edge and goozled her. Autumn went up in the air…and that’s about when the Revenant went down.
Huh?
Oh, right – he went down because The Unified Champ pulled Autumn loose and then headbutted the Rev right in the teeth.
The crowd went nuclear and Steve sold his ass off as Autumn fell to the stage and the Revenant slowly got his bearings back – and then headbutted Razorblade right back.
“[BLEEP] is onnnnnn!” yelled Naz. And for once, everybody agreed with him. A few of the hapless security guards even tried to break up this fight but the Rev and Razor (without colluding) both took turns laying out security guards and then started throwing hands on the stage while the crowd roared. For the first time in a long time the Revenant was in a fair fight, and it looked like one that was actually going to end with Razorblade mustering the strength to Air Raid Crash the Rev off the stage – but the Rev slipped out and low blowed Razorblade. The Rev receipted the headbutt he got earlier and looked like he was setting to deliver the Red Right Hand to The Unified Champ off the stage only to find himself kicked in the tombstones and sending both men gasping on the stage in a heap. Naz got off a joke about him being only mostly dead while Steve wrapped up the show. Naz was incredulous but Steve was in hyperdrive, saying that it was the end of Ruckus. The Rev punched out a security guard only for Razorblade to run over and dive on him to spark another brawl while Steve tried to put a button on things amidst the chaos of the champion vs. champion brawl on the stage and the Queue Cee Dub! chants from the audience.
Before Ruckus faded to black, the XL remix of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” kicked in. We saw some highlights from QCW’s recent past, focusing on the big names and champions for some time before we started seeing brief snapshots of some famous faces interspersed with the QCW highlight reel: Liberace - Ali - Tyson - Copperfield - Siegfried - Roy - Celine - Usher - savvy yet?
Leading up to the QCW footage being traded off with plenty of shots of Las Vegas in all its neon splendor and gambling glory before we saw the notorious Welcome to Las Vegas sign at the outskirts of town – but the words Las Vegas glitched, glitched again and blipped out only to replace the name of the town with two words:
MAYDAY PAYDAY
Whatever happens in QCW, stays on PPV
