"The best way to reintroduce yourself, is to do exactly that. You can't make a second first impression. But if you introduce yourself, a second time, you can make a new first impression. That's called a loop hole. If there is one thing I am known for, it's loopholes."
"My name is Hunter, you know me as Triple H. This is my wife, Stephanie. Three weeks ago, her father Vince made the announcement that he was formerly retiring and had passed all ownership rights to her. No one knew why. In fact no one knew this was happening, at all. No one. Stephanie found out when her mother called her in a panic, a country away from her husband on a good will mission. I found out when our lawyer called me, also in a panic and requested I read the statement released by Vince himself. He proceeded to immediately hang up to contact Vince's lawyer, who, in a sweat, confirmed it. Not even she knew. And thus, the transfer of company rights began. The company went into total temporary shutdown. We were forced to combine the brands once more. We are starting anew. Private agreements have been made. Today is a whole new day." Quietly, Hunter looks down, humming to himself, nervously. He can nearly feel his wife's smile shining on him as she picks up where he left off.
"We are here today to officially reopen World Wrestling Entertainment. After careful considerations, and open interactions with our faithful roster, we have a complete list of champions, based solely on the old WWE. We would like to introduce you, to the new WWE. To the new style. To the new faces. Let us begin with the WWE Universal Champion. Ladies and gentleman, John Cena."
Wearing similarly faked smiles, Stephanie and Hunter clapped as John did his thing, the same thing he'd been doing since before half the roster was with the company.
Stephanie held her microphone in her hands, far from her mouth so no one could hear. She leaned over to Hunter and whispered in his ear. "They love it. I really thought they'd be tired of hearing his name over and over again, but they love it. I mean I'm getting tired of this repetitive shit that my father put in motion, but at least people are happy."
Hunter laughed and continued clapping until John finished his routine. He reached down and took the microphone from Stephanie, wanting to speak before the momentum was killed.
"Your WWE Women's Champion, Nikki Bella."
It didn't make sense, really. They had held a private battle royal to crown the women's champion. No one really knew why. Nikki had faked an injury the whole match, as one would, and Charlotte ended up "winning", climbed up of the ring, her feet touched the floor, and for some reason, Nikki was crowned champion. But as least the people were happy. One by one, the champions were read off.
"Your WWE Intercontinental Champion, the Miz!"
Ah yes. The Intercontinental title held by an American. Classic. The people were happy.
"Your WWE United States Champion, Kevin Owens!"
He was Canadian. The people were happy.
"Your WWE Tag Team Champions, Sheamus & Cesaro!"
That may have been the only shock. But, none the less, the people were happy.
The people were not happy. In fact they were rather angry. For once they actually missed Brock Lesnar. And where was The New Day? When was the last time Nikki Bella was even on the active roster? When did the Miz do anything, literally anything, to deserve the title?
For nearly half an hour they had cheered the continued momentum of the reopening of their favorite company, worries aside. The confusion in the air was so thick it clogged peoples airways, and a mystery was left. What exactly was going to fill in the other two and a half hours?
As the calm half-silence returned, Hunter raised his microphone to his mouth, and began to speak. Nobody could hear him. His mic wasn't working. He was handed a new one. It didn't work either. He looked at the sound man, who yelled as loud as he could over the crowd.
"The sound was disconnected! It's all connected to a different source somewhere else! We don't know what happened but we're trying-"
He wasn't understandable after that. Hunter's angry expression had reduced the crowd to hysterical laughter. Stephanie smiled apologetically, secretly frantic inside. And then the lights went out, save for the actual arena lights and boards, which didn't provide light where it mattered. The ring was dark, the stage was dark, the Titantron was eerily black. There was a searching flashlight near the stage, the lead technician searching for something wrong on his communications board.
He shined his light towards the ring. He shrugged and nodded towards where the audio manager presumably was among the bitter darkness. No words were exchanged, but Hunter understood. The display had been hacked as well. He was outraged. He listened the murmurs flowing through the crowded ring, full of champions who were more confused than anyone. The crowd had become oddly quiet, a few shouts here and there, but it was loud enough to here a man sneeze in the second deck. He received a flurry of blessings.
Suddenly, the area around the stage was reflecting a solid bright blue coming from the Titantron. An unknown logo, circles inside of circles, nuclear symbol like. Brilliantly blue. The three inner circles each had a letter in them. N. D. T. The meaning, soon revealed, as the words "New Dominion Tribe" faded into view.
Stomping can be heard. Hunter has began angrily pacing around the ring. He stops for a moment and looks to his wife. She seems lost. She shrugs without ever looking at him and he goes back to pacing. Her eyes are glued to the screen. A spotlight suddenly appears in the middle of the ring, shining on no person in particular. Slowly, it started sliding towards the stage. Very slowly. After thirty seconds it was about half way up the ramp. As it got closer to the stage, the stomping quieted as Hunter had stopped pacing. Instead, he had rushed to the front of the ring, white knuckling the ropes.
The room was suddenly silent. But in a split second, it had erupted. 19,000 people screaming their heads off. There, on the stage, were five people, who individually had made an impact. But together, things would change for good.
CM Punk, AJ Lee, Randy Orton, Big E, and a man who was unknown to everyone but who he was standing with. In the ring, everyone was shocked. A smile quickly appeared on Stephanie's face and but disappeared before she thought anyone saw it. This was something a long time coming, if you count three weeks a long time.
December 4, 2017
"It's fucking freeeeeeeeziiiiiiiing." Punk sang, trying to try his coat up.
"Why did we chose to walk?" AJ asked, doing a little dance, trying to keep herself warm.
"It's pointless driving two blocks I just didn't realize it was absolute zero out here." Punk and AJ walked down the quiet Philadelphia street. Cars drove past and the sounds of a city at rest could be heard. In no time at all they had arrived at a large gym. It seemed rather empty. The connivence of location, so close to their hotel, was definitely a plus.
The first floor of the gym was more agility based. The treadmills were carefully being washed down by the owner, who paid no mind to his new guest. Punk and AJ carried on to the stairs across the room. The second floor was a variety of things. Weight lifting, punching bags, and a ring, dead middle of the room.
As they go up the stairs, they hear what sounds like running. They look back, but no one is there. Must be coming from upstairs. They reach the top of the stairs and AJ suddenly stops, laughing.
"E?" Punk says questioningly, eyeing what his wife was laughing at. In the ring, one Big E Langston was running back and forth, bouncing off the ropes. He notices them and winds down, leaning against the ropes and breathing heavily.
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?" AJ asks, getting herself together and walking over to the ring.
"I'm trying...to get my speed up. I'm slow but it's...cold outside so I can't...run." He said, between breathes. He plopped down and rolled out of the ring.
There was a man in the corner working on a punching bag, doing damage. He was large, 6'4, maybe. He was muscular, his skin was nearly the exact same color as Big E's, save for his arms, which were covered in a black sleeve tribal tattoo. He had long black dreadlocks, that reached a few inches below his shoulder. They couldn't see his face.
"Who is that?" Punk asked, motioning to the strange man.
"I don't know. He's been in here everyday this week. Randy and I were sparring last night and he stopped for a little and watched. Never left the corner though. Oh yeah, Randy comes in here every night around midnight. It's...11:45 right now so he'll be here soon." E says. They stop for a minute, watching him. At one point, the man stops and takes a breath, but doesn't walk away. Suddenly, Punk starts walking towards him.
No one really questioned it. Within a few seconds, Punk was at the mans side. "Who are you?"
The man flipped his dreads behind his head and eyed Punk. "Milan."
"Is that Spanish?"
"No that's my name." He says, flatly. He is not amused. "Milan Tafara. That's my full name. I'm 21 years old and I'm under contract with your company. Anything else you'd like to know?" He smiles a bit. He teeth are very white.
Punk sighs in relief at the smile, but his expression changes fast. "You're under contract with WWE?"
"For nearly a year now. They always say, you're gonna start soon. We'll call you tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. But I get a paycheck every few weeks. Not a lot, but it works. I think they forgot about me."
"Come spar with me." Punk says. Milan nods and they walk to the ring.
"This is Milan Tafara he's under contract with WWE but they're not using him." Punk says, quickly. He rolls into the ring and he and Milan begin to spar.
"Well that was mighty fuckin' fast." E said. All AJ could do was nod, full of confusion. Another voice joins in.
"They got him to talk?"
AJ turns to look. "Hey Randy."
"Hello, AJ. Your man's working wonders on Mr. Silent Punchy Punchy over there. Hadn't seen him move in a few days."
E filled Randy in on everything Punk had said. Quickly, shock covered their faces as Milan had put Punk into a submission. Punk was on Milan's shoulder's, his back against the back of Milan's head. Milan used one arm to pull Punk's legs. In his other hand he squeezed Punk's wrists together pulling them forward, straining his shoulders. He was basically bending Punk backwards behind his head.
"I'm not going to use any full strength. Wouldn't want to hurt you." Milan said, putting Punk down.
"OW." Punk said, stretching. "I'm a little afraid to ask but do you have an actual non-submission mission."
"Oh yeah. Combo. Left uppercut followed by a right hook. Knock's em down. I could pin. I could put em in an armbar. Up to me."
"You seem really MMA based." Randy said. He was amused. Milan shrugged.
"I have an idea. Me and Mr. Punk over there VS E and Milan." Randy said, not taking no for an answer as he climbed into the ring.
"I wanna ref!" AJ said happily.
Soon enough, a full blown match was underway. E had started against Randy to give the other two a break, as they had just finished their own sparring match. A few minutes in, two failed pins and three switches had led to Milan locking up with Randy. Milan had made the mistake of pushing Randy away, who turned it into an RKO and pinned. AJ slid it ever so energetically, slapping the mat, only twice, almost three times as Milan kicked out and Randy moved away.
E was reaching out as far as he could but was no where near being tagged. However, Milan rolled on to his stomach and lunged toward the corner. Using his height and explosiveness, he was able to slap E's hand and roll out of the ring all at once.
"Holy shit." Randy muttered, hands on his hips.
After what seemed like ages, a draw was called and the five people in the ring sat down on the mat. Out of pure silence, E speaks.
"Let's form a team." No one really knew what he meant. "You heard Stephanie this morning. The company's in shut down for a while. Everything is changing. Kofi and Xavier wanna go out on their own. Let em. Me and Milan did work. We could be good together. All five of us...we could change the company. Lord knows with the brands re-combining there's gonna be new champions. Who said we can't take them for ourselves? AJ's got the women's division covered. Easily. Me and Milan...there's your tag-team. Randy and Punk...one of you can go for the grand gold and one of you can gather up the US Title and the Intercontinental Title. That's the whole thing. Right there. People are better in groups, right? Look, don't even think about it as an opportunity to boost your own career. You'd be starting Milan's too. You heard him, management isn't doing anything with him. Without being part of something he'd probably be released. We're stuck in Philly until a new show pops up. Lord knows when that'll be. We have time. We can meet in this gym every night and work. No one could stop us."
It was silent. They weren't going to say it, but AJ and Milan were all for it. Punk looked at AJ and understood she loved the idea. If he knew she was comfortable with it, he was all for it. The only question was Randy.
"Stephanie would never allow it." He said.
"I'll take care of Stephanie." AJ replied cooly. She and her husband winked at each other. Punk knew exactly what she meant.
The room sunk into silence again. "You can have the Universal title. I'm not cut out for that anymore. That's all you. I'd much rather be a unanimous...all of the world champion? I mean US and Intercontinental is like all of it..." Punk said, looking at Randy. Randy smiled and reached out his hand, which Punk gladly shook. No one knew how or why Randy was E's sparring partner, but they were happy about it.
Around 1 AM they had all gone back to the hotel and Milan had gone back to his apartment. Turns out, he was born and raised in Philadelphia. In the elevator, AJ pressed a button for a floor none of them were on. "Stephanie and Hunter have a deluxe room up there. I'll get her on our side."
"She's probably asleep, AJ." Randy said. "But it's worth a shot."
One by one, the elevator offloaded, first Randy, then E, and then Punk. Before Punk left, his kissed his wife. "You play dirty. Just like me." He grinned and left the elevator.
The doors shut and AJ quickly removed her coat and her shirt and tucked it into her bag. She was now wearing yoga pants and a sports bra, and she was freezing. The elevator reached Stephanie's floor and AJ looked for the room number. Sure enough, light was flooding out from under the door. Stephanie was awake.
AJ knocked and quickly heard a soft "come in". She found Stephanie in the office of the room. She was sitting in a cheap office chair, hunched over what looked like a schedule.
"Hello, AJ." She said.
"Where's Hunter?"
"He left for New York in the evening. He has to meet with our lawyer. I didn't want to go with him."
AJ walked over the desk, dropping her bag along the way. She sat on the edge, looking down at her boss. Sorrowfully, she spoke. "Why would Vince do this?"
"I don't know AJ. I don't even think his lawyer knows. Look, what do you need?"
"I wanted to run something by you. Hunter probably wouldn't...approve."
A few minutes later, Stephanie was lost. She had even searched through a large file, and sure enough, Milan Tafara was under contract and receiving pay. "I could never allow something like that without a creative team. Or Hunter."
"Nobody has to know...about anything." AJ said, seductively. She stood up and walked behind Stephanie's chair and started rubbing her shoulders. She leaned down and whispered in her ear. "You know what I can do...to you. I've done it before. I'll do it again."
"Please."
Minutes later Stephanie came, screaming AJ's name. "Is that a yes?" AJ asked. All Stephanie could do was nod.
AJ happily skipped out of the office, picking up her bag along the way. She left the room and hummed to herself all the way down to the elevator. She walked into her own room, where Punk was waiting.
"How'd it go?"
"I made her scream?"
"Kinda like what I'm about to make you do?"
"Yes."
AJ was in Punk's arms. She could only say one more thing before she was busy doing other things.
"We have a team."
Should I continue? Review please.