The WWE SmackdownLive roster were relaxing backstage, with a few hours before the live show was scheduled to begin. Some roster members were out by the ring, preparing for whatever match they had scheduled for that day's show; some were enjoying the catering provided, so they had energy for in front of the live crowd; one Austin Creed, a.k.a. Xavier Woods, was playing some video games to pass the time, and recording his gameplay. As the resident gamer of the roster, Austin was given the opportunity to host WWE's own gaming YouTube channel, UpUpDownDown. Now, over three years down the line, the channel was close to one and a half million subscribers.

Whilst Austin played, through the doorway, his tag team partner, Kofi Kingston, peeked in and saw Austin recording. Smirking as a devilish thought came to his mind, he looked right at the camera and placed a finger against his lips. He walked away from the open door, glancing around the room until his eyes saw his other tag partner, Big E. Walking up to the bigger man, he patted him on the shoulder to get him to turn around.

"Oh, hey, Kofi," he greeted, raising an eyebrow when he saw the Ghanaian-man's smirk, "what are you up to?"

"You know what day it is, right, E?" He asked. Big E thought for a second, then nodded. "Well… I happened to notice Austin's recording, with his headphones on." E looked at him, confused, but when he put two and two together, he grew a smirk that matched his tag partner's. "Now you're getting it! Alright, so here's the plan!"

He cupped a hand over his mouth, and whispered into E's ear. Both men nodded, and put their plan into action. They both walked towards the open door, making sure that if Austin turned around, they wouldn't be seen. Kofi lowered himself to the ground, and crawled into the room as slowly as possible, hiding himself behind the couch Austin was sat at. Looking back, Kofi saw Big E stick his head into sight. He gave the larger man a nod, and while Kofi crawled around the couch, Big E entered.

"Hey, Austin!" Big E spoke, prompting Austin to turn his head around.

"What's up, E?" He greeted back.

"Have you seen Rusev anywhere? He was supposed to be challenging me at UFC 3 for the channel."

"Can't say I have. Maybe he's at the cafeteria?"

"It's cool, I'll find him later."

Although E had a slight smirk, Austin simply shrugged it off. As he turned around to continue gaming, Kofi leapt up at him, screaming "GOTCHO!". This caused Austin to scream, jumping back and falling over the couch. Had the controller been connected to it, he would have probably pulled the console out of its set. As Austin recovered, rubbing the small of his back, Kofi and E were laughing their asses off, with Kofi lying on the couch, while E was leaning against the doorframe.

"APRIL FOOLS, BABY!" Kofi laughed. Austin looked at him, angry and exasperated.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He gasped, still trying to calm his pulse. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"Aw, lighten up, Austin! It's April Fools Day!" Kofi grabbed the camera, and held it so that it was filming Austin's reaction. "Your face is priceless, man!"

"And, hey," Big E added, "now you've got something to put on the channel!"

"You guys are-" Austin stopped, his face turning thoughtful. "Wait a minute." Ideas began to form in his head, which made E and Kofi look at him oddly. He put a hand to his chin, a grin forming. "Hmm…" He stood up, looking first to E, then back to Kofi. "You're right. It is April Fools Day… and who better than us to cause some April Fools havoc?"

Big E and Kofi glanced at each other, their grins growing, before they looked back to Austin. "What did you have in mind?" E asked.

Austin was going to answer, but they heard the door in the adjoining room open. Looking through the doorway, they saw Rusev enter, talking on his phone. He sat down at a chair in the corner, never looking in the direction of any of The New Day members. They both looked back to Austin.

"Alright. Stay in here, and let me handle this one." They nodded. Austin made his way out of the room, closing the door enough for the other two to watch without being caught. As he walked towards Rusev, the Bulgarian man noticed, lifting his head to meet his gaze. "Hey," he said, low enough so as not to disturb the phone call too much, "you got a second?"

Rusev lifted a finger to tell him to wait. "Can I call you back?" He spoke through the phone. "I have to take care of something… Alright, I'll call you later. Bye, bye." He hung up the phone, slipping it into his pocket, before looking back to Austin. "What's going on? Am I supposed to be doing a video with you today?"

"No, nothing like that. I just bumped into AJ, he wants to run through your match with him later."

Rusev blinked, confused. "What match?"

"You know, your match later. You're challenging for the WWE title in the main event later, remember?"

"Austin, what are you talking about? I have a tag match with English against Breezango, I'm not in the main event."

"Well, that's what AJ told me."

"When did he tell you this?"

"It was about," he glanced up at the clock, "two minutes ago. He was headed towards the production booth, and he wanted you to meet him there."

Sighing, Rusev got to his feet. "Guess I better go and sort this out. Thanks for letting me know."

Austin smiled. "No problem." As Rusev exited the room in search of AJ, Austin's smile turned into a sneer, looking towards the door Kofi and E were behind, and gestured for them to come out, which they did. Kofi still had the camera in his hand, having recorded the whole conversation. "Alright. We've got a small window." He walked towards one of the tables, and grabbed two bottles of Mountain Dew from it. "Take one each and get shaking. When he comes back through, open up and let loose." They both started to laugh in anticipation as Austin chucked them each a bottle. While Kofi and E stood behind the door, which Rusev carelessly left open, Austin took the camera from Kofi and positioned it discreetly, before sitting down where Rusev would see him. It wasn't long before he spotted Rusev coming down the hall towards them. He gave E and Kofi a nod to prepare them, before looking back towards Rusev. "So, did you find him?"

"He wasn't there, and when I asked management, they told me you were mistaken. It's like I said, I've got a tag match later. What were you talking about?"

As soon as he said this, Kofi and Big E jumped out and opened their readily shaken Mountain Dews, covering the Bulgarian Lion in the green liquid. He gasped, both from shock and from the cold drink being poured all over him, while the other three all burst out laughing. Austin grabbed the camera, making sure to get an up close of Rusev's reaction, before the three of them fled the scene, the angry Bulgarian screaming at them.

"Alright," Austin spoke, directing the camera towards himself, "that's our first target. So… who's next?"


TARGET B: CARMELLA

Austin led Carmella into the room where he had been gaming before. He had asked the Staten Islander if she wanted to appear on UpUpDownDown, to which she had agreed. He sat her down, and positioned the camera so it was facing the two of them, although he didn't tell her that it was already filming. "Okay," he explained, "so, before we begin, we need to do a sound check, to make sure that the microphone is working. That alright?" She nodded. "Okay, so just repeat after me. Ahhh."

She took a quick breath, before going, "ahhh," just like he had. He looked at his laptop, then frowned as he looked back at her.

"Okay, so it didn't quite pick that up. Give me one second." He grabbed the microphone from the desk, and adjusted the settings on it, before putting it back down. "Okay, it should work this time. Try again."

"Alright." She took a breath again, and went "ahhh" right into the microphone. Again, he looked at the laptop.

"Nope. Still nothing." She gave a mild huff out of irritation. "Alright, let me try something else." He moved the microphone closer towards him and Carmella. "One more time." After he went "ahhh", she went "ahhh" as well. When he glanced towards his laptop, he gave a weak smile this time. "Okay, we've got something. You just need to be louder, okay?"

"How much louder?" She complained. He gave a couple of laughs, causing her to roll her eyes. "Fine."

She closed her eyes, and took a deeper breath, looking towards the camera and going "ahhhh!"

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Two voices screamed from behind the TV, causing Carmella to scream as two people leapt up at her. When she heard their screams turn to laughter, however, she looked and realised that it was Big E and Kofi, who were now giving each other a hi five. She turned towards Austin, breathing heavily. When she saw he was laughing, and he showed her that his laptop wasn't even on, she scowled at him. "You jerks!" She slapped him on the arm. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

"APRIL FOOLS, MELLA!" Kofi, Big E and Austin all shouted, before fleeing the scene, laughing while the fuming Carmella glared at them, screaming obscenities.


TARGET C: BARON CORBIN

Kofi set the camera up in the hallway near the production room, made sure it was filming, and took a step back. "Okay, so, Baron Corbin is finishing up his map," he explained to the camera. "He's gonna be back here any minute, and when he does, I'm going to 'congratulate him'." He used finger quotes to emphasise his point, then reached into his pocket. "Or, at least, that's what he thinks I'm going to do. What's actually going to happen," he pulled out a piece of paper, "is stick this on his back." He held the paper up, so the camera could see that it read 'spank me'. "Once this is on his back, we'll follow him around for a bit and, well… let's just see what happens." As he said that, he heard Baron's music play. "Okay, his match is up. Fingers crossed, guys!"

He grabbed the camera, and placed it somewhere more discreet, before taking his position on one of the production crates, putting the paper in his pocket and pulling his phone out, so that it looked like he had been doing something all along. It was only another couple of minutes before Corbin exited the production booth. Kofi quickly stood up, placing his phone in his pocket while he smiled at the Kansas native.

"Hey, Corbin!" He greeted, holding a hand out for a high five. "Good match out there!"

"Thanks, Kofi," he responded, accepting the high five. He was a bit confused when he felt Kofi pat him on the back, but simply shrugged it off. As he began to walk away, he missed the knowing grin on Kofi's face, as the Ghanaian-born wrestler went to grab the camera, and slowly followed after him. As he trailed after Corbin, he managed to catch a few other members of the roster noticing the sign on his back. As Corbin passed by Natalya and Tamina, the Canadian got up, snuck up behind Corbin and smacked him on the ass. He quickly stopped and turned around as she retreated, laughing. "What was that about?" He called out, but she didn't reply.

He shook his head and continued to walk towards the water cooler at the end of the hall, where Big E and Austin were stood either side of. They each gave him a nod as he approached, grabbing a cup and proceeding to fill it up. E and Austin looked down the hall, seeing Kofi give them the signal, before they both slapped his ass at the same time, causing him to spill water over himself. He gave each of them a glare, ready to yell at them, before he felt another slap on his ass.

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT! WHO'S IDEA IS-" He shouted, turning around in a huff, before he came face to face with Mark Henry, who was a member of the production team. Corbin quickly calmed himself. "Mister Henry, sir."

"Check your back, boy," Henry told him, walking away straight after. After hearing this, Corbin felt around his back before he found the note. Pulling it off and looking at it, he scowled, not noticing Big E and Austin laughing as they walked away.

"KOFI!" He shouted.

Kofi turned the camera to point at him. "And that's my cue to leave."

"GET BACK HERE!" Corbin shouted, giving chase to the laughing Kofi.


TARGET D: JINDER MAHAL

It was Big E's turn with the camera. "Time for our final prank. As you can see," he pointed the camera around the room, "we are in the production booth. After convincing some of the production staff to let us do this- and a small bit of bribery on their part- we have decided that one Jinder Mahal, who is about to take on Bobby Roode, needs a little something to make his entrance stand out. Perhaps… a new song! Now, when he goes out there, it'll start as his original track, but then… I've decided to play something that I'm 'sure he'll love'."

E proceeded to hide himself behind one of the production tables, using the camera to film Jinder as he made his way into the booth. He waited for the crew to play his entrance music, before walking through the curtain. This allowed Big E to step out and move behind the curtain, filming Jinder as he did his pose on the stage. As he was about to make his way down the ramp, however, the music changed from his usual track to Mundian To Bach Ke by Punjabi MC. As the crowd burst into laughter at this, Jinder stopped and began fuming. Big E knew he would likely come back to see what was going on, so he quickly made his exit.

"And that," E spoke to the camera, pointing it at his face while he ran, "is how The New Day does April Fools. Thank you for watching, and as always, keep it tight."


Later in the night, The New Day were competing in the main event in a six-man tag-team match alongside WWE Champion AJ Styles, against their respective opponents at Wrestlemania, Smackdown Tag Team Champions, The Usos, And Shinsuke Nakamura. The match was quite long, but soon reached its end as AJ hit Jey Uso with the Phenomenal Forearm and pinned him for the three-count. As the bell rang, and the ring announcer announced the result, AJ and The New Day began to celebrate. However, this celebration was cut short when they heard Rusev's music hit, followed by Rusev, Baron and Jinder appearing on the stage with microphones in their hands.

"New Day!" Rusev spoke first, leading the way to the ring. "We've got a bone to pick with you!"

"Did you really think we'd let you do what you've done and get away free?" Jinder added.

"You thought it'd be a good idea to humiliate us, huh?" Baron spoke next. "Play a few pranks, get a few laughs at our expense? Well, let me tell you something." They reached the ring and stepped up to the apron. "You picked the wrong people to do that to."

Kofi, Big E and Austin got into fighting positions, while AJ slipped out of the ring. Baron, Jinder and Rusev stuck one leg through the ropes, ready to climb through… before backing out. "Nah! We're just kidding!" Rusev smiled as he said this. "Happy April Fools, you three!"

They looked at him, confused for a second. What they didn't know, was that Carmella had crept through the crowd and into the ring with a bucket. Picking it up, she poured out the green slime that was in the bucket all over the three of them, much to their surprise. The crowd, unsurprisingly, loved it, clapping, cheering and chanting 'Rusev Day'. Carmella quickly fled the ring, giving Rusev, Jinder and Baron a high five each as they headed up the ramp. The New Day, still recovering from the shock of being slimed, all had the same thought.

'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.'

HAPPY EASTER! Because, yeah, it's Easter too.