Chapter 7: Her Knight in Shining Armor
*Author's Note: Same note as the previous six chapters…*
May 4th, 2010: Smackdown tapings in North Charleston, North Carolina
Welcome to North Charleston, South Carolina, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Todd Grisham and this is Matt Striker and this is Smackdown! Now for a recap of last week's episode: Jack Swagger debuts his new arm candy in the form of the beautiful Katona and has since begun his misogynic treatment of her. Now Matt, the questions on everyone's mind are how the two of them became an item, and more importantly, why the heck is she being treated this way?
I think Swagger needed a beautiful young lady to amp up his champion image, to show that not only did he obtain the world title, but was able to conquer the heart of the most wanted Diva on Smackdown. But his inflating ego could be a possible cause of his mistreatment of the lovely Katona. Anyway, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger is set to face the Guru of Greatness John Morrison in a non-title match tonight. The main event, on the other hand, will be Rey Mysterio and the Big Show vs CM Punk and Luke Gallows in a tag team match. I have a funny feeling Serena and that mystery SES member will be involved in that match-up.
Of course The Straight Edge Society will always have each others' backs; Serena has been a distraction to either Punk's or Gallows' opponents and helping her fellow teammates pick up several wins over the past couple of weeks. Speaking of Divas, another match on the program tonight will be Katona and Gail Kim vs. Team Laycool in a tag team match. Katona and Gail Kim are Smackdown's newest female acquirements from RAW thanks to the annual draft. This will be Gail's first match and Katona's second on Smackdown. Last week Katona was able to defeat Michelle McCool thanks to her buddies Tiffany and Natalya coming out and taking out McCool's devious accomplices, Layla and Vickie Guerrero.
Also on the card tonight will be MVP vs Ted DiBiase, JTG vs Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston vs Drew McIntyre, as well as The Hart Dynasty vs Caylen Croft and Trent Barreta. That will be all for tonight.
Todd and Matt's commentary was followed by the sound of Jack Swagger's entrance music. The whole arena erupted in boos and hisses. Signs that read colorfully insulting anti-Swagger slogans that varied from, 'Thwagger Thucks', 'Thwagger hath a THpeech impediment', and 'Swagger = LOSER CHAMPION' popped up from the crowd. There, making his way down to the ring, was Jack Swagger, accompanied by his beautiful girlfriend-turned-servant Katona, who looked stunningly pretty in an ruffled pink blouse and dark skinny jeans, her loosely curled hair hanging off her shoulders. A slim yellow headband was placed in her golden brown hair. She looked as though she wasn't very happy with her boyfriend and was staring at the title belt wrapped around Swagger's waist with disdain.
Swagger made his way down the ramp, ignoring the fans that threw insults at him. Katona, on the other hand, hi-fived some of the fans that had held their hands outstretched for her, as she was a fan favorite instead of a heel like her boyfriend. Swagger waited till his girlfriend had arrived, and lowered the bottom rope for her to climb in between the bottom and second ropes. As Katona reluctantly crawled in between the ropes, he slapped her butt playfully, earning himself a threatening glare from her. He shrugged and asked her to get a microphone from the announcer's table. She huffed off and did as she was told.
"Welcome back to the weekly segment of Jack Swagger's Championship State of Address," drawled Swagger. He was returned with boos and insults from the audience.
"I would like to address the importance of my epic win almost a month ago," continued Swagger, speaking loudly over the hissing crowd, "as I remember telling you, I cashed in my Money in the Bank and defeated Chris Jericho to become your new champion. That moment is not just one of the many cashing-ins of the Money in the Bank. Many others before me have accomplished a similar feat like I have – Rob Van Dam (the crowd cheered), CM Punk (the crowd booed), Edge (more boos from the crowd) – but none of them, none of them were as memorable as mine. I took the fastest time out of all these men to cash in my opportunity. I made the wait for all of you over–"
Suddenly, John Morrison's entrance music blasted throughout the arena, and the fans, having been forced to sit through what felt like hours and hours of listening to Swagger's lecture on how he was special from everyone else, got up on their seats and cheered as loud as they could. The cheers amplified even louder when the Shaman of Sexy himself, John Morrison, emerged from behind the Titantron, signaling to the crowd and posing his signature pose in slow motion. John made his way down to the ring, hi-fiving fans and giving away his sunglasses to some random lucky kid in the front row wearing a John Cena shirt.
Katona, whose expression immediately brightened up when John made his appearance, gazed at him in awe. Her depressing frown had changed into a cheerful smile. She looked completely different from the Katona who had accompanied Jack Swagger during his entrance. She looked just like the beautiful, sweet, bubbly Katona that everyone loved. It was rather impressive how she had changed so dramatically all of a sudden.
John entered the ring between the second and top rope, a microphone in his hand. He gave a kind and sweet look to Katona and then glanced at the gold belt wrapped around Swagger's waist.
The music slowly faded as John prepared to speak.
"Hey Swagger," said John into the microphone, "we hear you. We get it. You're the World Heavyweight Champion. We know you happened to be at the right place at the right time when Edge speared Jericho, leaving him in a vulnerable state. We all saw that. We all got it. But do you really have to repeat yourself over, and over, and over again? Week after week after week?"
To back him up, the crowd cheered.
"It was none of your business to interrupt my championship state of address, Morrison," said Swagger, "as the World Heavyweight Champion, I have the power to do whatever I want on this show."
"Um, that's not exactly your job, since you're a Superstar and not the General Manager," John pointed out, "your job is to hold that title until someone who's more awesome than you takes it away from you and return it where it belongs – anywhere but on your waist."
"I won my title fair and square, Morrison," said Swagger, "I beat Chris Jericho–"
"Yeah we know. All it took for you was one little gutwrench powerbomb to win that title. Swagger, a true champion doesn't win his belt because somebody else already did the hard work for you," said John, "a true champion doesn't bore people to death with their 'state of addresses'. A true champion entertains the people by defending his belt against challengers. And lastly, a true champion would never mistreat a beautiful woman the way you did with her (John turned to Katona, who looked up hopefully at him) last week."
Jack looked extremely insulted and was about to punch him when Katona stepped in between the two of them, trying to persuade Swagger not to beat the crap out of him. John laid a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. She blushed. Sadly, Swagger had to ruin that cute little moment by shoving her aside. This made Morrison extremely infuriated. He tossed his fancy coat aside and began brawling with Swagger in the ring. Katona grabbed Morrison's coat and quickly cleared the ring to go sit by the announcers' table.
Katona watched, sitting on a steel chair by ringside as she watched the two men taking it out on each other in the ring. Swagger had Morrison in a chinlock, which Morrison was able to counter. Swagger missed a clothesline and in retaliation, Morrison jumped up and hit Swagger with a corkscrew flying elbow. Morrison then performed a 180 degree spin flare and executed a leg drop onto Swagger's enormous chest. Swagger wrenched in pain as Morrison taunted him with a pose. Morrison pulled Swagger off the ground and Swagger saw this as an opportunity to counter him with a jawbreaker. As Morrison nursed his jaw, Swagger threw him into the corner with an Irish whip. Swagger began running towards a cornered Morrison and missed – Morrison had slipped through the bottom rope just in time before Swagger could launch himself at him and exited the ring, heading over to where Katona was watching. He flashed Katona a dazzling smile and she giggled flirtatiously. But then her expression changed as she tried to warn Morrison of an oncoming attack from behind by Swagger.
WHAM.
Too late; Morrison had been struck in the back and was now in a vulnerable position. Swagger lifted Morrison up from the ground and slammed him into the metal ring post. Katona gasped as Swagger threw Morrison, who was writhing in pain from his shoulder, back into the ring and he soon followed He positioned Morrison in front of one of the corner turnbuckles and prepared to hit a bodyslam. Luckily, Morrison was able to roll out of the way in time, so Swagger ended up missing his target. Morrison then took this as a chance to hit Swagger with the Starship Pain, but Swagger, too managed to get out the way, so Morrison ended up landing on his feet and staggered before getting hit by a scoop slam by Swagger. Swagger went in for the three count, but Morrison kicked out at two. Swagger punched the mat in frustration and kicked Morrison in the gut, then set him up for the gutwrench powerbomb. Just as Swagger was about to slam Morrison into the mat, Morrison slipped out the way and shoved him before hitting his signature Flying Chuck, a springboard roundhouse kick.
It appeared as though Morrison was going to win the match, but only ended up getting a near-fall when Swagger kicked out just before three. Morrison hit Swagger with a standing moonsault, but that still wasn't enough to take out his 6'6'' opponent. Morrison ran towards the ropes, rebounded off the ropes and hit Swagger with a running knee to Swagger's temple, went for a pin, but still got a two count. Clearly frustrated at his opponent's resistance, Morrison walked over to the ropes that were nearest to the announcer's table, and rehabilitated for a short moment whilst gazing into the eyes of the lovely Katona, who was watching him in admiration. By the time Morrison turned around, he was struck in the gut by Swagger, who hit him with a gutwrench powerbomb.
The audience cheered loudly as Swagger unsuccessfully pinned Morrison, who was showing great fortitude in his fight. Swagger decided to lock in his new signature move, an ankle lock. Morrison writhed in pain, struggling to reach the ropes. After two minutes, Morrison finally managed to grab on to the ropes, breaking the submission hold. However, Swagger wasn't going to let his opponent get away from a rope break. He still clutched onto Morrison's ankle, despite the referee constantly ordering him to let go of Morrison's ankle. Finally, after counting to five, the referee signaled the bell keeper for a disqualification to Swagger.
"Here is your winner by disqualification, John Morrison!" shrilled the ring announcer, Tony Chimel.
Several referees rushed over to Swagger and managed to break him away from Morrison. Katona, concerned for the injured Morrison, rushed over to his side and nursed him. He gazed into her beautiful sea green eyes as she was making sure he was alright. He smiled as she laid a gentle hand on his injured ankle. Meanwhile, Swagger, who had been restrained by several referees, had finally calmed down and exited the ring, yelling at Katona to come back to him. Katona hesitated for a moment with a disappointed expression on her face, assured Morrison that she would be back for him, and exited the ring, his hand still interlaced with hers and reluctantly letting go, joining the World Heavyweight Champion up on the stage.
