October 10, 2011
Monday Night Raw
John walked into the arena and the place was like a ghost town. On his way to the locker room he passed a door that had Triple H's name on it. He hesitated for a moment wondering if Randy's method of talking to Triple H privately was the way to go. He decided against it and continued on to the locker room. The WWE Universe needed to know that he wasn't going anywhere no matter how much some of them would appreciate his absence.
He walked into the locker room and the only person there was Punk. He was still dressed in his street clothes, staring at his gear that was on the bench beside him. Punk looked up and saw John entering the locker room. He jumped from his seat on the bench and launched himself at John kissing him furiously.
"Not…that I don't…appreciate the warm…welcome but…"
"You're not much of a boyfriend if you need an explanation every time I try to kiss you." Punk backed John against the locker room door, pressing his body to John's and continued kissing him breathless.
They continued to make out like teenagers until John felt the door try to open and heard an Irish accent, "What the hell?"
Punk hurried back to his locker and John opened the door to admit Sheamus. "Sorry, I was leaning against the door."
Sheamus looked at John and then looked at Punk. John detected a slight eye roll from Sheamus, "Uh huh, right."
The three men started dressing but as the time for Raw drew closer they realized that they were going to be the only people showing up tonight. They walked to the monitor bay and sat down, no doubt in their minds that Triple H would be going out to the ring to begin the show, hopefully with an explanation of what they were going to be doing over the next two hours with only four people in attendance.
The title signature started and the show began. Triple H must have found some camera men from somewhere. The camera panned around the ring, the regular ring techs missing along with the entirety of the commentary team. Triple H's music began and they walked as a group to the arena entrance, watching Triple H enter the ring on the monitor on the tech's desk.
Triple H began discussing the circumstances of the walk-out. All this was said with a tinge of frustration but it was mainly delivered with a large amount of derision.
"I don't care if I have to take off this suit, strip down to my tight whities, and get a broomstick in this ring. I'll wrestle a broomstick for two hours. Hell I've wrestled a lot of guys out there in that parking lot; the broomstick will give me a better match than most of them."
The three men waiting at the arena entrance all looked at each other, laughing their asses off. Punk turned around and began to walk away. John pulled him back by his shirt.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To get a broom stick. I really want to see Triple H vs. a cleaning implement."
John just gave Punk a look that conveyed that he needed to take the crazy down a notch.
"Fine, but I'm going to lobby to get that broom stick a match on the next pay-per-view. John, I think it's time you go out there and give one of your patented John Cena pep talks." John's music cued up and he walked into the arena.
"You seemed eager to get rid of him," Sheamus directed at Punk.
"Yeah, I'm having second thoughts about this whole situation. I need John out of the way in case I plan to walk away."
John began his speech, calling Triple H on the carpet for not even making an effort to contact him over the past week. He then ran down the list of completely inept Raw GM's that had preceded Triple H. John affirmed to the fans that there was no way that he was leaving Raw. Mr. 'Hustle, Loyalty, Respect' was definitely in attendance tonight.
Punk looked at Sheamus, "Why don't you go out there next."
"Did you just hear what Cena said? Sure Triple H isn't perfect but that list of previous GM's of Raw is enough to scare my arse onto the arena ramp. Hope to see you out there," and Sheamus walked out into the arena.
Sheamus' argument was that he respected Triple H. His speech was coming dangerously close to ass kissing but Punk had to admit that anyone using the word shenanigans in a sentence got a temporary pass from his mockery.
Punk sucked it up and had his music cued up. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to say out there but he couldn't let this conversation go on without injecting a little reality into the mix.
He stepped into the arena and was greeted with utter confusion followed by raucous applause. He had no doubt that he was the last person the audience expected to show up.
He started out by apologizing for starting this whole mess. He was the one that made walking out look cool when he had absconded with the title. He had no contract or handshake agreement with anyone. His contract expired and he elected to leave the WWE. He couldn't help but deliver a dig to John by calling him a boy scout. John busted out laughing. He asked the question that no one in that ring had thought to bring up yet. Just what the hell were they going to do with the current roster of the WWE being only four guys?
Triple H arranged a match between John and Sheamus, elected himself the referee and set Punk loose on commentary, even allowing Punk use of his blazer. He was asked to ring the bell. Punk walked up to the bell and suddenly realized that, even after years of being in the business, he didn't know how many times to ring the bell. It was pretty embarrassing. He took his place at commentary and the match began. Punk was having fun until music filled the arena, music that Punk hoped never to hear again in his tenure in the WWE. Vince McMahon had returned.
He entered the ring and asked to speak with Triple H personally. Punk was extremely surprised when Vince included him in the thank you's Vince handed out for staying true to the WWE. He, John and Sheamus left ringside and returned back to the monitor bay to watch the conversation between Vince and Triple H.
It appeared that Vince was there to do what Triple H had done to him all those months ago; Triple H was being relieved of his duties running Raw. Vince stated that they were looking for a new GM of Raw but in the interim the board had appointed John Laurinaitis to run Raw and then man himself walked out into the arena. Triple H looked like he wanted to strangle someone.
Punk's head dropped into his hands, this must be what hell feels like. He was so completely screwed. He looked to John and he just shrugged his shoulders. John had predicted this possible outcome prior to the vote of confidence. It had been the sticking point of his argument that prevented Punk from joining the walkout.
Punk, John and Sheamus watched as the roster filed in past them and headed to the locker room to change into their gear. There were quite a few malicious glances thrown their way. After all, they were the only three wrestlers that had crossed the picket line.
During Christian and Morrison's match a road agent walked up to the three men. Both John and Sheamus were done for the night but Punk was scheduled for a main event against del Rio. He had no doubt this was Laurinaitis' ego at work. He was pretty sure that of all the workers that Laurinaitis was in charge of now, he was the one Laurinaitis hated most.
John was not left ignored. Laurinaitis returned to the ring to announce John vs. del Rio for the Championship as the main event at Vengeance. Punk realized with that announcement that he was probably never going to find his way back into the Championship picture with Laurinaitis at the helm.
It was finally time for his match against del Rio. He made his way to the arena entrance but was halted while del Rio made his pretentious entrance into the arena. Punk made his way to the ring to face del Rio.
The match went back and forth until Laurinaitis called a halt to the match. He changed the match making him and del Rio tag team partners. Punk awaited Laurinaitis to announce their opponents with dread.
Laurinaitis had reinstated Miz and Truth. He had no doubt that Laurinaitis had set up this match to punish him personally. He doubted del Rio would have much to do with the actual match besides just standing in the corner looking smug.
Del Rio actually put a little effort into the match, after all Truth and Miz had attacked del Rio as much as they had attacked him at Hell in a Cell.
Del Rio eventually showed his true colors, abandoning Punk in the ring with a, no doubt, fake injury. Punk tried to take them both on but it wasn't long before they were double teaming him constantly. He eventually got the upper hand and set up Miz for the GTS but Truth intervened and Punk found himself being attacked by both men without an official to impede the beatdown.
He knew something was happening when he heard the crowd start to go wild. He rolled to his side and saw Triple H, of all people, attacking Miz and Truth. Punk recovered and they both eventually chased Miz and Truth out the ring and back up the ramp. After playing to the crowd he and Triple H eventually made their way back up the ramp into the backstage area, standing at the entrance was John and he looked like whatever he was about to convey was going to get him hit.
"Laurinaitis just scheduled a match for Vengeance, you two against Miz and Truth. Punk looked at Triple H and they shared a look of shock. Of the entire roster, they were the last two people that needed to be teaming up. Both men just shook their heads and walked away in different directions.
John and Punk walked towards the locker room when Punk stopped a few doors before the locker room.
"I came down wrong on my shoulder during the match. I'm going to get the trainer to massage it out. Why don't you go back to the hotel, I have no idea how long this is going to take."
"If you say so. I'll see you in a few."
Punk was occupied with the trainer for half an hour before he was released feeling better but still a little stiff.
He walked to the locker room. There was one set of luggage besides his that was still left in the room. Punk took a shower and changed into his street clothes.
He packed up his gear, swinging his bag over his shoulder and walked towards the door. It opened before he was halfway out the room, Christian walked in, having a heated conversation on his cell phone.
"Adam, I'm not supposed to talk to him, you remember, you set it up that way. I don't want to be the one to tell him, he's going to kick my head off my shoulders," Christian looked up and saw Punk still in the locker room. His face fell, knowing that Punk had heard the entire conversation that he had been having with Adam.
Punk waited for Christian to end his call, staring a hole in his head until Christian hung up the phone.
"I know I'm not supposed to go near you, so I'll just be on my way."
"You're staying right where you are. That conversation was clearly about me and something you didn't want to tell me, so we're going to stay in this room until you fess up."
"Please don't make me tell you this in person. How about we return to the hotel and I'll text it to you."
"You really don't want to tell me this personally, that can only mean it's something horrible which is not surprising considering my luck these days. Out with it Christian."
"Let me start by saying that I know about you and John but I promise I haven't told anyone."
"And how did you come by this knowledge? Let me guess, Adam? Boy did he turn out to be untrustworthy."
"Adam is very trustworthy but he also can't keep a secret from me if his life depended on it. I would never out you two, I know what it's like to be in a relationship and have to hide it from everyone. There have always been rumors about me and Adam and they just happened to be true."
"If you and Adam are together what the hell was all that with me?"
"Adam had broken up with me. He didn't want to tie me down when he was no longer going to be with the WWE. I was so upset and I wanted to make Adam feel as bad as I did. I tried to use you as my rebound and things got totally out of hand."
"And why did you choose me to be your rebound?"
"Well, we were already friends and have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror. I'm sure there are a lot of other guys on the roster that were planning to try and land you after your promo when you became marginally more approachable. I really want to apologize about the way I acted. I was upset and desperate. That was a rhetorical apology by the way. I don't think I really want to hear your response to that."
"So are you and Adam back together?"
"Yeah. He was really pissed for a while after he found out what I did to you, but I guess the anger was overruled by jealousy. I should probably thank Cena for getting us back together."
"Okay, now that we've gotten that cleared up, let's get back to the main subject here. What were you and Adam saying about me?"
"Adam had called right before the show ended and I found a quiet hallway to talk. When I was walking out the hallway I saw Laurinaitis walking out of his office with a former co-worker of ours. They shook hands and I heard Laurinaitis welcome him back to the WWE."
"And who exactly is coming back?"
"It looks like one of John's scorned ex's is back in the WWE."
AN: I know, cliffhangers are evil. I'm working on the next chapter now so it'll probably be out tomorrow so you won't have to wait that long. I apologize beforehand in turning, probably at least one of my reader's favorite wrestler into a villain. John needed an ex and he was the best choice.
