October 16, 2011
Monday Night Raw
Since they weren't airing live from Mexico City they were taping the show on Sunday so that it could air on Monday in America. Punk was dreading having to return to work. Punk walked into the backstage area at the arena. He didn't even bother finding a road agent to ask what he was scheduled for. He felt sorry for whoever he ended up in the ring with. While he was depressed as hell about the situation with John he also felt the need to kick some serious ass.
Punk walked into the locker room and the first thing he saw was John staring at him from across the room. Punk stepped forward towards John but then Punk looked to John's right. Hardy was dressing in front of the locker next to John's. Punk turned his back on both of them and took an empty locker on the opposing row so he didn't have to look at them.
Punk dressed quickly and made his way to the monitor bay to finally find a road agent, only to discover that he hadn't been scheduled for a match that night. He had to haul his extremely reluctant ass to Mexico and he was going to be forced to sit on the sidelines. He turned on his heel to walk back to the locker room, change, and try to get the first flight back home to Chicago when his arms were grabbed on both sides. Melina had one arm and Triple H had the other.
"Where do you think you're going? Triple H asked while guiding Punk to a seat.
"Laurinaitis didn't even schedule me for a match. I wish I would have known that before I flew all the way out here."
"They make me come to Raw even though I'm barely in front of the camera these days," Melina said with clear irritation.
"This is the WWE. Just because you're not scheduled for a match doesn't mean we can't raise a little hell. Let's turn the tables on Miz and Truth and see how much they like it."
Triple H and Melina sat with Punk between them. Punk felt like he was being babysat by the two most unlikely people ever. He was staring at the monitors, praying for the show to start soon so the time he would get to leave was that much closer. He heard other people entering the room but he kept his gaze fixed so he didn't have to see anything that would make him physically ill. His eyes were starting to glaze over from staring without blinking for so long. Someone stepped in front of him and he blinked to remove the haziness.
"Phil, please…"
"Don't Phil him. Walk away Cena."
"I need to talk to Phil and who are you to tell me to walk away from him!"
"I'm his tag team partner, and from what I've heard and seen it doesn't seem like you're anything to Punk anymore. Just go back to your boy toy."
Punk couldn't help but watch as John walked away, he didn't just walk away from Punk to another area of the room but left the monitor bay completely. Still looking in the direction John left he saw Hardy, dressed for competition, walk past the bay in the direction of the arena entrance.
"John told me to tell you that he would get in a couple of hits for you. Apparently Laurinaitis is trying to sacrifice him on the altar of Hardy," Melina said contemptuously.
John came out first but when Hardy's music rang through the arena the crowd went wild. Punk just felt like throwing up. They had a good match, both men showing off their more acrobatic style of wrestling, but unfortunately, Hardy came out the victor.
Punk was seething. He looked behind him only to see that John had re-entered the room and was in a heated conversation with Randy. He saw Hardy walking towards John and Randy. All he could see was red. Maybe Phil could spend his days depressed and barely eating and sleeping over the loss of John, but CM Punk didn't put up with this shit.
Punk flew out of his seat and speared Hardy so hard that they both went flying back into the hallway. Punk jammed his knee into Hardy's side making sure to put pressure on his kidney. He started throwing punches left and right, finding that once he started hitting Hardy he didn't want to stop until the man was unconscious. He felt several hands trying to pull him off Hardy but he struggled against them and managed to hit him a few more times before they had him pushed against the wall.
Punk looked up into the smiling face of John Laurinaitis, "Punk, my office, now!"
The security guards led him to Laurinaitis' office and Punk sat down with a smile on his face. He didn't care how much trouble he was going to get into, that had felt way too good.
"Well, you lasted longer than I thought you would. I was sure that you would have decked him in the locker room the first time you saw him," Laurinaitis said smugly.
"I already knew you had re-signed him. You really should be more careful of having your conversations out in the open."
"At least you managed to restrain yourself until after his big re-debut."
"My mistake, I should have beat the shit out of him last week when I saw him. I have no idea why I waited this long. If you don't schedule me for a match then I'll just have to make my own fun."
"You want a match do you? How about you take on Miz tonight?"
"Fine with me. I don't care if Miz comes out with an entire marching band; he's getting his ass handed to him in the ring tonight."
"Someone one woke up this morning feeling cocky."
"Not at all, but just the sight of Hardy makes my blood boil, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that, that's why you hired him after all isn't it?"
"My hiring practices are of no concern to you. You better get ready; you're on after the girls. You better get used to the mid-card because you won't be seeing a main event for a long time."
"You can keep your gaudy belt; I rather just kick Miz's teeth down his throat."
"Good luck with that, now get the hell out of my office."
Punk stepped back into the hallway and Triple H was outside waiting for him.
"Are you suspended again?"
"No, just scheduled for a match against Miz. I'm glad; I could stand a little violence about now."
"You do realize that where Miz goes Truth follows."
"Isn't it lucky that I have such a bloodthirsty tag team partner?"
"That you do."
"I don't need you to come out like a valet or anything but if Truth accompanies him, feel free to crash the party."
"Compare me to a valet again and I'm going to Pedigree you on something hard, like a concrete parking barrier. God, I don't know how anyone stomachs you over a long period of time. Thank god Vengeance is a week away. Hopefully we can walk away with a win and then I'll never have to look at your pointy face again."
"And stay away from you, I couldn't bear the separation."
"After we win the match pick a guy, any guy on the roster, and I'll hit them with a sledgehammer until they agree to be your boyfriend, anything to get you away from me. The girls won't be out there for long, let's just go wait by the ring entrance and feel free not to speak. One more word and I'll leave you out there to get double-teamed constantly."
The girls finished up and Punk's music played through the arena. He stepped out onto the ramp and the crowd went wild. The volume of the cheering was much louder than it had been for Hardy. Punk couldn't help but gloat a little.
Miz predictably came out with Truth in tow. Punk took a seat indian style in the middle of the ring, rolling his eyes and yawning with great exaggeration. They tried to get a rise out of him by taking a page from his book and mocking him but Punk could only smile. If they knew what was in store for them they would cue up their remix again and just go back the way they came.
Unfortunately for them the way they came was currently occupied as Triple H's music played through the arena. Did they really think he was going to walk into this match without backup?
The match started and Punk was relentless, eventually causing Miz to evacuate the ring. Punk didn't like that and came flying through the ropes, crashing Miz into the front of the announce table and Punk threw the stunned Miz back into the ring. Punk resumed kicking Miz's ass all over the ring.
Of course that couldn't last and the first time the official's eyes were averted for a second, Miz and Truth took the opportunity to double team him. Triple H jumped in the ring but that only served to distract the official more. Triple H realized he was hindering more than helping and left the ring. By the time the official turned back around Truth was on the other side of the ring.
The match continued and Punk knew he was in trouble when Miz tossed him to the outside. He stood up and saw Miz distracting the official, before he knew what was happening he felt himself hit in the back of the head. He went down but he could hear Triple H running to offer the assist.
Punk was recovering from the hit when he heard Laurinaitis' raspy voice ordering for the match to stop. Laurinaitis was going on and on, something about Triple H's immigration papers? Punk immediately realized that this was all a ruse so he could be left at the mercy of Miz and Truth with no backup.
Punk went full force on Miz in the ring. As long as the action didn't spill outside of the ring and the official kept his eyes on the match it would prevent Truth from interfering. Punk hit a high elbow off the top rope and called for the GTS. Before he could set Miz up Truth jumped on the ring apron. Miz tried to attack him from behind but Punk stepped aside letting Miz's momentum send him crashing into Truth. Punk rolled Miz up and picked up the win.
There wasn't much time to celebrate as Truth jumped in the ring and started to hit him. Eventually Miz got in on the action and they started to beat him down. Additional officials made their way to the ring but Miz and Truth still found an opportunity to each perform their finishing maneuvers on him. As he recovered in the ring, he hoped this wasn't a preview of what Vengeance would be like, but under Laurinaitis' leadership he really couldn't expect much.
Punk eventually made his way backstage and on his way past the monitor bay he saw Randy sitting between John and Hardy. None of them looked very happy. Hardy noticed Punk watching and smirked at Punk like he was the one who had just beaten Punk down in the ring. Punk just smirked back; after all, he wasn't the one holding a bag of ice to his cheek.
Punk continued on to the locker room which was empty. Punk sat down and began to untape his wrists. His wraps were stained orange. Miz really needed to lay off the spray tan. Punk stripped off his gear, grabbed a towel, and made his way to the last shower stall to wash away the sweat and Miz's horrible spray tan.
Punk was relaxing his muscles under the spray when two arms came around him like a vise. Punk struggled and when he felt the person bury their face in his neck he began struggling more. Of course John would follow him in here, Triple H was gone and Melina couldn't accompany him into the men's locker room.
Punk struggled free of John's arms and turned around, backing into the shower wall so John couldn't pin him down again. John just followed him further into the shower soaking his clothes.
"Are you out of your mind! You can't just bust in on someone while they're in the shower. Anyone could walk in!"
"I locked the door."
"Even better, barricade yourself in the locker room with me."
Punk moved to step around John but he wouldn't let him pass. John tried to wrap his arms around him again but Punk stealthily sidestepped him and walked back into the locker room, pulling on his street clothes, not even bothering to dry off.
"Phil, please…"
"Don't you even dare! You lost the right to call me that. And what makes you even think you can touch me after doing god knows what with Jeff Hardy!"
"Phil, please, listen to me, nothing happened!"
"I don't define what I walked in on as nothing. You and I are through. I hope you and your Jeff are very happy together," Punk replied nastily.
Punk started to pack his gear when he heard John start to sniffle and his breath hitching. Was John crying? Punk's resolve started to weaken and he reached out a hand to touch John's shoulder. His movement halted when someone tried to open the door and then started banging on the locked door.
"John, are you in there?"
Punk would recognize that drawl anywhere. He unlocked the door and Hardy came stumbling in, Randy hot on his heels. Both men were shocked at the state John was in.
"I don't care what Laurinaitis does to me, I am so out of here." Punk turned to Hardy as he was walking out, "He's all yours. Lovely bruise by the way," and Punk walked out of the locker room. He stopped when he heard Randy yell.
"Phil, wait, I'm coming with you."
Punk waited impatiently as Randy grabbed his gear and then they walked out of the arena, catching a cab back to the hotel.
"Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure."
"I'll meet you in your room. I just need to raid my mini-bar first. I would raid yours but I don't think the WWE would want charges for mini bottles of vodka on the bill of their straight edge superstar."
"I'm in room 820."
Punk went up to his room, changing out of his damp clothes. He answered the knock on his door and let Randy in.
"Well, John's not speaking to me now."
"What did you do?"
"I laid into him about fucking up the best thing in his life over Jeff Hardy. Obviously, I wouldn't know about that unless I heard it from you. He started questioning me about what you had said and I straight up told him that I wasn't going to play telephone for him and that I told you all about his and Hardy's past relationship. He was not very pleased."
"Then what were you doing sitting between them earlier tonight?"
"It was my attempt to save John from himself but he's a big boy, if he wants to screw his fucking life up that's all on him. What exactly did you do to him in that locker room anyway? He was soaking wet and the look on his face…"
"He busted in on me while I was in the shower."
"Fully clothed? That seems pretty desperate. You must have said something to him; he looked like someone had just died."
"I broke it off with him. He and Hardy deserve each other."
"I'm not denying what you saw, but are you sure it means what you think it does? Jeff Hardy is capable of almost anything you know and I've never seen John look so destroyed."
Punk didn't respond to Randy's question, he just walked to the window and stared out into the night unseeing. He was heartbroken and his career was in shambles. Maybe he should have never returned to the WWE, maybe he should have just walked away from the company and everyone in it.