It's been a long week. There are still growing pains with the draft, Raw and Smackdown fighting back and forth for dominance, and Stephanie's glad to be back at Team Work, booking something without having to run it by Mick Foley or anyone else. Once the night's card is handed off to backstage tech, she sits back and settles in to enjoy the show.
The first match sees Big E, still stinging from everything he'd been put through by The Club, taking it out on Tyler Breeze, avoiding a beauty shot and slamming him backwards, pinning him fairly quickly. The next match is a triple threat women's match with Charlotte vs Nia Jax vs Gail Kim. Charlotte tries to convince Nia to work with her against Gail, clearly missing Dana Brooke's presence, and it seems to work... for a few minutes... before Nia gets fed up with Charlotte's attitude, and moves to clothesline her, just for Charlotte to evade and snag her, spinning her around in the natural selection. Nia lays there, blinking up at the lights, when Gail recovers and rushes forward, hitting Eat Defeat on Charlotte, scrambling quickly to pin her. Nia rolls out, angry, while Charlotte gapes on in disbelief as Gail celebrates up the ramp.
The next is first of three Beat the Clock matches, Rusev making quick work of Grado once he catches him, shoulderchecking him to the mat with a roar, stomping him and twisting him up in the accolade until he taps out desperately at 2:29. Following this is a triple threat match, Dolph Ziggler vs Nakamura vs Matt Hardy. Dolph isn't sure what to be more weirded out by- experiencing Nakamura's entrance in person for the first time, or just anything and everything to do with Broken Matt Hardy. His only comfort is that Matt hadn't dragged along his gardener, wife, son, and dilapidated boat for this match. Between the two, Nakamura seems more agreeable so Dolph and he work together to take Matt out of the equation, Nakamura hitting his knees as Dolph rushes up and hits the zigzag, sending Matt clear out of the ring.
He hopes it'll be for long enough as he faces off with Nakamura, the two of them staring at each other. Nakamura's offense is unlike anything he's ever experienced before, honestly, and he's been in the business a long time. His kicks, his knees, his strikes, everything else he does leaves Dolph's head spinning as he struggles just to regain any sort of momentum. The only thing that pulls things in his favor is when Matt Hardy regains some composure and grabs Nakamura's leg, distracting him as he moves to kick Matt hard in the face, sending him stumbling back again and again until Matt slumps on the outside, unable to move. Superkick followed by a fameasser and Dolph has Nakamura down, hitting him with another superkick when he gets to his feet just to hit the zigzag one more time, allowing him to pin Nakamura just long enough for the match to go in his favor. He smirks, staring around at the audience who seems mixed on their response. "That world title will be mine!" he declares to everyone listening before leaving the ring.
The next match makes Stephanie smirk as James Storm faces off with Braun Strowman and quickly, decisively, loses, unable to fight free from the reverse chokeslam that has already downed so many people. The second Beat the Clock match sees Ethan Carter III facing off against Tanahashi. Neither man seems thrilled, barely two and a half minutes hard for anyone to overcome, but they try. Tanahashi's punches and kicks are absorbed by Ethan, who fights back as best as he can, desperate to watch out for the high fly flow, or any other of Tanahashi's ridiculous finishing moves, his size and strength the only real advantage he has against Tanahashi's leaner, more agile form. Tanahashi exclaims in Japanese when he's grabbed in the process of trying to kick Ethan in the face, struggling to keep his balance, when Ethan pulls him forward and hits the 1 Percenter, knocking Tanahashi silly before rolling him up to pin him... right at 2:27. Ethan rolls free at the three count, gaping at the clock for a moment before laughing hard, his teeth flashing as the ref lifts his hand up in success.
Stephanie's happiness wavers when Seth Rollins loses after a hard fought match against Toru Yano, his attempt at a pedigree reversed into a scoop brainbuster, the pin unescapeable. Following this, Titus O'Neil defeats Sakuraba soundly with his sitout spinebuster. The next match sees Chad Gable facing off with Cesaro, the two men exchanging strikes and suplexes until they're breathless and wavering, Cesaro then hitting Gable with uppercut after uppercut until Gable can barely stand anymore. He then sweeps his legs out from under him and swings him a good twenty times- the crowd counting along with him- before finishing him off with one more cycle of uppercuts, pinning him.
The third Beat the Clock match sees Primo defeat NJPW's Jay White in just under two minutes, EC3 throwing a towel in disbelief and storming off once he realizes he's just lost out on points for the contest. The American Alphas' rough night continues when Honma wins a triple threat match by pinning Jason Jordan after taking Ishii out of the ring just long enough to get that three count, Gable meeting his partner at the titantron and offering him his towel to dry off with until he could get to the showers. Jason accepts it and smiles glumly at his partner, who wraps an arm around him and helps him backstage.
The main event is a 15 man battle royal, pitting Zack Ryder vs Mahabli Shera vs Apollo Crews vs Jeff Hardy vs Bubba Dudley vs Devon Dudley vs Kazuchika Okada vs Epico vs Kenny Omega vs Jinder Mahal vs Neville vs Mojo Rowley vs Kofi Kingston vs Jay Lethal vs Chris Jericho. By the time they're all in the ring, it's very full and hard to keep track of the action as various brawls kick in, each man desperate to eliminate the other. The Dudleys and the Hype Bros stay close together, each team deciding to work together until the ring is more cleared out, but it doesn't help- Bubba is the first eliminated by one of Okada's dropkicks sending him right up and over, his scrambling attempt at gripping the top rope not enough to keep him in the ring. Kofi Kingston's nimbleness works against him when he tries to balance on the top rope after nearly being eliminated by Jinder, Chris Jericho catching him with a high enziguiri and sending him right out to the floor below. Shera is next to go, Devon eliminating him with anger caused by his brother's early elimination.
Kenny Omega kicks Apollo out of the ring next, smirking over the ring ropes at him. "Not smiling now, are you?!" he yells out at him before turning his focus back on the action inside. Zack is trapped in a corner, trying to fight off Jinder and Jay Lethal, forced to watch helplessly as Jericho eliminates Mojo like he's nothing, slinging him thoughtlessly over and then dropkicking him, mercilessly dusting his hands off as he saunters away from the ropes. "Are you gonna cry, Ryder!?" he yells at him before turning his focus on the cluster of brawling men nearest to him, joining the fray. Jay Lethal and Neville end up taking each other out next, Neville overshooting his offense and tumbling out with Jay, crashing against the floor and laying there in shock at both being eliminated that easily.
Jeff Hardy and Okada are exchanging blows in the corner, every attempt Jeff makes of going up top for high risk thwarted when Okada slashes at his calves with his forearm, weakening his legs more and more with each blow. Jeff is a slow learner, however, only just waiting to knock Okada down before he goes up top one more time. This offends Okada who struggles to his feet one more time, lunging for the ropes and pushing with all of his might, sending Jeff toppling up and over, eliminating him sufficiently. Okada chuckles down at him before turning back to the match. Kenny Omega is running towards him, clearly something devious in mind, when Okada leans over and then lifts Omega up, sending him clean over the top rope. Okada's chuckles turn into simple, confident laughter, and Kenny points warningly at him before storming away.
Jericho is in a corner, battering Zack down, when Okada snags him with a dropkick. He staggers, allowing Zack to get up and away, and the two men exchange glances. Jericho is still trying to regain his composure when Zack mouths something to Okada. The Rainmaka nods and reaches out, the two men snagging hands and running forward, hitting Jericho with a clothesline that topples him right over. He's balancing precariously on the apron when they perform nearly mirror images of dropkicks, hitting Jericho on both sides and sending him right over and down. Epico is next to go, eliminated by a solid boot strike by Okada, and Devon is next to go, Zack dodging a forearm shiver and dropkicking him before booting him in the face, lifting his limp form over the top rope. Zack has just started to think he has a chance, about to square off with Okada, when Jinder comes out of nowhere and clotheslines Zack right over the top rope. Zack hits his fist against the padding on the outside before getting up and stomping backtsage, far from pleased with being so close but so far away. Again.
Okada immediately focuses on the task at hand, raising his eyebrows and motioning to Jinder to come along. Jinder rushes him, trying to clasp his arms around him and failing when Okada shoulders him away. He grunts, rubbing at his midsection, when Okada kicks him hard, following it up with a dropkick that staggers him back. Okada sneers before rushing forward and hitting the RAINMAKA clothesline with no much force that Jinder has no way to stop his body's motion, tumbling clear out of the ring. Okada stands there, arms outstretched in the iconic rainmaker pose, as dollar bills with his face on them rain from the ceiling, the audience buzzing and grabbing for the altered currency. Okada merely smirks as he breathes in the response from the crowd.