Team Work chapter 222

February 28th, 2020

There are whispers. Talk of things having to shut down. Short term, or for a long time, Stephanie isn't sure yet. She wants to hope it'd be temporary, a couple of weeks, and everything would clear up, but something tells her once these changes are made, it's going to be a long time before they can be reversed. She shakes her head and scrubs at her eyes, too tired to focus in this moment. "It has to be ok," she mumbles. "It can't possibly be as bad as they're saying..." But she knows it very well could be. And so she has to make some difficult decisions soon, she knows, but for this week... just for a few more days, she decides to carry on as normal. Pretend like things aren't stalking around outside, waiting to decimate everything she's worked so hard on the last few years.

In the first match of the night, Xia Li defeats Naomi after a hardhitting back and forth where it's just a well-timed kick from Xia that keeps Naomi down long enough. Wesley Blake partners up with Randy Orton to make relatively quick work of Miz and Jungle Boy, and Charlotte wins over Bayley. To the shock of all in attendance- and maybe himself too, a little bit- Bateman beats Roman Reigns, and Jey Uso pins Chuck Taylor. Robert Roode is victorious in fatal four way action against John Morrison, Bobby Lashley and Daniel Bryan.

Joaquin Wilde makes his way to the ring next, staring down Trent? as he enters, trying to work the crowd up with his usual beatboxing attempts. He quickly falls serious, however, once the bell rings and they're off, Trent keeping up with him fairly well and surprising Joaquin. All it takes, however, is Joaquin to hit a couple of superkicks being going to the top rope, landing a solid dive onto Trent's unexpecting body to turn the tides into his favor, and Trent can't seem to get his footing back after that, feeding into one bit of offense after the other until Joaquin seems to bore of him and plants him with the Hostile Makeover, finishing it off with a rough landing across his knee to wrap things up. All Trent can do is blink up into the lights as the ref counts to three by his head, too out of it to move or attempt to stop things.

Mansoor defeats Flip Gordon, and Luchasaurus gets a win over Eddie Edwards.

Angel Garza and Luke Gallows are all smirks after defeating Buddy Murphy and Bill Goldberg, the world champion looking absolutely disgusted with Murphy as he takes his leave of the ring. Jordynne Grace is successful against Hikaru Shida, and Karl Anderson wins over Zack Gibson.

In a strange reflection of Murphy's tag match, Seth Rollins finds himself partnered up with Brock Lesnar against ROH's Vincent and Aleister Black. Lesnar all but ignores him as Paul Heyman drones on in his usual dialogue, Seth clearly displeased with competing alongside one of his biggest rivals of the most recent years, but he doesn't have much of a choice thanks to Team Work's format. Aleister starts it off, Lesnar seemingly content to sit behind the ropes and watch as Seth begins to work against the man so quick that it almost seems otherworldly. He eats a boot to the jaw, and another to the side of the face before he can even work up any real offense, staggered in the very first few moments of the match, and he blinks the blur out of his vision in time to see Aleister coming at him again, this time elbowing him in the mouth.

Seth gasps for air, eventually getting some distance after snapping Aleister back with a harsh knee to the face, grabbing him by the forearm and slinging him into the ropes, getting his shoulder under him and hoisting him up and over, sending him crashing to the floor below. Aleister staggers to his feet just in time for Seth to dive out through the ropes at him, sending him into the barricade. He runs back into the ring, does another dive, and... misses entirely as Aleister slips to the side, letting Seth hit the floor with a bone-rattling impact that leaves him gasping in agony against the mat. He struggles and protests as Aleister grips him by the jaw, tugging at his beard, and tosses him back into the ring, breaking up the referee's count.

Aleister moves in for the Black Mass, but Seth is closer to the ropes than he realizes, and Lesnar, quickly tiring of this, leans through and tags himself in, just barely catching the referee's notice in time. As Aleister hesitates, thwarted briefly from hitting his finisher, Lesnar enters and stares him down, unconcerned by ... well, pretty much anything surrounding him in that moment. Seth slinks back behind the ropes to recover and Heyman begins shouting at his client, encouraging and instructing hand in hand until Lesnar just grabs Aleister and slings him like he's nothing, clearly disinterested in letting this last for too long.

Aleister gets to his feet, and he keeps trying to fight, but no matter how many times he kicks, how many times he hits, Brock barely seems to register much of anything, and he's just starting to spin into the Black Mass- his very last hope against the ridiculous beast of a man- when Brock shifts forward, snags him and twists him into another suplex, ridding all hope from Aleister's mind. He does get up to his feet, but can tell by how weak he feels, how shaky his limbs are, that he's at his limits. He tries to step forward but stumbles back when Lesnar approaches him once more. Then he feels something crack against his back and Vincent sweeps into the ring, a dark look on his face as he stares Aleister down.

Aleister is loath to retreat, preferring to take his loss head on like a man, but the referee is admonishing him for lingering, and Lesnar has already shifted his focus, so Aleister slowly goes to their corner, hands raised in supplication as the referee natters at him again. Lesnar moves for another suplex, or maybe an F5, but Vincent moves, Vincent dropkicks him and Lesnar, unexpecting anything of the sort, stumbles back and Seth tags himself in out of nowhere. Brock is upright in a hurry, grabbing his tag partner in some level of unbelieving fury, and Seth swallows. "Ok, ok- Hey, Brock- BROCK!" he continues yelling, voice growing louder and more desperate as Brock hoists him up, all but choking him out as he glares up at him. Slings him to the side, Seth tumbling all the way out to land close to where Paul is standing, before grabbing Vincent and F5ing him brutally to the mat before leaving the ring, his face stormy as Seth scrambles back inside and pins Vincent, a dazed look on his face as he slowly realizes he actually won. Off of Lesnar's move. Which almost feels like more karma than when he'd beat Lesnar for the belt in the past.

He stands tall while the referee lifts his hand, Lesnar and Heyman already long gone, and throws his head back as he cackles in glee.

Rohit Raju defeats Daga, and the team of Cameron Grimes and Kenny Omega win against Killian Dain and Jimmy Uso. In rare intergender action, Ricochet finds himself face to face with Lacey Evans, and although he's hesitant at first, her attitude and how she steps right up to him, giving as good as she gets, makes it slightly easier for Ricochet to ultimately defeat her after avoiding a Lady's Right and diving almost immediately into a Codebreaker, leaving her no chance at kicking out. Marko Stunt then slips through with a victory over Mark Haskins.

In the main event, Tommaso Ciampa finds himself face to face with The Undertaker. They eye each other quietly from opposite sides of the ring, Ciampa still a bit in awe at getting to see Undertaker's entrance and aware that he will be the one to face the man shortly. Undertaker's age and many years in the business always work in his favor, and Ciampa knows not to take him lightly or give him even a moment's reprieve. So as soon as the bell rings, Tommaso is on him, punching and kicking, landing knees where he can, barely letting the Deadman breathe as he tries to branch together moves, all trying to lead into Willow's Bell and hopefully the finish.

Undertaker, however, only allows so much before he gets a hand around Tommaso's neck, the crowd starting to go wild as Undertaker chokes him out, leaning over him menacingly. Ciampa struggles and gasps around his cold fingers, almost lost in the sensation that they're digging deeper than just his windpipe, all the way down to his soul. He's starting to feel lost, drowning in the pull of Undertaker's essence, when he hears a soft little giggle, and sees gentle blue eyes staring back at him, and his resolve returns to him, steeling him as he breaks free of Undertaker's vice-like grip and staggers back, resolve returning to him at the thought of his little girl waiting for him at home. "I'm not going down that easily," he declares, still determined to see Willow's Bell one way or another this evening.

Undertaker still has the upperhand, but Ciampa is chipping away at it, bit by bit, and Undertaker's energy slowly wanes, his years catching up with him. He glowers at the man and grabs for him, but Ciampa meets him with a solid knee scraping across his face, staggering Taker once more. Ciampa feels the momentum shifting into his favor and he repeats it, kneeing Taker in the temple this time, and as Taker collapses to one knee, Tommaso knows it's his best chance, maybe his only chance. Drags Undertaker the few feet over to the ropes and positions him, spiking him into the mat with Willow's Bell, gasping for air as he twists Undertaker over, away from the ropes, and - and...

The referee makes it to two before Undertaker kicks at, and Ciampa shakes his head, not surprised entirely, but also far from giving up. Undertaker is on him immediately, however, and Ciampa finds himself being hoisted up, shifting over for a tombstone, and he knows immediately how this is going to end. He's not ready to give up, however, and he starts kicking with all that he has, landing a solid shot to Taker's head, dazing the man and forcing him to release him. Ciampa doesn't allow himself a moment's respite before he's back on Taker, DDTing him into the mat. Another knee straight to the face, feeling his brace give as it cracks over the man's nose, and Tommaso moves right into Project Ciampa, choking on thin air as Undertaker's heavy form cracks against his knees. He bites it down, however, tangling Undertaker up into a pin, and... and...

he watches the referee in awe as one... two... three. The bell rings and Ciampa slowly detaches himsel from Undertaker's form, gaping at the referee. "I won?"

"You won," the man confirms, waiting to lift Ciampa's arm up one last time this evening.

"Holy shit." Ciampa struggles to his feet and goes through the pagentry of it all, mind still buzzing and so overwhelmed that he kind of feels blank, when he turns and finds Undertaker scrutinizing him from near the ropes. He swallows and watches him, wary but not too concerned since the match is already over.

Undertaker forces out a breath before inclining his head towards Ciampa, immediately taking his leave afterwards, walking quietly up the ramp as the crowd shows their respect to the man.

Tommaso swallows and his eyes flicker over to the referee. "Did you see that?"

"I did," the referee agrees, looking as surprised as Tommaso is feeling right now.

He hopes that it means he's gained the respect of the man.