Team Work chapter 223

March 6th, 2020

It's all anyone can talk about. What wrestling will become in the time of COVID. Stephanie sighs and listens to the whispers and the murmurs as she walks by. Everyone wants to know, everyone wants reassurance and hope, but she really has none to give them. Wrestlemania is scarce weeks away, and nothing is getting better, everything's getting worse, and she has to make some tough decisions herself. So, once the card is finalized for the evening, she locks herself in her office and sits down heavily with her laptop, typing desperately, trying to think up some sort of a gameplan that would satisfy herself, her father, whatever companies may still be running in the near future, and everyone else in between, while keeping everyone safe too. She exhales shakily, unsure how to even approach something like this. But first, she has to focus on the night ahead, so she turns her attention back to the screens showing her the ring, and the scoring.

Ivar starts the night off by defeating Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, and Rey Mysterio partners with Cesaro to claim a victory over Erik and Moose. Humberto Carillo only just wins against PAC, and Chelsea Green somehow, someway, outlasts Shayna Bazsler's impressive fortitude and ability with submissions to defeat her, twisting a submission attempt into a schoolboy pin and managing to hold her down just long enough. Afterwards, she has the intelligence to run for safety while Shayna is still dazed by losing. Sonya Deville teams with Liv Morgan and defeats Dakota Kai and Su Yung. Robert Roode takes Austin Theory relatively easily.

As much as Miz loves his job, one of the worst situations he could find himself in is an eight man elimination match against Tony Nese, Daniel Bryan, Shinsuke Nakamura, Aleister Black, Kazarian, Kyle O'Reilly and Mark Briscoe. Unfortunately, that's exactly the place he's in this evening, absentmindedly pacing around inside of the ring as his opponents file in. They all watch each other warily until the bell rings, then immediately start brawling.

Nese gets taken out relatively early, then Mark Briscoe gets ganged up on by a couple people and thrown out, while Miz tries to find someone to eliminate between Daniel, Shinsuke, and O'Reilly. He's just started landing his it kicks on O'Reilly when he's snagged from behind and tossed through the ropes- not eliminated, but rather like someone trying to get rid of the fly that keeps buzzing around your bedroom, annoying and loud and repetitive. He looks up and glowers as Aleister then proceeds to steal his elimination, sending O'Reilly up and over the ropes with a solid Black Mass.

MIz hovers on the outside, close to the apron where no one can see him unless they really look and, once he's sure he's been forgotten, he slips under the ring entirely so he can wait it out, listening to the general response of the crowd and what he can hear of commentary from this distance. Kaz gets taken out next, leaving Daniel, Shinsuke and Aleister, and Mike winces at the sound of some of the kicks being split among the three men over his head. And that's why I'm staying down here for a bit, he thinks, only just peering out in time to see Shinsuke eliminated next, landing hard not that far from where Mike is hiding.

There's a flurry of offense overhead between Daniel and Aleister and Mike thinks, in any other circumstance, he'd be fascinated to see the two men fighting it out overhead, both of their styles oddly complimentary, but this is about survival, this is about points, and Mike holds on, listening to the referee lecture them and do his best to keep the match moving.

Then he hears a solid sound of boots against someone's face, the impact of a lariat overhead shaking the ring, and Aleister is gone, he only just hears from the commentary. This leaves two, although Daniel seems unaware of that fact, and Mike slowly scrambles out from under the ring once he's sure Aleister has taken his leave of the area. He scrambles into the ring while Daniel argues with the referee, clearly having forgotten about Mike. But Mike hasn't forgotten, gets right behind Daniel and snags him- Skull Crushing Finale! Mike laughs and drags Daniel back to his feet, pushing him towards the ropes. Daniel does, however, try to fight back, and gets his legs taken out from under him as Mike sends him crashing face first into the ropes nearest them.

Mike snags him before he can crash into the mat, however, and takes advantage of his daze to sling him out of the ring. He waits to watch, however, scowling when Daniel hits the apron and only barely clings to the ropes, somehow still finding the determination to fight on. It's clear he's tapped out, however, and Mike steps back and sweeps his foot out, kicking the ropes and sending vibrations through the solid wire into Daniel's fingers all the way up into his arms, that enough to make him instinctively release his tight grip, and this time, Mike lands the dropkick, sending Daniel out entirely, and leaving Mike with the victory as he lifts his hands high over his head, sneering at the referee. "See, I can do it, mself!" he all but cackles as the referee backs away, hands outstretched in an attempt to not steal from his evening, his win.

Sammy Guevara defeats Dolph Ziggler, and the team of Jake Hager and Montez Ford outlasts every other team in a gauntlet match, despite bickering throughout over who should be in the match more, and other pointless things along those lines. Fallah Bahh is successful against Sheamus, and Michael Kanellis wins over Sami Zayn. Sasha Banks claims a win against Big Swole, and Mandy Rose only just beats Tessa Blanchard.

Angelo Dawkins takes down Acey Romero, and Cody Rhodes defeats Jay Lethal. In intergender action, Bayley gets a win over Alex Zane.

TJP is smug as he makes his way to the ring, dancing to his theme, to the music in his head, whichever the case may be. He flips into the ring, his hood flying off of his head, and he stares out at the crowd, a smirk on his face. Things are starting to turn around for him, and it shows in the glint in his eye as he stands and waits impassively through John Morrison's slowmotion entrance with pyro and smoke and all of that.

They come face to face and TJ just sneers at him, unimpressed by everything to do with his opponent of the evening. That changes, a little, however, when the bell rings and they get started. Morrison is quick, maybe even a little quicker than he was in the past, and TJ has to work to get his footing right, his bearing on what's going on around him. Morrison slings him into the ropes and meets him with a spiraling kick to the face when he rebounds, TJ hitting the mat hard and gasping. TJ has some speed of his own, but he's an all-around fighter, can just as easily knock you out as he can twist you up into a submission that you could only hope to find the way out of, so when he sweeps Morrison's legs out from under him, he's up and digging his arms into Morrison's limbs almost immediately, twisting him and tugging him into a complicate tangle that leaves John gasping and struggling as the pain ratchets up with each shift of TJ's grip.

John can never just be flux, however- his body, his mind, every inch of him is always trying to work something out, and that applies itself just as much to matches as it does his movies, so he rolls- slow at first, then picking up speed and TJ tries to stop it, tries to pull him back, but Morrison keeps fighting and eventually they hit the ropes, the referee commanding TJ to free him. Once they're both on their feet, John smirks, an appreciation for TJ's style in his dark gaze. It doesn't stop him from fighting back, however, meeting TJ with another dropkick to the face when TJ lunges at him. He staggers back and John strikes him hard across the jaw, downing him.

John doesn't seem confident with it, however, as he hoists TJ up and spikes him into the mat with a brutal suplex that makes the crowd gasp at the sound of impact when TJ lands, then John goes up to the top rope, stabilizes himself, and dives- rotates, twists into position and... TJ moves, TJ snags him out of midair and follows him down to the mat, forcing his arms behind his back, using his legs to manipulate John's legs until he can reach with one hand and twist one of his legs back, feeling the muscles and tendons straining against this new, horrible position, while pressing John's hands into the mat with his free arm.

John tries to roll with it, find a way to break free, make it to the ropes, but TJ only digs in deeper, John arching into the hold to try to alleviate some of the strain on his body, but it doesn't work- he gasps and bites his lip as pain throbs up his arms, into his chest, down his thighs into his hips up towards his rib cage, tears forming in his eyes, and... and...

Dammit. One last attempt at freedom and Morrison grits his teeth, feeling TJ's fingers and knees digging more resolutely into these holds in response, the insistent pain turning into pure throbbing as his muscles reach their breaking point. He closes his eyes, tries one more time to think up an escape path, but nothing comes to him. TJ is unrelenting and solid against his back and John gives up, tapping against TJ's arm in the hopes the referee will notice. He does after a few moments and the bell is rang.

TJ chuckles against John's ears and releases the hold, standing up and dusting his hands off before the referee lifts his arm in success. John slowly makes it to his feet, his muscles still crying out for relief, and John exhales, holding a hand out to him. TJ pauses for a moment, glancing from his outstretched fingers to his face, before reaching out and tentatively shaking it, almost as if he expects an attack after the fact or something.

Nothing happens, however, as John releases him and leaves the ring to allow him his brief moment to enjoy the taste of victory.