Team Work chapter 245
August 7th, 2020
"Hello, hello!" Shane McMahon greets everyone as he breezes through the halls, a wide grin on his face. He'd just made his triumphant return to WWE TV, bringing with him Raw Underground and a bunch of fresh faces for the somewhat elusive fight club held in the halls of Raw. "How's it going? Everyone good?" Barely waiting for responses from the shocked faces scattered around, he enters Stephanie's office and settles onto the couch immediately, giving himself a moment to spread his arms out on either side of himself and smirking. "Ah, yeah, here we go," he mumbles, before sitting forward to tug the laptop closer with all of his sister's notes and citations about this week's show waiting for him to finalize. "Always so meticulous, sis," he hums, getting to work.
Eight man action kicks the night off, Angel Garza teaming with Eddie Edwards, Akira Tozawa, and Mox to defeat Matt Martel, Trent, Bronson Reed, and Matt Cardona.
Dakota Kai partners up with Ruby Riott in a winning effort against Kylie Rae and Liv Morgan, the two members of the Riott Squad remaining reluctant to fight each other, the reluctance eventually leading to Dakota getting the pin on Liv as she has no such qualms.
Fallah Bahh beats Sheamus, and the team of Stu Greyson and Marcel Barthel finds themselves staring down the opposing teeam of Fabian Aichner and Evil Uno, awkward and stuttering every time their usual tag partners are facing off with them on the other side of the ring, a lot of tags going back and forth just so they don't have to fight their comrades. Eventually, Stu Greyson sneaks in a pin on Aichner after one of these tags after rushing in during one of Imperium's awkward pauses spent trying to figure out who should tag out, Aichner turning his back on their corner to go to Uno for a tag, not realizing Barthel had already reached Greyson. Neither team looks necessarily thrilled as the members of the Dark Order take their leave hurriedly, not wanting to deal with Imperium's anger at the sneaky win.
Big Swole defeats Tegan Nox, and Brodie Lee dominates Keith Lee. Colt Cabana finds himself teaming with Cody against Moose, and even gets the win after some assistance from Cody. Chuck and Susie wins against Chase Parker and Alisha Edwards. Danny Burch beats Apollo Crews.
The main event is a triple threat match, Cesaro coming to the ring followed shortly by Damien Priest. Their third opponent is TJP and both men watch, unimpressed, as he makes his way to the ring. They exchange glances and then the bell rings and it's on. Cesaro and Damien have the strength, and TJ has the speed advantage, but it's still hard to focus when every time you try to fight one guy, the third guy in the match is there to break up any significant offense or stop pin attempts. TJ starts to resemble a pinball, going back and forth between the two guys, landing blows, attempting submissions. At one point, despite their size, he manages to get them into a boston crab/sleeper combo that doesn't last long but is still oddly impressive for the brief period he did have it held together.
Tried of his antics, Cesaro gets a shoulder under TJ as he comes running and slings him out of the ring, Damien moving quickly to boot him off the apron. This gives them time to brawl in peace, both of them seemingly enjoying a more classic style of fight, when TJ returns, leaps into the ring and splashes down upon both of them. He then gets back to his feet and locks Damien into another Boston crab attempt, digging his feet in... until Cesaro lunges in and uppercuts him right under the jaw, sending him collapsing backwards and breaking the hold.
Damien rolls away in agony and Cesaro grips TJP, beginning to spin him around in a brutal helicopter spin. When Cesaro releases him, TJ crashes hard onto the mat and rolls out, trying to find some level of safety on the outside.
Damien returns then and Cesaro tries to set him up for the swing too but Damien reverses it into a sidewalk slam, Cesaro gasping for air at the impact. He drags Cesaro back to his feet and lifts him for The Reckoning, but as soon as Cesaro slams into the mat, TJ returns- TJ dives in, knees Priest in the head, and slams him jarringly out of the ring. He then rushes over to Cesaro and twists him up in the octopus, wrenching back as far as he can, planting his legs and digging in with all of his might. Cesaro is so twisted up, he can't move, much less physically tap out. So he has no choice but to acknowledge his giving up to the referee who keeps checking on him.
TJ lets him go once he's sure, lifting his arms over his head with a pleased smirk on his face. "Another poitn for me," he exclaims. "One step closer to becoming a champion anywhere I may want."
He laughs as the show ends for the night.