November 20, 2020
Chapter 260
Stephanie stares at the calendar, a small smile on her face. Another cycle, come and gone, with Survivor Series behind them. She enjoys this part- figuring out the winner, announcing it. Dealing with any ties that may crop up. The anticipation, the tension of those waiting for the news. Sighing softly, she settles back on her couch and draws her laptop closer, absentmindedly tapping at it to wake it up.
Booking goes smoothly this day, there being enough names that it's more interesting than usual for her. She smiles the entire time.
The night starts off with Bobby Lashley facing off against T-Bar, Ali on one side, MVP on the other. The referee warns both of them before the bell rings, but neither pay much attention, exchanging insults from opposite sides of the ring. It's only due to this that, ultimately, T-Bar gets the drop on Lashley, defeating him after Ali gets up on the apron to turn his insults and blathering onto Lashley himself, MVP not getting around the ring in time to put a stop to it.
The team of Sasha and Natalya win a ten man elimination tag against Toni Storm and Lana, Ember Moon and Havok, Mandy Rose and Neveah, and Serena Deeb and Indi Hartwell. Matt Riddle defeats Bryan Myers, and Ricky Starks is successful against The Miz. In eight man action, the team of Matt Jackson, Keith Lee, Samir Singh, and Roman Reigns claim victory against PAC, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman and Trey Miguel.
Timothy Thatcher partners with Mace, defeating Drew McIntyre and Rich Swann. Hernandez wins over Buddy Murphy, and in tag team action, Jay Lethal and Kofi Kingston defeat Orange Cassidy and Nick Jackson. Io Shirai finds success against Candice LeRae after another lengthy back and forth of a match between the two of them.
Kushida defeats Slapjaw, and Ashante the Adonis scrapes out a win against Xavier Woods. Mustafa Ali wins against Angelo Dawkins, and in six man action, Dana Brooke, Montez Ford and Sunil Singh are successful over Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and Asuka. Sheamus claims a win over Moose.
In the main event, Matt Taven finds himself facing off against Brian Cage. He's unbothered by the prospect of it, however, sneering as the larger man glowers back at him. When the bell rings, Cage lunges forward, snags him, begins manhandling him around the ring, throwing him, hitting him, generally beating him down little by little. But Matt is crafty and patient when he wants to be and as soon as his first opportunity comes, he takes it, breaks up Cage's momentum by kicking him brutally in the jaw, then swiping his legs out from under him. He's still breathless and aching but the moment's reprieve is enough for him, gives him time to formulate a new game plan on the fly, and he applies it almost as soon as he has a shadow of a thought. Works on his speed and agility to keep him away from the bigger, ignoring his knees' protests as he runs around, just keeping out of range of Cage's hands.
He lands as many blows as he can whenever he feels stable enough to get closer, slowly tiring the bigger man out. Cage grits his teeth and tries again and again to get ahold of Matt, slow things down, return it to the way things were before, but he fails, Taven lunges and strikes him across the jaw with his knee, laughing under his breath as he skitters away again, avoiding Cage as he once more lunges forward to get ahold of him. It's really just downhill from there, Cage never fully recovers, Taven continues avoiding him and eventually an opportunity opens up, Taven snags his arms, then lands his Headlock Driver on him, sending him roughly to the mat. It's enough, he can sense it, but he still holds his breath, closes his eyes and just listens as the ref counts out the three, motioning for the bell to ring to signal his victory.
Taven laughs breathlessly as his arm is lifted in victory. Might not be enough to win the cycle, but he'd gotten the last official point for the whole thing, and that feels pretty damn good to him.