chapter 261

November 27, 2020

Stephanie hums as she reviews her notes for the prior cycle. There were a lot of competitors, a lot of scores to analyze. But she's now confident and she looks up with a small smile at the group of wrestlers before her. "Well," she says. "There was a tie last cycle. Of course, right? It always happens." She laughs faintly and shrugs. "But I'd rather move on to the next cycle, gear up for the Royal Rumble cycle properly. So I've decided instead of having another tie breaker, we will just have a double winner."

She stands and watches as intrigue crosses the groups' faces, murmurs and quiet bickering echoing back towards her. She taps her fingers against her arm for a second, letting them get it out of their system.

Once things are slightly quieter, she clears her throat and smiles once more. "As I was saying, the winners of this cycle are..." She looks slowly over the group before her, drawing this out, teasing them. "Asuka and Kevin Owens!"

Asuka lets out a yell, pumping her fists and dancing around as soon as it registers with her, and Owens blinks a few times. "Wow," he says, watching Asuka's celebration. "What she said."

Stephanie rolls her eyes at both of their reactions, but then chuckles. "Yes, well. Whenever you're both ready to decide which champion you would like to face from what company, just come let me know." She moves to stand between them and nods at the camera crew who begins snapping pictures. "Congratulations." As flashes rain down upon them, she shakes both of their hands, smiling cordially the entire time.

Upon finishing with all of that, she takes her leave and returns to her office to begin booking this week's episode with a faint smirk on her face.

The night begins with Alexa Bliss defeating Tasha Steelz, Bianca BelAir makes relatively quick work of Lana. Swoggle partners with August Grey in a successful venture against The Butcher and Curt Stallion. Kushida beats Jake Hager and Dolph Ziggler claims a win over Sami Zayn.

Pete Dunne comes out next, looking unimpressed as The Blade comes out. Blade barely gets any really consecutive offense in, Dunne is angry and focused and he has ahold of the man's fingers, forcing them apart brutally and reveling in the loud snapping sound they make, using the horror crossing Blade's face to his advantage and twisting him into a submission, putting more pressure on his injured limb, digging his feet into the mat and wrenching back more and more until finally Blade submits, all but begging to be released.

Candice LeRae defeats Kiera Hogan, Riddle wins against Powerhouse Hobbs. Chris Jericho partners with Adam Page in a winning effort against Crazzy Steve and Rich Swann. Kimber Lee beats Asuka, and Murphy wins after a long, hardhitting match against Josh Woods.

In rare intergender competition that Stephanie had very carefully gotten both competitors' permission for, Robert Roode faces off against Hikaru Shida. Shida fights hard, and comes very close to winning, but ultimately Roode gets the upperhand and the victory after getting ahold of her off of a dive and twisting her around into the Glorious DDT.

Angelico walks out victorious after triple threat action against Cameron Grimes and Brody King, an easy-going smile on his face.

The night ends in tag action, AJ Styles and Kofi Kingston reluctantly partnering up against Jack Evans and Xavier Woods. Xavier and Kofi quickly hug when it's their turn, but for the most part, they keep their heads down and wrestle when they must, nothing too wild, but clearly trying to win whenever Evans or Styles purposely tags them in against each other. Xavier almost has it against AJ, covers him after Lost in the Woods, but only manages a two count. While he tries to work together more offense to try to put a pin in this match, AJ gets free, puts distance between them and scrambles over to Kofi, tagging out before anything could be done to stop him.

Xavier frowns, looks at his friend and sighs heavily, stepping forward, but- before he can do anything-

something hits him from behind and the ref claps his hands together. "Tag!" he declares, and Xavier pales as he realizes. Turns to find Evans already off and running, lunging into Kofi and beginning to exchange punches with him. Xavier groans at the lost opportunity, despite the relief also coursing through his veins, and slowly takes his place back behind the tag rope, watching for an opportunity. That never comes.

Jack lands a blow hard enough to stagger Kofi and he takes advantage of it, kicking him hard in the face off of a partial spin. He then squares his shoulders, climbs to the top rope, and spins off into a 630 senton. Xavier closes his eyes, unable to watch as his friend, his brother, his tag partner, loses just like that. Getting into the ring, he pauses only long enough to have his arm raised with Evans before he twists around and moves to help Kofi. "You good?" he calls out over the theme music playing.

Kofi nods, accepts his hand with no qualms, and pulls himself up. "Yeah, man, I'm fine. Just another day at the office, right?" They laugh weakly together and Kofi curls his arm around Xavier's shoulders. "Really, I'm fine, but let's get out of here, yeah?" They glance back at where Evans is still celebrating like he'd won something more vital than a simple point in a cycle that had only just begun before quickly heading for the ropes.