Disclaimer: This is unassociated with any of my other stories, and I do not own any of the members of this story. I simply write this story due to my interest in Raw, especially with these certain superstars that have major roles.

Pairings: Edge/Lita, shades of Christian/Trish, a little bit Orton/Candace, and one of the great surprise pairings that I should've been working at Intergender Survivor Series.

Rating Info: This story is rated PG-13, as all of them are, for safety purposes.

The Stones of Raw by Prime Time, Legend Champion

Chapter 2: The World Heavyweight Discussion

Following 12/13/2004 episode of Raw

Von Braun Centre in Huntsville, AL

If you thought last week's show was exciting to watch, tonight's WWE Raw production was equally unpredictable and powerful. Tonight, Eric Bischoff began the night by coming out and reintroducing the situation with the World Heavyweight Championship. At this time, he had already gathered all three men at the interview area. Triple H cut into the pompous circumstance (as he called it) and spoke of the fact that a famous man said that to be the man, you've got to beat the man. Trips came in as the World Champion, and he didn't lose. Therefore, in his view, he's still the champion, and the belt should still be on his waist. It still has his name plate on it, which might be a little shady…

But as soon as the Game says that he could beat Edge or Chris Benoit, that's when Benoit gets in his face. Edge takes this time to speak that they had both blown countless opportunities this year, and Edge had never had a shot until the controversy match from two weeks back. Therefore, the World Heavyweight Title should be his. Suddenly, Edge struck Benoit, and all hell broke loose, Trips getting the worst of it. Bischoff ordered a rematch of the Jericho/Benoit vs. Trips/Batista matchup, and made the Edge vs. Orton match that Jericho had made last week be next. Ironic, since at the end of the night, those six men know that on January 9th, 2005, that will be involved in the latest version of the opportunity of a lifetime. After a hard fought battle in which the men had used simultaneous missed dropkicks and connected clotheslines, and both of them had crashed and burned at the high risk district, the match ended when Edge went for the Spear. Soon, he had to counter the RKO, and the Legend Champion was able to counter Edgecution, so it did not connect for the first time since Edge came back. The RKO connected on second try, and Orton beat Edge, which didn't look good on his resume, and stunned those who were still loyal Edgeheads.

The following scene saw Maria Kanellis, Christy Hemme, and Melina Perez come out and shoot out some shirts with a bazooka. Gene Snitsky suddenly showed up, claiming he wanted to have fun. But when Christy came to him and showed him how to work the bazooka, the Psycho Gene's hand soon engulfed her throat, and he said that fun for him was making somebody suffer, which in this case was young Christy. Suddenly, Lita came out. She noted that picking on women must make Snitsky feel like a big man, which meant he was incredibly frustrated because his efforts from last week's backstage intimidation (yes, people who don't know; he tried to scare Lita early in last week's show), she became the Women's Champion. Since he wanted a fight so much, she got a message from her husband, Kane, who claims that he will return to beat the holy hell out of Snitsky. This is sort of symbolic of Kane killing out The Undertaker last year and gettung the holy hell beat out of him. Snitsky chases Lita, but after she escapes the area, he is blocked by the same wall of fire that bound Matt and Lita to the area during the marriage between Lita and Kane. Not once, but twice, Snitsky gets barred by the flames of the Big Red Machine. Once again, Kane is making Snitsky suffer psychologically, symbolic of what Undertaker had done to the Seven Foot Monster himself back last year.

Next, Christian is getting his face worked on by Candace, and at the same time, he's complaining to Tyson Tomko about the outfit last week and what it may have done to his reputation, and how it shamed the Peepulation/Christian Coallition. Tomko tells him to relax, but before opportunity can come up, Eugene suddenly appears and interrupts Captain Charisma's time by telling him that he's one of the kid's 10 favorite superheroes! Christian's about to choke out Eugene when Mick Foley shows up by saying that he has a huge announcement to make. Eugene puts Foley in a four way tie for his favorite wrestler (which used to be Triple H until the ill-fated betrayal) in which he actually steals Mick's cheap pop by mentioning a legend who is from right there in Huntsville. Mick and Eugene leave, and Christian finished his complaint. Well, not until Eugene comes back with Mr. Socko on his hand and says "have a nice day". Next, we catch Simon in Bischoff's office signing a contract to be an official Raw superstar in order to promote his Simon System. Before the talks complete, Benoit barges into the office, speaks of the eighteen years he took to win the Title at WrestleMania XX. He suggest a triple threat rematch and says that if Bischoff gives the title to anyone, it'll only prove to Benoit that Bischoff truly is a spineless man.

Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit's match against Batista and Triple H wound up great, but the Game hardly dominated like Batista said he should in order to make a case for himself. The match ended with the Cerebral Assassin actually about to tap out to the Crippler Crossface when the Leviathan came and attacked Benoit with one of the fiercest spinebusters he's ever delivered. He just pinned somebody off a spinebuster on the main brand show for the first time since those tag team matches with D-Von Dudley in which he had done that to Randy Orton back when they were on SmackDown. Ironically, it was Batista who told Triple H that when he stood dominant with his hands held high, he would know that he was the Champ, and it was Batista who actually did stand dominant with his hands held high.

Then, out came Mick Foley, to announce that the SmackDown from the Middle East for the holidays was going to be including him. He spoke of how honored he was to be going out there to entertain and represent those troops which risked their lives in order for him to be free. Suddenly, in came Muhammad Hassan and Khozrow Daivari, who came with the argument the US war on terrorism was evil because it promoted the mistreatment of Arab Americans, which is something that my brother is one of the good few people not to fall into since 9/11. They claimed the people have no true patriotism, because if they did, they wouldn't be behind this war. Mick Foley claimed to support America, and supremely stormed against the Muhammad and Khozrow's accusations that the brave soldiers who fight for us are (listen to this, people) gutless cowards and heartless infidels. He spoke of a good few soldiers who made sacrifices so Hassan could shoot his mouth off. Hassan, via persuasion of Daivari, did not accept an invitation to an ass-kicking at Foley Island, claiming that he wouldn't fight an idiot he didn't respect. He's the only guy to talk like that to Mick since Randy.

Soon, we had an interview with Trish Stratus conducted by Todd Grisham. Trish claimed to be the best woman's wrestler ever, and that she will get her title back. She then abruptly left. Then, Bischoff's office. Eric Bischoff was talking to a model named Rachelle, when Edge came in and counted his many reasons why he should be the Champion. He said that he wasn't voted in by the fans (quote him: "What exactly do the fans know?") at Taboo Tuesday, and he should have. Orton had made that controversial triple threat match out of what Edge feels should have been a one-on-one contest against Trips. Then, Bischoff was going to mention Orton beating Edge, who immediately cut and said he could leave him in the dust. Bischoff agreed to give Edge something he's never had before, and Edge, imagining the belt around his waist, thanked Bischoff and left. The following match before that, however, was a six-man tag team match. Maven aligned himself with Tyson and Christian against Shelton Benjamin, along with our Tag Team Champions, William Regal and a certain young Man Child named Eugene who took much abuse for about three straight minutes in the match. Maven and Benjamin became the only guys left in the ring and eventually ended the match, Maven pinning Benjamin (who had to watch his former tag partner Charlie Haas embarrass and dump off two beautiful women, including his fiancee, last night) using the ropes for extra leverage. Trips came into Eric's office, begging and crying like a baby that the World Title was his life, making his second speech claim to the title.

The show finally came to an end, as Bischoff made his appearance to make his decision. The three men came out, but Trips wasn't alone, as he brought along Ric Flair and Batista. Making a third verbal push for the gold, he said that success for Evolution was success for him, so he could give the belt to anybody from Evolution. Then, Bischoff made the decision; the controversy's three members would compete against one another, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Batista for the World Heavyweight Title at New Year's Revolution in January inside the ill-fating Elimination Chamber. Hell broke loose, and it ended in Orton giving the RKO to his former Evolution running buddy, Batista.

-

"You're way too tense, Edge," Lita commented to him out in the hallway.

"What are you talking about?" Edge asked the Extreme Diva.

"Come on, you don't really expect me to have to answer that, do you?"

"Yeah. Why am I too tense?"

"You're perspiring with anger because you have to compete in this deathmatch in order to prove yourself as the World Heavyweight Champion. But isn't the World Title shot what you've been wanting all along? Isn't that why you turned on the fans after Taboo Tuesday?"

"Excuse me? The fans turned on me back at SummerSlam when I got booed to hell in my own hometown building. And that was back to when I was the Intercontinental Champion," Edge pointed out to her.

"That can only mean one thing," Christian said, himself and Trish suddenly appearing.

"What?" Edge asked his best friend and former tag team partner.

" It means that you're not as popular as Captain Charisma!" Christian boasted.

"You? Popular? Let me tell you this much, Captain Charisma; people have been booing you for a million years ever since you betrayed me back in 2001. People have cheered for me long before and much more compared to you. I, not you, got voted in when we were in high school as the most likely to be what was then the World Wrestling Federation Champion. People have booed you to hell every night while you and Trish were together in their eyes. You had no right to mention a Peepulation. And now that the storm has silenced, you think you've become popular. Well, reality check from Sparks Mineral here, Peep Man; the only reason the name Captain Charisma is popular is because of last week's ridiculous superhero outfit. Eugene might as well be Captain Charisma for crying out loud!" Edge said. Christian was beginning to get red, until Trish whispered something in his ear. Suddenly, he snickered.

"Well, the betrayal shockwaves were then, and this is now, Edge. The people laugh at me one time because of a stupid outfit I was forced to wear. They laugh at your angry after-lost face every week! When you attacked me after that tag match, they laughed at you! You got laughed at by the girl you told to shut up! I know it! Every time you lost and got more pissed off, they laughed at you because you couldn't help but play that ridiculous angry face of yours! Even I was cracking my skulls out in the back! You can even ask your new girlfriend over here, and she'll tell you it was funny. You disrespect those people, and they find constant opportunities to laugh at you, Edge. Oh, and you know one more thing?"

"Yeah, go ahead and make it snappy," Edge retorted.

"The way you blame everybody for the fact that you're not the World Heavyweight Champion, you might as well be just as psycho as that idiot Snitsky, cause you're starting to look like him. You don't deserve to be in the same situation here as The Undertaker is on SmackDown, because from what I've seen, you can't handle it! If I'm an unpopular man, then you're nothing more than a convicted felon! How do you like them apples, man?" Christian said, walking off with pride in his and Trish's face.

Edge sat down on the floor. It was the only thing he could do to keep himself from lashing out to strike Christian.

In the meantime, Stacy Keibler was walking down a different section of the hallway and trying to hold a successful conversation with...well, whaddya know? JH is in the arena again. Then all of a sudden, the older Hardy came along.

"Yo, Jeff!" he called from behind Jeff and Stacy. They turned around and came to him.

"Matt, man! What's up? I didn't think you'd be here," Jeff greeted his older brother.

"Yeah, considering the knee injury, I wouldn't be surprised. But you're a TNA superstar now. You're not a common name around these parts either," Matt spoke. "Oh, hey Stace."

"Hi, Matt," Stacy hello'd him.

"Can you guys tell me if you've seen Lita?" Matt asked them.

"I heard from Christian that you weren't gonna talk to her since that Kane thing came up and split you two apart. Trust me, if I weren't in business of my own with that punk Jarrett over at TNA, I'd have been right there to help you guys out," Jeff told his brother.

"Yeah, well, I think now would be a good time to break ice. And trust me; there's a lot of it to break."

"For your information, it seems the redhead known as the Walking Kiss of Death is seriously sleeping around," Trish suddenly said from behind Matt, alongside Tyson Tomko and Christian, most predictable of all people.

"Yeah, and her next target, people," Christian announced, "is none other than my good friend, the supposed Arch of Awesomeness, Edge."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Matt demanded.

"Are they talking too much or something?" Jeff asked.

"Exactly," Christian answered.

"Hey, guys, let's go. Don't want this mess to brew in the Peepulation's faces, now do ya?" Tyson advised the friends who brought him in, leading them out of the zone. Matt and Jeff looked at each other, and Stacy back and forth to them, all with this thought in their heads:

"What the hell is this?"

In the meantime, there were other discussions going on around Raw, such as Maven and Muhammad Hassan coming to the Evolution office at different time intervals, Shelton Benjamin enjoying a phone conversation with a former tag team partner or two, and then, there's Edge, who is finally shown here with Lita not around.

Right now, Khozrow Daivari and Muhammad Hassan were standing outside the Evolution locker room, welcomed by Triple H.

"Welcome to Raw, kids," Triple H spoke.

"Kids?" Muhammad objected.

"Sorry about that, uh… the name's Muhammad, right?" Trips asked for clarification purposes.

"Yes. Muhammad Hassan. And this is my manager, Khozrow Shawn Daivari," Muhammad said, introducing himself clearly along with his manager. "And I take it you're the great Cerebral Assassin, Triple H. Correct?"

"Yeah. I'm Triple H. My name gets around a lot these days. Well, then, let's start over, shall we. Welcome to Raw, Muhammad, Khozrow," Trips started, shaking hands with each of them.

"Thank you."

"Now, listen carefully. You're entering a whole new world, Muhammad. Raw is not like a football game against some pop warner practice squad. You've gotta be ready for anything and everything, and I mean that. No matter who you are, or where you come from, every raw aspect of your personal life as well as your in-ring career will be given a two-thousandfold entourage of twists and turns every time you can expect some, and then some. If you try endearing yourself to these fans, they will love you, you will get high off their support whenever you're in a tight spot, but you will be so wrapped up in showing off to them that you lose track of the main objective, which is to succeed in the middle of the ring. And when that happens, Brock Lesnar can eat donuts and chips, drink soda and beer, and be inactive in anything for an entire month, and he will still kick your ass; that's a known fact on anyone. But if you follow your own heels, they will hate you, and crappy general managers like Theodore Long on SmackDown and Eric Bischoff over here will do everything they humanely can to make your life a living hell. Believe me, I speak to JBL every day, and I give him permission to say he's greater than me because he needs to promote himself. I even keep close contact with Jarrett whenever I can, and these General Managers are looking to destroy us. Why do you think I'm no longer the World Heavyweight Champion?"

"So, in essence, until the fans learn to accept me as I am, then I'll have to worry about that same disacceptance from Eric Bischoff?" Muhammad asked to make sure he heard right.

"Exactly. So, be careful out there, okay? People hate me because I speak the truth and I'm better than everyone else. People hate you because you're Arab American and you have as much potential in this business as Batista. When they boo you for something, or even when you come out and they boo you, don't let it get to ya. Oh, and one more thing; if you decide to gun for the World Title when it's in or very near my possession, I'll do everything I can to cut you apart. It's not out of any prejudice; it's the art of taking advantage of your competition. That's why I'm the Cerebral Assassin. I'm just giving Batista a chance to be loyal to the cause that is Evolution; that's the reason I haven't jumped him yet. So, with all that being said; welcome to Raw, Muhammad. And… try to enjoy your life while you're here. Forget about Mick Foley. He's a piece of crap. His last matches were all against me or my people, and we kicked him in the dust. You can get going if you want."

"Thank you. Triple H, you may be a shady westler - and a great one at that - but you are also one of the few honorable Americans left," Muhammad said, leaving.

"Glad to be one, my friend," Trips called, finishing the conversation. Suddenly, enter Maven.

"Wow, so you fool Hassan and Daivari into thinking you're their new best friend. How low can you go?"

"Hey, wait a minute," Triple H said, pretending to realize the next point as if he were a 9-year-old kid rather than a 9-time Heavyweight Champion. "Aren't you that punk kid who turned down a chance to be with Evolution for a title match which you failed miserably, and then started hitting Eugene just because he eliminated you in a battle royal, a reason much more pointless than the one I have?"

"Well, look who's talking, Triple H. You're the coward who convinced Vince McMahon to get you out of that battle royal because since you knew anyone could be the champion, that meant a lot less chance for you to be king, right? And you saw Jericho, Benoit, Orton and Edge a-comin' when I booked myself in for your World Title, so you decided to try inviting me into Evolution so as not to have to go through everybody, right?" Maven spoke.

"You're lucky about a couple of things," Trips started. "First of all, you recognized that that World Heavyweight Championship is mine. Second of all, you're fighting three men who, you know damn well, I hate them more than you do. I mean, look at Eugene. He can't even spell 'Tag Team Championship' without looking at it on the belt, and whaddya know? To help him out, one belt also has his name on it because La Resistance has done nothing but suck."

"And Shelton Benjamin!" Maven burst. "He's a street thug, he used to jack somebody's head off with a gun at school every day. He admitted it himself! How the hell did he team with a respectable all-American athlete, Charlie Haas, win two tag team titles with him as the team was using a different name each time, come here and beat everybody in Evolution, and become the Intercontinental Champion?"

"He's using steroids or something," Trips suggested. "No thug can even combine his luck and skill to be that effective. And don't even put up John Cena, he's a dilluted ghetto version of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. And where will that get him? Nowhere."

"Excuse me, gentlemen?" Shelton interrupted the proceedings. "Did I hear something said about steroids? For your information, Maven, I overheard that you were 'talking' to the Steroid Monkey himself, Scott Steiner, last night!"

"What? You've gotta be joking," Maven points out.

"Mave, you used to be my homeboy. Now you've changed. And why? Because you got eliminated by a half-brained child man in a battle royal? Big deal! That's not some ordinary half-brained child man! His mind is fully consumed by his wrestling knowledge and passion! Everything else has come out of his mind, but he can at least beat your ass ten times a night. And just because he beat you in a battle royal, you've gotta develop this serious attitude problem?" Shelton questioned Maven. "I just got a call from Charlie about you and about his girls, and he says you should go to SmackDown and try to get hooked up with Dawn Marie. Yeah, I know, she's a slut, but that's as high as you can go. You too, Triple H. You are a whoremaster, right?"

"Maven, if all three of us end up in the ring at the same time, please remind me to kill him with every inch of my fury!" Trips said.

"You're also a big baby. Both of you. I'll leave baby boy and girl here to cry together. Maybe when you're men again, I'll catch up with you," Shelton excused himself.

Out in the halls again, Randy Orton was talking to Candace.

"Can you believe this guy? He just didn't pay any attention to me or to his face. He was completely grumpy and rude," Candace complained to Randy, apparently about a certain Captain Charisma.

"I'll straighten him out. Don't worry. Oh, speaking of the Peep Man, here comes his best friend of twenty years," Randy said. "I've got a bit of a word for him. I'll meet you in the locker room, okay." Randy said, Candace nodding and giving him a small mouth-to-mouth peck before leaving. Randy came to Edge andstopped him.

"Well, if it isn't the man who just cost me my World Heavyweight Championship again!" Edge yelled. "What the hell do you want."

"Edge, I just wanted to talk to you about the, uh, Elimination Chamber match at Revolution," Randy started. "We could be facing two tag teams in that match. You know what I'm saying?"

"Yes, Randy, I know exactly what you're saying. You're thinking that maybe Triple H and Batista will align themselves together, and so will Benoit and Jericho. And you want me to align myself with you if that happens, right?" Edge guessed.

"Exactly," Randy clarified.

"Not gonna happen, Orton boy," Edge denied the request. "First of all, you put Benoit in the middle of a match that should have seen me dethrone Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship! Benoit's feet hit first, I won the battle royal, it should have been me and only me going against Triple H! So now, you put Benoit in, and what happens? My World Heavyweight Title becomes vacant instead of mine! And then, you and I have a match on the night Bischoff decides the fate of the Heavyweight Title. What do you do? You counter both Spear and Edgecution, and then you beat me with an RKO, perhaps costing me the World Heavyweight TiItle and storing yourself in a picture you don't belong in in the first place! And you want me for the RKO Army? I don't think so, pal!"

"Hey, do you want to get handicapped and eliminated?" Randy asked Edge, who had nothing to say. "I didn't think so."

"In that case, fine. But as soon as we're done with them, I'm kicking your ass and taking that title. It is rightfully mine, and at New Year's Revolution, I will do nothing short of proving that," Edge said, walking away. But then, he came back. "Oh, by the way; I saw you and Candace. You really think you're big because you've got a new girlfriend, don't you? Well, for your information, Candace is as new as they come to Raw. She probably doesn't even realize how much of a failure you were as the World's Champion. Now let me get out of here and let your love nest of stinktatude flow in its own riverwater cyanide and stew in its own muck."

"Oh, and nothing's happening between you and Lita?" Randy questioned Edge.

"No. Not right now, anyway, and even if it did, you have no right to disrespect her, or to use her for the purpose of disrespecting me. She is older than you, and has wrestled longer. She has been known to bust her ass off in maneuvers that have worked to the advantage of the 3 Xtreme, and to the detriment of women wrestlers such as Trish and tag teams such as Christian and myself! Candace, on the other hand, has spent more time walking down runways and showing herself off than she has spent even talking to any of us WWE superstars over this her first month. So go ahead and kiss my awesome ass, cause you're not big, crazy ass sunglasses like moi." Edge said, walking off and leaving Randy defeated in this banter session.

"Whoa, he's good," Randy realized.

"Yeah, this is gonna be tough," Matt said, behind him.