Disclaimer: You've heard it before.

ALLO! Welcome back once again, last time we saw Jason retain the X Division title against Maverick Matt in a ladder match, coming up: Who will the teen choose as his next challenger? The warrior Senshi? Petey Williams? Maybe his old friend AJ? Let's find out!

Here We Go!

Rebirth-Chapter Sixteen-Choosing The Challenger

It was a battered, bruised, sore but upbeat Jason Cena who walked into the TNA locker room the next week on Impact, the ladder match had left him with stitches in his head and two black eyes, but the X Division title draped across his shoulder made the beating worth it, the moment he entered the locker room he went to see the card for tonight, the triple threat match between AJ, Senshi and Williams was booked, but he had the night off, he sighed and shook his head, when was Cornette going to get his head round the fact that he wanted to compete every week? Then again he was pretty beat up, he sat down and shoved his bag away from him, Chris, Jay and Sonjay were all talking amongst themselves, Jerry came over to him.

"Hey champ".

"Jerry".

"You feeling alright?"

"I was until Cornette decided to give me the night off".

"Jeez kid, you wanna keep going after the week you've had?"

"Jerry, if I could have it my way I'd work every night if I could".

"That's a quick way to do yourself damage, after facing AJ then doing a ladder match there ain't many people who'd want to keep going".

"Guess that makes me one of a kind then huh?"

Jerry laughed. "Just don't burn yourself out OK?"

"No problem".

As Jerry walked away Sonjay came across, he opened his mouth to speak but Jason cut him off.

"No Sonjay, I'm not working the CZW show this weekend".

"OK, that wasn't what I was gonna ask".

"So what were you gonna ask?"

"Chris wants to know if you wanna do a tour of Japan with me and him".

"He wants me to go to Japan?"

"Well we were gonna ask Jay but he's already booked, so how 'bout it?"

"Give me a date and the time of the flight and I'll be out there".

"Cool, it's next month and you can cancel anytime you want between now and a week before the show".

"Why would I wanna cancel?"

"You never know, you might chicken out".

Jason just laughed. "Sonjay, if I chicken out of going to Japan then I'll work for CZW OK?"

"Whatever".

Jason smirked and stood up, he pulled his belt down from where he had hung it up and pulled a pair of shades out of his bag to cover up his black eyes.

"Where you going?" Asked Jay.

"Well, don't have a match, need to decide who gets the shot, I figure I might as well do some announcing".

With that he headed out of the locker room to find Mara, she was sitting alone talking on her phone.

"... yeah, I'd love to don't get me wrong, it's just I don't think Jason would be able to cope if I wasn't in his corner" she smirked as she saw him coming over. "Yeah, he still can't win by himself".

"Excuse me?" Laughed Jason, Mara smiled back and went back to the call

"Seriously though, I'd be more than happy to do it, I just need to ask Jason..."

"Who's that?" Mouthed Jason, Mara covered the phone with her hand.

"Allison".

"Danger?"

She nodded, and immediately regretted it as Jason snatched the phone out of her hand.

"Allison! How are ya? Yeah it's me, I haven't seen you since... what? Look, just because Chris said it was me doesn't mean... look, I wasn't even at that show... I dunno, maybe it was Cabana... how should I know I wasn't even there! OK, how is Chris anyway? Tell him I said hi... look if you're gonna start yelling then I'm gonna hang up, oh yeah guess what? I get to meet your brother next month... hello? Allison? Huh, she hung up".

Mara snatched her phone back. "Would it kill you not to piss off everyone close to my brother?"

"OK maybe bringing up her brother was low but she's still blaming me for what happened at the show we went to".

"The one where you and Chris almost got into a fight over soda's?"

"Yeah that one, like I said I wasn't there, it happened while I was watching Jack Evans".

"So you say".

"Ask him if you don't believe me, we ended up cussing each other out over the crowd, so I don't know how Allison could think it was me".

"You have a record for pulling stupid stunts".

"So I have a record, doesn't mean it was me, what did she want you for anyway?"

"She wants me to go do a few shows for SHIMMER".

"Go ahead".

"Problem, if I do I won't be able to come to Impact next week, I'll be gone from Wedensday to Saturday".

"I don't have a problem with that, it just means I'll have no-one to hug when I win whatever match I have".

Mara laughed. "I'll still have to ask Jim if I can do it".

"He'll let ya, I mean, TNA doesn't have a women's division and you need to wrestle, he'll give you next week off".

"Cool, where are you going anyway?"

"Well I'm not booked tonight so I figured I'd go so off my world class announcing skills during the triple threat match".

Mara laughed and slapped him round the head. "Go on, get outta here ya whacko" he left and she went to call Allison back.

Jason's music hit and the teen walked up through the tunnel and out into the Impact Zone, he posed and held the X Division title up as his pyro went off before putting it back across his shoulder and walking down the ramp slapping hands with a few fans as he did, he walked over to the announce table and shook hands with Tenay and West.

"Walking wounded right here" he laughed pointing to the stitches and lifting the shades to show his eyes before taking a seat between the two announcers and placing his belt on the table in front of him.

"I take it you're out here to get a closer look at your potential challengers?" Asked Don.

"Well I do have to choose an opponent, I figured I'd get as good a look as I possibly can before I do, but whoever gets the shot better think again if they think they're taking this from me, especially AJ".

"No love lost between you and the Phenomenal AJ Styles then?" Said Mike.

"Let's just say I won't be at his birthday party" replied Jason as Team Canada's music hit and Scott D'Amore led Petey Williams out to the ring, Tenay turned to Jason.

"Jason, let's talk about your potential challengers, first you have Petey Williams, a former X Division champion and the master of the Canadian Destroyer, could he be the one to step up tonight?"

"Well Mike Petey is a hell of an athlete, I've faced him before when I was just starting out and anyone who thinks that the Canadian Destroyer is all he has obviously doesn't know him, the only problem I have with him is that he thinks he's better than every American in the locker room and that fat blob leading him to the ring" D'Amore seemed to hear Jason and got in his face, the teen just stared him down.

"What? Don't you have a buffet to open somewhere wide load?" D'Amore muttered something to himself as Williams pulled him away, Williams then made belt motions towards Jason and yelled. "I'm coming for that belt!"

"Good for you! You want a medal or something?" Jason yelled back as Senshi came down towards the ring, he walked around the ring and fixed an intense stare on Jason, the teen subconsiously put a hand on the X Division title and raised it slightly, Tenay brought him down to Earth and asked him his opinion on Senshi.

"Senshi could probably kick my head off and stomp my brains out before I even realise what's going on, but if he wants this belt he better be ready for a fight cause that's just what I'll give him" Senshi was now in the ring fixing the same stare on Williams, AJ's music hit and he made his way to the ring, he pointed to Jason as he walked by the table, Jason just smirked and patted the belt.

"Oh yeah my old friend AJ, I've beaten him before and I will again if he gets the shot".

No sooner had AJ entered the ring Williams jumped him and kicked off the match, all three threw everything they had at each other in an effort to impress Jason and get the shot, Williams dominated most of the match, with a little help from D'Amore but whenever Senshi was on the offensive the other two felt it, towards the end of the match AJ staged a late rally, he dumped Williams to the outside and dropped Senshi with a DDT, he went to the top-rope and went for the Spiral Tap but Senshi moved causing him to crash to the mat, he rolled to his feet but Senshi hit a huge kick to send him to the outide, Williams came in but got taken down then Senshi went for the Warriors Way but Williams moved, Senshi landed on his feet but Williams met him with a kick to the gut followed by the Candian Destroyer! He went to make the cover but AJ came in and rolled him up! The referee counted... and AJ got the three!

AJ lept to his feet and began calling for Jason to get in the ring, the teen grabbed a mic from the table and hopped up on the apron, Senshi was sitting dazed in a corner and Williams was arguing with D'Amore, AJ looked expectantly at Jason, demanding to be granted the shot.

"Well, you guys have left me with a hard decision to make but I'm gonna keep this simple, AJ, you won the match, you beat two of the best that TNA has to offer and to be honest I do want to face you again, Petey, you too are someone I wanna face again and you do deserve a shot, Senshi, you're just a badass. So, at Hard Justice, Im gonna defend this X Division title against... AJ Styles!" The fans went nuts as AJ started celebrating. "... AND Petey Williams AND Senshi in a Fatal Four-Way!"

AJ froze and stared at Jason, the crowd seemed to like this idea as did Senshi and Williams, Jason dropped the mic and walked away from the furious AJ before heading for the back, already the teen knew he was in for a fight because of his decision, but it was a fight he was going to win.

End Of Chapter

Well, there ya go, I just spent two chapters making a match everyone saw coming, anywho, is Jason in over his head with the Fatal Four-Way? Could he be suffering from over-confidence? Will he even make it to Hard Justice with three challengers gunning for him? Find out soon!

R&R

See Ya!

HBKJOH