Disclaimer: You've heard it before.
Heya! Welcome back again, coming up: Jason takes part in a number one contenders match but first has to put up with teaming with AJ Styles to take on Christian Cage and Rhino, will he be able to? Will he continue to shock the world? And will Mara be able to survive until her match with Sirelda at Genesis? Let's find out!
Here We Go!
Rebirth-Chapter Thirty Five-One Step Closer
"Mara? Mara? Helloooo?" Jason waved his arm in front of his girlfriend's face to bring her out of her daze.
"Huh?"
"What's with you today? Every five minutes you're zoning out on me, which isn't cool when I need attention."
Mara smiled. "I was thinking."
"It wasn't about the Great KhaliShe was it?"
"How'd you guess?"
"Put it this way, the last time I saw that look in your eyes was when you almost broke my jaw."
"We've been over that, many times, anyway considering that my match with her is three days away I think I have a right to think about what I'm going to do."
"Not nervous are you?"
"Let's see, I'm facing a woman who could break me in half, I've got a bad back and I'm pretty sure that Sirelda's not the only one who wants to cripple me, of course I'm nervous!"
"Wow, Mara Daniels freaking out, add that to the list of things I thought I'd never see."
"Not freaking. Just nervous. Anyway Mr. Cool as the other side of the pillow, don't even think about saying you're not nervous, I heard you talking to Cornette on Saturday night."
Jason shrugged. "OK, I'm nervous, but I just keep reminding myself that I've beaten AJ, I've beaten Rhino, and CLB still has green paint in his hair from the last time I faced him."
"Yeah, but you've never faced all three of them at the same time, and the last time you faced three people at the same time you ended up on probation."
"You had to bring that up didn't you?"
"Just saying."
"Don't worry, I won't lose it again."
"You better not, or we'll have to find somewhere else to work...again."
"Yeah well..." Jason sighed as his phone rang. "Hello? Hey man wassup?"
He stood up and walked out of the room leaving Mara to go back to thinking about the match with Sirelda, she was worried, there was no denying that, the Amazon had done a good deal of damage over the past few weeks to the point that even if she stayed in bed for the next three days she would be nowhere near her best. She'd managed to hide most of the pain she was in from Jason but at times she had to stop what she was doing and relax just so she could be able to move around later, she was glad that Jason was distracted by the matches he had coming up, the last thing she needed was him added to the list of people worried about her, she snapped out of her thoughts again as Jason came back and crashed onto the sofa next to her still on the phone.
"Uh huh... I know man that's harsh, look I gotta go, yeah well..." He held the phone away from his ear and rolled his eyes as the guy on the other end of the phone yelled something into it. "Kennedy..." he finished before hanging up. "Psycho."
"Rich coming from you" smirked Mara. "So how is Ken?"
"Said something about The Undertaker and First Blood, wasn't really listening."
"So what now?"
"We sit here panicking about our matches until it's time to go to the arena, kick ass, come home and get ready for the JAPW show."
"D'you think we could watch TV instead of panicking?"
Jason smirked. "Crazy, but it just might work."
"Well, well, well, look who decided to turn up" laughed Jason as he walked into the locker room to find Chris sitting with Jay and Sonjay.
"Don't start kid, I only had a week off."
"Yeah well when I had that belt I was here every week getting my ass kicked, not to mention I had you and Sonjay dragging me off to Japan just so Steve Corino could try and knock my head off."
Chris laughed. "Well we can't all be Superman kid, and can I just say that when you had this belt you lost it in two months."
"Better two months than one Chris."
"Kid, I'm defending this against Matt, so if you can beat him then imagine what I can do."
Jason gave a mock sigh. "Yeah, I remember when I used to wrestle Matt, now I'm just off the World Title, bigger and better things man."
"Seriously kid this is gonna be tough, sure you're up for it?"
"Don't worry about me Chris, I'm more than ready for it."
"I gotta worry kid, you're one of my pals, gotta watch out for each other."
"Like you last week?" Asked Sonjay. "I had to run Sirelda off his girl then I took on the Diamond's all on my own!"
"Excuse me? I helped too" said Jay.
"Only after I softened them up."
"Please guys" cut in Jason. "I was just about to get up and clean house before you two got in the way."
"Screw you kid!"
"Yeah, anyway if I was there they wouldn't have touched the kid cause they'd have been too scared of what I'd do to them."
"Screw you Chris!"
"Jeez it's like a playground in here" came a voice from behind them.
"Oh good Jerry's back" said Sonjay, then it hit him. "Oh crap Jerry's back!"
"Look man" said Jason. "You're gonna hear a lot of stories about us goofing off around here but it's not true!"
"And those crank calls? Nothing to do with us!" Added Jay.
"And I really was sick last week" said Chris. "I even have a doctors note."
Jerry took the note and sighed before reading it out loud. "Chris Sabin was unable to compete last week as he had an achey breaky pelvis. Signed doctor Hung-Lo DDS."
Jason cracked up. "DDS? That's a dentist you idiot!" He laughed at Chris.
"Hung-Lo? Was Isaac Yankem too busy?" Smirked Jay.
"Who's Isaac Yankem?" Asked Sonjay.
"Some guy who got beat by Bret Hart once."
"Looks like it's a good thing I came back" said Jerry. "Someone has to keep you guys in line, and now if you piss me off we can take it to the ring."
"I take it you still want that title shot?"
"Damn straight Chris, the old guy still has one run left in him."
"Not while I'm champ."
"We'll see, like I said it's a good thing I came back, you seem to think you can take a day off when you feel like it, the kid's whined and cried his way to a main event spot..."
"You missed out bitched" muttered Jason.
"... his girl keeps getting beat up, Jay here thinks he's Randy Savage..."
"Don't" said Sonjay as Jay looked like going into his impersonation.
"... and Sonjay's, well, Sonjay."
"All he can be is himself" laughed Jason. "Anyway we should be happy, the band is back together!"
"And with an extra member" smirked Chris. "Then again we could always kick out Sonjay."
"What? Why me?"
"Because I'm the leader, the kid's in the main event, Jay's got a good thing going on right now and Jerry's better than you."
"But I'm the coolest!"
"No, you're not" smirked Jason, the room fell silent as some music hit in the arena, Jason frowned as he struggled to remember where he'd heard it before, then his eyes widened. "Jay, turn that on!"
Jay flipped on the monitor and Jason groaned when he saw Mara walking down the ramp to the ring. "Ah crap."
"She doesn't know when to quit does she?" Asked Chris.
"Tell me about it" muttered the teen as his girlfriend grabbed a mic.
"Sirelda, I'm sick of running, if you want to cripple me so bad we don't have to wait until Sunday, I'm right here so come on out and do something!" She waited for a moment but nothing happened. "C'mon Sirelda, come out here and face me like the man everyone knows you are!"
Sirelda's music hit and the Amazon slowly walked out onto the stage with a mixture of confusion and amusement on her face, she slowly began walking down to the ring as Mara waited, when she reached the bottom of the ramp Mara suddenly ran forward and dived through the ropes onto her! She began hammering away on the Amazon with punches until Sirelda kicked her off, Sirelda tried to get up but Mara kept her down on one knee and began pounding on her again! Again the Amazon pushed her away but she ran forward and dropkicked her in the face! Sirelda rolled to her feet and Mara charged but Sirelda caught her in a bearhug! She tried to put it on but Mara kicked her in the gut and hit a jawbreaker, Sirelda reeled away and Mara quickly jumped up onto the apron and hit a springboard cross-body! She rolled away holding her own back in pain but forced herself to shrug it off and stomped on Sirelda a few more times then walked off, she looked like she was leaving but suddenly stopped and grabbed a steel chair!
Sirelda was staggering back to her feet when she saw Mara coming back with a chair in her hands, she started backing off but Mara followed and swung for the fences, the Amazon ducked at the last second and the chair smashed into the ringpost, Sirelda rolled back in the ring with Mara following behind, she swung again but Sirelda sidestepped then kicked it out of her hands and set her up for a chokeslam! She lifted the teen up but Mara slipped out of her grip and landed behind her, she kicked the back of Sirelda's leg then grabbed the chair and smashed it across the Amazon's back! Sirelda staggered away but didn't go down so Mara nailed her in the back again so hard it knocked her out of the ring! Jason hit the ring and went to hold her back but Mara spun round and swung the chair! She managed to stop it inches away from his face as he ducked.
"Whoa! It's me! It's me!"
Mara turned back to Sirelda and smirked as she saw the Amazon walking up the ramp holding her back in pain and shooting furious looks back at the ring, she dropped the chair and began calling her back but Sirelda just walked away.
"That went well" smirked Mara as the two got backstage.
"Yeah, now it's The Great KhaliShe four, Mara freakin' Daniels one."
"Isn't the boyfriend supposed to encourage his girl?"
"The boyfriend just had a steel chair come inches away from his skull" replied Jason.
"At least I didn't hit you this time" she shrugged.
"True."
They reached the locker room and Jason ducked inside to find all the guys sitting around the monitor.
"What's up?"
"You're pal's on" answered Sonjay.
"Huh?" Jason looked at the monitor to see Christian Cage, Rhino and Tomko standing with JB.
"Christian, Rhino, later on tonight the two of you will team together to take on 'The Phenomenal' AJ Styles and the 'Showstealer' Jason Cena, but in three days at Genesis you will also be opponents, is there any tension between you?"
Christian grabbed the mic. "Borash, let me tell you something, Rhino and I go way back, before TNA, before WWE and before he went to ECW. Me and him are closer than anyone, you should be asking Jason and AJ if they can get along tonight, they can't but it doesn't hurt to ask, as far as Sunday goes if Rhino wins, good for him, if I win, which I will, then I will go on to Turning Point, defeat Sting and become the NWA World Champion! But as for tonight, Rhino tell 'em what to expect."
"Cena, AJ, tonight and this Sunday at Genesis you can both look forward to one thing, and that's me charging across the ring and breaking you in two with the gore, gore, GORE!"
Christian smirked. "Borash, tonight we soften up our opponents and on Sunday we see who get's the title shot, and that will be me, 'Captain Charisma' Christian Cage. Because that's... how I roll!"
"Mr. Cena, your rebuttal?" Smirked Chris as Rhino, Tomko and Christian left the screen.
Jason laughed. "Something tells me JB's gonna ask that as soon as I leave the room."
"Seriously kid, think you'll be able to team with AJ without punching his light's out?"
"Teamed with you didn't I? And Pearce."
"Oh yeah" grinned Sonjay. "Didn't you say you'd let me hold the ROH tag belts when you won?"
"Shut up Sonjay."
"Oh look" smirked Jason as he stepped out of the locker room to find JB waiting. "I must be psychic."
"More like psychotic!" Yelled Chris after him, he laughed and turned to JB.
"Jason Cena in a few minutes you will team with 'The Phenominal' AJ Styles against Christian Cage and Rhino, do you think you can co-exist with someone who at one point said you had no respect for TNA or even the wrestling business itself?"
"Good question JB, me and Styles have had our problems, we're not on each other's Christmas card list but I will say that I respect him and... talk of the devil" he muttered as the man himself walked up to the interview.
"Hey kid! Borash."
"What do you want Styles?" Sighed Jason.
"Well I figured that since Christian and Rhino gave their interview together then we should do it as well, do ya mind?"
Jason shrugged and made a 'go ahead' gesture, he leaned back against the wall as AJ turned to JB.
"Borash, me and the kid here may not be best friends like Christian and Rhino, we may not be on the same page, but we both know how to do the business, tonight we gotta team so we'll team, Sunday we gotta fight so we'll fight, but Christian, Rhino, just because we don't like each other doesn't mean we ain't focused on what we gotta do tonight." He turned to Jason. "Kid, I got your back out there, you got mine?"
AJ held his hand out, Jason looked at then back at him. "I got your back Styles, but I ain't shaking your hand, and on Sunday if it comes down to me and you, I'll put you down, then I'll put Sting down and I will be the next World Champion."
AJ smirked. "We'll see."
"Yes we will."
"Let's do this" AJ slapped the teen on the chest and walked off, Jason stared after him then followed, as they neared the tunnel Mara walked up to them, she looked at both of them and shook her head.
"And I thought it was weird when you teamed with my brother" AJ laughed and shrugged, Jason just jumped on the spot to warm himself up, his music hit and AJ stood aside.
"After you."
Jason didn't take his eyes off AJ until he was in the tunnel then walked out into the arena and posed as his pyro went off.
"I don't like this" he muttered to Mara. "I'm still expecting him to jump me."
"Until he does just go with it, you need him tonight."
Jason sighed then hopped in the ring and posed as AJ's music hit and the Phenomenal One walked out, the teen did not take his eyes off AJ the whole time he was coming down to the ring, he allowed himself a smirk as he thought about Tenay and West each voicing their disbelief at the two teaming together, AJ got in the ring and the two stared each other down as Rhino's music hit and he sprinted down to the ring, Christian's music hit shortly after and he led Tomko down the ramp.
"How come he always get's the cool music?" Muttered Jason.
"Huh?"
"Up North it was that cool Waterproof Blonde track and now he get's the 'My Last Breath' remix, me? I get Sean Waltman's music recycled for me."
"Better music doesn't make a better wrestler Jason."
"Still, I'd a decent song instead of someone's old one" shrugged the teen as Christian entered the ring, he and Rhino had a quick talk then the 'War Machine' hopped out to the apron, AJ started forward but Jason pushed past him, AJ left the ring as Jason and Christian circled each other and the referee called for the bell.
"It's been a while kid" smirked Christian.
"Yeah, I've kinda missed it."
"Me too."
They locked up and Jason quickly put on a headlock, Christian pushed him off but Jason ran through him with a shoulderblock, he hit the ropes again as Christian went under, then over and hit an armdrag, Jason bounced up and hit one of his own then caught Christian with a dropkick, CLB retreated to a corner and Jason hit a few chops then whipped him and hit a backdrop followed by another dropkick, he went to pick him up but Christian scurried away and tagged Rhino.
The big man came in and quickly powered Jason down to the mat, the teen jumped back up but Rhino whipped him and hit a huge backdrop, he bounced to his feet again but Rhino hit a big slam and covered for a two-count, he whipped the teen again but this time the teen leapfrogged the backdrop and made the tag to AJ before quickly diving out of the ring.
"All yours Styles."
AJ shook his head then climbed in the ring, he sidestepped Rhino's charge and hit some punches, he whipped Rhino and hit a dropkick followed by a back-suplex, Rhino got up near his corner and Christian tagged himself in, he charged AJ but the Phenominal One sidestepped and hit a suplex followed by a knee drop for a two-count, Christian got up and AJ hit a clothesline that sent him outside, Tomko came round to help him up as AJ tagged Jason in, he ran forward and went to jump over the ropes but they both moved! Jason landed on the apron and quickly went for a springboard moonsault! Christian sidestepped but the teen crashed down on Tomko.
"Thanks big man" he smirked before Christian jumped him, he hit some right hands then whipped Jason into the ring apron, he rolled the teen in and followed, he lifted him up for a suplex but then dropped him on his face and covered for a two-count, he quickly pulled the teen up and hit a gutbuster for another two-count then threw him into a corner, he went for a whip but Jason reversed it, he charged but ran into Christian's foot, he reeled away and Christian stepped forward only for Jason to spin round and hit a huge clothesline! The teen then rolled to his corner and tagged AJ back in. The Phenomenal One waited until Christian was up then vaulted to the top-rope and hit a flying shoulder fir a two-count, he pulled Christian back up and hit a DDT for a two-count then tagged Jason back in.
The teen came in and the two whipped Christian and went for a double hiptoss but Christian flipped through it, they held on to him then clotheslined him back across their knees then hit a double reverse-STO! Jason covered but Christian kicked out. The teen yanked Christian back up and hit a neckbreaker for a two-count, Christian tried to crawl to his corner but Jason dragged him back and hit a reverse DDT for another two-count and tagged AJ in, the Phenomenal One climbed to the top-rope as Jason lifted Christian up for a suplex and hit a cross-body as the teen slammed him down! He covered but Rhino ran in and broke it up.
AJ pulled Christian up and went for a suplex, Christian blocked it and went for one of his own but AJ slipped out, held on and hit a neckbreaker for yet another two-count, he dragged Christian back to the corner and tagged Jason in, they both whipped Christian into a corner and Jason charged but got a foot to the face again, Christian went for a clothesline but the teen ducked and he ran into AJ who hit a big punch, the two then hit the ropes and Jason went high while AJ went low then the teen covered for another two-count. Jason stomped Christian down then whipped Christian and hit a powerslam for another two-count then tagged AJ back in, they whipped Christian again and AJ hit a punch to the gut, Christian dropped to his knees as Jason ran forward and hit the shining wizard! The teen bailed while AJ covered but Rhino broke up the pin.
AJ quickly pulled Christian to his feet and went for a whip, it was reversed and Christian tried an elbow but AJ ducked, jumped to the middle-rope, backflipped behind Christian and hit a reverse DDT! He covered but Rhino ran in and broke it up again, AJ responded by taking a shot at him then tagged in Jason, they lifted Christian up for a double suplex but turned it into a double brainbuster! Jason covered but once again Rhino ran in to break it up. Jason glared at Rhino then flipped him off and pulled Christian up, he let him stagger around then hit the ropes and hit a flying forearm then nipped up! He smirked and posed as Christian pulled himself up then hit an atomic drop, two clotheslines and a slam, he went up top and came down with a big elbow drop then crawled to a corner and began tuning up the band, he went for the superkick but at the last second Christian ducked and hit a diving reverse DDT! Jason quickly began crawling towards his corner while Christian struggled to get Rhino in, Jason tagged AJ but Christian made a desperate dive and tagged in Rhino!
AJ came in and charged Rhino but the 'War Machine' sidestepped and caught him with a big belly to belly suplex for a two-count, he tried a whip but AJ reversed it and went for a leapfrog only for Rhino to catch him and hit a powerbomb! He covered AJ but only got two again, AJ tried to get up but Rhino cut him off and hit a running powerslam! He covered but AJ kicked out again, he pulled AJ up and threw him into a corner and hit a charging shoulder to AJ's ribs! Then he threw AJ across the ring and hit another, he whipped AJ but as the Phenomenal One hit the ropes Jason tagged back in, Rhino spinebustered AJ and made a pin but AJ wasn't legal, he got up and Jason came off the top-rope looking for a cross-body but Rhino caught him, threw him up to his shoulders and hit a DVD! He covered the teen but only got two, Jason retreated to a corner and Rhino hit another charging shoulder then whipped him, he followed but Jason used the ropes to go up and over only for Rhino to grab his legs and hit an Alabamma Slam! He covered but again only got a two-count, he whipped the teen and hit a spinebuster but when he covered AJ broke it up.
AJ got some shots in on Rhino then Christian came in and jumped him kicking off a brawl between the two, Jason got up and set Rhino up for an impaler but the 'War Machine' backdropped out of it then set up for the Gore! He charged forward but AJ shoved Christian in the way and Rhino gored the hell out of his partner! He turned round and AJ nailed him with the Pele, he bounced up then Jason grabbed him, lifted him up and hit the C-Bomb! He went to make the cover but AJ had gone to the top-rope, he stepped back and AJ came off the top with the spiral tap! The teen made the cover while AJ knocked Tomko off the apron, the referee made the count and Jason got the three!
Jason rolled out of the ring while AJ had the referee raise his arm, he locked eyes with the teen and they exchanged a smirk before Jason turned away, he snatched a headset off the announce table and yelled into the mic.
"One step closer!"
He turned back to AJ and the two stared each other down again before turning on each other and walking away.
End of Chapter
Well there ya go, can Jason pull off the victory at Genesis? Will he earn himself the title shot? And will Mara overcome both her injury and Sirelda now she's shown her crazy side? Find out next time!
See ya!
HBKJOH