"Trish, it's good to see you. What do we owe for this pleasure?" The King asks, sitting in his chair next to J.R. at the announcers table.
"Good to see you two fine gentlemen. I'm just here to watch." Trish returns, smiling pleasantly at the two older men
"Does your appearance have anything to do with a certain wrestler's actions last week?" King pries, hoping to get all the juicy, unaired, tidbits
Smiling even more, Trish is saved as Steven Richards theme song comes on over the speakers.
"Introducing first, from Auckland, New Zealand, Steven Richards; accompanied by Victoria." Lillian announces as the duo make their way down the ramp
Once they get into the ring and show off for the booing crowd, Richards' opponents' theme song plays.
"And introducing the challenger, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Chris Jericho!" Lillian announces and then promptly exits the ring, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire
As soon as Jericho slides into the ring, Richards starts punching him. With the slight advantage he pushes Jericho back into one of the corners and knee's him in the abdomen a couple times. When Richards pulls back and has a slight hesitation, Jericho retaliates with a punch. Then he pushes Richards back, trying to get himself out of the corner.
With a little bit of distance between the two of them, Jericho runs back against the ropes and then toward Richards for a clothesline; only to get countered with Richards ducking and clothes-lining Jericho.
"Your boy isn't doin' too good Trish." King comments, interrupting J.R. as he calls the match
"He'll be fine." The diva returns, ignoring the jab at their 'relationship'
Not wasting his advantage, as soon as Jericho regains his feet, Richards does a favorite move of his – the vertical suplex. Victoria pounds on the mat and cheers Richards on, glad to see the meddling Jericho is getting what's coming to him. While Jericho is down, Richards applies the camel clutch, and waits for Jericho to tap out, counting on a submission.
Seeing the pain across Chris's face Trish gets up and walks over to the side of the ring he's facing. Looking at him she shouts, "Get up Chris! Come on!" then starts beating on the mat. The crowd picks up the tempo and chants 'Jericho'.
Feeling an extra burst of energy, Jericho manages to get out of the submission hold. Using the adrenaline burst he runs into the ropes and clotheslines Richards, flipping him over with the amount of momentum. Quickly running over, he jumps onto the second rope, does a back flip and lands across Richards. The referee drops to the ground and starts counting; Victoria slides into the ring and pulls Jericho off her partner. He turns around and stands up, she slaps him across the face and he pushes her backwards into the ropes.
Richards gets up while Jericho is distracted and rolls him up. Trish, not liking their cheating ways, slides into the ring and kicks Richards. He breaks the roll up and Victoria runs over to Trish, punching her in the face. Able to handle herself, Trish fights back; running across the ring into the ropes opposite of Victoria, she rushes back and clotheslines the woman over the top rope, then jumps down on top of her.
Jericho uses a well known move – the Enzuigiri. Richards' lands flat on his face and Jericho decides to apply the Walls of Jericho. Suddenly Trish pops up from ringside, a little disheveled, but in time to see him use his favorite submission move. She slides into the ring as Richards taps out; holding the position for a second longer, Jericho lets go and holds his arm above his head.
Lillian announces him as the winner and his theme song plays. He walks over to Trish and picks her up, happy to have defeated a mutual foe. Smiling and laughing they spin around in the ring.
"What is going on between those two?" J.R. asks from the announcers table, surprised at the display before him
"Who knows, but Chris is a lucky man." King returns, laughing at the couple in the ring
"This won't end well; Jericho doesn't care about anything but himself." J.R. says ominously
When he finally set her back on her feet they were both breathing even harder and smiling like fools. Hearing the shouts around the ring Trish looks around remembering that she's on television she blushes at what just happened. Chris couldn't care less, he simply smiled at the young diva in front of him. Grabbing her hand he pulled her to the ropes and held them down for her to get out, climbing between the ropes Trish can't help but question herself and his actions more.
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Chris smiles over at Trish; caught up in everything, she wrapped her arm around his waist and walked with him up the ramp and into the back. To the casual observer it looked like they were a happy couple.
"Trish Stratus, what the hell was that all about?" Lita barked as soon as Trish walked into their locker room
Still grinning like a fool Trish looked stunned at her best friend's outburst, "What are you talking about?"
"Going out there, helping him, leaving with him like you two are…are together or something. Seriously Trish, what is going on?" Lita asked, completely lost
Trish walked over to the bench and sat down, letting out a breath, the grin finally falling off her face. "I'm…I don't know what's going on. Last week was weird and then awkward, and I have no clue why I went down there today or…I don't know…" Trish trailed off, coming off of cloud nine into the real world where all the pieces of this puzzle were nowhere near making sense
"Trish, I've known Jericho for awhile and I wouldn't trust him if I were you, he's a snake." Lita warned just as the door flew open and in walked the Hardy Boys
"There's my little vixen, Amy where have you been?" Matt asked, immediately going over to his girlfriend
"Sorry, I was stunned by the display that just occurred." She explained, kissing Matt passionately
"What happened?" Jeff asked, completely lost and ignoring their kissing
Lita pulled away, a look of unbelief obvious on her face. "Jeff did you not see the last match?" she questions
Shrugging his shoulders he says, "Yeah, and?"
"Dude, come on." Matt says, laughing. "What is goin' on with you two, Trish?" he questions turning his gaze onto her
Puffing out a breath of air Trish rolls her eyes. "That's a very good question. If you figure out the answer, let me know." With that she walked around the corner into the showers
"What crawled up her ass and died?" Matt asked his girlfriend, who was comfortably perched on his lap, slightly offended by Trish's dismissal
"Now look who's being thick, she doesn't know what Jericho wants and no one is encouraging whatever is going on." Jeff explained with a 'duh' tone of voice
"Why should we?" Lita asked, wondering if despite Jeff's incredible insight, had lost his mind
"Because maybe it's what Trish wants, a little support." He returned. Following his blonde friends idea, turned and left, letting the happy couple think about what he said. If Trish wanted Jericho then she would get him and Jeff would be happy for her; but he'd be damned before he let anything happen to her. Not having a match that night, he headed off backstage with a goal in mind.
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"Well King this is a great way to kick off RAW. A match between Matt Hardy and Edge, these two have had issues in the past…" J.R. said just after the commercial break. Matt Hardy was already waiting in the ring, without Lita, something that was rare.
Just then Edge's theme song played and Lillian announced the Canadian. Showing some restraint and a hint of decency, Matt waited for Edge to finish showing off for the booing crowd before starting the match.
Things picked up quick, with Matt having the advantage. Already there had been a two count on Edge, and the crowd was ecstatic. Just as he was about to try to finish Edge off with a favorite move for the Hardy brothers, the Twist of Fate, a lone figure walked out onto the entrance ramp. With a hesitation at the distraction, Edge shoved Matt back before he could execute the move. Shaking his head, Matt tried to focus back on the match at hand, but the person began walking with purpose down the ramp.
Edge used this distraction to his advantage. He began to throw Matt around the ring, right as he was about to Spear his opponent Christian climbed into the ring; standing between his old tag team partner and Matt Hardy. The referee immediately ran over to Christian and started trying to push him out of the ring, this wasn't his match and he had no place being there.
Matt was confused as to what the tall blonde man was doing out there, but he used the distraction to his advantage. As soon as Christian was out of the way, Matt ran and spring board kicked Edge, knocking him back into the turn buckles. With Edge dazed, Matt grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the corner, then turned back and climbed up to the top turn buckle, going for a Moonsault.
The ref had managed to get Christian away from the two opponents so he turned back to do his job. Unfortunately Christian wasn't planning on going anywhere soon. Seeing Matt climb to the top, he ran over to the ropes and bounced against them, throwing off Matt's balance. The young athlete fell, hurting himself in a place no guy wants to hurt.
Edge managed to get to his feet at this point and began walking over to the pained Matt Hardy. Christian was tired of this and grabbed Edge's arm, pulling him over to the ropes and throwing him right on over. The referee called for the bell, Matt Hardy won by disqualification.
Christian then went over to Matt and pulled him off the top turnbuckle. As soon as his back hit the ground, Christian was on top of him punching him, then standing and kicking him. The crowd booed and chanted obscene things at the interfering brute; however, their boos soon turned into cheers as they saw two beautiful divas running to Matt's aide.
Lita and Trish slid into the ring simultaneously and attacked Christian. He retreated back, taking each of the women's blows, until he was pinned in the corner. Trying to regain some footing, he shoved Trish back, causing her to land a few feet away on her rear. Then he grabbed Lita by the hair and walked out of the corner, dragging the red-head around. The two women had provided enough of a distraction for Matt to get up and stumble around for a moment before clearing his head and getting his footing. Seeing his girlfriend in trouble he charged Christian, making him release Lita and land on the flat of his back. Trish climbed the ropes quickly and leg dropped Christian. Lita started wailing on the grounded man, angry that he put his hands on Matt, Trish and herself.
Matt pulled Lita off of Christian, and Trish stepped up and started kicking him. Able to move around a little more, Christian rolled out of the ring and limped up the ramp, looking back hatefully at the trio left in the ring.
Still fired up, Lita turned on Matt, grabbing his hair she pulled his face to hers and kissed him for everything she was worth. Trish looked over at her two companions only to see them in a rather intense embrace, smiling, she looked back and watched as Christian hobbled backstage. Served him right, there was no reason for him to be out here, jerk.
Coming back to reality, the couple, hand-in-hand, exit the ring and wait for Trish, before heading up the ramp to the back. There was a pang of jealousy in Trish, why couldn't see have someone like Matt?
"Bischoff!!" Christian shouted, storming into the general manager's office
Eric Bischoff couldn't help but think that if this were a cartoon Christian would be red in the face with smoke coming out of his ears. Putting aside the laughter-inspiring thoughts, the shorter man slid into business mode. "How can I help you Christian?"
"Did you see that? Those two females coming out there…something needs to be done…something better be done, Bischoff!" the tall blonde shouted, getting angrier still
"What do you want to be done?" Bischoff asked the athlete
"I want a match…with that inferring, infuriating woman!" Christian said, his voice lower, but with a venom in it that even bothered the occasionally sadistic general manager
Just as Lillian was about to announce the next match, Eric Bischoff's theme song came over the speakers. Dumbfounded, she looked over at the ringside assistant and King and J.R. No one had anything to tell her though, this was as much of a surprise to them as it is to her. Lillian walked over to the ropes and climbed out of the ring to let the general manager say what he needed to say.
"After meddling in business that was not their own, I've decided to make a match concerning Christian." He started off, immediately the crowd started booing. "So next week, it will be Christian vs. Trish Stratus!" and with that, he walked over to the ropes, climbed down and left.
"Trish!" Lita shouted in their shared locker room
Hearing her friends tone, Trish came running to make sure everything was alright. Sure enough, Jeff was sitting across from the love birds, who were snuggled together on the couch, watching the TV. "What's wrong?"
"You've got a match next week…" Lita said ominously
"Okay…" Trish said unsure where this was leading to
"Against Christian." Matt told her, not liking the situation anymore than Lita
"Shit." Trish said, sitting down.
"Don't worry Trish, I've got your back." Jeff said, looking over at her
A wistful smile pulled at her mouth, Jeff would always be there for her. "Thanks Jeff, but I think he's gonna make me do this by myself."
"Forget that! I'm goin' with you if no one else!" Lita said, getting her spirit back
"I'll be right back." Jeff said, then walked out of the dressing room.
"What is up with him lately? He's been acting super weird…" Lita said looking over at her boyfriend and best friend
"Jeff is Jeff." Was all Trish said before turning and heading back to the showers, stressing over next week was useless. Deal with things as they come.