With TLC on Sunday, everybody’s true motives are coming to light. Or at least, that’s the ruse set by others. The final pieces are cast for the most extreme game of chutes and ladders coming in six days.
Warnings/Promises: wrestling violence, mind games
Word Count: 2136
Note: Again, I hadn’t realized that they moved TLC to December, but it’s too late for me to backtrack. So, TLC will be in next week’s chapter, making for three PPVs this month. All the wrestling! Tag lists and requests open. Feedback much appreciated!
Part 1: Welcome to the Team
Part 22: A Turn of Events
*Series Disclaimer (Placement of PPVs)
Monday Night Raw – October 15, 2018 – Philadelphia, PA
In one hand you had a clipboard ready to sign, in the other, you had a coffee that had gone cold. Baron Corbin walked up and caught you at what was probably your most hectic moment all night. He looked about two seconds from growling at you. He put on a more neutral face as Stephanie McMahon strutted up behind him.
“I have complete faith in you, Y/N,” she said. “It’s the last show before TLC, and I have no doubt that everything is going to run smoothly.”
You gulped and looked at Baron. “I have high hopes too.”
She noticed you gaze and gave Baron a heavy pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. If you’re as good as Kurt says you are, we are both going to see a wonderful show tonight. And you don’t have to worry about Baron. He’s going to be learning by my side all night. You won’t need to make a match for him this week.”
“Thank you.” You bit back a half-baked comment about a McMahon being a high-paid babysitter for the night.
Baron stole your coffee on their way out. You chuckled as you heard him sputtering about it down the hall.
***
Finn Balor’s music was probably everybody’s favorite way to start the night.
Mojo was already in the ring, and Kevin Owens soon made his way to the commentary table. “Okay, I am ready to watch Finn retain his title. Or not, if Mojo wants to take his spot and defend it at TLC. Either works for me.”
The challenger and defender met for a quick handshake before doing their best to rip each other apart. The more they gave and took, the more the crowd got into it. And the more it made Kevin nervous.
“I’m not nervous. Stop saying that. I am perfectly happy with Finn using up all his energy tonight so I can take back the Universal Title. Or Mojo. Whichever.”
“But Finn Balor has shown time and time again what he’s willing to do to keep it. Something you’ve been on the receiving end of before.” Michael Cole flinched as Finn dropped kicked Mojo. “You don’t have any fears at all about Sunday?”
Kevin hesitated as Finn climbed to the top turnbuckle and leaped. “Nope. Not at all,” he rasped.
Finn won the pin. He stood with his boot on Mojo’s chest and pointed at Kevin. The Canadian quickly left the arena.
***
Elias sat in the center of the spotlight. He looked grimly at his guitar and hesitated to bring his fingers up to play. “Philly, I can sense there is going to be a change in the winds on Sunday.” He played a few sorrowful chords as the audience booed. “Don’t worry about it too much. I will still be Intercontinental at the end of the night. But… it’s the other three men you should be concerned for.” After a few more chords, he sang.
“One man burned down all he knew. One man has held this gold. One man there will be betrayed. And one man is the last hope of the world.”
There would have been more, but a record scratch kept him from it. Elias readied for an attack. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre calmly walked out onto the stage.
“And what do you mean by that, Elias?” Dolph asked. “I have held that god, yeah. I’ve had it several times. I going to hold it again come Sunday at TLC. At best it’s two versus two, but eventually, Seth is going to reach for his own goals, and then it will be three versus one. Those aren’t odds for you, Elias.”
Drew was not so flippant with the line about him. “What do you mean one man will be betrayed?”
Elias grinned and lowered his guitar from its attack position. “You really think that, come Sunday, that Dolph is going to let you walk over him for this title? Drew… come on. You have been blinded. Probably by that bleached shine off the top of his head. As short as he is compared to you…”
“Get to the point Elias.” Drew cut him off and kept Dolph from interrupting.
“You need to see the truth, Drew. Dolph Ziggler only ever works for himself. If his goals or his plans are threatened, he will dump the cargo to save the ship. And that’s going to include you.”
Dolph surged forward, staggering back as Drew caught his collar. “Shut up. You don’t know everything.”
The musician laughed and focused again on Drew. “When you two are standing on either side of the ladder, which of you is he going to give up? The title, or you?” He smiled and sat back on his stool. He continued to play until Drew left the arena with a growl, Dolph confused and close on his heels.
***
Backstage, Dolph rushed to catch up with Drew. “Hey, slow down. Not everybody can be as tall as you.”
“And not everybody can be as self-serving as you. Though I am thinking about trying.”
Dolph caught hold of one of the chains on Drew’s gear. “Woah, woah, woah. What’s with the attitude. Did… did Elias get under your skin?” He reeled, running his tongue over his teeth. “Come on man, it’s the last show before TLC. He’s just trying to split us up. Better his chances. It doesn’t mean-“
“So, nothing he said is true?” Drew’s scowl allowed no room for lying or tricky words.
All Dolph could do was shrug. “Okay, he got me. He’s right, I do want to win. And once I do, I want to have a classic match that’s just us.” He lightly punched Drew’s shoulder. “One that shows off what the Universe has been ignoring since we teamed up. Man, we’ve been so busy chasing Seth or Dean, we’ve lost our own drive. Our own plans.”
“Your plans.”
“And you’ve known the end game from the beginning. Once one of us wins a title, we give the other a shot at it. Elias did get that much right. And that I want to be the one that wins the Intercontinental Championship on Sunday. He got a lot right, but not for the right reasons.”
Drew huffed and tried to walk way. Dolph stepped in front of him, ignoring the murderous glint in Drew’s eyes.
“Okay, okay. I wanted to strategize a few days closer to TLC, but if this is an issue we can do it now. I was hoping you could have my back. I’m going to have yours. But let me climb the ladder. I’m great at matches like this. Then, that Monday, or the next week if Sunday proves to be super intense, which it might, you get the first shot at the title. Without the other distractions that come in a ladder match.”
Looking at the two, it was difficult to know who was believing whom. Drew seemed to believe that Dolph was sincere. And Dolph seemed to believe that Drew’s worries were completely at rest.
“Sounds like another great plan.” Drew gently pushed his partner aside and continued down the hallway.
***
The B-Team and Titus World Wide squared off for the Raw Tag Team Titles. It was a flurry of activity. Titus had a generous height advantage and Apollo’s acrobatic speed was a leveling force. But the B-Team had one thing more than any other team on the roster.
Skilled luck.
Their timing was impeccable. Speed and strength meant nothing against how much the champs watched each other’s backs. How effective their borderline slap-stick attacks were against their opponents. Not that World Wide didn’t either, but on their team, each man was trying to win the titles using his own method. Stumbling over each other’s plans cost them the match.
While Bo collected their belts from the ref, Curtis waved Charley to come into the ring. She obliged and brought mics for them. “Did you two want to say something?”
Curtis nodded and rushed to catch his breath. “We were down to fight any team who won last week-“
“But it didn’t end as it should have.” Bo finished. “The Ascension messed with the match. While it was nothing more than a distraction-“
“Reigns and Ambrose should have won. And as such, we want to face them at TLC.”
Bo slung his belt over his shoulder. “We’ll even let them pick the rules.”
Charley was left standing alone as two chairs swung in and sent the champions to the canvas. She quickly moved to one side as Dean and Roman made sure Bo and Curtis weren’t going to get back up.
Dean motioned for Charley to come back to the center. He leaned into the mic she offered. “We want chairs.”
Roman nodded. He slung an arm over Dean’s shoulder once they hit ringside. “We’ll see you at TLC,” he shouted at them.
Corey shuddered. “I think the B-Team has realized they have made a huge mistake.”
***
By the time the main event rolled around, Stephanie was smiling like you were her new favorite child. And Baron was glaring at you every chance he got. You couldn’t help but grin between them. You all watched from backstage as Natalya made her way to the announce table.
She greeted everybody and settled in. Corey noticed how she kept fidgeting. “You seem restless, Natalya. What’s up?”
“They took my title to hang it above the ring a while ago. I don’t like not having it with me.”
Renee gave her shoulder a pat. “You’ll have it back as soon as the match is over. Though I can’t promise you won’t have to wrangle it back from whoever wins tonight. Who do you think that’ll be, by the way?”
Natalya shrugged while Bayley’s music came on. “Honestly, I don’t really care. All of these women are phenomenal. And any one of them is going to put their all into our match on Sunday.” The other women entered, with Rhonda last. Natalya waved back at her. “The most pressing thing right now is to see who will survive tonight.”
Finally, all the women were in the ring. It was surrounded by upright ladders, all ready for use against a human body. When the bell rang, all the women froze. For a second, it looked like maybe nothing was going to be used from outside of the ring. But then Alexa made a quick exit. Ruby left on the other side of the ring. Natalya and Bayley stared at each other, then with a nod to each other, they sprang off opposite ropes and sailed at their opponents.
Ruby was the first to utilize the tools surrounding her. She ducked Rhonda’s inexperienced jump and held up a short ladder as a shield for her to run into. Alexa was less successful because Bayley knew more what was in store. She evaded Alexa’s shield by scaling another one set up nearby, then took her to the floor. Either way, both women were able to throw the other two back into the ring while staying on the floor themselves. For extra measure, Bayley tossed in a short ladder between them.
They took the bait and gave the other hell. Once those two had exhausted themselves, Bayley and Rhonda got back into the ring and fought against one another. Occasionally they had to deal with Ruby or Alexa as they came to, but kept the fight mostly between themselves. Surprisingly, Rhonda was the first to bring in something tall enough to reach the goal. The other women made it impossible for her to scale it to the title, scrambling over her to reach for themselves.
There were several ladder collapses, finger’s desperately grazing the title before getting yanked away, and mini alliances that were rapidly broken for the prize at hand. And other things were dragged out from under the ring to use.
Ruby had the last run. Alexa and Bayley were scrambled together through a table, and Rhonda was missing somewhere under a pile of chairs. Ruby struggled to crawl into the ring. Then found it difficult to scale the ladder due to her injuries. In her focus, she missed the motion of a newly active woman climbing the other side. Only at the top did she come face to face with Rhonda, who met her punch for punch.
Ruby fell.
Unclipping the belt, Rhonda held it high and smiled back at Natalya.
Corey broke through the electric tension. “Now that we know Rhonda can handle ladders, on Sunday I guess we’ll see if she can handle tables and chairs too. Natalya?”
Their match was set. Friend against friend. Natalya stood and slow applauded. She was ready.
Part 24: Shattered (TLC)
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