Backstage, Mascara de la Muerte is in Kevin Andrews' office. We join in the middle of a conversation:
Andrews: So do you understand me, de la Muerte? Comprend-o?
Mascara looks pissed off.
Andrews: I'm putting you in a no disqualification tag match for the Tag Team Titles tonight. It's free-for-all rules, so there will be no tagging. All four men are in action and eligible to pin anyone at any point. Your opponents will be James Shelley and Dustin Dreamer.
The camera pans out and we see Shelley and Dreamer smiling behind Andrews, who is seated at his desk.
Andrews: If you don't find a partner by the time the match begins... it will become a handicap match!
The crowd begins booing.
Andrews: (smiling) And I don't think I need to tell you what will happen to you in a no disqualification handicap match.
All three men chuckle to themselves as Mascara de la Muerte seems worried.
Andrews: I'm sure there's something you'd like to get off your chest, but I think you'd better spend your time looking for a tag team partner. Maybe one that speaks Spanish? hahaha! Now get out of my office!
Mascara de la Muerte is quite pissed off as the audience boos. He realizes the situation he is in and chooses not to start a fight here. He begins exiting off screen. We hear a door open as de la Muerte leaves the office, but Andrews suddenly calls back to him:
Andrews: Oh, de la Muerte! (pause) Good luck tonight. hahahaha
Andrews, Dreamer, and Shelley share a hearty laugh as we hear the office door slam off camera. The audience rips into the trio,
"You suck! You suck! You suck!"
Johnny Ray: Andrews is on fire recently! He's taking care of business left and right! Looks like he even recruited one of our up-and-coming talents, Dustin Dreamer, to the cause!
Fish: You call that on fire? Heh, well maybe someone should put it out with their piss, because if you a...
Johnny Ray: Hey! You can't talk about the General Manager of Thunder that way! The man's a genius!
Fish: That's one way to look at cheating, Johnny Ray. But I prefer to call 'em like I see 'em, and right now Mascara de la Muerte is stuck between a rock and James Shelley! There's no way he'll find a partner in time!
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later in the show...
Mascara de la Muerte is back stage, looking for a partner. He passes Jack Young, AG Zero, and Lee Powell, who speaks up.
Powell: Hey, why don't you take Young here as your partner. That way he can get in on the ass whooping you're gonna take tonight! hahaha! No reason for that bitch Shelley and whats-his-name... uhhh... uhh... doesn't matter... no reason for those two guys to have all the fun.
AG Zero: I ran a regression on the data, and the likelihood of you getting the shit stomped out of you and losing your tag team titles goes from 99.99999999999 percent without Jack Young as your partner... to 100 percent with him.
Young jumps towards de la Muerte, excitedly and offers his hand in the air, as if for a high-five.
Young: Can't argue with that! Can 'ya, partner!?
The three men all begin laughing as de la Muerte decides to ignore them and continue his search.
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later in the show...
Mascara de la Muerte walks by several face wrestlers, but they are all bruised up from the Hardcore tables match. John Connor, Carter Albano, and Randy Orton are all nursing wounds and are taped up from the chair shots and barbed wire and the flaming baseball bats.
Suddenly, Tom Bombadil runs through the shot partly on fire. "Ahhhhhh!!!" He hits the floor and begins rolling, trying to extinguish the flames while everyone else ignores him. The audience laughs.
de la Muerte shakes his head and continues off screen.
Fish: (giddy) Oh boy, that was quite a hardcore match wasn't it, Johnny?
Johnny Ray: Those men have the bruises to prove it, Fish. But de la Muerte is running out of time... his match is next!
Fish: Oh no!
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later in the show...
After some brief talking by Fish and Johnny Ray, and some video vignettes and recaps of the action so far, we again join Mascara de la Muerte backstage.
He notices smoke emerging from the bottom of a door. He approaches it and begins coughing from the fumes.
Johnny Ray: Oh my! Another fire!?
After clearing his throat a couple times, de la Muerte knocks on the door, but no one answers. He knocks again, but still no answer. Finally, he decides just to open it himself.
Smoke comes pouring out of the room - so much that the camera can not see who's in there. de la Muerte enters, coughing; but suddenly his head jerks up and he sees a face he recognizes.
Mascara: Si! Perfecto!
He closes the door behind him and the camera fades to black.
Johnny Ray: Wait! Who was that in the room with him?
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later in the show...
Shelley and Dreamer have had their music hit and they are in the ring, awaiting de la Muerte. His music finally hits and he emerges.... alone. He makes his way down the ramp and reluctantly enters the ring. The audience is confused and saddened that he has not found a partner.
Fish: This doesn't look good for the Tag Team Champions!
Johnny Ray: A no disqualification handicap match! This could get ugly, folks!
de la Muerte keeps looking back at the ramp, unsure and disappointed. The referee orders for the bell to be rung and Shelley and Dreamer immediately charge de la Muerte and begin hammering away.
Fish: I can't watch!
Mascara fights back for a second and fends them off. The crowd cheers loudly as he clotheslines Dreamer and then proceeds to punch Shelley again and again and again, backing him into the corner.
Fish: Maybe he can do this!?
But then Dreamer hops on Mascara's back from behind, delivering forearms to his head. This allows Shelley to regain composure and the two beat him down to the canvas.
Fish: From behind! The Tag Team Champions will need eyes in the back of his head for this contest!
Shelley continues to hammer at Mascara while Dreamer rolls out of the ring and looks underneath it. After a moment, he pulls out a table and the audience boos. He tosses it in the ring and rolls back in to begin setting it up.
The audience continues to chant,
"You suck! You suck!", when suddenly the titantron changes to backstage, eyeing the same mysterious door, smoke still pouring out from underneath. This silences the audience for a second and as the door slowly creeps open, they wait to see who emerges.
Johnny Ray: Who could it be?!
The camera cuts back to the action in the ring though before we can see the man emerge. The audience boos as a result of this, and de la Muerte is being set up to go through the table. Shelley climbs to the top turnbuckle as Dreamer holds him down.
Then... suddenly... music blares through the arena and the audience turns to greet the man emerging from the curtains and running down the ramp, coughing the whole day down.
Johnny Ray: It can't be!
Fish: I don't believe it! Reunited at last!
The audience cheers wildly as Little Jiminy Cricket rolls into the ring and begins to level both Dreamer and Shelley.
Johnny Ray: Little Jiminy Cricket has turned a new leaf! He's come to help his former partner, his former arch-nemesis! He's come to help Mascara de la Muerte!
Fish: I don't believe it, Johnny! We've got a real match on our hands now!
The audience agrees and they suddenly begin chanting the name of a man they were booing only last week,
"Cricket! Cricket! Cricket"
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OOC NOTE:
Cricket PM'd me and requested he turn face for the PPV. I concocted this as a convenient way for him to turn and also for us to have an actual tag match for the tag titles. (Y) Hope y'all enjoy it.