The Fantasy Book on The Dead Man (Part 1.5 of 2) (Kurt Angle, Apollo Crews, John Cena)

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The Fantasy Book continues this week on a scenario for the return of The Undertaker. When we left off last week, Taker had issued a challenge to Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. (How did we get there? Check out Part 1 of the story – https://insidepulse.com/2017/09/15/the-fantasy-book-on-the-dead-man-part-1-of-2-undertaker-roman-reigns-john-cena/)

The match with Reigns was set only when Taker agreed to put his career on the line. In response to that, Undertaker agreed but required the match be a Hell in a Cell match. The match is set for Survivor Series and is set up to be a major event.

Reigns would come out first, surveying the cage, and looking slightly hesitant about entering. The crowd would be booing him mercilessly, and he would turn around and walk back up the ramp. As everyone was confused for a few minutes, even the announcers being unsure about what was happening, we suddenly hear a loud motorcycle roar. Reigns’ music starts again and Roman comes out on a huge motorcycle, a leather jacket, and a bandana around his head, obviously mimicking the American Bad Ass version of Undertaker.

The announcers talk about how disrespectful this display is, and how Reigns is trying to get into Taker’s head. They debate whether it would work or not. Reigns climbs into the cell and then into the ring and looking arrogant. The lights go out and a huge gong is heard. A second gong. A third one, and the lights come back on. Undertaker is standing in the ring right behind Reigns!

Reigns turns around into a right hand by Taker and they lock the cell. The two men spend the next 30 minutes beating the hell out of each other, both selling like death all the way through. One particularly fun sequence sees Reigns hitting Taker with a Superman punch, but Taker not going down. Reigns tries to hit another one immediately and Taker grabs him by the throat and chokeslams him. They fight in and around the ring, using the cage liberally. At one point, Reigns throws the ring steps at Taker in the ring, but Taker avoids them. The steps get set up on their end, and then Taker dives at Reigns outside the ring. Reigns dodges and Taker crashes into the cell.

Reigns will stomp on Taker a couple times, then lift him up and roll him into the ring. Reigns will climb in and wait in the corner for the Undertaker to get up. Taker will stagger to his feet eventually, looking very much like this is the end of the Dead Man. Reigns will do his silly roar thing and then charge at Taker for a spear. Taker will turn around but fall to his side and Reigns will smash head first into the standing ring steps.

Taker and Reigns will both be down in the middle of the ring, but Taker will do his zombie sit-up, see Reigns laying there, and stand up. Taker will do his throat slash motion, pick Reigns up and look like he will go for a Tombstone Piledriver. However he will drop Reigns, look outside the ring at the motorcycle, then pick Reigns back up. As the crowd cheers, Taker will pick Reigns up and hit a huge Last Ride powerbomb on Reigns on top of the ring steps in the ring. Taker will pull Reigns off the steps and pin his broken body for a three count and victory.

After Survivor Series, Undertaker will disappear for a little while. Reigns will recover and enter himself into the Royal Rumble once he heals up. Around the same time, John Cena will return and start mocking Roman Reigns again, saying there is unfinished business between the two of them. This feud would go back and forth a bit leading up to the Rumble, in which Cena also was entered.

Cena would start going talking in his promos again about how Reigns beat an old and beaten down Taker at WrestleMania, but he couldn’t even beat an even older and more beaten down Taker at Survivor Series. Cena would talk about how he is still at the top of the mountain, the top of his game, etc. and that Reigns wants no part of him. Reigns would try to counter Cena’s promos, but fail miserably. And the more Reigns failed at countering Cena’s remarks, the more Cena would lay into him, mostly mocking him for his loss to Taker.

At the Royal Rumble, Cena and Reigns would meet up towards the end of the match and start wailing on each other. As the crowd in the ring got smaller and smaller, Reigns would catch Cena and toss him over the top rope. Cena would be shocked and angry, especially as Reigns would continue on to win the Rumble and be set up to wrestle Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania for the Universal Title.

The next night, Reigns would come to the ring with Kurt Angle and call out John Cena. Cena would come out and Reigns would tell him that he wanted him to watch, up close, as he signed his contract to challenge for the Universal Title and main event WrestleMania. Again. Cena would be livid and very tempted to attack Reigns. But after Reigns signed the contract and left the ring, Cena would grab Angle and back him into the corner.

The camera microphones would pick up Cena screaming at Angle that he didn’t come back to play second fiddle to anyone, especially not Roman Reigns! He came back to headline WrestleMania and Angle needs to make that happen. Angle tries to calm him and leave the ring, but Cena snaps, spins Angle around and hits him with an AA in the middle of the ring.

The next week, Cena comes out to start the show. He is met with a loud chorus of boos, and he begins to talk about attacking Angle last week. He apologizes like this, “So, last week I hit Kurt Angle with an AA. I was angry and I was in a rage. I am sorry that I did that. I am sorry that I am so much more dominant than a has-been like Angle that I was able to easily crush him like that. That must really be embarrassing for him.” More boos come Cena’s way at this.

Cena continues to talk about how he is the face of the WWE, that he will not step down from that mantle, he will have to be knocked off it. AJ Styles couldn’t do it. Kevin Owens couldn’t do it. Randy Orton couldn’t do it. Brock Lesnar couldn’t do it. Kurt Angle couldn’t do it. And Roman Reigns damn sure couldn’t do it. Cena says that when he is here, he should be main eventing every event. He doesn’t mind if someone tries to make their name off him, because he actually likes putting those beneath him in their place. The crowd does not like this side of Cena at all, and his normal mixed reaction tilts heavily to all boos.

Either the next week or week after that, Cena will go to the ring and call out Kurt Angle. Angle will come out, but stay at the top of the ramp. Cena will demand that Angle comes to the ring to hear him out. Angle will refuse to come down and Cena will lose it in the ring. He will scream and yell, telling Angle that he better get him a match at WrestleMania that will be bigger than Lesnar versus Reigns or he will make his life a living hell.

Angle will tell Cena that he doesn’t run things around here, he does. Angle starts talking like he is going to challenge Cena himself, but pauses for a second and then tells Cena that he’s right. Cena starts smiling in the ring as Angle continues. “John, I hate to admit it, but you are right. You should be in a major match at WrestleMania. So I’ll give you a match.” Cena will ask who it is going to be against and Angle will tell him that he has to finalize something first and then he will let him know.

The rest of the episode will see Angle talking to various people on the phone and meeting with the WWE medical staff backstage, asking if the clearance is in yet. We will also see Cena backstage constantly hounding Angle to name his WrestleMania opponent. Cena will be acting like a huge jerk to everyone backstage, re-affirming the “I think I’m better than everyone else” attitude he had been displaying. All the backstage vignettes make it seem like Angle is setting himself up to be the opponent for Cena.

At the end of the show, Angle comes out to the ring and calls out Cena. Cena comes out and Angle holds an envelope in front of him. Angle tells Cena that he has an opponent for him for WrestleMania and in the envelope is the contract. All Cena has to do is sign it and he has a match set. Cena tries to grab the envelope, but Angle pulls it back, telling Cena he might want to calm down and think about this. Cena charges Angle and pushes him into the corner. Cena grabs the envelope out of Angle’s hand and backs into the middle of the ring. Angle takes two steps out of the corner, still telling Cena he might want to take a moment. Cena spins around and hits Angle with a vicious clothesline.

Cena then laughs a little, grabs a mic and tells Angle that no washed-up, beaten-down, old has-been is going to tell him what he can or can’t do. Cena drops the mic and as he goes to open the envelope, the lights go out. And stay out for a while. When they come back on, Cena is still in the ring, but Angle is gone. The ring is also filled with lots and lots of smoke billowing around. Cena looks around and then down at his hand at the envelope. He starts to get angry and rips open the envelope and goes to read it. As he reads the contract, Raw fades to black.

The next week, after a week of debate and questioning, we get to Raw. The show starts backstage as Reigns and Lesnar are brawling or something. When we finally start proper, the announcers start talking about who is Cena going to wrestle at WrestleMania. They say that Cena hasn’t said anything to anyone all week and that Kurt Angle has been absent as well. The announcers debate who they think might be the opponent, but Cena’s music hits and he comes to the ring.

Cena stands in the ring stoically. As the boos begin to die down, Cena lifts the microphone and tries to talk. But the microphone isn’t working. After a couple of tries, a frustrated and angry Cena demands another mic from ringside. This one isn’t working either. He starts screaming at the production people at ringside to get him a working microphone, but every one he tries does not work.

Then, we hear a gong. The lights go down, but not all the way out. On the Titan Tron we see The Undertaker. Taker says to Cena that there is no need to hear from him. He is his opponent at WrestleMania! The crowd goes nuts for this news. Taker then tells Cena that after No Mercy, he was going to leave him be. He wanted Reigns and he got him. And he figured that was it. But he keeps hearing his name in Cena’s mouth and it is pissing him off.

Taker continues, saying that he’s never liked Cena. He always found him to be an arrogant tool and not worthy of the adulation he received. He wasn’t worthy of his success and he wasn’t worthy of his championship. And he damn well wasn’t worthy to run his mouth and put down himself. He finishes by saying, “John, I am fine with my career. But I am not fine with you. This is personal and this is it. At WrestleMania, you will rest in peace.”

And so the build begins. As the other storylines play out on Raw and Smackdown, the Undertaker/Cena feud heats up on his own. Neither man is on Raw every week leading up to WrestleMania, but when they are, all chaos erupts. One week, video is shown of Cena attacking Undertaker at a fan event, an autograph signing or something, and leaving him laying. Another week, Cena has a match against someone, let’s say Apollo Crews, and he defeats him by hitting a Tombstone Piledriver on him. After the match, Cena will knock Titus O’Neill out of the ring and hit a second Tombstone on Crews.

Another week, Undertaker will be in the building and come to the ring for an interview. Cena will come out to confront him and as they go face to face the lights will go off. When the lights come back on, Undertaker will be laying on his back and Cena will be standing over him, laughing. Another week will have Cena run down the list of Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak and mock them all for not being as good as himself. He will accuse Taker of avoiding him around WrestleMania time in the past because he knows he would easily break the streak.

There would be a mild brawl between the two men at one point and as the ring filled up with wrestlers to keep them separated, Cena would grab a chair and nail Taker with it multiple times. Eventually, the other wrestlers would pull Cena off him and he would start to back up the ramp, laughing. Taker would do the zombie sit-up and just stare Cena down as he continued to back up.

The following week, Cena would demand that Angle adds in some stipulations to the match at WrestleMania. He lists several conditions and says that he is going to do what no one else in WWE could ever do, get rid of Taker once and for all. Cena wants Taker’s career to be on the line in this match. Angle counters that he will check with Taker, but it is more likely to happen if Cena puts his own career on the line. Cena reluctantly agrees and we have a Career versus Career match scheduled for WrestleMania between two of the WWE’s biggest stars ever.

To be continued…

 

I know that I made it seem like this would be a two-part Fantasy Book, but it seems that the Fantasy Booking Committee feels compelled to add an additional column to the story next week. So next week, we will have the conclusion to this story line, including the big WrestleMania match between Undertaker and Cena! See you then!

 

 

Human. I think.