Good day, all you Muggles. We are continuing with The McMahon Games today as we narrow the field from 8 competitors to 4 with a couple of tag team matches. We also get a World Title match in this fantasy booking. Let’s get to it.
When we left off, the final 8 competitors in the battle royal were: Roman Reigns, Matt Hardy, Cesaro, Big E, Sami Zayn, Kofi Kingston, Rusev, and John Cena. These eight men are then paired off randomly and will be involved in two matches. The members of the winning teams will move on and have to face their partners in the next phase of the Games.
To fantasy book this, we will divide up the teams in the following manner:
Team 1 – Roman Reigns and Big E
Team 2 – Matt Hardy and Kofi Kingston
Team 3 – Sami Zayn and John Cena
Team 4 – Cesaro and Rusev
Roman Reigns and Big E will go up against Matt Hardy and Kofi Kingston first. Several interesting items would come up in this battle. First, all four men are very experienced in tag team wrestling, including a huge number of title wins between them. Second, you have two separate members of The New Day facing off against each other. Roman Reigns has had lots of success in singles competition and Big E is a former NXT champion so either of them could be a solid choice to win the MITB briefcase. Matt Hardy and Kofi Kingston have also had singles success, both in the WWE and elsewhere. Finally, Matt Hardy is getting more “Broken” or “Awoken” by the day, so how will that come into play.
For the most part, a match like this would pretty much be a power team versus speed team dynamic. Big E and Kofi would get to go head-to-head early on, resulting in dueling chants from the crowd. Neither man would want to go off on the other though, at least at first. Eventually they would tie up and Big E would use his brawn to knock Kofi down a couple times with shoulderblocks. After a few of these, Kofi would slide through Big E’s legs and catch him with a high heel kick when he turned around. Kofi would back into his corner as Big E got up slowly. Big E would stand, smile at Kofi, and then charge him in the corner, splashing him hard. Matt Hardy would tag in and go full-on crazy with biting and all.
The match would go back and forth with no one gaining a real advantage. Xavier Woods would help both Big E and Kofi Kingston at times outside the ring as long as they weren’t going against each other. Everyone would get to hit their big moves, including Reigns hitting Superman punches on Xavier Woods, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, and Kofi Kingston.
Finally, everyone would get to boo Roman Reigns like crazy when, after a spear to Kofi, he gets the pin for his team. He and Big E are announced as the winners as the announcers talk about how they will have to face each other later in the night. The referee raises Reigns’ hand and goes to raise Big E’s hand, but Langston attacks Reigns from behind. The crowd pops huge for this as Big E beats down Roman Reigns to soften him up for later. Kofi and Xavier both join in on the beatdown and they leave Reigns laying outside the ring in a heap.
The second tag team match will be Sami Zayn and John Cena versus Cesaro and Rusev. Storylines in this match include the continuing battles between Rusev and Cena, with some very ugly nationalism coming from Cena. Also, everyone expects Cena to win this whole thing, so there is that. (I will point out that even if something is obvious, the execution of it can get it over.) Cesaro is one half of the Raw tag team champions, so that tag team experience might come in handy. Plus, those with long memories can remember Zayn and Cesaro having a MOTY candidate down in NXT a couple years back. Finally, you may remember that Zayn’s first match on the WWE main roster was against John Cena in the United States Title Open Challenge. He busted up his shoulder in that match and was on the shelf for a while. Is he still holding a grudge?
This tag team match will probably be a little more technically sound than the previous one, due to the workrate of Zayn and Cesaro. Rusev and Cena will bring the clubbering while Cesaro and Zayn will try to out forearm each other. Cena will play Ricky Morton for a while as Rusev and Cesaro just bludgeon him with power moves. Zayn will pop in here and there for some hope spots, but mostly it will be Cena taking the beating.
But wait. We’ll do the extended version of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express template with Cena getting a hot tag to Zayn before Zayn turns into Ricky Morton. During Zayn’s brief Robert Gibson moments in the match, he will catch fire and the crowd will be hugely behind him. A Blue Thunder Bomb on Cesaro will have the crowd at the edge of their seats, but Cesaro will kick out at 2.9999. As Zayn sets up for a Helluva kick, Rusev will catch him with a kick in the head and the heels will take over again.
This dynamic will go on for quite a while with Zayn playing the plucky underdog to perfection. Every attempt to reach his corner will be cut off. Cena’s lack of experience in tag teams will be displayed as he will distract the referee a few times by accident or not be near enough to his corner to get the tag, etc. Finally, Zayn will duck under a clothesline from Rusev, bounce off Cesaro, and then clip the back of Rusev’s leg. Zayn will crawl over to the corner, tag in Cena, and one AA later, Cena will have the three count and victory.
Zayn and Cena will shake hands after the match and say good luck going forward. Zayn will touch his shoulder slightly as if to send a message to Cena, but for the most part, there is mutual respect and admiration shown.
This will end Phase 4 of The McMahon Games. Before we get to the next matches, the competitors will get a brief break as Brock Lesnar defends the World title against a mystery opponent who has never had a world title shot. Lesnar and Heyman will have been incredulous about this match, claiming how unfair it is to have to defend the title against a complete mystery of an opponent.
Lesnar and Heyman will come to the ring first and wait. Eventually, new music will hit that no one recognizes, but it will bring out Luke Harper. The crowd will give an initial groan, but quickly the smarks in the audience will start some sort of Let’s Go Harper chant. Lesnar will smile, as Luke Harper has never been a serious threat in WWE outside of the Wyatt Family, but Paul Heyman will keep trying to get him to pay attention as he tries to give him some knowledge on how to proceed.
As the match starts, Lesnar sort of blows off Heyman’s advice and attacks Harper. After withstanding an initial attack, Harper will get some solid offense in, even knocking Lesnar out of the ring with a big boot. Heyman comes over to Lesnar who looks more shocked than dazed, but Lesnar shrugs him off again. Lesnar charges in again, but Harper is able to sidestep the attack and gets the better of Lesnar again. After having Lesnar on the ropes again, Harper hits him with a clothesline that takes both men to the outside. Harper gets up and back in the ring playing to the cheers of the crowd.
Lesnar is down outside the ring, looking the worse for wear. Heyman approaches him again, but Lesnar continues to dismiss his advice. This dynamic goes on for a while – Lesnar ignoring Heyman, Lesnar attacking Harper, Harper weathering these attacks, Harper taking control, repeat. Harper will continue this action, playing into the emotions of the crowd as well, and seeming to have control of the match.
Finally, Lesnar will roll out of the ring and confer with Paul Heyman. Finally, Lesnar will listen to Heyman some and regain some small control of the match. After a few minutes of knocking Harper around, he will lift him up for the F5. Harper will slip out of it and hit a superkick to Lesnar’s jaw. Lesnar will be staggered and Harper will bounce off the ropes and hit a tornado clothesline. Harper will go for a pin and get a very long 2 count, with everyone in the arena thinking that was the finish.
Harper will be shocked that Lesnar kicked out and will regroup in the corner. Harper will then get up and prepare for a big boot. Lesnar will get to his feet, turn around, and duck the oncoming Harper. Lesnar will then hoist Harper up, hit an F5 and go for a pin. Harper will be too close to the ropes though and will get his foot on the bottom rope to break up the pin attempt.
The crowd will be putty in the hands of these guys at this point. Luke Harper will not only be getting a chance to show what he can do, but look like a credible person to actually take the title away from Lesnar. Heyman will be going ballistic outside the ring and Lesnar will start to get very, very frustrated, threatening the referee and such.
At this point, Lesnar will just stomp Harper under the bottom rope and outside the ring. He will follow Harper out there and then hit a second F5 on the floor. All business at this point, Lesnar will pick up the dead weight of Harper and roll him back inside the ring, following him in, and pinning him for an emphatic three count. And even though we did not switch the World Title, we got an entertaining match featuring someone that creative has nothing for at the moment, and a new star who the crowd is behind strongly. Possibly, just possibly, we’ve also created a new face for the main event scene.
Come back next week as we continue with The McMahon Games special event! Until then…
