WWE Fantasy Universe S1 Ep.13: Golden Opportunity

Paul Heyman and the WWE champion Rhyno come out to open the Raw after Royal Rumble, but before Paul can even speak he is cut off by a surprise appearance from Smackdown’s Booker T. The winner of the Royal Rumble. Booker T says that he and everyone else have heard what Paul has to say already. He will lecture us about how dominant and unstoppable Rhyno is, how no one can beat him and how he is the most dangerous WWE champion of all time. We have heard all of this before when he managed Brock and he is repeating the process with Rhyno. Booker T doesn’t give a damn what Heyman thinks about Rhyno. All Booker T cares about is the facts.

The fact is, Rhyno is a dominant man-beast who tore through ECW when he debuted and he was the ECW heavyweight and television champion when the company folded. Rhyno did manage to walk out of Armageddon as the WWE champion, defeating 5 other top talents including Booker T. However, the fact is Rhyno would not be champion without Paul Heyman’s help. Another fact is, Booker T was the WCW heavyweight and United States champion when his company folded. Finally, the fact is that at Wrestlemania XIX, Booker T is walking out as the new WWE champion.

Booker T walks away, but before he leaves he turns and stops on the entrance and says “oh, a little bonus fact for you. I didn’t come here alone.” Brock Lesnar’s music plays. Brock charges the ring and attacks Rhyno, Paul Heyman dashes through the crowd to escape. Rhyno manages to escape too as Lesnar stands in the ring, foaming for a fight.

Road To Royal Rumble

Icon vs Icon

Over on Smackdown, The Rock has invited Hulk Hogan to come out and he talks about their time together. How The Rock formed Team Hollywood and made Hogan as big of a star as he used to be and deserves to be. He even fished out the World Heavyweight championship as a gift for him. He has been nothing but gracious, so why would Hogan go out there and do something so stupid like eliminating The Rock from the Rumble.

Hulk Hogan tells Rock that the elimination was clearly an accident, but let’s get some things straight, brother. The Rock did not save Hulk Hogan, dude. Hogan saved The Rock. He says that Hulkamania is the immortal life force that has kept wrestling alive for over 15 years. The Rock leeched off him to fuel his own ego and remain on top of the wrestling world. The Rock laughs and calls Hogan delusional. He mocks Hogan, calling him a fossil. Why would he need to keep around an irrelevant old-timer he has already beaten?

Hogan admits that Rock defeated him brother, but 9 time out of 10 he knows that Hulkamania overpowers the electricity of The Rock.

Before the confrontation gets more heated, DDP and Billy Kidman cut this off. DDP was afraid that something like this would happen. Two huge stars with huge egos. He tries to calm them down and refocus on bringing back gold to Hollywood. The Rock shuts him up and mocks him for his failures in the Rumble and losing his IC title. Kidman goes to speak but Rock warns him not to open his mouth because he is not even in the same conversation as DDP nevermind Hogan or Rock. Hogan tells DDP and Kidman to leave the ring and allow the main attractions to do the talking. DDP and Kidman don’t leave, instead they drop both Hogan and Rock with a punch.

The following week, a Civil War tag match is booked for Team Hollywood. The Rock & Hulk Hogan put aside their differences to fight DDP and Billy Kidman. Rock & Hogan find a dominant groove, but The Rock blindsides Hogan with a Rock Bottom out of nowhere. He hits a People’s Elbow and walks out on the match. Kidman hits a Shooting Star Press and gets a huge pin over Hogan. It seems that Team Hollywood is dead.

The Rock tells Hogan that the time for running your mouth is over. It is time to run it back, Wrestlemania X8 style at No Way Out. The Rock. Hulk Hogan. Icon vs Icon. One Last Time.

A Fair Shot

Brock Lesnar is pissed about Rhyno screwing him out of the Royal Rumble and he is not willing to sit back and let a shot at the world title pass him by. He appears on both Raw and Smackdown and attacks random members of the roster, refusing to quit the assault until he gets what he deserves. Both Vince and Stephanie come out and agree that he was unfairly eliminated and therefore deserves another opportunity at the world title. However, he is not the only one who wants another opportunity.

Kurt Angle comes out and says that he deserves another world title opportunity if Brock is getting one. He too was screwed out of the Royal Rumble by The Undertaker. Lesnar demands Angle stay out of his business, or it will be a repeat of what happened at the King of the Ring. The Undertaker now comes out and says he was just giving Angle what he deserves. Besides, Angle cannot complain when he returned the favour later in the night. Both McMahon’s see all 3 arguments and book a triple threat match for a shot at the WWE title. That match will take place on the following Raw of Smackdown after No Way Out.

The Undertaker and Kurt Angle resume their feud exchanging harsh words and attacks. They have another singles match on Raw which Kurt Angle wins again but he had to cheat to win, using a ring bell as a weapon. Brock Lesnar comes out afterwards and lays out both men with F-5’s.

Booker T approaches Brock Lesnar and he understands his fury at Paul Heyman and Rhyno. He respects him going after the title and he hopes that Brock gets his revenge. However, he tells him that Wrestlemania doesn’t change for Booker T if Brock wins. He will still walk out as WWE champion. There is a sign of mutual respect here, but both men ultimately value being world champion over being friends.

Double Champs

Booker T & Edge with Goldust appear on Raw to defend their tag titles in a rematch against the Un-Americans. After their successful defence, they are approached by the cruiserweight champion The Hurricane backstage. The Hurricane congratulates Booker T on his Royal Rumble win and teases that if Booker does win at Wrestlemania, he will be a double champion. “watsupwitdat?!” Hurricane says that being a double champ would be pretty awesome, but it would be more awesome if it was him that was the double champ. He challenges them for the tag titles. Goldust has no problem but Hurricane doesn’t have a tag partner. Hurricane says that every good superhero always has a sidekick.

Of course, Hurricane does not have a sidekick so he spends each week trying to convince members of the Raw roster to team with him. William Regal is asked first, he just looks at Hurricane with disgust and leaves. Hurricane asks Raven, but he thinks that Hurricane is reaching out to Raven to be his saviour, so Hurricane backs out. Eventually, Hurricane is approached by the Hardcore champion Mark Henry who likes the sound of being a double champ too. He will be Hurricane’s tag partner.

One More Match

Chris Benoit calls out his friend Eddie Guerrero for a chat. He is not stupid and he has noticed that their friendship has been under strain recently with their feud over the Intercontinental championship. Eddie admits that it has been eating away at him. Sure, Benoit beat him fair and square at Armageddon but Guerrero knows that given another opportunity he can win. Eddie proved that at the Royal Rumble, he had Benoit down for a 3 count but the referee was not paying attention. He admits for dumping Benoit out of the Rumble match out of spite and he enjoyed it. However, he is sorry for his bitterness, but he was still hurt from their match earlier in the night.

Benoit didn’t like it, but he understands the frustrations so he is willing to offer Guerrero a rematch at No Way Out. For fairness so that one lucky fall doesn’t determine who is the better wrestler, it will be an Iron Man match. Guerrero is more than happy with this solution. However, Benoit tells him that after this, there is no more chances. This is the last match Benoit is gifting him without earning it.

Matt Hardy wants a fair one on one match with Benoit for the title, so Benoit challenges him to a non-title match. If Hardy wins, he gets a title match after No Way Out. Chris Benoit beats Hardy, so afterwards Matt attacks him. He traps Benoit’s strong hand in a chair and stomps on it repeatedly. Eddie Guerrero makes the save but it is too late. Commentary put over how Benoit’s hand injury will severely hinder the effectiveness of his crossface submission.

Doctor’s Note

Jeff Hardy wins a number 1 contender match to earn a shot at the US championship. Suddenly, the next week Christian comes out wearing a neck brace and a cast on his leg. He comes out and claims that he has been nursing injuries that he sustained from the Armageddon Hell in a Cell match where Jeff Hardy hit a swanton bomb from the top of the Cell through him. Commentary call bullshit considering he has wrestled since. Christian brands Hardy as a dangerous wrestler who should not be allowed to wrestle in the WWE.

Christian says that his injuries have flared up making it impossible to defend his title, but he is told by Vince that if he cannot defend, then he cannot be champion. Christian is pissed about this but he comes up with a plan. Christian goes to a doctor and he gets a doctor’s note confirming that he is unable to wrestle until he has healed. Christian offers that Chris Jericho defends the title on his behalf, but Vince says that the champion must be in the match.

He decides to make it a handicap match which Christian is really not happy with, calling WWE unsafe to work in by putting their injured champions in harm’s way. Jeff Hardy does acknowledge the odds are stacked against him but if Christian’s injury is legit then there shouldn’t be a problem with him being in the match. Hardy does manage to get Lance Storm barred from ringside to make things even more fair for him.

Finding An Opponent

Jazz wants to face the best at Wrestlemania, so she sets up a women’s battle royal at No Way Out to determine a new challenger for her title at the Show of Shows.

No Way Out

Our penultimate PPV of the Shut Your Mouth Season is here and we are kicking things off with a United States Championship match. Chris Jericho and the injured champion Christian taking on Jeff Hardy. This is basically a singles match, with Christian occasionally distracting Jeff to give Jericho the advantage in the match but he never gets physically involved. Jeff has opportunity to win the match a few times but Christian’s antics put a stop to it. Eventually, Jeff has had enough and charges him, knocking the champ to the floor. Christian claims to have been reinjured, especially his casted leg.

Medical staff rush down and they cut off the cast to inspect the injury whilst Hardy and Jericho continue to wrestle. Christian shouts at the referee, blaming him for his accident and allowing Hardy to do that. He demands the referee call for a DQ right now. The ref comes over and speaks with Christian and the officials, trying to defend himself. Whilst this goes on, Chris Jericho swipes the cast that Christian had on his leg, using it to bash Jeff over the head with and hit a Lionsault to win. Christian seemingly makes a miraculous recover as he jumps up to his feet in celebration of his title defence, before quickly realising what he was doing and going back to the floor to sell his “injuries”. Jericho helps Christian up and out of the arena.

Christian retains in 4:33

Next is the Women’s Battle Royal for Wrestlemania title match. Ivory, Molly Holly, Trish Stratus, Lita, Torrie Wilson and Stacy Kiebler. Stacy continues to display her growth as a performer having a strong showing early on. She is able to pin Molly Holly after a big kick to score the first elimination. Ivory is in shock as her ally is taken out so soon. However, Ivory proves throughout this how good she is in case anyone forgot her talents. She scores the next elimination, rolling up her recent rival Trish Stratus for the pin.

Stacy and Torrie work together to beat up Ivory, but Torrie surprises her friend with a roll up and the pin. Stacy is disappointed but she smiles at her friend for surprising her. Torrie is caught up in the apologies, she turns around into a sit-out powerbomb by Lita for the elimination. We are down to Ivory and Lita who wrestle a fun mini match at the end. Ivory dodges the Litasault, rolling her up and pinning her to eliminate her.

Ivory wins in 8:52

Following that we have a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Intercontinental championship. Chris Benoit defends against Eddie Guerrero. This is a highly competitive match to start, but everything goes south for Eddie after attempting a big move to the outside, missing and messing himself up pretty badly. Benoit is still nursing his arm but Eddie is hurting all over. Benoit scores a series of quick falls but utilising his submission game to take a 6-0 lead. Eddie shows a lot of heart though and he fights back, bringing the deficit to only 3 falls at the halfway stage.

However, as the match goes on it is clear that Benoit is showing no remorse and he is lasered in on remaining champion. The gap only grows bigger as the clock ticks down. By the end of the match. Chris Benoit has defeated his friend at a whopping 40-24. Afterwards, Eddie Guerrero stands behind a celebrating Chris Benoit with the IC title. He holds it up, looking to strike him with it but he decides against it. When Benoit turns around, Guerrero hugs him and puts the title around his waist.

Benoit retains in 30:00

Next up is tag team action. Booker T & Goldust defend against Cruiserweight champion The Hurricane and Hardcore champion, Mark Henry. Henry is the dominant force here, Booker & Dust are focusing their energy on wearing him down whilst Hurricane gets in for some quick flashes of offence. Henry is very insistent that Hurricane sit on the sidelines and let him to the work. Hurricane isn’t one to sit out though and he keeps tagging himself in when Henry is in peril to run offence. Henry gets frustrated by this, feeling shown up by the smaller man. Once Booker T & Goldust fight back and prepare to finish off Hurricane, Henry doesn’t even attempt to tag in Hurricane and allows him to be dropped and beaten with a Final Cut.

Booker & Goldust retain in 6:36

The Undertaker vs Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar, with a WWE title shot on the line. Paul Heyman comes out to do commentary for this one, where he insults Lesnar and praises Rhyno. Angle tries to form an alliance to take out Undertaker, but Lesnar takes him out with a huge clothesline. We get ourselves and Undertaker vs Lesnar face off. They talk a little trash before kicking each other’s ass. Kurt Angle realises he must find a way to wear down the bigger men, so he grabs a kendo stick and targets the legs of both his opponents. Angle is clearly setting up for a future Ankle lock but he uses his various forms of suplexes too. We see a double German suplex pulled off by Angle. Undertaker pulls out a double chokeslam too. However, the most impressive spot of the match is a double F-5 from the beast Lesnar. Brock pins Angle to win.

Lesnar wins in 10:14

Brock Lesnar approaches Heyman at ringside but Rhyno rushes in to attack him before anything can happen. Rhyno goes for a Gore, but Lesnar counters putting Rhyno through the announce table with an F-5. Heyman has managed to run away again. Lesnar warns him that revenge will be his.

Our main event is the blockbuster rematch, The Rock vs Hulk Hogan. It is a similar match to their Wrestlemania encounter. Rock and Hogan wrestle a simple match playing to the crowd. Towards the end, Hogan pulls the referee in the way of him as Rock charges him, knocking him down. Rock manages to hit the Rock Bottom and the People’s Elbow but there is no referee to count the pin. All of a sudden, the crowd start reacting as someone is heading to the ring. The Rock turns around, and he is hit with a Sweet Chin Music. Shawn Michaels just attacked The Rock. HBK throws a suck it and puts Hogan on top of Rock. HBK is trying to screw over the Rock. He goes out to wake the referee up, but we hear the glass shatter. Here comes Steve Austin! Why is he out here?

Austin goes over and talks with Shawn. We cannot hear the full conversation, but we get the jist that Austin’s gripe is not with Michaels but he has something that he has got to do. HBK isn’t having it though, so Austin drops him with a stunner. Austin then slides into the ring as both Hogan and the Rock are coming to. Austin drops Hogan with a stunner. He turns to his old adversary Rock, flips him off and drops him with a stunner too. Austin drags Rock on top of Hogan, then throws the referee back into the ring to count the pin.

The Rock wins in 4:50

The Rock and Hulk Hogan remain down as the show ends with a Steve Austin beer bash. He helps Michaels up to show no hard feelings and toast a beer, but of course, Austin gives him the bird and drops him with a stunner for his troubles.

Wrestlemania XIX is just around the corner and there is a lot of rivalries cooking up. Blockbuster dream matches, personal blood feuds and championship pursuits. How will this all culminate at the Show of Shows? Tune in next week for the star-studded finale of WWE Fantasy Universe Season 1!

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