WWE Fantasy Universe S1 Ep.5: Faction Warfare

Team Hollywood takes over Raw and Smackdown yet again. They are in possession of the Undisputed WWE championship, the Intercontinental championship and the cruiserweight championship. Hulk Hogan also holds the World Heavyweight championship though it is not an official belt right now, as it was a gift from The Rock. They come out to brag about their success and they are far from done. There are still other titles waiting to be collected by the most electrifying group in sports entertainment. Their gloating is interrupted by the 2002 King of the Ring winner, Brock Lesnar. Lesnar stares down all of the members, lastly The Rock and tells him that at Summerslam, there is nothing they can do to stop him from becoming the world champion.

Road To Vengeance

Stuck in the Middle

The nWo come out on Raw to do their shtick but they are confronted by Smackdown’s Triple H. He charges towards them but Nash holds him back and asks him to calm down and hear them out. Nash promises that they have nothing to do with his attack at King of the Ring. It was a set up. Triple H points at the facts. The guy was wearing an nWo shirt, hit an X-Factor and looked a similar build to X-Pac. Triple H gets in X-Pac’s face and questions him. He denies the involvement and shoves him out of his face. Nash and HBK separate them and they know what has gone down. Clearly, Team Hollywood have cosplayed as the nWo and ambushed Triple H to drive a wedge between them. Triple H says he will go talk to them on Smackdown but they are not off the hook. HBK says that they have words for Hollywood too.

On Smackdown, Triple H calls out The Rock and Team Hollywood. He wants to know if there is any truth to the conspiracy that is the attack at King of the Ring. The Rock denies any involvement and cannot believe Triple H is buying the nWo bullshit. They are trying to manipulate Triple H into joining them. It is not their fault that X-Pac is too stupid to not hit his signature move when trying to attack him. The Rock promises Triple H that he will deal with this personally, he can rely on him for help. The nWo music plays and they enter through the arena. The nWo circle the ring. Michaels calls Team Hollywood snakes who are trying to cause drama. It was clearly them who orchestrated this attack. Michaels and Rock come face to face once again, Jim Ross puts over how these two have never wrestled each other before. Team Hollywood and the nWo go back and forth, exchanging insults and accusations until Triple H shuts them up.

Triple H promises to find out who attacked him, until then it is clear that both of these factions are obsessed with bringing The Game into their roster. Fine, at Vengeance, the nWo and Hollywood will wrestle in a tag match and whoever wins, Triple H will join their side. Oh, and to make things fair, Triple H will be the special guest referee. It is later revealed that Michaels and Nash will represent the nWo. HBK tries to bait Rock into joining the match, but Rock says that he has Hollywood business to deal with. Hogan will team with DDP at the event.

Hurt people, hurt people

The Un-Americans continue their pursuit of the tag titles, but Christian does not think that Jericho deserves another opportunity at becoming a champion so he benches him, bringing Storm along as his partner for the match. More on that later.

Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle are both backstage together and what initially starts off as shared sympathy, becomes shared mockery. Chris Jericho sympathises with Kurt suffering a big loss at King of the Ring to Brock Lesnar, he came close to securing a big title match. Angle appreciates it, but he extends his sympathies to Jericho for being benched by the team he doesn’t even want to be a part of. Kurt felt a little better after his loss, knowing that he isn’t being humiliated like Jericho is. Jericho takes this personally and he says “well at least I’m not a bald idiot who lost to a rookie”. Angle takes this personally, and responds “well, at least I am not somebody’s bitch!” The tensions rise until they are separated from engaging physically.

The next week, Jericho invites Angle out to the ring for a formal apology. Jericho then delivers an incredibly backhanded apology, feeling sorry for Kurt being bald, being an idiot and being a jackass. Kurt then says he is sorry too. He is sorry to all of the dogs out there because he compared Jericho to them, when Jericho is worse than a bitch. Kurt calls Jericho “Christian’s whore” sparking a brawl between the two. A match between them is made for Vengeance.

New Competition

Trish Stratus celebrates her victory over Lita but she is confronted by 3 legends of the women’s division. Jazz, Molly Holly and Ivory are all fed up of seeing Lita and Trish always getting the opportunities. They remember a time when Lita and Trish were eye candy, a thing for the boys to look at whilst the real women wrestled. They pride themselves on being superior wrestlers than them and they want their shot to prove it. Trish is happy to fight them all, but Stephanie McMahon overrules this and instead books a triple threat contender match for Vengeance.

Rage in a Cage

Both the Un-Americans and the Tag champions are far from finished with each other after the controversial double count out finish at the King of the Ring show. The Un-Americans run down Booker T and Goldust on Raw, but not knowing that the tag champions would surprise attack them. On Smackdown, the favour was returned as Christian and Lance Storm would ambush the champions backstage. A rematch is set for Vengeance inside a Steel Cage.

After failing to win last time, Christian blames Chris Jericho and tells him to buck his ideas up if he wants to have a career with the Un-Americans. Jericho reminds them that he doesn’t want to be with them and would prefer if he was on his own but Christian thinks it would be better for them and for Canada if Jericho gets on board with their plans.

Team Hollywood has a backstage interaction with Booker T and Goldust. The Rock once again expresses interest in Booker T being part of Team Hollywood, Booker T once again says that he isn’t interested. The Rock tells him that he always gets what he wants, time is running out on Booker making the correct choice.

Best of Seven

Matt Hardy calls out his brother Jeff and asks him why he has to be so selfish, Lita was thriving as champion and she would have reigned longer if it wasn’t for his involvement. Jeff asks if Matt wants to talk about being selfish, let’s talk about the WWE title tournament months ago. For the past few months Matt and Lita are focused on their own success at Jeff’s expense. They used to be the Hardy Boyz, one of the best tag teams in WWE but they have never felt so distant. Jeff blames Lita, saying that somewhere along the line she got corrupted and now she is corrupting Matt too.

Matt lashes out and calls Jeff jealous. He is jealous that Lita chose Matt over Jeff and he is jealous that Matt is better than him. Without him, Jeff will fall into obscurity. Jeff says this is not about jealousy at all, but if Matt is so confident, maybe they can prove who is the better brother right here on Smackdown. Matt accepts. Matt and Jeff wrestle an even match on Smackdown which ends in a draw after both men try to do a cradle pin, the referee counts both men’s shoulders.

The brothers continue to argue who won the match, Stephanie gets involved, not liking how this has went down so she sets up a Best of Seven series for them. The winner will not only be the better brother, but they will receive a shot at the IC championship too. Each match will be different, the first being a standard singles match at Vengeance.

Mentoring

Ric Flair approaches Randy Orton, who he beat in the King of the Ring tournament. Flair sees a lot of talent and potential in Orton and offers to be his mentor. Orton rejects this at first, but when he continues to suffer losses on Smackdown he decides to take on Flair’s advice. Flair pulls some strings and gets a big PPV match with Orton against the Dudley’s. He will teach Orton everything from the basic’s to world champion techniques. He promises to make Orton a star.

Impersonator

The nWo and Team Hollywood continue to debate over who really attacked Triple H. Whilst X-Pac is the suspect for the nWo, they assume that Billy Kidman must have been the one who did it since he is a similar build to X-Pac. Both men point the finger at each other, whilst denying any involvement.

X-Pac defeats The Hurricane and demands to be given a cruiserweight title match. Kidman has no interest, but Vince McMahon is having a great time watching these 2 factions explode for his enjoyment. He books the match for Vengeance.

Vengeance

We are at the 2nd annual Vengeance PPV. Our opening contest is for the Cruiserweight championship. Team Hollywood’s Billy Kidman defends against The nWo’s X-Pac. A fast, athletic contest to open the show. X-Pac is able to keep up with Kidman throughout. Surprisingly, there is no interference from either man’s faction in this one. X-Pac hits a kick combo, followed by the X-Factor to win the match.

X-Pac wins the Cruiserweight title in 3:43.

Next up, Ric Flair and Randy Orton team up to face the Dudley Boyz. Orton struggles at first, being on the receiving end of offence but he takes on coaching from Ric Flair and manages to turn the tide. Flair and Orton utilise some dirty tricks, Flair makes D-Von submit with the figure four leglock.

Randy Orton & Ric Flair wins in 5:54.

Match 1 of 7 in a Best of Seven series between Matt and Jeff Hardy. A lot of counters and reversals between these 2 as you would expect. They know each other far too well. Both men are unable to hit their finishing moves. It is a pin exchange that ends with a cradle pin for Jeff Hardy. Matt looks mad at his loss.

Jeff Hardy wins in 3:23.

The 2nd and final title match of the night is for the tag titles. Booker T & Goldust take on Christian and Lance Storm inside a Steel Cage. They kick each other’s asses, but the champs get an early advantage. They try to go home early, managing to climb the cage but as Goldust makes it over, Booker T is dragged back down. Booker is caught in a 2 v 1 scenario, the Un-Americans getting some heat whilst Booker plays the valiant hero. Christian and Storm both make the climb, but Booker drags Christian back down, whilst Goldust drags Storm out of the cage allowing Booker a fair 1 v 1 chance. Booker T and Christian have a nice mini match within the cage, Booker hits the scissor kick and a spinarooni before leaving the cage to retain.

Booker T & Goldust retain the tag titles in 4:51.

Contender triple threat match next. Jazz vs Molly Holly vs Ivory. These 3 ladies surprisingly stole the show with the best match of the night. They prove that they can wrestle just as well as the men. Jazz overpowers both of her opponents, Ivory uses technical wrestling to wear them down and Molly uses a blend of striking and high risk offence. Molly also proves to be crafty, taking advantage of Jazz’s fisherman’s DDT to steal a pin from under her nose.

Molly Holly wins in 5:41.

Our penultimate match this evening is Kurt Angle vs Chris Jericho. Two incredible wrestlers trying to out wrestle each other. Jericho targets Angle’s back whilst Angle targets Jericho’s ankle, both men setting up future submissions. Kurt Angle would get a near fall from the Angle slam but Jericho reaches the ropes. Jericho finishes the match off with a Lionsault and wins the match.

Chris Jericho wins in 4:33.

Our blockbuster main event. nWo vs Hollywood. Shawn Michaels & Kevin Nash vs DDP and Hulk Hogan. Triple H is the special referee. He will join the winning faction. Nash and Hogan start, staring face to face as founding members of the original nWo. They fight to a stalemate so HBK tags in to staredown Hogan. Commentary put this over as a dream match. Hogan teases a lock up, but he tags out to DDP instead. The match progressives evenly with neither team pulling too far ahead from the other.

We finally see Hogan and HBK trade blows but it ends in a stalemate. Towards, the finish we see the masked man wearing an nWo shirt come out and try to attack Triple H again. However, DDP intercepts and takes the guy out. Commentary deduce that this surely means Team Hollywood were telling the truth and the nWo were trying to take HHH out! The masked man runs away to the back. Hogan drops Nash with a chair shot and Triple H lets it slide. He drops the leg and wins the match.

Team Hollywood wins in 3:57.

The show closing angle sees Team Hollywood celebrating and reveal they have a surprise. The Rock’s music hits, he is here! Rock comes out and would like to thank Triple H for making the right decision and officially welcome him into the Team. He offers a handshake, but just before HHH shakes it we hear the voice of X-Pac. He walks out with the masked man in his grasp. “Aren’t you missing a member?” He pulls the mask off and indeed it is Billy Kidman. The whole thing was a set up to try and convince Triple H that the nWo were screwing him.

Triple H turns to Rock and gives him a “suck it” taunt. He goes to attack him but DDP lunges at him. Team Hollywood deliver a brutal beatdown on Triple H and the members of nWo. X-Pac runs down to try and help, but this frees up Kidman to grab some chairs and steel pipes for his team to use. The beat down goes on for a little while, almost too long with no hope. Chris Benoit runs out with RVD to fight Team Hollywood, but they are still at a disadvantage because the nWo are wiped out. The Rock has his title in his hands and he prepares to brain Benoit with it.

Then, the glass shatters. Steve Austin makes his return after being absent for a few months. Austin has a chair in hand and he decks every single member of Team Hollywood. He has a stunner for Kidman, a stunner for DDP, a stunner for Hogan and of course a stunner for The Rock. Steve Austin is back and he is ready to raise hell.

Steve Austin has made his grand return to WWE and re-joins the fight against Team Hollywood. Has The Rock & Co made too many enemies? We will see how this all plays out in the next show. Summerslam is set to be a huge event.

book it fantasy booking featured season 1 Shut Your Mouth wwe WWE Fantasy Universe