The Flying Start: The Thrilling Conclusion

1. MC Inc (Casey Black & Lance Murphy) def. 420 B.C. (Ligaya Fontaine & Serenity) to advance in the GEW Global Tag Team Championship tournament
Fast action, hot tags, creative double teams, and some big hoss moments from Lance. What more could you ask of an opener? 420 B.C. are firing on all cylinders tonight, making MC Inc really earn their win, which they do when Casey catches Serenity out of a dive and plants her with the Fade To Black.

2. Isabella Thorn & Ivan Grant def. Cole McGrath & Matty Graves
As members of GEW's booking committee, Cole and Matty have got to know each other quite well over the last few months. But whatever rapport they've developed is dwarfed by the sibling bond between Isabella and Ivan, and it's the children of Sah'ta Thor who win this round, with Ivan pinning Cole to gain a measure of revenge for his loss to him last time.

3. Evangelista def. Takeo Shima to advance in the GEW Phoenix Championship tournament
Takeo comes out hot; his taste of the main event last week, holding his own alongside former world champions, seems to have bolstered his confidence. Evangelista on the other hand seems timid and halting - perhaps accidentally injuring Snow Queen VN is still on her mind. As such he gets the best of her pretty comfortably for long portions of the match, and even when she mounts comebacks, he's able to evade both the Headbreaker and the Lime Street Loop. Which makes it all the more surprising that when Takeo pops Evangelista up off a rebound for some big throw or slam, she's able to spin him into a victory roll and snatch away the three count!

Evangelista's as shocked as anyone by her win, which Crell and Stevie note is her first in the new GEW. She offers a hand to Takeo and he accepts it, graciously shaking, and then they bow to each other respectfully.

In what was once a quiet locker room backstage, Kameron Chase is with his Wildfire students preparing for their upcoming match. He sits on the bench, finishing wrapping his left wrist with tape, with Kai a couple of feet away. Coby and Asher are in the middle of the room, alternating between squats and shadow boxing when suddenly Coby stops.

"Hey! Our team name could be KACK! You know, K-A-C-K or even C-A-K-K..." He actually belly laughs at his own realisation and Asher obviously also finds it amusing, as he snorts and then high-fives his brother. Kameron and Kai share a silent glance between each other. Kai raises his eyebrows as he watches the hyperactive pair while Kam pinches the bridge of his nose, as if he already has a headache. There's no chance of any silence, however, as the door flies open (making both Coby and Asher jump as it hits the wall) and Lyra Keston storms in.

"Did you even TRY to swing it?"

"Not now," Kam mutters.

"Yes, now!" Lyra insists as she steps towards him and stops maybe a foot away, folding her arms across her chest.

Sighing and standing up to his feet, Kam sighs. "What do you want me to do?"

"I told you I didn't wanna be in the stupid tag tournament and-"

"Oh, cool. Thanks," comes a voice from behind her as Revvy King enters the room, having finally caught up with Lyra's rage-filled power-walking. She clearly takes the outburst as a personal slight and frowns with her hands on her hips.

"I didn't mean it like that," Lyra says without looking at her. She keeps her eyes on Kam. "You said you'd talk to Cole and-"

"And I did," he says, cutting her off and placing his hands on her shoulders. "He couldn't do anything. There were already enough people in the other tournaments and we figured this would be a good starting point for you."

"Who is 'we'?"

"Me, Mark, Cole, the rest of the committee," Kam answers. "It'll be a good experience and a good opportunity for you girls to show what you can do."

"Well I was looking forward to it until about 30 seconds ago," Revvy quips. "Now I just feel like unwanted baggage."

"Awww," Coby and Asher say in unison as they watch the exchange taking place. Revvy shoots them a death glare.

Kam rubs his temple and sighs - yet again - as he looks at Revvy. "You're not. She's just being dramatic."

"HEY!" Lyra yells and narrows her eyes at him.

Kam raises his hands as if his point has just been made and then smiles. "Just go out there and enjoy it," he says. "You could have worse partners..."

He doesn't need to say anything else as all eyes turn to the brothers who have now taken to exchanging chops with one another. Lyra takes his point and nods, turns around and takes Revvy by the hand. "I didn't mean that I don't wanna team with you," she says as they make their way out of the door, "just that I wanted to kick people's asses by myself and---"

The rest of the conversation goes unheard as they disappear down the hallway.

The feed fades elsewhere backstage, to Takeo Shima making his way to the locker room to shower and change. He's stopped by Alex Chambers leaning against the wall outside of the door, arms folded.

"What the hell was that?"

Takeo looks at him, frowning. "What?"

"You need to stop being all..." He waves his hands through the air, trying to find the words, "nicey-nice."

"I like to show respect," Takeo says simply, seemingly confused as to why that's a bad thing.

"What did she do to earn your respect, huh?" Takeo's mouth opens but Alex continues before he can say anything. "Beat you with a cheap little roll-up after you kicked her ass for the whole match? Stole the win from you? You should have spat in her face and then slapped the taste out of her mouth."

"She won fairly and-"

WHACK.

Alex's hand meets Takeo's cheek so hard that he bites the inside of it.

"THAT is what you should have done," he says, then pats the younger man on the shoulder twice - hard. "Gotta toughen up if you wanna make a name for yourself, kid. Being nice doesn't get you anywhere."

With that, he walks away, leaving the rookie stunned. Takeo spits into his palm, gazing at the blood mixing with the saliva, and rubs his cheek with his other hand as the camera fades.

4. Phil Hunter, Phreak, Shaun Irvine & Velvet Grey def. Asher, Coby, Kai O'Hara & Kameron Chase
It's a strong start for Team KACK - not that Kam or Kai ever agreed to that name, but Stevie Howard is delighted with it and crowbars it into his commentary as much as he humanly can. With Kam taking the captain role, Kai backing him up, and years of experience all training together, the Wildfire reps are a well oiled machine in the early going. Individually, Velvet, Phreak and Shooter Load all have good separate runs, but they don't really mesh; Phreak's never much got along with any of his old tag team partner Baby Dogg's family, such as her sister-in-law Velvet, and Shooter Load generally aren't what you'd call people people (if you'd call anyone people people, which in fairness, you probably wouldn't). However, one advantage they share is... well... not having Asher and Coby on their squad. It becomes clear how outclassed the boys are as the minutes tick on, and worse, they don't always seem to be taking the match totally seriously. Kam and Kai do their best to lead their young trainees to victory, but it's all over when Coby gets Tucked In by Velvet.

5. Scott Simmonds def. Zanatos to advance in the GEW Chaos Championship tournament
This one starts with Scott rushing Zanatos and clotheslining him over the top rope, taking himself over alongside him, and then them throwing each other into the ring steps, and from there it starts to get chaotic and violent. Between Ryan McGrath and The Asylum, Scott's had a stressful time in the new GEW so far, and he's here to take it all out on Zanatos; you'd think he owes him money or something. Just like in his match with Kameron, though, Zanatos isn't backing down from the former GEW World Champion, not only giving as good as he gets but kicking out from some of Scott's biggest weapons (as well as some literal weapons) as they fight all the way over ringside and even up onto the stage. Light tubes, kendo sticks and Lego get used and they're soon enough both crimson masked; Scott even drives Zanatos through a glass pane, but Zanatos still won't stay down, and he roars back soon after with a spinebuster off the stage through a table for a near fall of his own! Scott decides he has to go nuclear if he wants to keep Zanatos down, which takes the form of a powerbomb off the apron to the bare hardwood floor. That pretty much KOs Zanatos. The diving splash is gratuitous and the pin is academic.

As he's getting back up, Scott beckons the nearest camera over and warns Ryan that while they're in separate tournaments tonight, he hasn't forgotten about him.

Between matches, the video screen scrambles, and a better quality version of last week's glitched out WEN RADBOT? message shows up, this time long enough for everyone to take it in properly. Not that anyone knows what it means yet...

6. The Jokers Wild (BlakJak & Spades) def. Lyra Keston & Revvy King to advance in the GEW Global Tag Team Championship tournament
Lyra and Revvy's loss to The Natural Ones is clearly fresh in their minds, as they're extra careful about the Jokers' shenanigans, and they manage to shut down a lot of the many-time tag team champions' dirty tricks. Lyra in particular is eager to show off what she can do, and early on it helps her run wild, taking down both clowns at once and scoring big near falls. But as it goes on, it starts to become a liability - she's not tagging out as much as she should. Whether it's by intent or forgetfulness, she's leaving Revvy on the sidelines, literally. When Jak catches her with a For The Maggots, Revvy runs in to break the fall up, but she's so focused on that that she blanks Spades coming off the ropes with a Hellalujah kick to knock her flat too.

7. Mark Chapman def. Laurel Anne Hardy
The night's longest match starts off with a handshake, but quickly develops into a physically punishing affair - not that you'd expect anything else from the deathmatch icon and the ex-MMA star. Laurel's plan is to drop Mark on his head as many times as possible, while his is to prevent that by wrapping her up in painful knots to keep her grounded. He gets some good suplexes in too, but so does she; despite the 50lb weight difference, Laurel heaves Mark around a whole bunch, landing both a Death Valley bomb for a 2.9 and a very impressive Berlin Trilogy sequence among others. But her insistence on hossing comes back to bite her as the match goes long, especially in combination with her cardio issues. Eventually she finds herself without much left to escape his submissions, and gets caught in a cloverleaf in the dead centre of the ring. She refuses to tap out and tries everything she can to free herself, but Mark is always able to bring it back, and eventually the referee calls for the bell.

After it rings and Mark lets her go, Laurel gets in the ref's face, indignantly telling him she never tapped out. He says he knows, but he has a duty of care to fighters and if she wasn't able to escape and wasn't going to tap, she was in very real danger of snapping instead. Speaking of snapping, though... Laurel drops to ringside and kicks over the steps furiously before retrieving a light tube from under the apron, which miraculously survived Scott and Zanatos. Back in the ring, Mark's not happy about the outcome either, but he tries to prevent her from attacking the referee. Turns out that wasn't Laurel's intention though, as she instead breaks the tube over her own head and cuts herself open with the jagged end! With blood dripping down her face she asks the ref if she looks like someone who can't handle pain. He stammers that that's not what he meant - Mark gets between them again and tries to calm things down. Laurel backs off but is still clearly unhappy as she stomps to the back.

Due to Snow Queen VN's injury sustained on the last show, and Ryan abruptly deciding he's not going to be on the rest of Critical Acclaim's album tour, he's been given her spot in the Phoenix Championship tournament. He's cocky as ever as he enters, promising to do to Serena what she did to his friend Coby. But he's forced to wait as The Gloom in the Corner's "Misanthropic" hits, and Serena Raine waltzes out, a mic in hand, and Cassie Crowe a few steps behind.

"Another week, another unworthy opponent."

Serena smirks a little bit, locking her attention on Ryan in the ring.

"Another week, and no response from Mark Chapman. Maybe I'm right, and the only way I'll get the response I'm looking for is if I start beating the shit out of everyone around him."

As she gets closer to the ring, she brandishes toward Ryan in mock excitement.

"And lucky me! I just happen to get Ryan McGrath!"

She turns to Cassie, who claps sarcastically.

"Ryan, after the match... once I've put your ass to sleep... and after I've turned that pretty little face into mush, I want you to deliver a message to your uncle for me."

She begins climbing the stairs, not taking her focus off the young McGrath.

"The message is simple. Any damage I do to you, or any member of your shifty little family from here on out. That's on him. At least until he grows a set."

Serena smirks, hands her mic off to Cassie, and steps into the ring.

8. Serena Raine def. Ryan McGrath to advance in the GEW Phoenix Championship tournament
Ryan immediately charges her, but Serena catches him with an elbow, and follows up by taking him down and laying in shot after shot. He's in trouble fast, and is pretty much at her total mercy for the first couple of minutes. He does rally and boot her in the face for some separation, then gets a good run of offence of his own in, and even a near fall! ...it just seems to make her angry, though. A kerb stomp puts him down and a choke puts him out. Once again she holds it for a few seconds after the bell, and then she poses with her recently won G/P Most Adept Championship and promises the Phoenix title will soon be joining it over her other shoulder. Ryan, meanwhile, might be wishing he hadn't taken this spot, and Snow probably feels like she dodged a bullet.

9. Anson Orlandelli, Matt Kail, Nikki Song & Russ Lehman def. Alex Chambers, Myles Taylor, Napoleon Collins III & Zeke Colton Spence
Alex knows Zeke and Napoleon well enough to form a pretty solid team with them, and though Myles is left the odd man out, his general veteran experience is enough to compensate. But their opponents go back years. Nikki helped train Matt, after all, and they've both known Anson and Russ long enough to gel with them. Zeke and Napoleon get a very near fall over Russ which Anson only barely breaks up in time, but the disappointment at not converting it into the win seems to sap their energy a bit, and a couple of minutes later Nikki's able to put Myles away with the Song of Storms.

As Song, Kail, and The Natural Ones celebrate in the ring, the lights go dark again. They stay this way for a few long moments, before lifting again.

Smoke fills the entranceway, and the same cloaked figure can be seen as last time. Head completely shrouded. The figure points to Kail, who stand perplexed, looking around at his teammates for answers - but they only shrug in confusion.

The lights simply cut again. And when they return, the cloaked figure is nowhere to be seen.

10. Sah'ta Thor def. Troy Gafgen to advance in the GEW Chaos Championship tournament
The fans are beyond electric in anticipation of revisiting this, arguably GEW's most iconic rivalry, behind perhaps only Kam/Hunter. Thor and Troy have been tag team partners, to mortal enemies, to friendly rivals. Each man became GEW World Champion by beating the other, in the main events of successive Extreme Extravaganzas. They remain staring down for a moment after the bell rings, and the noise is already swelling all around them. It's Thor who moves first, throwing a roundhouse; Troy catches the boot and swings Thor right round, and goes for a clothesline which Thor ducks. Thor scoops Troy up looking for an early emerald flowsion, but Troy escapes, and as Thor turns, it's a big boot from Gafgen to stun him! He whips Thor into the ropes, seeking another kick on the rebound; Thor manages to switch behind Troy with a sling blade esque dodge, and he follows through into a spinning backfist to the back of Troy's head. With Troy stunned, Thor tries to lift him overhead... no! Troy over-rotates and lands behind him and snaps in a kidney punch that drops the smaller man to one knee for a moment, which is all Troy needs to rip him into the air with a release German suplex. Troy goes for a spear as Thor rises, but Thor's able to leapfrog it, and once more they come face to face, both swinging punches which halt centimetres from each other's faces as they stare down. There's a little mutual knowing headtilt at how intimately they know one another's fighting styles before they go back into it, and this time, it's not long before they spill to the outside and start brawling amongst the audience, heaving each other over chairs and up and down the steps. Fans reach out to pat them the whole time, naturally, especially Troy; here in his home state, he gets a burst of cheers with every big move landed and every pin attempted.

The violence ramps up even more once they get back in the ring - within a few minutes the canvas is carpeted with tacks, broken glass, splintered wood, shattered cinder blocks... and, of course, lots and lots of blood. It seems like Troy has it won when he lands The Sickness, driving Thor into all that debris, and the fans pre-emptively cheer - but Thor kicks out just in time! Troy can't believe it and neither can the crowd. But he repays the moment a few minutes after that, when he in turn kicks out of the Parasite Eve into the same bloodsoaked deathmatch debris! He forces himself upright but after a brief exchange Thor finds that emerald flowsion - BUT TROY KICKS OUT OF THAT TOO! The two career rivals are left slumped in opposite corners with their chests heaving, their mouths agape to suck in precious oxygen, their faces streaked with scarlet and their torsos jigsawed all over with pins, glass and splinters. Their eyes meet, and there's a brief smile of mutual respect before they both pull themselves upright. Troy lands a Chaos Theory which sends Thor through a light tube log cabin; Thor a Sah'ta Combo into an inside cradle amongst the wreckage. Neither is enough. Eventually they find themselves fighting on the top turnbuckle, trading blows and making each other wobble precariously, with a stacked pair of log cabins underneath them. The fans ooh and aah every time one of them seems in danger of falling through them, and swell as Troy scoops Thor up in a powerslam... Thor with desperate elbows to the temple and jaw, and he's able to slither free. He almost loses his balance as his feet touch the ropes, but he just manages to hold on and he knees Troy in the gut before biting his forehead! Then, arduously, he drags him over his shoulders... avalanche Seraphim's Shadow through the light tubes! Thor uses the last of his energy to fall across Troy, but it's enough for the win!

Gradually they both come up to their knees and lean forward, embracing one another in a bloody hug, resting their foreheads against each other for a moment as they both catch their breath. As they stand, Troy tells Thor he'd better win that Chaos Championship... and when he does, he's coming for him. Thor tells him to count on it, and the fans cheer as they raise each other's arms in a show of hard-forged respect.