If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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Barrett looked down at the broken bodies of Cryme Tyme, Ezekiel Jackson, and Jinder Mahal. He raised the microphone to his lips, a dark, bruised smile forming on his face. "I know exactly what all of you internet bottom feeders are saying," Barrett began, his thick accent echoing through the hostile arena. "I've seen the tweets. I've read the forums. You think because Sandro Zhang got lucky on Monday night, the Nexus is finished. You think we are broken."
Barrett gestured to the eight massive men standing behind him.
"Look at us," Barrett commanded fiercely. "Do we look broken to you? Monday Night RAW was a battlefield, yes. But we are an army. And an army does not stop marching just because they lose a single skirmish. We simply regroup, we re evaluate, and we set our sights on a brand new target."
Barrett pointed a taped finger down at the canvas.
"Today is the day that the Nexus takes over Friday Night SmackDown," Barrett declared, his voice booming over the boos. "The red brand belongs to a tyrant who hides behind corporate loopholes and hostage situations. But this brand? This brand is a goldmine waiting to be claimed. And we are here to take exactly what is ours."
Barrett walked over to the unconscious form of JTG, pressing his boot disrespectfully against the Tag Team Champion's chest.
"We want the WWE Tag Team Championships," Barrett stated coldly. "And we want the Intercontinental Championship. We are going to strip this brand of every piece of gold it has, and there isn't a single man in this locker room who has the strength to stop us!"
"You Think You Know Me!"
The frantic, adrenaline pumping intro of Alter Bridge's Metalingus suddenly blasted through the arena!
The Missouri crowd absolutely lost their minds! The cheers were deafening as the Rated-R Superstar, Edge, sprinted out onto the entrance stage. He didn't bother with his usual smoke and pyro. His eyes were locked on the ring, his face twisted in fury.
But Edge wasn't alone.
The heavy, rhythmic drumbeat of Just Close Your Eyes hit the speakers, seamlessly mixing with Edge's theme.
Captain Charisma had arrived. Christian sprinted out from the back, standing shoulder to shoulder with his lifelong best friend. The legendary tag team didn't waste a single second. They charged down the long steel ramp together, sprinting toward the ring to defend their brand.
"It's Edge and Christian!" Cole shrieked in absolute joy. "The legends are here to make the save! SmackDown is fighting back!"
Edge and Christian slid under the bottom rope, instantly bringing the fight to the Nexus. Edge leaped forward, delivering a beautiful flying forearm that knocked Heath Slater out of the ring. Christian ducked a clothesline from David Otunga and fired back with a rapid combination of right hands, backing the University graduate into the ropes before clotheslining him over the top.
For a brief, thrilling moment, the legendary duo stood tall in the center of the ring, the crowd roaring in approval.
But the numbers game was a brutal reality.
Mason Ryan charged forward, hitting Edge with a massive double-axe handle to the back. Ryback absolutely leveled Christian with a devastating Meat Hook clothesline that nearly turned Captain Charisma inside out.
The Nexus swarmed the two veterans. Darren Young and Michael Tarver stomped away at Edge, while Curtis Axel and Justin Gabriel targeted Christian. Wade Barrett stood in the corner, laughing as his men systematically neutralized the resistance.
"The numbers are just too much!" Lawler groaned, watching Edge take a heavy boot to the ribs. "They need an army to fight off these thugs!"
Suddenly, the arena lights flickered and died.
The stadium was plunged into pitch black darkness.
BOOM!
A massive, terrifying explosion of red fire erupted from the entrance stage, the heat radiating all the way to the broadcast desk.
The slow, heavy, menacing organ chords of Kane's theme music began to play.
The arena erupted into a frenzy!
Through the smoke and the crimson lighting, the Big Red Monster emerged. Kane, the reigning Intercontinental Champion, marched slowly down the ramp. He wasn't running. He didn't need to. He moved with the slow, terrifying inevitability of a nightmare, the gold championship secured tightly around his waist.
"It's Kane!" Cole screamed. "The Intercontinental Champion is here, and he is walking straight into the fire!"
The Nexus members stopped their assault on Edge and Christian, turning their attention to the massive demon marching toward the ring. Ryback and Mason Ryan stepped to the front, ready to meet the monster head on.
Kane stepped over the top rope with ease. Ryback charged first. Kane didn't even flinch. He reached out, grabbing Ryback by the throat. Mason Ryan charged from the opposite side, and Kane's other hand shot out, grabbing the Welshman's throat as well!
The crowd went absolutely frantic!
With a terrifying roar, Kane hoisted both massive men off their feet and drove them straight down into the canvas with a devastating double Chokeslam!
"Good god, the sheer power of the Big Red Machine!" JBL yelled. "He just leveled two of the biggest men in this company at the same time!"
The arrival of Kane was the equalizer SmackDown desperately needed. Seeing the Nexus momentarily stunned by the display of power, the downed superstars found their second wind.
Edge scrambled to his feet, backing into the corner. His eyes grew wide, a wild, manic intensity taking over his face. He crouched down, running his fingers through his long hair, waiting for David Otunga to turn around.
SPEAR!
Edge cut Otunga completely in half with a devastating Spear!
Christian popped up, grabbing Curtis Axel from behind, executing a flawless Killswitch that planted Axel face first into the mat.
Ezekiel Jackson and Shad Gaspard had recovered on the outside. The two powerhouses grabbed Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, violently tossing them over the barricades into the front row of the audience.
"The tide has turned!" Lawler cheered wildly. "SmackDown has successfully defended their turf! The Nexus is being cleared out!"
Wade Barrett realized his master plan was rapidly falling apart. The injured leader scrambled backward, clutching his taped ribs, looking for an exit strategy as Kane turned his terrifying gaze toward him.
Jinder Mahal, who had been recovering in the corner, suddenly pushed himself up to his feet. He looked at the chaos unfolding in the ring. He saw Edge and Christian standing tall, hyping up the roaring crowd. He saw Kane towering over the center of the ring.
He saw Cryme Tyme and Ezekiel Jackson controlling the outside.
Jinder Mahal's face twisted into a dark, calculating expression.
Edge turned around, looking to high five Jinder.
Jinder didn't raise his hand. Instead, he stepped forward, swinging his arms with maximum velocity, and delivered a brutal, stiff double clothesline that completely leveled both Edge and Christian simultaneously!
The Missouri crowd gasped, a sudden, sharp silence falling over the arena before instantly morphing into a wave of pure hatred and deafening boos.
"What is he doing?!" Cole shrieked in absolute shock. "Jinder Mahal just attacked Edge and Christian! Why?!"
Jinder didn't stop there. As Ezekiel Jackson slid under the bottom rope to see what had happened, Jinder hit the ropes, accelerating forward, and delivered a devastating jumping high knee directly to the side of Jackson's head, knocking the big man out cold.
Kane turned around, raising his fists to deal with the rogue superstar, but Mason Ryan and Ryback had recovered just enough to chop block the Big Red Monster from behind, taking Kane down to the mat and swarming him with heavy punches.
The ring was completely compromised from the inside out.
Jinder Mahal stood in the center of the chaos, breathing heavily. He slowly turned toward the corner, locking eyes with Wade Barrett.
Barrett looked incredibly confused for a fraction of a second, but then, a slow, wicked smile spread across the Englishman's bruised face. Barrett pushed himself out of the corner, limping slightly as he walked toward Jinder.
Barrett extended his hand.
Jinder looked down at it, a cold, remorseless expression on his face. He reached out and firmly shook Wade Barrett's hand.
The arena rained down absolute venom. Trash began to fly into the ring from the upper decks.
"A blatant betrayal!" Lawler yelled, thoroughly disgusted. "Jinder Mahal just sold his soul to the devil! He just joined the Nexus!"
"It's brilliant!" JBL argued, a cruel laugh escaping his lips. "If you can't beat the numbers, you join the numbers! Jinder Mahal just made the smartest business decision of his entire career! The Nexus is expanding!"
Wade Barrett raised Jinder's arm into the air, soaking in the deafening heat. The Nexus had successfully established a beachhead on SmackDown, and their ranks had just grown stronger. They had broken the resistance, and they stood tall over the broken bodies of SmackDown's finest.
But Friday Night SmackDown was not finished throwing curveballs.
The sound of harsh, buzzing guitar feedback echoed through the arena.
Then, the heavy, aggressive, thrash metal guitar riff of Killswitch Engage's "This Fire Burns" violently interrupted the Nexus celebration.
The Missouri crowd froze, their brains scrambling to process the music. And then, the realization hit.
The pop that followed was legendary, a massive, ground shaking roar that eclipsed anything heard all night.
"No way!" Cole screamed, practically falling over the broadcast desk. "It can't be! He isn't supposed to be here!"
Stepping out from behind the curtain, a look of pure, unadulterated rebellion burning in his eyes, was CM Punk.
He didn't look like a man coming out for a wrestling match. He was wearing his taped fists, a cut-off t-shirt, and his signature ring trunks. But what caused the crowd to completely lose their minds was what he was holding in his right hand.
Resting comfortably over CM Punk's shoulder was a solid wooden baseball bat, tightly wrapped in thick, vicious coils of barbed wire.
"CM Punk is on SmackDown!" Lawler shrieked, pointing at the monitor in disbelief. "And he is armed to the teeth!"
Punk paused at the top of the ramp, dropping to one knee. He grabbed a handful of imaginary dirt, threw it into the air, and let out his signature battle cry. He stood up, gripping the barbed wire bat with both hands, his eyes locked on a terrified Wade Barrett.
The Nexus leader's confident smile instantly evaporated. Ryback, Mason Ryan, and the newly recruited Jinder Mahal backed away from the ropes, staring in absolute horror at the weapon in Punk's hands.
Punk didn't walk. He sprinted down the ramp, a chaotic agent of violence ready to swing for the fences.
"The Second City Saint is here to clean house!" Cole yelled over the deafening crowd.
CM Punk did not walk down the ramp. He sprinted, his eyes wide and burning with a chaotic, unhinged fury.
The Missouri crowd was on their feet, screaming at the top of their lungs, completely electrified by the sudden appearance of the Second City Saint. The barbed wire baseball bat gripped tightly in Punk's hands wasn't just a prop, it was a promise of extreme violence.
Inside the ring, the confident sneers of the Nexus instantly vanished. Barrett, operating on sheer survival instinct, realized immediately that this was not a fight he could win.
"Get out!" Barrett yelled at his men, violently shoving Heath Slater toward the ropes.
Barrett didn't wait to see if they followed his orders. The Nexus leader scrambled backward, rolling under the bottom rope and dropping to the arena floor just as CM Punk slid into the ring.
Ryback and Mason Ryan hesitated for a fraction of a second, their pride demanding they stand their ground against the lone invader. It was a painful mistake.
Punk swung for the fences. The heavy wooden bat whistled through the air.
CRACK!
The barbed wire tore across Mason Ryan's massive shoulder. The Welshman let out a roar of absolute agony, stumbling backward and clutching his arm as blood immediately began to well through the fabric of his shirt.
Ryback charged blindly, but Punk sidestepped and drove the heavy knob of the bat directly into the Big Guy's ribs, dropping him to one knee. Punk followed up with a vicious, sweeping strike across Ryback's back. The monster let out a sharp gasp of pain, immediately rolling out of the ring to escape the metallic teeth of the wire.
"Punk is swinging for the bleachers!" Cole screamed, completely losing his mind on the broadcast. "He is tearing the Nexus apart with that barbed wire bat!"
"He's a madman!" Lawler yelled, watching Justin Gabriel and Darren Young practically dive over the top rope to avoid getting their heads taken off.
Jinder Mahal, who had just formally joined the faction minutes prior, realized he had made a terrible miscalculation. He scrambled toward the ropes, desperate to follow his new brothers to safety.
But as Jinder reached the apron, two pairs of hands clamped tightly around his ankles.
Edge and Christian, battered but furious, had recovered on the outside. They dragged Jinder backward, trapping him in the center of the ring. Jinder kicked wildly, looking over his shoulder just in time to see CM Punk winding up for a massive swing.
Punk didn't hesitate. He brought the barbed wire bat down hard across Jinder's back.
The sound of the impact echoed through the stadium. Jinder let out a breathless shriek, arching his back in pure agony.
But the punishment wasn't over.
A massive shadow fell over the newly minted Nexus member. Kane, who had finally regained his footing after the chop block, grabbed Jinder by the throat. The Big Red Monster didn't look for a tag or a strategic advantage. With a terrifying roar, Kane hoisted Jinder high into the air and drove him straight down into the canvas with a devastating, earth shaking Chokeslam!
"Chokeslam to Mahal!" JBL boomed over the headset. "That is exactly what you get for selling your soul! You reap what you sow, Jinder!"
Jinder rolled weakly under the bottom rope, clutching his throat and his back, practically falling into the arms of a terrified Heath Slater on the outside.
Inside the ring, the dust finally began to settle.
CM Punk stood in the center, resting the barbed wire bat over his shoulder, his chest heaving as he glared out at the retreating faction. Edge and Christian slid into the ring, standing on his right side. Kane stood on his left, a towering monument of destruction. On the outside, Cryme Tyme and Ezekiel Jackson stood tall, cracking their knuckles and daring the Nexus to try again.
The Missouri crowd erupted into a massive, triumphant roar. For the first time all night, Team SmackDown had successfully drawn a line in the sand.
"Look at this!" Cole cheered proudly. "The SmackDown locker room is standing united! They have successfully repelled the invasion!"
Wade Barrett stood near the bottom of the entrance ramp, his chest heaving as he looked back at the ring. The confident, bruised smile he had worn earlier was completely gone, replaced by a dark, seething frustration. He looked at Jinder, who was barely able to stand, and Ryback, who was clutching his bleeding back.
The situation had completely slipped out of Barrett's control.
He had wanted to make a statement, to prove that SmackDown was easy prey. Instead, he had walked directly into a buzzsaw.
Barrett shook his head, motioning for his soldiers to retreat. He turned his back on the ring, leading his battered, humiliated faction up the long steel ramp until they disappeared behind the curtain, leaving the SmackDown roster soaking in the cheers of a victorious battle.
For the next hour, Friday Night SmackDown attempted to return to a sense of normalcy. The show marched forward with a series of high energy matches and passionate backstage promos. The Divas division took center stage with an incredible fatal four way match, while Rey Mysterio cut a heartfelt promo addressing his loss to Drew McIntyre on RAW.
The action in the ring was excellent, but the atmosphere in the arena remained incredibly tense. The commentators frequently referenced the opening chaos, debating whether Wade Barrett had truly retreated or if the Nexus was simply waiting for the perfect moment to strike again.
The answer arrived midway through the second hour.
The broadcast abruptly cut away from the ring, switching to a chaotic, shaky live feed from a dimly lit concrete hallway deep in the backstage area.
The camera struggled to focus, capturing a scene of absolute, unmitigated violence.
"What is going on back there?!" Lawler panicked as the image finally stabilized.
CM Punk was pinned against a heavy metal garage door. He didn't have his barbed wire bat. Instead, he was hopelessly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Nexus.
Wade Barrett, Mason Ryan, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Darren Young, and Curtis Axel were swarming the Second City Saint. It was a brutal, coordinated ambush. Ryback grabbed Punk by the waist, violently launching him spine first into a stack of heavy steel equipment crates. The crates clattered loudly, and Punk collapsed to the concrete, clutching his ribs.
"The Nexus just jumped CM Punk in the back!" Cole yelled, completely abandoning his professional composure. "It's a seven on one mugging! Get some help back there!"
A squad of yellow shirted arena security guards rushed down the hallway, blowing their whistles and attempting to break up the assault. But the Nexus was a well oiled machine of destruction.
Mason Ryan simply bulldozed through the security line, throwing guards into the concrete walls like ragdolls. Ryback caught a security guard by the throat and tossed him effortlessly into a nearby catering table.
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Name: Alessandro Zhang
Age: 21 (2011)
Birthplace: Orlando, Florida, USA
Brand: WWE - RAW
Wrestling Style: Mixed Of All Styles
Faction: The Undisputed System
Championships History: 1x FCW Tag Team Champions, 1x FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion, 1x TNA World Heavyweight Champion, 1x TNA X Division Champion, 1x WWE United States Champion (1st - 376 days), 1x WWE Champion, & 1x World Heavyweight Champion
Other Achievements: 1x Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale Winner, 1x Mr. Money In The Bank, Youngest WWE Champion, PWI Top 500 (No.1) - 2010, & 1x KOTR (2010)
Wrestlemania Record: 2 - 0 Main Event: 1 - 0