Brutality Outside The Ring (M/F)

[TamatoaShiny123]

It was an eventful night on Monday Night Raw. Johnny Gargano was set to go one-on-one with Finn Bálor, one of the members of the sinister Judgement Day faction. Before the match, he was backstage with his wife Candice LeRae, her tag team partner Indi Hartwell, and her creepy silent husband, Dexter Lumis.

“Alright, guys,” Johnny said to his friends and family. “I’m ready for this one. Finn Bálor may be a tough opponent, but I’m ‘Johnny Wrestling’, not ‘Johnny Loses To Guys Who Wear Black And Purple’. Purple, what a stupid color…”

Candice cleared her throat, causing Johnny to remember the dyed-purple hair of his wife. “Oh, but it looks good on you, sweetie,” he corrected himself.

“Way to put your foot in your mouth, Johnny,” Indi chided him.

Dexter said nothing. He just stared off into the distance.

“Well, if it isn’t Johnny Gargano and his little family of freaks,” they heard the voice of Finn Bálor say. Finn and the rest of Judgement Day (Damien Priest, Smackdown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley, and her boyfriend Dominik Mysterio) approached them. “Tell them not to go very far cus you’ll need them to counsel you after I stomp your chest in tonight.”

“You think you’re big and tough with your Munster rejects surrounding you,” Johnny fired back. “But you know that when it’s just me and you in the ring, you don’t have what it takes.”

“You keep telling yourself that, little man,” Rhea told Johnny before turning her attention to Indi. “Hey, Hartwell, I hear your ankle is healing up nicely.”

Rhea was referring to the broken ankle Indi had suffered in her final match on NXT before being called up to Raw. Indi recently stopped wearing a walking boot for it, but it still wasn’t fully healed. “Yeah, what’s it to ya?” Indi asked with her arms crossed.

Rhea suddenly kicked Indi in the injured ankle, dropping her to the floor. Candice went to get in Rhea’s face, only to get a forearm to the jaw. As Johnny and Dexter went to check on their respective partners, the Judgement Day members ran off while cackling. “You think that’s funny?!” Johnny shouted after them. “You won’t be laughing after I kick your teeth down your throat tonight, Bálor!”

Dexter didn’t shout anything after them. Instead, he stared in the direction The Judgement Day ran off in with a silent fury in his eyes…

oOo

Later that night, both competitors were heading to the ring. Johnny was alone as Candice went with Indi to the trainer’s room to check on her ankle, while no one knew where Dexter went. In contrast, Finn was surrounded by Damien, Dominik, and Rhea.

“Bálor and Judgement Day heading to the ring,” Raw’s play-by-play announcer Kevin Patrick said. “They look proud of themselves for taking out Indi Hartwell earlier.”
“Of course, they’re proud of themselves,” color commentator Corey Graves replied. “Bálor has to be in Gargano’s head after what Rhea did.”

As Judgement Day walked down the hallway leading to the Gorilla position, Rhea walked by an upstanding equipment case. None of her teammates noticed a hand clamp over Rhea’s mouth. “Mmph!” she squealed as she was pulled behind the case. Finn, Damien, and even Dominik noticed as they kept walking to the ring.

“Wait, did I just see…” Kevin asked.
“I think I know who did that,” Corey groaned. “And I think we call the cops for a case of abduction…”

oOo

Only when they got out in front of the crowd did The Judgement Day realize Rhea was gone. Unaware of what happened to her, they figured she was taking care of business elsewhere and would find her after the match.

The contest between Gargano and Bálor was evenly matched. The crowd cheered as the men exchanged fast-paced strikes and agonizing slams. Near the end of the match, as Gargano climbed onto the top turnbuckle to connect with a top-rope crossbody, Dominik climbed onto the apron on the opposite side of the ring to distract the referee. The ref didn’t see Damien climb onto the apron, grab Johnny by the throat, and throw him off the turnbuckle and onto the mat.

“The ref was distracted. He can’t disqualify Bálor for something he didn’t see happen,” Corey said.

Finn climbed to the top rope with Johnny down, intending to land his finishing move, the Coup de Grâce diving double foot stomp. Before he could jump, something popped up on the titantron above the ramp.

Rhea was seated in a dark room on a steel folding chair. Her arms, from her shoulders to her wrists, were tied down with layers upon layers of duct tape. Her legs, from her ankles to her thighs, were taped together. Multiple layers of tape were wrapped around her lips.

“MMPH! MMM! MMM!” Rhea screamed into the tape, struggling to break her bonds. Standing behind her was Dexter. He put his right hand on her shoulder and dragged a finger on his left hand across his throat, causing Rhea to scream even more.

“Dexter has taken Rhea captive! He clearly took offense to what she did to his wife earlier,” Kevin noted.
“Is Dexter insane?!” Corey shouted. “Not only did he commit kidnapping, but there’s also no way Rhea’s lipstick is gonna be intact when that tape comes off her mouth!”

Upon seeing this, Damien and Dominik ran backstage to find Rhea. Finn was still on the top rope as he watched this unfold. Focusing back on the match, Finn went to hit the Coup de Grâce, only for Johnny to roll under the bottom rope and onto the apron as Finn jumped. Bálor rolled out of the dive and ran at Johnny as he pulled himself up to his feet, only to be met with a shoulder to the gut. With Finn hunched over, Gargano slingshot himself over the top rope, spiking his opponent’s head with a DDT on the way down.

“Gargano hits the One Final Beat!” Patrick exclaimed as Johnny covered Finn for the three-count and the victory. “Gargano gets a big win tonight over Bálor.”

“And Gargano can give credit to Lumis for this one as Dexter adds another person to the list of people he’s kidnapped,” Corey said, shaking his head.

oOo

After several minutes of frantic searching, Damien and Dominik kicked open the empty storage room Rhea was being held in, with Dexter nowhere in sight.

“Mami!” Dominik exclaimed as he and Damien began to try and rip the tape off. Suddenly, the door slammed shut, and the lights turned off. Rhea’s muffled screams filled the dark room as a struggle could be heard. The lights turned back on, and Dominik saw Damien on the floor (having been thrown face-first into a wall when the lights were out) and Dexter in the room. With a blank stare in his eyes, he slowly advanced toward Dominik. The scared Mysterio backed up while begging Lumis off until he felt a tap on his shoulders. He turned around and was blasted in the face with the Smackdown Women’s Championship belt courtesy of Indi Hartwell, who was back in a walking booth.

Indi walked past the fallen Dominik and Damien and got in Rhea’s face, holding up Rhea’s title. “I gotta say, Rhea, this is a nice title you have here. I think that should be the first belt I win here,” Indi said with a smirk.

With that, Dexter walked up to Indi, and the two began making out as Rhea screamed at Dominik and Damien through the tape to free her so she could escape this nightmare.

[Treville]

Cool story! I love it when a couple is making out in front of the bound victim.