THE GAMBLE APPRECIATION SOCIETY vs. THE ANGLO LUCHADOR AND IVAN STANISLAV

We come back from Ivan Stanislav to the ring, where the familiar voice of Tommy DeVito is heard over the loudspeakers.

“You think I’m funny? Funny how?”

Metallica’s “Better Than You” kicks in, and Tony Gamble is making his way out to the ring. Behind him is looms the grumpy Mortimer Knightingale. Grumpy because Knightingale isn’t his name. Then again, neither is Kjedelig. Allegedly. You didn’t hear nothin’.

There’s a lot of career highlights playing on the PRIMEview as Tony and his unwilling sidekick head for the ring. Locking Facey in Smile For Me to win the Internet (Alias) title. Imprinting Kenjiro Ito’s face into the mat with Stop Laughing At Me. Beating Tsonda for the 5-Star championship. Beating Deville for the Jewel in the Crown. The PRIME Hall of Famer walks up the steps into the ring, taking his time to absorb the scorn from the crowd.

Vince Howard: Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is scheduled for one fall! Introducing first… from Horace, North Dakota, weighing in at 248 pounds! He is MOOOOOORTIMERRRRR! KNIGHTINGAAAAAALE!

Reclining in the corner that the Gamble Adoration Syndicate have claimed as their own, Mortimer has a smile on his face, likely imagining all of the things he wants to do to the Anglo Luchador and his big Russian tag team partner.

Vince is about to make the introduction for Tony Gamble, but Gamble stops him and pulls out a card from his tights. He hands it to Vince and insists that he reads it. Vince raises an eyebrow at him, but Gamble is very insistent, so he has little choice but to acquiesce to the Hall of Famer’s request.

Vince Howard: His tag team partner… He is the best thing residing in Las Vegas today! He stands beyond mortal men! His weight would shake the very foundations of PRIME! He is the greatest 5-Star champion! A former Intense champion so Intense that they had to retire the belt for eleven years! The man who will make the Anglo Luchador his bitch, rip his title from him, and then consider retiring it for another eleven years because no one would be able to beat him for it! He won the Jewel in the Crown even better than Brandon Youngblood! The greatest Hall of Famer! Women want him! Men want to be him! Truly, a man to be feared and revered… and adored! HE IS… TONY… “THE GRIIIIIIIIIN”… GAAAAAAAAMBLLLLLLEEEEEEE!

BOOOOOOOOOOO!

Richard Parker: Yes… YES! Adore him, Nick!

Nick Stuart: Well, he’s certainly not adored here in Vegas.

Gamble holds his arms out, soaking up all of the boos from the Vegas crowd.

The arena darkens and red lights bathe the crowd in crimson. A loud, instrumental chord plays, much akin to the Soviet National Anthem… but it is not so…

Vince Howard: Introducing, at a combined weight of six hundred and eleven pounds! The Anglo Luchador and Ivan Stanislav!!!!

An instrumental version of “The Internationale,” the anthem of socialism, blares throughout the arena as The Anglo Luchador, with the Intense Title around his waist, emerges from backstage. Smoke billows across the entryway as the crowd cheers raucously for their champion. He exhales and bows his head for a moment. 

From behind him, the curtain flies open as the lumbering Ivan Stanislav stomps out and raises his arms to the cheers. They quickly devolve into a strange mix of boos and cheers, as the crowd tries to decide how best to react to the duo. Alexei Ruslan is in tow, his eyes firmly on the back of Anglo Luchador. Stanislav visibly reacts to the crowd booing him, after first coming out to Luchador’s cheers. He stands a few feet to the right of Luchador and looks down at him from the side with a scowl, before the two of them begin to walk towards the ring. 

Nick Stuart: Ivan Stanislav hasn’t made very many friends since arriving in PRIME.

Richard Parker: Awfully restrained of you to say after what happened two weeks ago, Nick.

Nick Stuart: I’m a professional, Richard. I’m going to call things as I see it, regardless of what Ivan might have to say. And with all that said, this is an unusual pairing. It’s been more than a month since Ivan Stanislav introduced Mortimer Knightingale to the inside of a wall, and the Anglo Luchador’s issues with Tony Gamble date all the way back to Great American Nightmare, when he won the Intense title.

Richard Parker: You mean, when Tony Gamble gifted that ungrateful little Jabber hog the Intense title.

Nick Stuart: At the expense of Tony Gamble’s tag team partner, I want to point out.

Richard Parker: They buried the hatchet! It’s cool! More people to adore Tony Gamble is a good thing.

TAL slingshots into the ring, while Stanislav methodically climbs up the stairs and steps over the top ropes into the ring. Mortimer, still reclining against the Syndicate’s corner, stares daggers at the massive Russian. Sizing him up. Ready for revenge for that yeeting and the resulting concussion. 

In the crowd, there’s a small contingent of signs in clear view of the hard camera that read “YEET COUNT: 00”. The numbers can clearly be changed out as Ivan does what Ivan does. It also has the Soviet flag on it. Gamble pats Knightingale on the shoulder and steps out of the ring, allowing Mort to take the lead on this contest.

Meanwhile…

Nick Stuart: Looks like there’s a heated argument between Stanislav and the Anglo Luchador about who’s starting on their side of things…

Richard Parker: Personally, I would think twice about having any arguments with a man that could actually throw me into the sun, especially if I could use him to throw other people I didn’t like into the sun instead. But then, I’m not insane like TAL over there.

Mortimer steps out of his corner and shuffles from foot to foot. He’s impatient. He wants to start beating the shit out of people as soon as possible. And he can’t do that if there isn’t a legal man to focus all of that wrath towards. So goes to make his way over to the international socialist party and…

Nick Stuart: OH NO!

Richard Parker: OH NO!

DING DING DING

Wordlessly, the fan with the “YEET COUNT” sign increases their number by one, as Ivan Stanislav picks up the Anglo Luchador and heaves him directly into Mortimer Knightingale. To his credit, the Anglo Luchador is no stranger to being thrown in this way, as Wolverine might be thrown by Colossus (though TAL is not Canadian). He lands sitting on Knightingale’s shoulders, electric-chair style. With a spin, he turns his predicament into a hurricanrana that sends the bigger man sliding out to the ring.

Nick Stuart: I… don’t know if that was intentional teamwork by TAL and Stanislav, but the Gamble Adoration Syndicate is already on the back foot here!

Realizing that his partner has been ejected like a terrible movie from Mortimer’s collection of romantic comedies, Tony Gamble immediately gets in the ring and attempts an ambush on TAL. The old luchador, however, has seen – and not seen – a lot of this sort of thing before. He steps to the side and Gamble ends up running into the ropes.

Gamble doesn’t take the ropes the same way most wrestlers usually do. TAL pushes him into them, and he has no time to pivot and hit them with his back. So he hits the ropes chest-first, and bounces back into TAL’s waiting arms. A German suplex soon follows, and Gamble is folded like laundry from the impact. 

Richard Parker: Oh no! Get out of there, Tony!

As if hearing Richard’s pleas, Gamble immediately rolls to the outside to join Mortimer on the floor. TAL sees the two of them out on the floor and has a golden opportunity for a dive out to the floor. He runs into the ropes.

Gamble and Knightingale both see him coming, and they dodge out of the way. TAL simply flips over the ropes in a full somersault over the top of them. He gives Gamble in particular a very rude one-fingered gesture that’s less technico and more South Philly, and then flips back over the ropes and back into the ring.

Tony Gamble is irate. He’s a Hall of Famer!

Nick Stuart: TAL taking it to the Syndicate early on in this contest, Rich!

Richard Parker: I can’t believe any of that happened.

TAL is focused on Mortimer getting back into the ring to continue the match. Mort slides in like a snake, his body language betraying how pissed off he really was at TAL’s resourcefulness. The old luchador regards him with a measure of caution. His record didn’t suggest it, but the erstwhile Kjedelig was a dangerous opponent and TAL knew it firsthand from their encounter at Great American Nightmare. 

TAL has so much caution as Mort approaches that he backs himself into the ropes near where Stanislav stands.

Nick Stuart: Oh my god! Stanislav just decked TAL from behind, an—

Richard Parker: No, actually, I think he just tagged himself in.

Nick Stuart: Most tags don’t end with your partner on the ground, Richard!

Indeed, Stanislav simply shrugs as he explains to referee Jimmy Turnbull and his partner that he’d simply made a tag, and that this was how Russians always tag each other into matches, and that TAL should stop being a pansy and accept this fact.

Jimmy accepts this fact.

TAL only does so begrudgingly, rolling under the bottom rope while holding his head. Stanislav only has one leg over the top ropes before Mortimer immediately attacks him, ramming his elbow into Stanislav multiple times. Stanislav is only annoyed by this because Mortimer is in his way from getting his other leg over the top rope, and he reacts by palming Mort’s face and shoving him across the ring.

Mort’s a big dude. At 6’3” and 248 pounds, he’s one of the biggest, most solidly built men on the PRIME roster. To his enemies, he is a terror. Maybe Mort doesn’t win very often, but when you’re in the ring with him, you know it. 

Anyway, Stanislav finishes stepping into the ring as Mort gets up. Mort soon discovers that they built brick walls in Russia that are autonomous, capable of moving at high speeds in short bursts, and hated the human body. The Russian Bear runs him over as a Mack truck might run over a squirrel. Ivan didn’t even do much more than body block Mort to the ground.

Mort hits the ground, rolls onto his stomach, and then keeps rolling until his back hits the bottom turnbuckle of his team’s corner.

Tony Gamble takes the opportunity to tag himself in.

Nick Stuart: Uh, I’m not sure Gamble should want in, but he’s getting in the ring and he’s standing up to Stanislav!

As of this writing, only 23 of the hundreds of professional wrestlers that have performed under the banner of PRIME Wrestling are in the PRIME Hall of Fame. Tony Gamble is one of them. He has done almost everything that can be done in PRIME, short of winning the Universal championship that’s eluded him several times throughout his career. Tony could proudly say he stands head and shoulders over almost everyone on PRIME’s roster.

Yet, Ivan Stanislav is so much bigger than Tony that Tony has to crane his neck up almost all the way just to look him in the face. He does not stand so tall in the face of a Russian legend who is better compared to kaiju than mortal men. 

So, Tony does what anyone would do in the situation.

He turns to referee Jimmy Turnbull, and he very loudly shouts.

Tony Gamble: Look! An owl!

Alright, Jimmy. I’m going to level with you. This is going to be a bad look. You know this. You’re aware of the kind of antics Tony Gamble gets up to when he laces the boots and enters the ring. You know that if you turn around to check out this owl he’s talking about, something terrible might happen. You know that you’re going to turn back around and someone’s going to be cupping their balls, and because you didn’t see shit, you can’t actually disqualify anyone.

You also know what kind of dangers an owl could present in a PRIME ring, because your boss is Lindsay Troy. Jimmy, it’s your duty to turn around and see this owl with your own eyes. And Jimmy, I know what’s about to happen isn’t your fault, but you have to look. You must.

So, Jimmy turns.

When he doesn’t see the owl that Gamble claimed was there, Jimmy turns around to berate him for the distraction, and stops. He’s stunned. 

Because both of them are hunched over, hands over their crotches.

Jimmy’s very confused.

Richard Parker: Not every day you see two men kick each other in the fun zone at the same time.

Nick Stuart: Never call it the “fun zone” ever again, Rich.

Now, if anyone got the worst of that exchange, it’s definitely Gamble. Being kicked in Richard Parker’s Fun Zone by a kaiju is only anyone’s idea of fun if they’re on the platinum tier membership at the Velvet Pterodactyl. Gamble stumbles backwards into his corner, his every step an agony untold, until he can make the tag back to Mortimer.

At the same time, Stanislav tags in TAL.

We, uh… we do not recommend tagging TAL the way Ivan tags TAL. 

Ivan unexpectedly slaps TAL in the back of the head as his form of a tag. TAL, not entirely expecting it, is flipped into the ring. It’s only because of his luchador instincts that the Intense champion is able to land in a roll and engage Mortimer as he comes in. 

Nick Stuart: It isn’t going to help TAL’s known history of CTE if he keeps tagging with Ivan like this.

Richard Parker: No. It sure isn’t.

TAL is dazed, but nevertheless, he and Mortimer meet with strikes readied. Mort misses a right hand by inches, with TAL dodging it so late that you’d think he’s fucking with him. He’s not. TAL’s still rattled quite a bit by Ivan’s tag. TAL responds with a series of knife-edged chops, backing Mort into the ropes. An attempt at an Irish whip is reversed, and TAL comes back with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. This, once again, sends Mort crashing to the canvas and sliding out of the ring once again. 

The Intense champion is more than a little wobbly, though, and isn’t quick to follow up. Experiencing Ivan Stanislav as a tag team partner will do that to you.

Once he steadies himself, he pursues Mortimer out on the floor. He catches Mort with a baseball slide dropkick, seamlessly sliding out to the floor after knocking him over with it. He wants to throw Mort back into the ring, but Mort catches him with a knee as he’s about to be brought back in. Then he throws TAL into the nearby steel stairs.

CRASH!

Nick Stuart: Into the steps goes the Intense champion, and Mortimer Knightingale has asserted control!

TAL’s exact age isn’t a matter of public record, but we call him the “old luchador”, not the “luchador who has a body very okay with being thrown into steel steps”. Those luchadors have the platinum tier membership. He’s in agony. Knightingale’s expression couldn’t ever be fully seen because of his mask, but his smirk was unmistakable.

He throws TAL back into the ring and slides in after him.

The first thing Mort does once he’s inside is that he stomps on TAL’s head a few times. You know, trying to help knock loose all of the cobwebs in his brain, like the helpful citizen he was. Then he straight stands on TAL’s head, forcing Jimmy to administer a five count to make him break. He does it at four. And three-fourths.

Nick Stuart: Mortimer doesn’t want to risk disqualification here! A win against the Intense champion and Ivan Stanislav would be big for both him and Gamble.

Mort drags TAL to his feet and shoves him into the GAS corner, and then tags in Gamble. Tony Gamble’s permanent grin curls even deeper as he methodically stomps TAL down into a seated position and then chokes him with a boot. Once again, the referee exercises a five count. Once again, a member of GAS breaks the count at four. And three-fourths.

Gamble, naturally, argues with Turnbull over the count. 

Of course, he does it while pulling Turnbull’s attention away from what’s going on in the GAS corner. As he argues, Mort drops off of the apron and starts choking TAL with his bare hands.

Nick Stuart: Uh, ref? Ref!? Turn around!

Richard Parker: No, Nick, it’s cool. Nevada state laws say that it’s legal for a luchador to strangle another luchador to death as long as it happens in a wrestling match!

Nick Stuart: That… I don’t even know where to begin refuting that, but I’ll start with the fact that just because Mortimer wears a mask doesn’t mean he’s a luchador!

Now, if you’re wondering where Ivan is in all of this, he’s actually having a conversation with Alexei at ringside in Russian. A lot of Cyrillic going on over there. Those who understand Russian know that they’re talking about tomorrow’s weather forecast as it pertains to the flight home to the great motherland. 

You know, while Mort is choking his partner to death.

A true Russian could walk something like that off, after all.

Eventually, Jimmy turns, but only finds Mort out on the floor jaw-jacking with members of the crowd, and TAL struggling to suck in oxygen. Nope. Nothing to worry about here.

Tony pulled TAL out of the corner, and to his feet. He holds TAL with one hand while winding up with his other for what seems like a big punch. Then he stops and pokes TAL in the eyes.

Jimmy’s not happy about that one, and admonishes Gamble for the dastardly deed. Behind Jimmy’s, Mort grabs TAL’s head from the other side of the ropes and drops down, clotheslining TAL against the top rope and dropping him to the mat.

Richard Parker: I love the teamwork on display by the Gamble Adoration Syndicate. Cooking with GAS, as they say!

Nick Stuart: It’s an outrage! There were at least five different disqualifications that should have happened just now!

Richard Parker: Yeah, against TAL, for crimes against GAS!

Gamble goes for the cover on TAL, and Jimmy makes a two count before TAL gets the shoulder up. The moment he does, Tony gets the chinlock and wrenches it back. TAL quickly gets to his feet and fights his way out of the hold, though, and goes to run into the ropes to try and regain control.

Gamble grabs him by the mask and yanks him to the ground.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yeah, nobody’s a fan of that one.

Even Ivan looks like he’s actually considering getting into the ring to save his partner. Thanks to the invaluable counsel of Alexei Ruslan, though, he reconsiders it and remains where he is. His eyes look over at the fan with the “YEET COUNT” sign, visibly disappointed that there’s only been one so far. 

Gamble tags Mort in and beckons him to come into the ring to help out. Mort obliges, and the two of them kick TAL on the ground together, much to Jimmy’s disdain and counting. At four and three-quarters, they stop stomping and pull TAL up for a double suplex.  

And that’s when things fall apart for Syndicate.

TAL flips over their heads as he’s lifted up vertically, landing on his feet behind both of them. He turns and kicks Gamble in the gut, then shoves his shoulder into Mortimer’s stomach. This reflexively causes Mort to headlock his own tag team partner. TAL then ran up and nailed Mort with a picture perfect Sling Blade. And, well… where Mort went, so did Gamble.

Nick Stuart: What a move by the Anglo Luchador! He’s taken out the whole Syndicate!

Richard Parker: Oh no! Is Tony alright!?

Tony twitched a little on the ground.

TAL crawls over to the Stanislav corner. For his part, Ivan is quite interested in getting in the ring to prove Russian superiority, and maybe not as interested in his partner’s physical well-being. The moment TAL was close enough, Stanislav reached over the top rope and slapped TAL on the back of the head.

That counts as both a tag and a way to give a luchador another concussion.

Nick Stuart: Here comes Stanislav!

Mort and Gamble both got to their feet in time to see the titanic Russian step over the ropes. Neither of them want any part of him, but they’re getting the entire package. This package was delivered by train, conducted by a Russian Bear. 

Two clotheslines with both arms. Ivan ran at the Gamble Adoration Syndicate like he was a child pretending to be an airplane, if that child was over seven feet tall and nearly a quarter ton. Mortimer hit the ground on his back. Gamble practically got backflipped, landing on top of shoulders and rolling onto his stomach.

Now, the crowd here in the MGM Grand Garden Arena are not big fans of Ivan Stanislav. But in this moment, with Ivan wrecking shop over the Syndicate, they are willing to cheer for him.

Ivan picks up Gamble and effortlessly carries him to the corner. Then, with a heave, he throws Gamble so high into the air as he launches him across the ring that Gamble might have been twice as high as the ring ropes themselves. Lightbulbs flash for the long moment between launching and landing.

The fan with the “YEET COUNT” sign moves it up to 2.

Nick Stuart: Oh my God! Tony Gamble touched the sky on that one!

Richard Parker: Get out of there, Tony!

He does, leaving Mort in the ring to deal with the Russian kaiju. To his credit, Mortimer goes in swinging on Ivan, slugging him with right hands. While the big man seems phased at first, the fourth shot makes Ivan react by trying to clothesline Mort out of his boots. Mort sees it coming, ducking under the clothesline and kicking Ivan in the guts. He goes for the double arm DDT, a titanic move to deliver on the big Russian that could be the end of him. Instead, Ivan easily powers out, launching Mort over his head in a massive backdrop.

Ivan waits for Mort to get up, and then charges on him.

Two things happen at this moment.

The first is that Mort has the savviness to low bridge Ivan. Momentum is a cruel mistress when you’re 7’1”, 400 pounds, and celebrated your 60th birthday not all that long ago. Ivan hits the ropes and falls over the top rope and to the floor. Even Ivan can’t shrug a fall like that, because gravity isn’t just a crueler mistress than momentum: it’s the employee of the month at the Velvet Pterodactyl.

The second is that the Anglo Luchador tagged himself back in as Ivan was falling out of the ring.

Nick Stuart: TAL’s back in! Knife-edged chops for Mortimer! A right hand! A left hand!

SMACK!

Nick Stuart: And oh my! What a right cross from the Anglo Luchador! You could hear that one from the cheap seats!

Richard Parker: Oh no!

With Mort staggered, TAL peppers him with more knife-edged chops, eventually putting him in the corner. He tries to whip Mort into the corner, but Mort reverses and sends TAL in instead. TAL reaches the turnbuckles, grabs the top ropes, and slingshots himself up and over a charging Mort. On his way down, he grabs Mort and tries to catch him with a dragon suplex. They jockey for position for a while with Mort fighting off the full nelson.

The erstwhile Kjedelig finds Jimmy Turnbull standing in front of him and grabs him by the shirt. While Jimmy’s focusing on making Mort release his grip and admonishing him for grabbing hold of him, Mort is focusing on making sure Jimmy doesn’t see the way he’s about to break the dragon suplex attempt.

With a Greco-Roman kick in the wing-wongs.

Just as Zeus and Hades drew up.

Nick Stuart: LOW BLOW BY KNIGHTINGALE!

Richard Parker: Pretty sure nobody in this match is having any more kids after this, at the rate this is going.

Mort releases Jimmy and turns to find TAL doubled over behind him. He quickly grabs the arm and twists him around.

Nick Stuart: BUST OUT! Knightingale could have this one!

Mort goes right into the cover, with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

ONE!

A shadow forms over Knightingale’s head.

TWO!

BOOM!

The leg drop from Ivan Stanislav that breaks the count lands with the kind of impact that could describe what caused the Chicxulub crater. It’s an extinction level event. Goodbye, Velvet Pterodactyl. We hardly knew ye. 

The leg drop squashes Mort. It also squashes TAL, underneath him.

Richard Parker: I’m beginning to think that teaming with Ivan Stanislav is every bit as hazardous to one’s health as his opponents’.

Ivan doesn’t care. Russian fuck dispensaries haven’t been in operation since Khrushchev was in power.

Instead, Ivan does what Ivan does.

Ivan Stanislav: DYAHAHA!

He pulls TAL free from the ruins and drags him effortlessly to his corner. There, he makes a tag, and puts himself back into the match.

As he does, Mort tags Tony Gamble back into the fray.

Tony enters the ring and charges at Ivan with a somewhat uncharacteristic dropkick. When he bounces off of Ivan’s chest like a fly bouncing off of a wall, Tony does the next best thing. He leaps into the air… and pokes Ivan in the eye. It’s what a Shoryuken would look like if it were an eye poke.

With Ivan stunned, Gamble runs the ropes for another attack.

And then, well…

Okay.

So there’s a lot of chatter about whether Ivan Stanislav could do what he’s about to do to Tony Gamble. Charitable donations were brought up. A lot of excitement had been in the air over whether Ivan would actually attempt it.

So, he chooses now.

Tony returns to find a seven foot Russian in mid-air, leaping at him legs first. For a brief, shining moment, Ivan Stanislav is actually looking for a hurricanrana. No. A hurricaRUSSIA. 

There’s a problem, though. A logistical one.

Tony Gamble is a 5’9”, 187 pound man who only thinks he’s twice that size. He is not capable of supporting Ivan’s weight. His legs buckle as Ivan sits on his shoulders, and then he falls to the ground. With Ivan on top of him.

Ivan lands, and then stands up and raises his arms as though he just performed the greatest luchador feat possible.

Ivan Stanislav: DYAHAHA!

Nick Stuart: I… have no words.

Richard Parker: Welp. Guess I’m donating to charity, too.

Tony Gamble is almost as flat as a fritter after that one. Ivan turns and picks up the beloved leader of the Gamble Adoration Syndicate, and hoists him up into the air with one arm. And then comes the Iron Curtain. Tony’s lucky his head is still attached after that one, and it’s only a matter of time before Ivan has him for the Red Scare.

Only, he never gets the chance.

Because Mortimer’s there to save him.

SMACK!

With a steel chair.

DING DING DING

Referee Jimmy Turnbull has seen enough. Literally. He missed most of the cheating in the match, but Mort’s steel chair attack on Ivan had been in full view of the referee.

Vince Howard: Ladies and gentlemen, as a result of a disqualification… the winners of this match… IVAN STANISLAV AND THE PRIME INTENSE CHAMPION…

SMACK!

Vince Howard (undeterred): …THE ANGLOOOOO LUCHADOOOOOOOR!

Mort pays the announcement no heed. He clobbers Ivan in the head with another chairshot. This one rocks the big Russian and actually manages to knock the big man off his feet. Mort raises the chair again.

SMACK!

And brings it down on the fallen Russian.

He raises the chair again.

…And he is stopped, when the Anglo Luchador rips the chair away from Mort. Disarmed, Mort spins around to face TAL. TAL greets him with a right cross, sending the masked man from North Dakota (allegedly) onto his back and out of the ring.

Nick Stuart: A vicious attack from Mortimer Knightingale puts an end to this one, folks!

Richard Parker: Mort’s been waiting weeks to do that to Stanislav! You can’t blame him for doing that.

In the ring, TAL checks up on Stanislav, who shrugs him off and slides out of the ring to join Alexei Ruslan out on the floor. Likewise, Tony Gamble has managed to peel himself up off the canvas and roll out of the ring to join an incensed Mortimer on the floor. TAL watches them like a hawk as the referee hands him his championship belt.

Nick Stuart: Well, this was a wild one. You have to think this isn’t over between these four men. 

Richard Parker: Nope. And I’m not sure TAL’s gonna want to team with Ivan again any time soon after this one.

Nick Stuart: He definitely was a… rough partner, wasn’t he?

Richard Parker: They should at least learn a safe word for next time.

Nick Stuart: Richard.

Richard Parker: What? What did I say? You should practice safety in your wrestling matches, I’m just saying.

Nick Stuart: I’m saving the lectures for the commercial break.