With Disturbed’s “Inside the Fire” blasting over the sound system, the two-time XWA World Heavyweight Champion, Maddox Paine, makes his way through the curtain, still without his manager, thanks to Vladimir Strife, and stands on the stage. He stretches both of his arms, protrudes his chest and abdomen and roars much to the delight of the XWA crowd, as they mimic his signature taunt before he powerfully walks down the ramp, confident for his match against Mark Storey. As he reaches the bottom ramp, the crowd yell loudly, not for Maddox, but for Mark Storey who sprints along the barricade and leaps, crashing into the six-foot-seven superstar, taking him down! Having come through the crowd to attack his much larger foe, Mark rains heavy fists on his opponent and then frantically gets to his feet. With Maddox down, Mark looks to further this advantage by going to the ring and lifting the apron. “The Imperator of Innovation” pulls out a chair before returning to his downed foe, and making sure he stays that way by smashing the steel chair into Maddox’s legs! Mark smashes the chair against Maddox’s legs over and over again, before the referee exits the ring and begs Mark to move, trying to force his way between the two men. Mark backs away and drops the chair, smiling, but quite clearly upset at his loss in his re-debut. Going up against a two-time World Heavyweight Champion, Mark knew that he had to make an impact, much to the dismay of the fans, who cheer for Maddox as he begins to stand. At this point, Mark is in the ring, standing and taunting Maddox to get into the ring. The referee advises against Maddox entering and starting the match as he kneels down. Mark makes a motion with his hands, disregarding what is happening outside and turns around, taunting to the crowd, holding his arms out to bathe in their hatred. Though, he is showered with cheers, an unexpected response. Suddenly the bell is rung three times, prompting Mark to turn around towards Maddox, who has now entered the ring and jumped into the air, catching Mark with a running flying clothesline! “The Natural” hits the mat hard, but bounces back quickly to his feet after impact. He swivels as he stands, only to fall victim to a running crossbody from a rebounding “Titan”! The two men hit the canvas hard, as Maddox uses his heavier frame to keep Mark down in the first cover on the match! ONE! TWO! NO! Mark is able to get a shoulder of the mat, prompting Maddox to get to his feet, which proves a little tricky as the chair shots from earlier, and the blatant disregard for his well-being after running into the ring and performing two running manoeuvres, kicks in for Paine.
Falling to one knee puts Maddox into quite a predicament as Mark gets to his feet and applies a front chancery on “The Toughest of the Tough”. With Maddox sandwiched between the turnbuckles and Mark, Mark then pulls Maddox up, which sees Maddox go absolutely nowhere, as the big man blocks the suplex attempt and replies by hauling Mark into the air and holding him in place with his own vertical suplex! The “God Amongst Men” shows that he’s actually quite mortal as his leg begins to buckle, allowing Mark to reposition himself and fall behind Maddox, right onto the top turnbuckle. Maddox stumbles away slightly, before regaining his composure and turning to find Mark flying in mid-air towards him with a double axe handle! Mark collides with Maddox, but not in the way that he wants, as he is caught by the “Titan” and planted hard into the mat with Maddox’s signature Standing Spinebuster! Mark arches his back in pain and scrambles with his feet, moving him out of Maddox’s reach, as he moves towards, and then rolls under, the bottom rope, escaping to the outside. Mark holds his lower back as he walks towards the barricade, which beckons the former World Champion out of the ring after him. Maddox grabs Mark’s shoulder, which starts a chain of events as Maddox tries to Irish whip Mark towards the ropes, which Mark counters with an Irish whip of his own, driving Maddox into the steel steps! The huge superstar explodes into the steps, forcing them to break into two pieces, as the referee reaches the count of three. With Maddox down, Mark lifts the ring apron and pulls out a set of five chairs! He lifts the first up and slides it into the ring, as the referee stops counting and starts to shout at Mark. Ignoring the official, Mark proceeds to start flinging each of the other chairs into the ring, as the referee tries to avoid them and remove them from the squared circle. With the referee preoccupied, Mark pulls out a kendo stick and cracks it over the back of Maddox as he crawls on all fours! “The Toughest of the Tough” kneels in pain, leaving him susceptible to a kendo stick shot to the chest, as Mark makes sure the referee is not looking. After the shot, Mark drops the kendo stick and kicks it under the apron as the crowd go wild, trying to convey to the referee what happened, turning the XWA show into a pantomime. The referee returns to see Mark towering over Maddox as he kneels, but grabs his chest in pain, allowing Mark to pull him up via his neck, in a front chancery, and force him onto the ring apron, before lifting him up and rolling him into the ring. Mark follows and covers his foe all at once. ONE! TWO! ROPEBREAK!
“FUCK SAKE!” yells Mark as Maddox’s long legs reach the bottom ring rope, showing that he lives up to the moniker of “The Toughest of the Tough”. Mark gets to his feet and grabs the arm of Maddox, dragging him closer to the middle of the ring. He stops and covers him once more. ONE! TW-NO! The former World Champion is able to force out of the pin attempt, which sees Mark get to his feet and proceed to drop an elbow on Maddox. Instead of pinning, he stands once more and hits another elbow. Following the second elbow he dashes towards the rope, rebounding and returning to Maddox, before leaping into the air and dropping an almighty knee onto the chest of Maddox! Maddox starts to cough and splutter, which Mark uses to his advantage, pinning him while he is somewhat winded! ONE! TWO! NO! Again, the huge man is able to kick out, which frustrates the Belfast-born superstar once more. Mark pushes himself off the mat and he pulls Maddox by his leg, making him diagonal to both ropes, in prime position from the top rope. With Paine in place, Mark ascends the ropes, reaching the top. He stands and faces Maddox before jumping off. He pulls his knees in tight and then extends them upon impact hitting a giant top rope double stomp! To the canvas!! A shooting pain is sent up Mark’s legs, after Maddox avoided the move, before Mark turns to find his opponent, who delivers a Charging Spear! Mark is planted hard against the mat as Maddox finds the power within his legs to stand once again and extends his arms, thrust out his chest and abdomen and lets out an almighty roar with his signature taunt after his finisher! He usually does it before his finisher, but in desperation he needed to take Mark down. After the taunt, Maddox is quick to converge into a recovery stance, holding his chest and falling to one knee again, Mark having cheated his way to doing some damage to his legs and chest. He stands tall and turns to Mark, who is now on all fours. With “The Elite of Elites” in prime position, Maddox forces Mark’s head in between his legs and heaves Mark up into the air. Upon reaching the top, Mark counters, moving over the top of Maddox’s head and falling behind him. Mark lands on his feet and turns, as does Maddox, allowing Mark to hit a quick kick to the gut, before running to the ropes, rebounding and hitting an elbow smash to the face! Maddox stumbles back, as Mark sprints back to the ropes, rebounds and hits another! With Maddox groggy, Mark grabs the arm, twisting it and jumps into the air, placing his foot under the jaw of Maddox and falling towards the mat, sending the impact through his body and into the jaw of Maddox with a huge inverted stomp facebreaker he calls FYL – Fuck Your Life!
Maddox grabs his jaw as he falls to one knee again, as Mark slowly brings “The Titan” down, having targeted the strong legs as well as dealing damage to the face and chest to wear him down equally. The crowd boo as Mark seemingly starts to take the upper hand, having cheated throughout the match, as he returns to his knelling opponent. “The Premier Player” then signals the end of the match as he applies a three-quarter headlock and stands Maddox up. With the MAS in place, Mark takes a small run to complete the finisher, but Maddox pushes him off just in time as Mark ties to find his footing as to not fall over. It doesn’t matter however as the “God Amongst Men” clobbers Mark on the shoulder blades with a huge running forearm smash, causing Mark to fall down. He’s not down for long however as Maddox grabs him by his arm and Irish whips him into the corner of the ring! Mark hits the turnbuckles hard as “The Titan” does his signature taunt once again, hyping the capacity crowd up as he walks towards Mark and delivers a huge Cornered Shoulder Thrust to the British star! The crowd chant with each thrust! ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! FIVE! Maddox lets Mark fall to his knees, delivering some of his own medicine, as he roars in unison with the crowd, before pushing Mark out and towards the middle of the ring with a slow crawl. The big superstar puts his foot on the bottom rope and the crowd cheer, knowing exactly what he has planned. “The Titan” doesn’t climb the rope often, but when he does, it’s a treat. He grabs the two top ropes and begins to ascend the lower ropes, a flying punch in mind. He reaches half way and turns to find Mark looking for a vertical base. Perfect for Maddox as he gets to the top and slowly, but surely, repositions himself so that he targets his foe. Mark groggily stands in the centre of the ring, looking for Maddox, before turning around and seeing two hundred and fifty pounds of a man flying towards him with his fist cocked back ready to strike. Almost in slow motion, Mark leaps upwards and meets Maddox in mid-air, he wraps his arm around the neck of Maddox and the two men crash into the mat, with an almighty ace crusher! MAS! The arena turns to boos following the brief sparkle of camera flashes as reality falls upon their shoulders, as they watch Mark push Maddox onto his back and covers him. ONE! TWO! THREE! The finisher and final blow to the head was enough to put Maddox away as “Dies Irae” performed by Epica, muffled by the displeasure of the crowd, is played throughout the arena, signalling a victory for Mark, only confirmed by the ring of the bell and Laura Watts announcing his victory! A loss last week is essentially written off for Mark as he just beat a two-time XWA World Heavyweight Champion!
(OOC: Hopefully I didn't disappoint this week. Thanks for the extension, also. I didn't go for commentary this week, to see if it made any difference to my flow of the match.)
Subject: MATCH 4.) Maddox Paine vs. Mark Storey 
