WWE: Shiniest Style (Tegan Nox/OC)

Persona Non Grata

AN: My knowledge of the Backlot Brawl is severely limited to "Is this just a street fight but with a ring outside the arena? Is there still DQ's? What is going on?" So...quick sorry.

______________

(May 27, 2020)

On screen...

Following a promo featuring Adam Cole declaring that Velveteen Dream will get one more chance at the NXT Championship at Takeover: Boston (AN: In Your House), as he left the ring and walked backstage, the screen was taken over by static until it showed what appeared to be a rundown warehouse. In the middle of the scene was Axel Trese, who wasn't moving in some way while tied up to a chair and having a bag over his head, and he was surrounded by four men: Dexter Lumis, Kushida, Alex Shelley, and the first masked man. The former three were wearing plain black shirts with jeans and boots on.

The masked man spoke with his usual distorted voice while clasping a gloved hand on Axel Trese's shoulders.

"Citizens of the NXT Universe, I am well aware that you are wondering why we took so long to make the first move, why we chose to take Axel Trese. The fact is he never understood why he never had much gold in his track record. All his strength, his skill, his determination, all wasted because he'd rather wait and earn. Where has that gotten him before NXT? Barely anywhere, and absolutely nowhere. We are what he needs to become the champion he was destined to be. What he needs...is to be reborn, the same way Kushida and Alex have been reborn. All of us here, we are destined to be greater than what we were back then, and before you know it, we will bring NXT across the bridge to a new era. We are REBIRTH, we are key, we are necessary, we are inevitable, and we...are coming soon..."

With those last words, Dexter Lumis stepped forward and pointed the camera away as the screen turned to static and faded to black.

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(June 7, 2020)

On screen...

Takeover: Boston had come, and the main event was none another than a brutal Backlot Brawl between Adam Cole and Velveteen Dream for the NXT Championship where should Dream lose, he won't be able to challenge for the coveted title as long as Cole held it. In the ensuing chaos outside the arena, as Velveteen Dream had Adam Cole prepped for a dangerous move while scaling a ladder. The rest of the Undisputed Era arrived in another car to aid their leader.

They taunted Dream, who, in a fit of rage, got down the ladder, only to hurl it at the three men, with Roderick and Bobby taking the brunt of the attack! However, with that distraction, Cole took advantage and took the fight back into the ring while his three comrades were trying to get up. In the end, however, one Panama Sunrise onto a pile of chairs was all it took.

1...2...3!

DING! DING! DING!

"Here is your winner and still the NXT Champion: Adam Cole!"

As the referee raised the triumphant hand of the Panama Playboy while Kyle applauded him from outside the ring, the latter turned around to notice something wrong. The camera panned to the left for them to see that Roderick and Bobby were nowhere to be seen.

"Guys?" Adam called out as he and Kyle walked out of the ring and around the place. The white sedan the Undisputed Era had come in on had vanished with only a small, white calling card left on where it was...

BE REBORN

"What the-"

Adam was immediately cut off when he and Kyle were jumped from behind by Kushida and Alex Shelley!

"It's Kushida and Alex Shelley! REBIRTH has come!" Mauro exclaimed.

"They said they were coming soon, but I didn't think they'd be here too soon!" Beth added.

The two members of the Undisputed Era were being beaten down as the former Time Splitters had caught them off guard. Alex attempted his Shellshock on Adam Cole, but the champion broke away and caught him with a Super Kick to stagger him back, but Kyle wasn't so lucky, as Kushida knocked him out with a Buzzsaw Kick before turning his attention to Cole, who was now in the ring, surrounded by the Time Splitters, only for a person to appear from out of nowhere to run to Adam's aid.

It was Axel Trese! Adam Cole was surprised as he saw his former tag partner enter the ring and push Alex Shelley away with a kick. The fans in the arena popped for the former tag team coming together to force the Time Splitters to back away to the ropes.

"Is this really happening?" Tom asked. "A reunion of Team Shock Style?!"

"Axel was taken by Kushida, Shelley, and Lumis months ago and went AWOL." Mauro replied. "This is just payba- WAIT A MINUTE!"

The crowd looked on in shock as Adam Cole took an Overhead Kick courtesy of Axel Trese! Everyone witnessing this looked on in shock as Axel slowly got up and loomed over Adam before he grabbed him by the shirt and forced him to look up.

"No more Undisputed Era!" Axel roared at his face. "There is only the new era...of MY DESIGN!"

With that final word, he picked up Adam before lifting him up in a suplex position and spiking him back on the chairs with a Twisting Brainbuster! Axel got up and looked at the camera with Kushida and Alex. The screen briefly cut to the point of view of a security camera within the area, revealing what happened to Roderick and Bobby: Dexter Lumis ambushed them with a steel chair while they tried to crawl back up from the ladder attack before putting them in their own car and driving away, leaving behind the card as he did so.

Immediately afterwards, the screen cut to the masked man, sitting in the same warehouse as earlier with Axel Trese tied up underneath him. The man slowly tore the bag covering Axel's face...

It was not Axel at all who was tied up on the chair, it was just a medical dummy bearing his skin tone. On the other hand, the masked man took off his skull mask, to reveal, to the shock of everyone watching...

Axel Trese. He sneered at the camera before ending the segment by saying nonchalantly,

"Surprise."