TEAM Epicenter, Episode 4

[TH]

[Cue up "Down," STP. Fade into a metallic looking logo that reads the word "EPICENTER" in all caps on a fiery background.
Cut to: Dan Ryan delivering the Humility Bomb on the equally giant John Adams.
Cut to: Joe Average reversing a superplex into a body press on Ken Cloverleaf.
Cut to: Victor Molotov with the Purifying Scourge on The Mighty Impala.
Cut to: James Irish escaping Corrective Training and nailing the Air Check on The Sergeant.
Cut to: Beast GOREing Alcaeus into the Middle Ages.

Cut to: The Epicenter logo once more, fading into Tom Holzerman and Steve Murray at the Epicenter desk.]

SM: Welcome everyone to Epicenter, I'm Steve Murray...

TH: And I'm Tom Holzerman. Plenty of action from the Rose Garden to report on tonight as we had three big quarterfinal matches in the TEAM Invitational Tournament, plus some wild action that happened in lieu of that fourth one. But let's dive right into things, shall we?

[Cut to Holzerman alone, with a graphic inset featuring Beast and Victor Molotov.]

TH: Well, the match of the night was easy to pick out. Hey, just look for the two guys in the ring who were arguing over camera crews in the week before. As absurd as that sounded, the hate between these two guys was real and visceral as it was shown in the Rose Garden ring.

[Cut to the ring.]

TH V/O: Early on in the match, it was all Beast using his size advantage over Molotov. And when the big guy hits you it hurts, as we see here... BIG LARIAT on Molotov after Beast whipped him hard into the corner.

[Cut to Beast with Molotov in a guillotine choke.]

TH V/O: Beast didn't just use impact moves to break Molotov down. He was grinding him down too. Here, we see the guillotine choke. Beast just showing why he's one of the best wrestlers in the world today here.

[Cut to Molotov draped over the second rope.]

TH V/O: And that wasn't all for the early punishment as Beast channels Ray Traylor with that big leap onto Molotov's back there.

[Cut to Beast with Molotov in position for the Absolution 2K4.]

TH V/O: But Beast wouldn't stay in control of the match, as Molotov deftly slinks behind the Alpha Male here and hits him with a sort of Slackknife type maneuver. Troy Windham is suing for royalties.

[Cut to Molotov with Beast in a sleeperhold.]

TH V/O: Then it was resthold mania. Molotov grinding Beast down, first with a sleeperhold, then with this seated full-nelson that Beast would break out of but couldn't capitalize on.

[Cut to Molotov going for a guillotine choke on Beast.]

TH V/O: But Beast would capitalize later on Molotov's insistance on submission holds here, countering a front headlock hold with a Northern Lights suplex.

[Cut to Beast in front of a wobbly Molotov.]

TH V/O: And now Beast with the martial arts display, almost like he was showing off here. Right kick, left kick, and Molotov is floored here.

[Cut to Beast with Molotov on his feet again, wobbly.]

TH V/O: And Beast would actually start showing off, here, doing a little sexual dance and then heading for the roundhouse kick... but no one is home. Beast swings around and Molotov counters with the German suplex... or would he call it a Russian suplex?

SM V/O: I dunno, but it looked nasty whatever nationality it was.

[Cut to Molotov with Beast in the corner.]

TH V/O: Molotov would get with the program and start hitting some impact moves, and the superplex is always a big momentum shifter. Molotov gets right back up here and goes for his Purifying Scourge, a dragon sleeper, but Beast counters with elbows to the ribs of Molotov and gets free. With Molotov holding his ribs here, Beast has a clear shot and he takes it, LARIATO~! sending Molotov to the canvas.

[Cut to Beast with a wobbly Molotov on his feet.]

TH V/O: Fast forward to the end of the match here, Beast sizing up Molotov for the Gore here, but that Molotov, he's one crafty Russkie. Bails out at the last second, and Beast runs chest first into the ropes. Molotov here with the roll-up pin, but Beast kicks out at two. Both men get up and Beast thinks he catches Molotov off guard here, lunging in, but Molotov kicks Beast right in the solar plexus, slinks behind him and hits him with the Molotov Cocktail... one... two... and three. Victor Molotov pulls off a huge upset, and he's going to the Final Four.

[Back to the studio.]

TH: Alright now that we've seen those highlights, I think it's time to break it down a little bit, and for that, we're bringing in the Straight Man, Mike Gosling who's in the next studio over with Steve Murray, guys?

[Cut to the auxiliary studio, Murray and Gosling sitting across a desk from each other.]

SM: Alright, here with one of TEAM's play-by-play announcers, Mike Gosling. Now Mike, Beast was favored by many to win this tournament. What happened, did he underestimate Victor Molotov or was there something else up?

MG: Well I don't think it's that at all. I think many of us in the wrestling media have been underestimating Mr. Molotov. Here is a man who came back from spinal fusion and was facing perhaps a wrestler in Beast who had great momentum behind him, both in TEAM and in other places in the wrestling world. We all knew that Mr. Molotov was good, but we didn't think he could have come back so quickly from his injuries.

SM: So what does this mean for the rest of the tournament. Does this make him the new favorite?

MG: Maybe it does, but there are still three other men left who are world-class wrestlers. All I know is that he's the one man the fans do not want to see win now, because if you could hear that reaction in the Garden, it was like they let all the air out of that arena when Mr. Westcott lost.

SM: Alright, thanks a lot Mike. We always appreciate it when you drop by.

MG: My pleasure.

[Cut to a shot of Karl Brown grappling Hida Yakamo, cue up Led Zeppelin, "No Quarter."]

TH V/O: Coming up after the break, The Dragon and the Asian Wonder get it on, and some of Hida's strategy involved trickery. Would it work? Stay tuned.

[Fade to commercial for MasterCard featuring MACGUYVER~!~!~!]

 

[TH]

[Cut back from commercial to Steve Murray with a Brown/Yakamo graphic inset.]

SM: Karl Brown and Hida Yakamo. This was perhaps the technical wrestler's dream match, since both of these guys are 'Net faves. But things wouldn't stay a technical dream for long.

[Cut to the Rose Garden ring, Hida with Karl Brown in the Tree of Woe.]

SM V/O: And it was trouble early on for The Dragon, who found himself tied to the Tree, and getting a baseball slide to the face for his troubles. That probably rearranged some of the teeth in his mouth to look straight.

[Cut to Hida with Brown in a full nelson.]

SM V/O: And of course, what would be a 'Net-special match without the requisite head-dropping suplexes... this one a dragon variation. Hida is slick sometimes.

[Cut to Karl Brown on the top rope with Hida a little dazed but standing.]

SM V/O: But it wouldn't stay that way. After a quick reversal and strike, Brown heads to the top rope and it's Air Dragon... cross-body from the top, but that would only net a two count.

[Cut to Karl with Hida in Russian leg sweep position.]

SM V/O: And then Karl with the chain wrestling here, with not just one... not just two... but three... THREE side Russian leg sweeps in a row.

[Cut to Brown prone in Razor's Edge position on top of Hida's shoulders.]

SM V/O: Of course, things wouldn't stay in Brown's favor for long, and Hida got back in control. Hida was ready to go for his patented HIDADRIVER...

TH V/O: Oh the humanity!

SM V/O: ...but Karl Brown slips off his shoulders before he starts running. Hida turns around to see Karl standing there and runs in for a lariat, but he's thrown over the top rope and out of the ring. Hida reaches under the ring for his cricket bat and Karl all the while is wondering, hey, what's Hida doing? I think I'll just do a running jumping attack thingy, but at the last moment, he sees the cricket bat and grabs onto the ropes, swinging himself back into the ring. Hida is stunned at the display and just freezes up, long enough for Brown to regroup, jump, springboard and hit a tornado DDT on Hida on the floor. Let's look at that one more time...

[Instant replay of Brown faking the attack, and then in a split second leaping with the springboard tornado DDT to the floor on Hida.]

SM V/O: Hida is out like a light, Brown rolls him back into the ring and in another mild upset, the Dragon is moving onto the Final Four. Tom?

[Cut to Tom Holzerman with a Ryan/Irish graphic inset.]

TH: Two times, James Irish and Dan Ryan have met in the squared circle, and two times the current A1E Triple Star Champion has come out on top. Would he make it three in a row, or would Dan Ryan find his first win?

[Cut to the Rose Garden ring.]

TH V/O: This one got a little ugly early, with both men trading punches. Of course, when you're trading punches with a giant like Ryan, that's only going to last so long before he comes out on top, and with that right cross, Ryan sends Irish down to the canvas. This match was back and forth all the way, because every time Ryan hit something...

[Cut to Irish hitting a DDT on Ryan.]

TH V/O: ...Irish had an answer.

[Cut to Irish with a tornado DDT on Ryan.]

TH V/O: And every time Irish had the offense...

[Cut to Ryan resisting a Manhattan drop just by arching his back and then flooring Irish with a clothesline.]

TH V/O: ...Ryan seemed to rebound. These two guys had each other scouted, I mean, no one could mount an offense until the end.

[Cut to Irish on the top ropes.]

TH V/O: Fast forward a bit to the end, and this is after Irish hit Ryan with a leaping DDT from the top rope. Irish then goes back to the top rope and it's time for Funk Number Forty-Nine... only except Ryan moves. He's up to his feet while Irish jumps up holding his bottom. Ryan sneaks up behind Irish, puts him in a torture rack and... BAM! Burning Hammer, and this one's all she wrote. Ryan had to dig deep and pull out the rare move to beat his nemesis, but he does, and he's filling out his dance card with Victor Molotov in the Final Four.

[Cut to a shot of a guy in a black mask, cue up Led Zeppelin, "No Quarter."]

SM V/O: Tying up some loose ends next, and we've got one guy crapping out of the tournament after a missed flight, and another mysterious newcomer disrupting things after the forfeit was announced. Stay tuned for the details.

[Cue up commercial for the NFL Network.]

 

[TH]

[Cut back from commercial to the studio.]

TH: Alright, we're almost out of here on this abridged version of Epicenter, but first, some news and notes from the Rose Garden. First up, Mister Entertainment advanced in the tournament when WildStar inexplicably didn't show up for his match at bell-time. It was later learned that he missed his flight into Portland. So due to the forfeiture, E goes on to face Karl Brown in the semifinals. But that wasn't the end of things for him in Portland. A man in a black mask came out and challenged Mr. Entertainment to a match right there. Now while he didn't get it, the two brawled around the arena until authorities broke it up. It was later revealed that this man was known as The Black Scorpion. No one knows if he's going to show up again, but I would bet there's a good shot he will.

SM: And there was another confrontation backstage, this one between new TEAM signee Kin Hiroshi and Phenomenal Frankie Scott, who bowed out in the second round to the aforementioned Mr. Entertainment. Scott got in Hiroshi's face during an interview, saying he didn't deserve all the press he was getting by signing with TEAM. No word yet on what that's going to turn into, but I'm guessing with there being special challenge matches signed to the cards in NEw York, we might see Scott/Hiroshi in our future.

TH: Well, that's gonna wrap things up for us this week. Join us at Madison Square Garden for the semifinals. Until then, for Steve Murray, this is Tom Holzerman signing off on Epicenter.

[Fade to the TEAM logo.]