Wrestle Mania 38 : Fantasy Booking - 3

Build: If there’s one championship that Sheamus hasn’t captured, it’s the intercontinental championship. This is why I have put him in this match. So, this is how the story goes.

• After winning the Intercontinental Championship from Sami Zayn, Ricochet cuts a post-match promo calling out all the superstars in the back.

• Ricochet’s Intercontinental Open Challenge is announced for the next SmackDown. Sheamus is the first wrestler to accept the challenge. Ricochet will defeat Sheamus clean to retain his championship. After the match, Sheamus will attack Ricochet and beat him to a pulp. He will hit the white cross on Ricochet through the announce table.

• Next week, Ricochet will come out with his ribs covered with tape. He calls Sheamus a coward and asks him to come out to the ring. Sheamus doesn’t come out. Ricochet says that he wanted to give the crowd of Jacksonville a fight, and he’s going to give them one regardless if Sheamus comes out now. Because unlike Sheamus, he’s NOT a coward and the Intercontinental Open Challenge is still on!

• New Day answers the challenge. They decide that it will be Kofi Kingston who will answer the challenge. It’s Kingston V/S Ricochet for the IC Title! The match ends with Ricochet pinning Kingston clean to retain the championship. Ricochet has now beaten two former WWE Champions.

• After the match, Kofi Kingston offers Ricochet a handshake but before Ricochet can accept he along with the New Day are attacked from the back by three luchadores. They are all wearing Prince Puma’s mask from Lucha Underground. They start beating all three guys in the ring, and take each of them out with a Midnight Express.

• The masked luchadores are revealed to be Sheamus, Dunne & Holland. Sheamus stands tall on Ricochet raising the Intercontinental Championship.

• Next week, we get a six-man tag match between Ricochet, King Woods & Kofi Kingston V/S Sheamus, Ridge Holland & Pete Dunne. The match ends with Woods pinning Sheamus for the win. In the post-match interview, Woods will make a comment on how him pinning Sheamus should put him next in line for the IC Title Match. Woods has never been a singles champion in WWE, and he wants to change that come WrestleMania. We get a stare down between Ricochet & Woods and Ricochet accepts the challenge.

• Match: Woods V/s Ricochet (Intercontinental Championship Match):: Woods hits his finisher on Ricochet and is about to pin him for the gold when he is pulled out of the ring from Kofi Kingston.

King Woods: “What are you doing, Kofi?”

• Kofi apologizes for what he just did. He doesn’t know what got inside him. Woods goes back into the ring to be rolled up by Ricochet. The winner of the match is Ricochet! Woods is frustrated by his loss and blames Kofi for it. Kingston walks out on Woods.

• Ricochet offers Woods a handshake but, Woods declines it and begins to leave the ring too. That is when, Ricochet is attacked from the back by Sheamus, Holland & Pete Dunne. Ricochet tries to fight back but the number’s game is too much. Woods hesitates but eventually decides to go inside the ring to help Ricochet. He gets some offense but is also beaten down by Sheamus, Dunne & Holland. Kingston just looks on from the ramp and walks off.

• USOS! Jimmy and Jey come out to the ring to even the odds. After clearing the ring, they offer Woods & Ricochet a hand. Both slowly get up only to be hit with Superkicks. “Main Event” Jey Uso had Reigns talk with the management and at WrestleMania, Ricochet will defend his championship against Jey Uso.

• Next week on SmackDown, Kingston explains why he did what he did. He did it because he was scared of losing Woods too! Kingston was at the lowest point of his career in 2014 but New Day changed that for him. Woods & E helped reignite his career and because of those two he was able to become the WWE Champion.

• Woods comes out and asks Kofi to stop all this. They will always be family no matter where they end up. He continues to say that he was really happy when Kofi became champion. On the titantron, Woods shows how emotional he was when Kofi won the WWE Championship.

• He tells Kofi that he is disappointed with him.

King Woods: “I wanted you to be better, man. I wanted you to support me like E and I did.”

• Kofi says that Woods was the weakest link of their group, and while they are family—Woods is not ready to be Intercontinental Champion.

King Woods: “So that’s what you thought of me, all this time?”

Kofi Kingston: “No, that’s not what I meant. Listen—”

King Woods: “I am done listening man. This is not you. This is not the Kofi I knew.”

Kofi Kingston: “Woods, why are you doing this? Didn’t you want to win the King of the Ring tournament? You got what you wanted. You became the King. Is that not enough for you?

King Woods: “No hard feelings, but unlike you I’m not going to wait another 10 years to get an opportunity.”

Kofi Kingston: “Well then I hope you don’t squander your opportunity like I did 10 years ago.”

King Woods: “Kofi… I am not you.”

“What happened to you isn’t going to happen to me.”

Kofi Kingston: “How do you know that?”

King Woods: “I just know it.”

Kofi Kingston: “Then know this, at Mania. I will be walking out—Intercontinental Champion.”

—USOS! Jey Uso comes out to the ring with a microphone.

Jey Uso: “Intercontinental Champion? Uce, the only one walking out of Mania as Champion is—me.”

“Besides, you are not even in the match!”

Kofi Kingston: “I am not in the match…yet—I have a match against Ricochet tonight. If I beat him, I will be added to the championship match at Mania.”

King Woods: “So you get an opportunity to fight him again tonight, but I don’t?”

Jey Uso: “Neither of you deserve the opportunity to challenge Ricochet for the Intercontinental Championship! I earned my shot, and I deserve a one-on-one fight against Ricochet.”

King Woods: “You mean how you earned your title shot using backstage politics? You both know more than anyone that I deserve the opportunity to challenge Ricochet for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. I know it, and the WWE Universe knows it. So what’s the hold up?”

—ADAM PEARCE comes out and makes the match: USOS V/S NEW DAY. If New Day can defeat the Usos then both Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods will be added to the Intercontinental Championship at Mania making it a fatal four way.

If USOS win however, both Jimmy & Jey Uso will challenge Ricochet in a 2-on-1 handicap match for the Intercontinental Championship.

• USOS V/S NEW DAY: It is a close contested match which ends with Xavier Woods performing his finisher on Jimmy Uso and covering him for the win. The referee counts… ONE, TWO…! Sheamus does a run-in interference and pulls Woods out of the ring.

• Woods is confronting Sheamus when he is hit in the back by Ridge Holland with a Steel Chair. Holland then gets inside the ring and starts hitting Jimmy Uso with a Steel Chair.

• Sheamus throws Woods inside the ring and asks Holland to pick him up so he can deliver the BROGUE KICK! Sheamus is in position when a battered Kofi gets in the ring and takes the fall for Woods.

• Jey Uso, who is back on his feet gets Jimmy out of the ring. They are both about to leave when suddenly they are hit with a Steel Chair. It’s PETE DUNNE! Pete gets inside the ring, as Sheamus, Holland & him pose on top of Kingston.

—ADAM PEARCE comes out with security guards and asks them to restore order. He then announces that due to disqualification, the winner of this match are Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston. And so, as per the rules of the match. They will both be added to the IC title match at Mania.  

— SHEAMUS is fuming and asks Pearce to add him in the match or there will be consequences.

Adam Pearce: “You are right. There will be consequences!”

“I am suspending all three of you until further notice.”

Sheamus: “…”

“Be careful about what you wish for, fella. You don’t want a fight with us.”

“Go against our wishes, and you will see what will happen.”

Adam Pearce: “You are gonna raise your hand against a WWE official?”

Sheamus: “No, that’s going easy…”
“You will see what we will do.”

• Next week on the final episode of SmackDown before Mania, Sheamus and his buddies attack the camera crew and the ring announcer. They try to attack Cole, but McAfee steps in.

• They tell him that they don’t want any trouble and continue beating down the SmackDown crew. Eventually, Superstars from the locker room come out to make the save chasing Sheamus and his buddies out of the arena.

• Due to their attack, SmackDown’s broadcast is shut down immediately for about 30 minutes. They come back to air with WWE Superstars in the GM office with Adam Pearce. He tells them that they are going to need all of their help.

• Reigns who was scheduled to face-off Brock Lesnar has already left. No one keeps the head of the table So, the main attraction of this week’s SD is already out the window. Brock Lesnar is furious and asks Pearce to do something about this.

• Pearce tells him that if he will take care of Sheamus and his buddies for him, he will somehow get Reigns for the face off by the end of the night.

• The show continues without any problem after this. That is until the match between Woods & Kingston. During the match, Sheamus runs an interference. Seeing this from the back, Cowboy Brock marches to the ring and chases Sheamus out of the ring. He starts assaulting Sheamus and hits him with multiple F5’s on the floor.

• While he’s doing this, Pete Dunne & Holland attack the production crew in the back. They press random buttons causing the TV screens to malfunction.

• SMACKDOWN again goes off air. This time SD doesn’t return until the Main Event—that is the Face-Off between Reigns & Lesnar. Till then, the official WWE Youtube Page starts a live stream of the event. Through the stream, We could see Lesnar chasing after Holland & Dunne.

• He gets hit by Reigns in a cart. Reigns along with the USOS start assaulting Lesnar. Holland & Dunne try to leave but the USOS starts beating them too. A battered Sheamus slowly gets up on his feet and heads to Adam Pearce’s office. He asks him once again to make him a part of the Intercontinental Championship Match at Mania.

• Pearce refuses and is about to get attacked by Sheamus. Suddenly we see Ricochet jump onto Sheamus from the ceiling. He starts beating him with multiple shots to the head. Sheamus is taken out for good.

• We switch back to Reigns who is slowly dragging Lesnar’s body to the ring for their face-off if you want to call it that. In the back, we see a disappointed Woods who wanted to fight Kofi. Kofi tells him that this is for the best and to save his strength for Mania.

• SMACKDOWN comes back to air for the main-event segment between Reigns & Lesnar. Reigns tells Heyman & USOS to leave the ring as this is between him and Lesnar. As soon as they leave, Lesnar gets up and hits Reigns with a GERMAN SUPLEX! “That son of a bitch was faking it.”

• Lesnar takes both Reigns & the USOS to SUPLEX CITY! The show ends with Lesnar standing tall as he lifts both the championships laughing.

On the official WWE Twitter account, it is announced that Sheamus has been added to the IC title match with a stipulation that if Sheamus fails to win the championship. He and his buddies will be released from their SmackDown contracts.

MATCH: This will be a heavily tested match with Woods almost stealing the title only for Kofi Kingston to break the pin attempt. Both Woods & Kingston get into a fight with both of them throwing punches at each other. Sheamus’ buddies will run interference but will be taken out by the other competitors in the match.

Woods will perform his finisher on Ricochet and will try to cover him for the victory. Sheamus will then suddenly slide into the ring and throw Woods out. He will cover Ricochet for the victory, but Ricochet will kick out at TWO! He will then start the beats of bodhran waiting for Ricochet to get up. Jimmy Uso will slide into the ring and hit him with a superkick. He will then perform his tag finisher with Jimmy pinning Ricochet for the win.

Winner: ‘Main Event’ Jey Uso (New WWE Intercontinental Champion)

* Sheamus, Holland & Dunne will be released from their SmackDown contracts making them free agents.

* Jey Uso now holds both the Intercontinental & SmackDown Tag Team Championships. Reigns isn’t very pleased with this outcome as he looked forward to becoming the first of their group to hold two championships at the same time. He asks Jey to sit out of his match and walk from the back.

*Sheamus will bring back his old theme in this match.