"Excuse me, Drake, may I have a word?" A sentence very few ever look forward to hearing from their bosses but Drake has to smile, a little, at the memory of Stephanie explaining that although he'd been drafted to Smackdown, they plan on retaining him as both GM of 205 Live and Team Work.

He had stared at her for a long, quiet moment, before his mind cleared and he'd nodded. "Thank you, Mrs. Helmsley," he'd said anxiously and she'd smiled.

"You've deserved it, you're a very dedicated, studious manager when it comes to both shows and now that the 24/7 title obsession seems to be behind you, I don't see why we can't carry on the way we've been prior."

He thinks she's right, that putting all of the nonsense with R-Truth behind him and moving on with his career will be best for his life, his marriage and everything in between. So he turns his focus to the card for the night and sighs softly as he falls back into the old, familar comfort of preparing match plans.

The first match pits Pentagon against Moose, and the crowd is enthralled by the two intense men who fight brutally for long, tense moments until finally Pentagon gets the upperhand and keeps it long enough to force Moose to tap with one of his many arm submissions, the large man finally having no choice but to give up or risk a career-shortening injury. Riho defeats Becky Lynch, and Killian Dain wins a six man match against Michael Elgin, Mahabali Shera, Ace Austin, Brian Kendrick, and Will Ospreay.

The following match sees the crowd react with boos as one smug Chris Jericho makes his way to the ring, holding onto the AEW title and taking it all in with a smirk as he approaches the ring. His partner, Fenix, is young and explosive and their opponents are almost perfect foils for them, Eddie Edwards and Josh Alexander staring back at them as they wait for the bell to ring. "Pathetic," Jericho says with a scoff, not even bothering to look at them for long as he turns to hand his belt off. He starts against Eddie and Eddie is unhinged early, fighting with a kind of recklessness and intensity that catches Jericho off guard at first. He adjusts, quickly, and decades of experience work in his favor as he catches Edwards and slings him back with a suplex, kicking him hard in the side as soon as he's back on his feet. "Idiot," he snaps. He takes a few more shots at Eddie before turning and staring at Fenix for one long, tense moment before walking over and tagging him in. "Don't make me regret this."

Fenix doesn't, he moves quickly, dives off the top onto Eddie's prone body, and then dives for the cover. It gets him a two count, but he doesn't let up, continuing to fight until Eddie snaps back with forearms that rock Fenix, leave him wavering. Eddie continues beating him down for a few minutes, not giving him even a second to breathe, before turning and tagging in Alexander. It takes Alexander long enough to get inside, get to Fenix, that Fenix recovers enough to greet him with a sharp pele kick, rocking him immediately. It's all downhill from there for him as Fenix stumbles over and tags in Jericho, who gets in with a disgusted look on his face, striking Josh a few times before sending him off of the ropes and taking advantage of the forward momentum to grip his shoulders and slam him down face first into his knees. Snarling, his face flushed with anger, he pulls him up right, staring at Eddie. "I told you you're not good enough to share my ring!" Before twisting around and slamming him hard in the jaw with his elbow, the kid immediately collapsing at his feet. Fenix moves to catch Edwards and leaves him with no choice but to watch as Jericho gets the pin, laughing smugly the entire time.

Asuka wins a ladder match, standing high and proud over the others, grin glistening green as she holds the large X in hand and surveys the damage below her, WOW's Fire and Jessie Jones looking up in disappointment while Tegan Nox writhes in pain and Kairi applauds her tag partner. In triple threat tag action, Kenny Omega and Santana outlast and overwhelm the teams of Tucker and Ortiz, and Roman Reigns and Otis. Nikki Cross defeats both WOW wrestlers, Adrenaline and Fury in a triple threat, and Taya Valkyri partners with The Beast to win against Amber O'Neal and Io Shirai.

Following that, Sunil Singh finds himself in the ring facing off with one Damien Priest. He's visibly uncomfortable, and the match quickly goes against him, but he's got an ace under his sleeve, as Samir makes his presence felt, distracting Priest whenever Sunil was distracting the referee, allowing Samir to smack Priest across the skull with the clipboard container all of their directors notes. Sunil scrambles away from the referee, grips Priest and slings him backwards, rushing into the pin and he gasps as soon as he hears the bell ring, laughing in delight as Samir grips his feet and drags him out of the ring to safety, Damien raging down at them, a vicious sneer on his face.

In handicap action, Marcel Barthel, Scorpio Sky, Andrade and Tony Nese compete against Aleister Black, Kazarian and Chad Gable. Despite how hard the three men try to fight, the uneven numbers get the best of them and allow Scorpio Sky to gain the win after repeated attacks by the four men on the other side of the ring.

The main event is a twenty man battle royal, Buddy Murphy, Jake Crist, Big E, Erik, Rich Swann, Samir Singh, Braun Strowman, Ethan Page, Lance Archer, Tracey Williams, Tommaso Ciampa, Ricochet, Matt Riddle, Daniel Bryan, Fabian Aichner, Adam Page, Xavier Woods, Ivar, Joe Hendry and Brian Cage all milling around until the bell rings and they all start to brawl. Ricochet is first out due to one of Braun's massive forearms, sitting dazed on the floor for a few moments before forcing himself to his feet to stumble up the ramp, shocked that it'd all ended so quickly. Big E is eliminated by Brian Cage only a few moments later, and Samir is third out, all but eliminating himself to avoid truly having to face off with Strowman. Lance Archer and Tracey Williams, fighting by the ropes, are both taken out of the match forcefully by Braun. Brian Cage is next to go, Erik and Ivar working together to overwhelm him enough to send him clean over the top rope to the floor below.

Ivar then eliminates Jake Crist just to turn around to be met by Strowman, who overpowers him and sends him over the ropes, slamming into him with all of his weight behind another forearm and dropping him quickly to the mat below. Ivar growls and smacks the apron before catching his partner's eye, nodding at Erik before reluctantly taking his leave of the ringside area. Aichner is taken out next, Braun staring down at him for a moment before wading back in to continue his path of destruction. With things in ring clearing out quickly, the smaller wrestlers are targetted next, Ethan Page, Rich Swann and Xavier Woods eliminated in quick succession. Erik then comes face to face with Strowman and he has more room to fight back than Ivar did, but it still ends the same- Strowman barely flinches at his strikes, and then strongarms him over the ropes and sends him down with a solid strike across the chest.

Adam Page is next to be sent unceremoniously from the ring, Matt Riddle gone not long afterwards. Despite Daniel trying to fight smart and avoid guys like Strowman, it finally all catches up with him and he crashes hard onto the outside, staring up as he catches his breath before forcing himself to his feet and walking off at referee's urging. Braun Strowman makes quick work of Joe Hendry, and then everything stops as the three men remaining in ring survey each other. Buddy Murphy. Tommaso Ciampa. Braun Strowman.

Buddy and Ciampa catch each other's eyes, nodding quickly, before both moving in on Braun, trying to gain some sort of momentum against him- but he fights fast and effecient for a guy his size, and Ciampa is quickly sent flying, Buddy finding himself against the ropes with nowhere to go as Braun barrels at him and sends him over the top with a solid push. Once he's eliminated, Braun turns towards Ciampa and shrugs. "Trust me, I get no pleasure from this," he yells over at him. "I know you've just come back from neck surgery, but you've still gotta GET THESE HANDS!"

Ciampa's ready, however, as ready as one could ever be, and as Strowman slams towards him, he moves quickly, drop toeholds the gigantic man into the turnbuckle and exhales a breathless laugh as he hears Braun impact with the post. Braun is staggered, a shocked look on his face, and Ciampa hits the ropes, gaining momentum as he washes Braun across the face with his knee, feeling the brace scrape against his jaw, along his nose. Ciampa has no hope of lifting him, he knows this, so he continues the offense, sending Braun closer and closer to the ropes- just to feel himself snagged in midair. He scrambles and twists, refusing to lose like this, wishing he had his crutch, a chair, something. Braun sends him over and Ciampa lands awkwardly on the apron, glaring back at him as he lunges forward to eliminate Tommaso like he has so many others in this match, but Tommaso moves. Slides under the bottom rope between Braun's feet and only just gets to his feet as the giant turns to look incredulously at him. It's his moment, he feels it, and when he dropkicks Braun this time, Braun staggers against the ropes and Tommaso hits him again, watching as the huge man tips, almost over- another dropkick does it, Braun landing half off of the apron himself. He's clinging to the ropes that look like they're about to snap under his ridiculous weight, and Tommaso moves hurriedly, blasting him again with his knee across his jaw, causing him to let go and crash heavily to the floor below, the entire ringside area seeming to shake with the force of his landing.

Tommaso stands there in awe for a long, quiet moment, before looking out over the crowd, who are all chanting in support of his win. He closes his eyes and exhales hard before rubbing at his neck, more a nervous tic than anything. He's about to leave when Braun re-enters the ring, ignoring referees and other officials as he looms over Ciampa. They stare at each other warily, until Braun holds a hand out. Tommaso blinks, meeting him half-way almost uncertainly, and Braun huffs. "Welcome back," he snaps before letting go and taking his leave once more.

Tommaso exhales slowly before once more facing the crowd, taking in his moment, eyes blazing with the determination to fight more, win more, regain everything he's lost.