The ugly sound of metal striking bone seemed to echo endlessly. The most famed JW World Heavyweight Champion, Renji Okada, was tossed like a puppet with its strings cut as he crumpled to the mat.
The Saitama Super Arena was in total disbelief, as the screaming fans filled the place.
[Commentator 1: Good god almighty! Okada is down! The champion might be unconscious!]
[Commentator 2: Billy Bones just hit him with a closed fist! But wait, look at his hand!]
[King: He’s hiding something! I’m telling you, he had something loaded in that right hook!]
Billy didn’t waste a millisecond. The challenger quickly removed the brass knuckles from his right hand, while the original official was still in agony on the padded floor outside the ring. He slipped the illegal weapon into the secret pocket he’d developed in the hem of his black trousers.
He was in the center of the ring, breathing heavily under his own sweat-soaked white shirt. He gazed down at the still champion. All he needed to do was put an arm over Okada’s chest and wait for a new referee to arrive. It was a brilliant move. It was the sure route to the ultimate winner.
Billy, however, needed more than a win. He wanted to break the champion as he had done with his younger brother two months earlier.
Billy knelt next to the unconscious champion. He seized Okada by the thick hair extending down at the back of his neck and hoisted his dead weight up. The arms of the champion hung uselessly at his sides, his chin resting weakly against Billy’s chest.
[Commentator 1: What is he doing? He has the match won!]
[Commentator 2: This isn’t about winning anymore. This is a sick, twisted statement. He’s setting up the exact same maneuver that took Ray Jr. out!]
Billy pushed Okada down, and mercilessly slammed the champion’s head in-between his thighs. He firmly wrapped his taped hands around the champion’s waist.
A new figure appeared down the long steel entrance ramp. The second referee, sprinting frantically towards the ring, waving his arms as he desperately sought to stop further harm from being inflicted. The fans went into a frenzy, begging the official to hurry up.
Billy didn’t pay attention to the one who was coming closer. He needed to time it just right. Billy jumped forward.
He did the high-angle front flip right on the money, and he took the champion’s big body with him. They whirled in the air in a front flip.
THUD.
Mexican Destroyer.
The impact of Okada’s head into the hard canvas was very strong, almost compressing the spine. The champion’s body recoiled hideously on impact, then he landed flat on his back.
Billy got out of the maneuver immediately and launched his entire body weight across Okada’s chest and hooked the champion’s thick leg.
The replacement referee crept under the bottom rope, sliding across the canvas. He checked Okada’s shoulders to make sure that they were flat on the mat and lifted his hand high in the air.
[Commentator 1: This is it! We are looking at a new champion!]
[King: It’s over. Ring the damn bell.]
The official’s hand hit the canvas.
1!
The 40,000 fans in the stadium were stunned, a sense of despair swept across.
2!
Billy pushed his back down, harder into Okada’s chest, closing his eyes under the cover of his mask. The cold, hard leather of the JW Championship belt was already almost around his waist. The satisfaction of justice was smeered on his lips.
The last and final countdown was about to end with the referee’s hand on the mat.
Then, the unimaginable occurred.
Renji Okada’s right shoulder convulsed just before the official’s palm hit the mat. The champion’s fighting spirit was pure and unadulterated, and he broke the pinfall with a primal thrust.
The referee waved his arms, holding up two fingers.
The Saitama Super Arena exploded.
The sound was so loud and palpable, it was the shock of pure elation that shook the broadcast table and the camera lenses. It was a roar of disbelief, a sign of super-human endurance needed to be crowned a champion in Japanese Wrestling.
[Commentator 2: HE KICKED OUT! OKADA KICKED OUT!]
[Commentator 1: I DO NOT BELIEVE IT! RENJI OKADA JUST SURVIVED BRASS KNUCKLES AND A MEXICAN DESTROYER!]
[King: That’s not a man! That’s a machine!]
Billy was stuck on his hands and knees. His eyes behind the eyeholes of his mask opened wide and his pupils dilated. His mind was scrambled, and he looked at the referee’s upraised fingers. It defied logic. There was no one who had ever kicked out of this combination. He had been on the independent circuit for six goddamn miserable years and it never failed him.
Billy’s hands trembled with real fright. He grabbed the referee by the collar of his striped shirt and pulled the scared man close.
"That was three!" Billy roared into the ref’s face. "Count faster, you piece of shit!"
The official shook his head furiously, but tried to stand firm, even with fear in his eyes. "Two! It was only two!"
In disgust, Billy pushed the referee out of the way, his chest heaving and his composure completely broken. The cold and calculated facade was stripped away to reveal the desperate and bitter outcast underneath.
He went back to Okada. The champion was slowly and painfully rolling onto his tummy. A stream of blood trickled out of the bridge of Okada’s nose, but his arms were pushing against the canvas. He was not going to lie down.
Billy gave up on strategy. He reached for Okada and hauled the dazed champ up to his knees and fired a fast and sloppy series of closed fist shots.
Smack. Smack. Smack.
Billy swung as hard as he could with his last ounce of strength for Okada’s temples and jaw. However, the champion wasn’t falling. Every time Billy struck, Okada appeared to take the blow, absorbing it like a sponge, and the forty thousand fans yelled in unison.
Then Okada scrambled up, now on only one knee, shaking his head to remove the cobwebs. Billy roared in frustration and fired off a wild roundhouse that was aimed at the champion’s head.
Okada caught Billy’s leg mid-air.
Again, there was an eruption in the arena. Then Okada lifted his gaze and his eyes blazed with a deadly intensity. The undisputed champion was back online.
Okada twisted Billy’s captured leg and the challenger was forced to hop awkwardly on his surgeried knee. Okada’s swift and brutal strike came right under Billy’s jaw, then came a stiff European uppercut.
His jaws snapped shut and his teeth clacked in pain. His balance was off as he backed up.
There was no respite for Okada. The champion was a force of nature, a relentless bull. He seized Billy by his black vest and slammed a powerful knee down on the challenger’s stomach, expelling air from Billy’s lungs.
Billy tumbled over and was gasping for breath. With a wild burst of strength, Okada wrapped a firm headlock around the challenger’s neck and suspended Billy’s whole body off the mat for three agonizing seconds before Okada dropped him backward head-first with a delayed suplex.
[Commentator 1: The champion is firing on all cylinders! The resilience of Okada is something from another planet!]
Billy was rolling around the ring, trying to get his hands on the bottom rope and maybe crawl outside to get out of the danger zone. His shirt was torn and his vest was open, his taped fists shook with fatigue.
Okada stalked him. The champion was in the center of the ring, blood dripping down to his lips, but he was standing tall. He lifted his right arm up into the air, marking the end. The universal gesture set the crowd into hysteria.
[Commentator 2: He’s winding it up! He’s calling for the ultimate flatliner!]
Finally, Billy pulled himself to his feet, leaning heavily against the turnbuckle pads. He was running on fumes. He staggered forward blindly and threw a weak desperate clothesline of his own.
However, Okada was easily able to side step the sloppy attack. The champion moved to his side and caught Billy by the arm.
Billy was spun around like by a ripcord motion, which revealed his ungaurded neck.
Okada’s big right arm had the power of to cruiserweights, and he lunged forward, swinging it.
The Clothesline From Hell.
The forearm slammed into Billy’s throat and under his jaw. The impact was horrifically loud. Billy’s feet were literally off the ground. He was thrown back in the air, landing with a huge thud on the back of his head before collapsing to the ground.
Okada fell on the challenger and he secured the leg and buried him in the mat.
The replacement referee got into position.
1!
2!
3!
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The bell sounded quickly, but the sound was totally absorbed into the massive elation of the Saitama Super Arena fans. The fans reveled in the final victory that showcased justice and resilience.
[Commentator 1: He did it! Renji Okada retains the JW World Heavyweight Championship!]
[Commentator 2: He survived the absolute worst Billy Bones had to offer! Okada still reigns supreme!]
[King: What a war. You have to respect the champion tonight. He went through hell and back.]
The defeated man was rolled over and Okada was on his knees looking up at the ceiling, unable to catch his breath. The referee was kneeling beside him, handing back the huge gold leather championship belt to its rightful owner. With the title in his fist, Okada turned his head and shut his eyes in exhaustion.