The first time that Bayley and Alexa had seen "The Soulless Dooms-Day" Damon Archangel that many months ago was certainly something surprising, and also something that they would not forget anytime soon...the first time that they met him however...well, that was something unexpected to say the least.

By this point: Bayley was well into her second reign as Smackdown Women's Champion, and she was no longer "The Huggable One" or even a Face. She was a Heel who, alongside her best friend Sasha Banks - in kayfabe and out of it - the two were trying to put the Smackdown Women's division on lock-down...which, given how bad Smackdown is at the time, is a tricky thing to do...

As for Alexa: whilst it had never been officially confirmed or denied, it appeared as if Alexa had become a full-fledged Face, and was still teaming up with Nikki Cross/going after the Women's Tag Team Championships together. In fact, the duo were arguably one of the most over Women's tag teams in WWE right now outside of The IIconics, and had already had a brief but memorable reign as Women's Tag Champions. 

The duo were out for interviews, one of which was at a big fan interaction event being held in the area they were in, and had numerous wrestlers from WWE and other promotions in general. 

What neither Bliss nor Bayley knew yet was that the hardcore wrestler they'd first seen in that Jimmy Havoc Death Match at ICW a number of months ago was also at the event, not that they knew it yet...or that he was performing in a special match that day as well in a ring that was being set up in another room of the building.

The two had kept up to date as best as they could with whatever "The Soulless Dooms-Day" was doing - sometimes they'd even send each other rare interviews the other one found on a very rare occasion, since those seemed few and far between - though it wasn't as easy as it appeared at first beyond the interviews.

For one: Damon didn't have any social media sites...like, at all! Or at least none under the name 'Damon Archangel' that they could see. And any pictures they did find were from that of "The Demon Bunny" duo of Allie and Rosemary's social media pages, or on the occasional appearances Damon made appearance on their YouTube channel. 

Apart from that, the only way to find anything on him was by finding his matches. What surprised them was that, whilst he certainly showed a liking for bloody and/or hardcore matches: he could still easily hold his own in regular matches as well with little to no problems of readjusting. 

What they would never admit to each other though is that, secretly, they had begun to have a bit of a crush on him as well. The key words there, though, was "a bit of a crush": the reason being was that they were equally as terrified with "The Soulless Dooms-Day" as well. 

As they got ready for their interviews at the convention, Bayley was scrolling through her social media regarding the event. She was already fairly nervous being at a venue whilst there was non-WWE wrestlers there that possibly didn't like her or Lexi, but she was thankful that she at least had some friends there.

"Nervous?" she heard Lexi asked, and Pamela nodded to that in response a bit. "A little. We are here with a lot of other wrestlers as well." Pamela justified, which "The Goddess" nodded to in agreement as she finished making herself look presentable for the interviewers and fans. 

"Same here...I really don't want this to end up going badly." There was a nervous pause for a bit after that, but they soon made their way out to meet the crowds and get the interviews over with.

As the interviews went by, both Bayley and Alexa thought they saw Archangel walking by on occasions throughout the day, however it was only for mere passing moments. However...their suspicions on "The Soulless Dooms-Day" being there were confirmed sooner than they expected...but not in the way that they probably expected it to happen....

As both of them were taking some time away to relax and have something to eat - occasionally taking pictures or signing autographs for people approaching them - they saw what looked like somebody running away with somebodies purse from the security personnel through the crowds of people, hearing the one who was robbed shouting about it as well...only for the thief to be stopped dead in his tracks when, out of nowhere, he was speared straight onto the floor and having his arms stretched and bent back violently by someone who had seen the whole thing!

And that person...was Archangel himself! And what was worse for the thief, was that Damon was bending the thief's arms in ways that arms aren't supposed to bend, and what's even more worse was that the arms looked like they could snap with a single motion from "The Soulless Dooms-Day"...and the wrestler just had no remorse on his face at all! 

Only when security did manage to reach them, did Archangel loosen and even release the rather painful looking submission hold/extreme case of torture! Even the woman who had her purse taken from the thief seemed genuinely scared of Archangel as he walked over and handed it back to her, even if she did thank him when he did so.

Both Bayley's and Alexa's jaws were agape at what they had just witnessed, and with good reason! Not only had their suspicions been confirmed, but "The Soulless Dooms-Day" himself had also downright assaulted and nearly snapped the arms off of someone who tried stealing from one of the fans in the convention. 

They watched as Archangel began to walk away from the scene, barely even glancing at the scene with security taking the thief away or registering the looks he was getting, good and possibly mixed, when he went into the next room.

The weird part was though...was that Bayley and Alexa thought, just for a moment, that they had seen Archangel looking at them out of the corner of his eyes briefly...

After a while and a few more interviews: Alexa and Bayley were pretty much done now for the rest of the day, so they got to either stick around and watch the special matches that were going on from different companies, or head off if they wanted to.

But after having seen Damon Archangel in person, there was something within Bayley's and Alexa's minds that was almost begging with them to stay and watch "The Soulless Dooms-Day" and his match later, or try and find him before and/or after that. 

What they weren't expecting was, when they entered the room where the ring was being set up however - the occasional fan coming in to take pictures or passing through whilst waiting for the room to open fully so the crowd could watch the matches - they weren't expecting to see "The Soulless Dooms-Day" himself sitting in the stands, completely in his full entrance gear with his eyes closed.

At first, both were curious as to why he was just sitting there, and also wondering if they should go and say hello...but they were stopped in their thoughts when they saw Archangel open his eyes and glancing around as he stretched a bit - almost like he'd been asleep this whole time - and soon his eyes caught a glimpse at both Bayley and Alexa.

Neither knew what to do,  but it "The Soulless Dooms-Day" simply waved a hand briefly at them without saying a word. Eventually, they worked up the courage to go and speak to him at the very least, and they walked over - Archangel's gaze following them.

"Uh...hi!" Alexa began, holding her hand out. "The Soulless Dooms-Day" looked to the hand briefly, before shaking her hand...then he spoke, and it was unsurprisingly rather deep and rough...though if that was because of the face-cover mask or not was anybodies guess...

"Hello. You two are Alexa Bliss and Bayley, correct?" he asked, surprisingly calmly and almost...nice. "You know about us?" Pamela asked, to which he nodded - taking his mask off as he did - and soon he responded. "I do. You're two of the few wrestlers I watch when I...occasionally watch that company." 

His voice, surprisingly, didn't sound any different with the mask off. And by 'that company', he was referring to WWE. Though surprisingly not with disdain or contempt like most people. 

"Please, join me." he offered, and they slowly did so. "You're...not what we expected." Alexa said aloud with a kind chuckle, which caused Archangel to roll his eyes a bit. "Yeah. I hear that a lot." he responded as he laid back into his chair for the first time since he's been in the room. 

"Sorry for that..." WWE's resident Goddess responded, feeling like she'd unintentionally insulted him. He simply waved his hand off a bit and responded "Don't be. I know you weren't trying to insult me." He brushes the back of his hair a bit, slowly and cautiously beginning to explain the difference between how he was/is, and how he currently is in comparison...even though he was finding it weird why he was talking so much to two people who were strangers to him. 

"It's a...switch of sorts..." he continued, slowly glancing at the ring as he spoke - Bayley and Alexa both listening as he spoke. "...what people see when I'm either in that ring, or out of it...that's what they see, and that's who I am...There's no telling whether it's...well, I guess 'me', Damon Archangel...or the guy behind the paint itself, the...real...me...And that's not a promo by the way, that's how I am in reality."

He glanced over, and saw their surprised yet concerned looks on their faces, sighing as he slowly leaned on his front. "Sorry...force of habit...If you can't tell, I don't talk to people much...They think I'm 'too crazy and anti-social', or 'too violent for their tastes'...fucking assholes..."

"No, it's...it's fine. Just weren't expecting that kind of answer." Alexa said in response, causing Damon slowly turn his head a bit with a raised eyebrow. Bayley soon spoke in agreement with what Alexa said. "Lexi's right. You're a mystery, but a nice one. And besides, you seem like a genuinely nice guy behind all the paint and...I guess 'the gimmick', if we can call it that."

That got them something rare from Damon: a smile. It was a bit small - more small and barely noticeable to those that weren't directly looking at him, but it was there.

"Are you in one of the matches today?" Alexa soon asked as she pointed to the ring, and Archangel glanced over at the ring as he nodded his head a bit. "Yes. Against a friend...and rival..." he replied as he looked to the ring. "Who is it?" Bayley asked in intrigue, and Archangel glanced over to them both as he was about to respond.

But before he could respond, he soon heard noticed one of his friends tapping their wrist like they were wearing a watch, and Archangel understood what that meant, which he nodded at in understanding, which did catch the attention of Alexa and Bayley.

"Sorry. Need to prepare for the match." he said simply, placing his face-cover mask back on as he held one of his tattooed skull hands out to them in a gesture of shaking their hands.

Both smiled kindly at the face-painted hardcore wrestler and shook his hand one-by-one. "It was a pleasure to meet you Damon." Lexi soon said, and she genuinely meant those words...which brought another rare smile to the guy, even if it couldn't be seen, before he responded with as he began to head off "Likewise. To both of you."

What neither of them knew, however, was that this was merely the first meeting of a very interesting friendship between the trio....

Alexa and Bayley both stayed to watch the matches that was going on at the event, along with a few other WWE wrestlers that were there. They were most looking forward to seeing Archangel's match, and who he was facing in his match. 

Soon - after a number of matches - the match they were waiting for soon came, much to the anticipation of the fans and to Alexa and Bayley both. They were surprised that the match was not going to be a hardcore match, just a regular one-on-one match...but they were even more surprised when they saw who his opponent was...

Pentagon Jr.!

https://youtu.be/OitXzmpgNMQ

[Fun Fact: "The Lucha Brothers" are 2 of my favourite lucha wrestlers since they arrived in Impact, because I'd never heard of either of them until they faced Austin Aries for the Impact World title]

The crowd cheered and booed Pentagon in equal amounts - possibly because of his heel status in AEW - as the badass Lucha wrestler made his way to the ring, holding his AAA World Tag Team Championship on his shoulder as he made his way to the ring, doing the "Zero Mero/No Fear" chant and pose as he made his way to the ring.

And then, as Pentagon Jr. began to pace around the ring, awaiting for the arrival of his psychotic hardcore wrestler to appear...and then, "The Soulless Dooms-Day's" other music began to play as the lights went down!

https://youtu.be/8da2UDuJFTY

He made his way into the slowly - a single light beginning to appear through the darkness as he made his way out to the ring - stretching his arms out briefly as he stops by the ring, closing his fists and briefly placing his tattooed "Love" and "Hate" skull hands against his lower jaw face-covered mask briefly...and the repeatedly punching himself with both fists with a sadistic and twisted look of contempt on his face!

The crowd was loving this, but were just as scared at times at him punching himself. It made the saying "if your willing to hit yourself, what are you going to do to your opponent" sort of true in retrospect from him punching himself...

When Archangel got in, he removed the mask and jacket slowly - throwing the jacket at Pentagon Jr. briefly as the music ended before laying into the luchadore with numerous punches right off the bat! 

Pentagon Jr. managed to throw him off almost immediately and hit him with a Superkick - but that only succeeded in causing "The Soulless Dooms-Day" to bounce off of the ropes and attempt a Clothesline, which Pentagon did duck out of the way of, but the Archangel was surprisingly able to stop his movements and rebound enough to hit Pentagon with another Clothesline to the back of his masked opponents head with his other arm right afterwards. 

He attempted to follow it up immediately with a Standing Double Foot Stomp to the back of Pentagon's head, however the luchadore quickly rolled out of the way and brought Archangel down with the Sling Blade immediately, and then hit him with a Standing Double Foot Stomp of his own to the stomach seconds later!

Instead of capitalizing though from that flurry of quick back-and-forth offense from the two maniacs - Pentagon began to do his "Zero Mero" chant and pose again, which a lot of the crowd did join in with to be fair...but as he was lowering his hand and fingers down towards the face of the downed Archangel: "The Soulless Dooms-Day" bit the fingers of Pentagon, and then immediately snapped Pentagon's fingers in very Marty Scurll/Jimmy Havoc fashion with his own!

As Pentagon was temporarily stunned by his fingers being snapped - Archangel immediately leaped up to his feet and hit him in the back of the head with a Spin-Kick, and then immediately he followed that up with a German Suplex in an attempt to go for "Break and Terminate"!

But as Archangel attempted to hit Pentagon with the Ripcord Lariat part of "Break and Terminate": Pentagon ducked out the attack and then hit him with another Superkick before racing and then bouncing off the ropes to hit another Sling Blade - which he followed up almost immediately by locking in the Bow & Arrow Submission hold onto Archangel!

However, he couldn't lock it in properly due to Archangel snapping his fingers on his right hand earlier. This enabled Archangel to loosen one of his feet from Pentagon's grip and deliver several kicks to the shoulder and face of Pentagon Jr., enabling "The Soulless Dooms-Day" to get out of the submission hold!

Archangel then manages to roll himself up to his feet, and then starts charging towards Pentagon as he stood back up and drops him to the ground with a "Spear"...which he then followed up by locking Pentagon in what looked like an altered version of the "Rings of Saturn".

Pentagon was able to fight out it rather easily with a combination of headbutts and then an attempted roll-up when the grip loosened a bit - which Archangel easily kicked out, but he released the submission hold as he did so.

As he turned around to face Pentagon, he was hit with a Running Tilt-A-Whirl Headscissors on Archangel - sending him to flying out of the ring - before following up with a Diving Top Con Hilo from the top of the turnbuckle as Archangel begin to get up, which he then quickly rolled up to his feet and played to the crowd afterwards.

He soon tried to drag 'The Soulless Dooms-Day' up to his feet by the head, but Archangel quite easily and quickly foiled that attempt by pulling them down with the Jawbreaker, before jumping and then surprisingly hitting a Reverse Frankensteiner onto Pentagon onto the concrete floor!

He ran into the ring and then ran across the ring, before rebounding and both leaping over the ropes and diving outside of the ring again as he hit Pentagon with a Kenny Omega-like Suicide Dive/Top Con Dive as Pentagon was making way to his feet!

Both Alexa and Bayley were left speechless at what they were seeing in this match. Now sure, they had seen a lot of his matches...but seeing them in person and pulling out moves he rarely uses, if ever or only sometimes uses...well, that was another thing altogether!

As he made his way up to his feet as the crowd was chanting 'This is awesome!' to the match as it went on - or cheering rather loudly as the match was going on - Archangel rolled briefly in and out of the ring to break up the referee's 10 count, before kneeling down and lifting up a recovering Pentagon Jr. from the mat with surprising strength for a guy who might not be as strong as Pentagon...before hitting Pentagon with the Gutwrench Powerbomb straight onto the apron!

He smirked a sadistic smirk as he dragged Pentagon back into the ring by his head - being careful not to remove the mask in the process. He was crazy but not stupid...well not entirely, he knew what the masked represented to Lucha wrestlers.

As Pentagon began to make his way to his feet slowly, Archangel attempted to rebound off the ropes again to attempt to hit a Shining Wizard to Pentagon, but Pentagon caught him and lifted him over his shoulders before hitting the Death Valley Driver in a matter of seconds!

Pentagon tried going for the cover as he collected himself, but barely managed to get a 1 from the attempt...so instead, he attempted to break Archangel's arm by using the Hammerlock Arm Snap on Archangel!

https://youtu.be/pb8fiaB6R9w

The snap could be heard throughout the entire room - and the following reaction from the crowd to what happened could probably be heard from the next room, or even outside - and Archangels reaction to his arm breaking only added to it as he harshly smashed his fist and head into the mat from the pain whilst trying and failing to muffle out the pain!

Pentagon allowed Archangel to get roll out onto the apron in his (Archangel's) pain frenzied state...but that only made things worse - as Pentagon came out onto the apron and, in retaliation for the Gutwrench Powerbomb on the apron earlier - he pulled Archangel into a Package Piledriver position, and then hit the "Fear Factor" straight onto the apron! 

Pentagon made his way back into the ring, waiting to see if his latest victim, for lack of a better word, would get up and continue to fight...especially with only one good arm now...

And get up Archangel did, managing to get up whilst favoring his damaged right arm as the ref made it to 5 - a scarily fierce and pissed off look now ever present on his war-torn painted face - before surprisingly smashing his damaged arm incredibly stiffly and hardly into the turnbuckle pole on the outside in attempt to either pop it back into place, or get it to work again long enough to finish the match!

And somehow...he managed to make it work!

He attempted to run back into the ring, but was quickly met by a Superkick to the face by Pentagon Jr.! However this time...Archangel barely even flinched! 

He had an angry snarl on his face that could only be match by Demon Finn Balor, and he was breathing and seething like someone was setting off a ticking time bomb within a very angry person!

Pentagon tried to hit the Superkick twice to take Archangel down again, but like the first shot it didn't even faze him. In fact, it only made him angrier as he began to make his way to his feet. Pentagon then run towards and rebounded off the ropes and hit a Leg Sweep, which he followed up with a stiff Standing Enzuiguri...but again Archangel got up, almost like it wasn't affecting him!

Archangel quickly jumped to his feet as Pentagon ran to hit him with something else, and quickly retaliation with a incredibly stiff Headbutt - knocking Pentagon down at the expense of giving 'The Soulless Dooms-Day' a massive headache! And then, whilst Pentagon was down, he took a page out of his book and snapped Pentagon's arm back with a Hammerlock Arm Snap of his own, snapping the arm back of Pentagon's!

As Pentagon was writhing with pain from his arm being snapped back - he ran off the ropes and hit Pentagon with the V-Trigger, before managing to bring him into a Piledriver position of his own as he quickly hit the "End of Hope!" Sit-Out Piledriver onto Pentagon, and went for the cover!

1...2...Thre...!

At the last possible second, Pentagon kicked out! And that only served to anger Archangel as he ran up to the top of the turnbuckle, struggling a bit because of his damaged arm, before attempting to go for a Dragonrana, only for Pentagon to move out of the way and hit another Superkick to Damon, sending him down hard!

Pentagon quickly tried to capitalise on that and went for the Pentagon Driver...but Archangel drove his damaged arms elbow straight into Pentagon to get out of it - which he succeeded at - before wracking his eyes out from within the mask in desperation and rebounding off the ropes as a temporarily blinded Pentagon walked towards the center of the ring...and Archangel then hit the "End of Destiny" (Destino) onto Pentagon before going for the pin!

1...2...3!!!

As the match came to an end, the crowd roared in cheers at the victory and even the match itself. Sure, it hadn't been one of either wrestlers longest matches or one of their most brutal of matches either, but they had still given the fans and wrestlers watching their moneys worth and something to talk about given the time they were given. 

And, if anything, they'd shown they could work well together no matter how short of time they were given.

Archangel slowly made it to his feet and leaned against the ropes as his music began to play, and he slowly held out a fist to Pentagon as he made his way up to his feet. Pentagon looked between Archangel and his fist, before fist bumping his fist before making his way out of the ring and heading out of the room.

Archangel soon slowly rolled out of ring as well as his music played once more in the background flinging his jacket on over his shoulder as he did so. When he reached the back to get checked over and rest up before sorting himself out, he saw both Alexa and Bayley coming into the room to check on him whilst he had his head leaned up against a nearby wall with a hood over his head.

"DAMN man! You two were brutal out there!" Bayley commented as they walked over. Archangel briefly chortled, but otherwise waved it off a bit. "Thanks. I'll let Penta know." he joked a bit, before letting them sit next to him.

"Are you okay? That looked painful what happened to your arm." Alexa asked in some concern, though she did try and hide it. 

Archangel's arm was in a sling currently, but if he was feeling any pain from it then he wasn't showing it much, if at all. "I'll live. Just gotta get it checked at before the next match." he said in a surprisingly nonchalant manner, considering he nearly had his arm snapped. 

"You're pretty calm considering what happened." Bayley commented, which Archangel glanced over and smirked briefly. "Penta's done it to me a few times. Besides, it's not as bad as being thrown 10, maybe 20, feet into barbed wire tables or threw glass...and trust me, I've done both of those, twice."

That surprised and shocked both of them, neither having known that or encountered a match of Archangel's that had even involved such crazy dives and/or falls as described. 

"Doesn't that scare you at all? Risks like that? Or hell, even half the crazy stuff you do?" Alexa's question did make Archangel think on that one, and he laid his head into the wall a little as he thought about it. The answer he gave surprised even himself to an extent, but it had to be said I suppose.

"All of the time, yeah..." "Then why do it?" Bayley asked, which again got 'The Soulless Dooms-Day' thinking. He simply shrugged a bit. "Why not? As much as it scares me, it also thrills me. I'm like Jimmy Havoc in that regard. It's...sort of like an addiction."

The word 'addiction' was more than just a play on words or an example for Archangel...and let's just say that some scars run deep...metaphorical and literal....

Whether Bayley or Alexa picked up on that though, Archangel could not tell...not that he cared much if they did realise, as he felt it was his cross to bare, and his alone....

What he wasn't expecting though was for WWE's resident Goddess hugging him seemingly out of nowhere, almost like she was apologising to him or doing so out of concern, and his clear unknowing of what to do in these situations was clear to see by his uneasiness and the fact that both of his arms were slightly stretched out of the way of Bliss.

"Just...try to be careful, okay?" she eventually said before parting from the hug, an embarrassed look on her face from what she did. Archangel just looked awkwardly to the side, still trying to figure out what just happened. "I'll...I'll try. But no promises."

Bayley was both mentally chuckling at the scene she'd just witnessed...yet she was also slightly jealous too...

Archangel soon began to stand slowly, signalling he was about to leave. "I should head off. Need to get this bloody arm checked out...but, uh...thanks you two for...you know...the company..." he said awkwardly, both WWE superstars smiling a bit at Archangel.

"No problem. Hey, do ya have a phone?" Bayley soon asked. Archangel raised an eyebrow in confusion at that, but soon got out a phone from his bag and handed it to her - watching in confusion as the former "Doctor of Hugganomics" began typing into the phone, something "Little Miss Bliss" then did when Bayley handed the phone over before she handed it back over to Archangel.

"Now we'll be able to talk...you know...if you need someone to talk to." Bayley explained to Archangel, who nodded to that in understanding. They soon began to head on out, saying as they did so ""It was nice meeting you, Damon!"" 

Archangel did briefly smile a small smile, before grabbing his bag and headed off himself. 

When Bayley and Alexa did get to their respective hotel rooms for the night, they noticed that they both had a message from Archangel himself...and it was something that both surprised them, yet brought a smile to their faces.

"Sleep well. Keep killing it in your careers. "The Soulless Dooms-Day" Damon Archangel...or as friends can call me, Jason Shadow."

It was both short, yet respectful and to the point, and both Alexa and Bayley felt rather honored that they got to know the real person behind the paint and the alter-ego. 

If only they knew what the future had in store for the three of them....

Author's Side-Note: Soooo...yeah, I hope you liked this chapter, but it also surprised you a bit. It's, in a way, meant to give you an insight into how Archangel is to an slight extent, but I'm trying to do it in a respectful way (which I really do hope it comes out that way). What will happen in the next chapter? Only time will tell. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and staying safe, and I hope you all have an amazing day!

Also, Fun Fact: I did originally have a tough time debating between for Damon regarding the "Ultimate Evil" music he has and the music down below. Don't get me wrong, I love this music! It's amazing and, weirdly, rather helpful when trying to relax, but it equally terrifies me like "Ultimate Evil" does at times. 

https://youtu.be/vUzmM6PXwOU