Timeline: 5 Days After Smackdown.

You would think that with "The King of Destruction's" more-often-than-not imposing aura since he came to WWE, and the wars that he went through with Seth Rollins and - to an extent - with both Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura between 3 to 5 weeks prior respectively, that you would surely try to keep him in your good books, or try to stay on his good side.

Well apparently The Undisputed Era is more courageous than most. 

The NXT, North American, and Tag Team Champions were just arriving at the arena: all boasting and bragging towards the camera that followed them as they arrived, all unaware that another car was pulling into the car park of the Performance Center as well - one which had not been there before...

As they continued to brag and boast: the drivers side car door swung open and the Undisputed Era was jumped from behind and attacked by an angry and pissed off "King of Destruction"! Security came and tried to separate them all, only to find back elbows and flying fists from the Universal Champion as he broke free and continued to try and go after the Undisputed Era.

Even NXT's men in charge - Triple H and William Regal - were there to try and keep "The King of Destruction" from tearing the U.E. a new one, and that was no easy feat to achieve! Eventually, it was Triple H himself who had to be the voice of reason.

"ENOUGH!!! We are not doing this now! Destroyer!? You want to get at Undisputed Era so badly!? Then put your title on the line tonight against whichever member of the Undisputed Era tonight, no excuses! But either way, after this, you all go your separate ways!!! CLEAR!?!"

This seemed to placate "The King of Destruction" for the time being as he slowly backed up holding his arms up briefly, shouting out at The Undisputed Era "Pick wisely, you sons of bitches! Your ass is mine!" 

With that, he backs up as both Cassie and Jessica pulled him away back to the car and away from security, The Undisputed Era, and both Triple H and William Regal. Hunter then looked directly at Regal as he said to him, pointing to the U.E. as he spoke at a certain point: 

"Keep an eye on him! Keep him away from them until their match, got it!?" Regal nodded in complete agreement - sharing a look of annoyance on his face as he went off to keep an eye on "The King of Destruction".

Their match was in the Semi-Main Event - mostly by Michael's insistence, as he felt that he shouldn't be the one to take up the Main Event spot when others in NXT deserved the honor to Main Event the show over him - but it was clear whenever the camera was on "The King of Destruction" backstage that every moment that he wasn't in the match only added more fuel to the fire that was Destroyer's anger....

As the first hour came to an end, and the second hour was beginning: the wait for the NXT faithful was soon over, and the Universal Championship match soon came around. And, rather unsurprisingly, "The Undisputed Era's" music soon began to play in the background as they began to make their way out to the ring,

https://youtu.be/KPCBSfbdEFg

Strangely enough, though, only 3 of the 4 members of Undisputed Era came out to the ring: the North American Champion, Roderick Strong, and the NXT Tag Team Champions, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish; but Adam Cole, the NXT Champion, was nowhere to be seen.

That alone sent red flags in the minds of the NXT Universe, however all of them were too busy giving mixed reactions to The Undisputed Era.

What seemed to fuel the egos of "The Undisputed Era" more, though, and perhaps even their cockiness for last Friday, was when the crowd loudly began chanting for Destroyer in numerous ways, which only spurred Strong, Fish and O'Reilly more to try and piss off the fans - and maybe even Destroyer himself backstage - by mocking "The King of Destruction" himself...despite the fact that he had attacked them not too long ago.

This persisted for a time as "The King of Destruction" seemingly kept "The Undisputed Era" waiting...but soon....

https://youtu.be/p9p9bMtLYko

As Destroyer got in the ring, he threw the Blueniversal Championship at the referee, and almost went straight for The Undisputed Era, who backed out of the ring cockily almost instantly, attempting to mock and get under the skin of "The King of Destruction". 

Destroyer took off his jacket and handed it to Billie and Peyton outside - as well as his shades - as he walked to one side of the ring whilst "The Messiah of the Backbreaker" got back into the ring from the other side as the announcer began announcing the combatants for the match, all of the while Destroyer was waiting to pounce at Strong like a blood-thirsty canine.

As soon as the bell goes off: "The King of Destruction" charged at quick-speed towards "The Messiah of the Backbreaker", squashing him into a corner and into the mat with a Clothesline! 

He lifted the NXT North American Champion up and leaned him into the corner again - smashing his elbow, and by extension the elbow pads he was wearing, into the jaw of Strong before running towards the opposite turnbuckle, rebounding off the second turnbuckle in very Dean Ambrose-style, and charges straight back towards Strong...only to be met and stunned momentarily by a Rope-Assisted Enzuigiri from Strong, followed by Strong attempting to take down Destroyer with a Lariat Takedown, which only succeeded in temporally stunning Destroyer for a brief few moments.

Destroyer quickly got over it though and attempted to go for a Deadlift Suplex on Strong, but a few quickly-timed elbow shots to the side of Destroyer's face snuffed that idea out quickly, and enabled Strong to attempt a Superkick. Michael ducked under it on instinct alone, turning quickly and attempted to hit a Spinning Lariat on Strong, only to be caught and taken down by Strong with a Capture Backbreaker before going for a pin!

On...!

Not even a 1 count and Destroyer kicked out, and Strong attempted to lay into Destroyer's face with multiple punches...only stopping when he accidentally busted open Destroyer's lip on a stray punch, and when Destroyer practically shoved Strong away as soon as it happened.

Once Destroyer had gotten up again, Strong went for another Lariat Takedown, only to be met "The King of Destruction" taking down Strong with a vicious Lariat of his own - one that was sure to make the great Stan "The Lariat" Hansen proud, but also was one that seemed to knock Strong a little loopy. 

Thankfully not with a concussion though, but still a little loopy none-the-less given the force of the Lariat was enough to rival being hit by a brick. 

Thankfully, both men were able to continue to wrestle, despite their attempts to knock each other out, and were able to put on a nearly 20 minute brutal attempt at technical wrestling and stiff strong style wrestling that strangely seemed to work well with one-another - despite the attempted interference from Fish and O'Reilly on one or two occasions.

As the match began to reach its apex, trouble came: Destroyer was about to go for the "Destruction Kick" on Strong off of hitting a trifecta of Suplex's in almost Kurt Angle style, only for the "Undisputed Era's" music to hit again as Adam Cole began running towards the ring to cause a distraction for his fellow Undisputed Era member...only to be intercepted by - of all people - Daniel Bryan appearing from seemingly out of nowhere and taking Cole down with the "Running Knee" as "The New" Daniel Bryan rounded the corner!

Even Destroyer seemed confused by Daniel's sudden appearance and coming to help him out - brand loyalty or not - given that Daniel had seemingly made a challenge to "The King of Destruction" not too many weeks prior.

Then, to further add to Destroyer's confusion - and also to add to his slowly growing frustration in terms of the interruptions and distractions in the match: members of both the Raw and Smackdown locker rooms begin to swarm out from different sides of the crowd, and began brawling with either the rest of "The Undisputed Era" at ringside, or with one-another - all whilst "The King of Destruction" glared at it all with a look that practically screamed 'Are you fucking serious right now!?'

Because of this distraction though: "The King of Destruction" failed to fully keep an eye on "The Messiah of the Backbreaker", leading for Strong to catch off-guard with Sick Kick straight to back of Destroyers head - stunning him and causing him to nearly bounce off the ropes! 

And then, despite warning from Billie and Peyton, Strong was able to follow this up with the "End of Heartache" onto 'The King of Destruction' before going for a pin.

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

Just milliseconds before the refs hand could collide with the mat for a 3, Destroyer managed to lift his shoulders up just enough to break the count, causing the North American Champion to slam his hands into the mat in frustration. 

He quickly went to the corner, practically shouting at Destroyer to get to his feet so that Strong could go for the Sick Kick again...but as soon as Destroyer did get up and Roderick charged at him: 'The King of Destroyer' also charged at Strong at the same time and damn near knocked a tooth out of Strong with a vicious Lariat! 

Destroyer seemed to visibly grimace as he held onto his right arm whilst taking a knee not too long after hitting the Lariat, but he simply struck his arm with his fist a couple of times to get it working properly before getting to his feet and dragging Strong to his feet...and then, to the surprise of many of the fans...Destroyer managed to lift up Strong in the air in a eerily familiar way...before planting him down hard into the match in a Jackhammer-like style!

Those who had followed "The King of Destruction's" career were away that had used a Jackhammer move similar to Goldberg's in the past to finish off his foes - though slightly altered to be a lot more vicious on impact, especially when he was in Japan - but it was one of his more rarely used moves out of all of his signature and finishing moves, and finding a match throughout his entire career where he used his version of the Jackhammer was like looking for a needle in a haystack. 

So seeing him bust one out on NXT was a shock to the system to say the least...pun very much intended...

Upon hitting the Jackhammer, Destroyer held his right arm a bit as he fell back into the cover upon connecting the move.

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

A frustrated and clearly pained "King of Destruction" soon made his way to his feet as soon as the 3 count was completed, and he practically took the Universal Championship from the referees hand as the ref handed it to him - with both Billie and Peyton quickly getting in the ring and being at his side checking on him and fussing on him as he stood up...but all he could do was glare towards Daniel Bryan as he stood at the entrance to the arena with a smirk on his face, pointing between himself and Destroyer's Universal title as he slowly backed out of the arena.

A debt had a now been collected, but "The King of Destruction" had his sights set on Daniel Bryan once more in the title picture. But now that he was seemingly carrying an injury with him, will he be 100% when he meets "The New" Daniel Bryan in their eventual match...or could it be that their clash will end up being the nail in the coffin for Destroyer's Universal Championship title reign?

Only time will tell.....

Author's Note: I know it's been at least 4 or 5 months since I last updated this story, and I do apologise for that, and I also apologise if the match itself is that great, but I was struggling a lot with this match since I've not seen that many matches involving Roderick Strong, but it was also part of the plan for the story to have a match between Roderick Strong vs. Destroyer appear in the story on the build-up to Survivor Series. 

Apart from struggling with this match until, really, some point this week and last week, the main reason I never updated this book or a few others for a long time was, sadly, because I was really burnt out with writing stories, and I was also going through a lot of mental issues at the time as well, so I needed to take time away from writing them for a bit. 

I am better than I was, but the updating will still be somewhat update when it's ready with no timeline, as that's more helpful to me both mentally right now, and also helps me focus more with my stories as a whole as well. I hope you understand that.

I hope you all are doing well, staying safe, and I hope you all have an amazing day!