Pyros light up the HWL Arena and it’s time for Overdrive and things continue to heat up here at the end of the summer as EC3 and “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero are two stars making their HWL debuts tonight as Pope steps up to the plate to represent Eden’s Gate in their ongoing battle with the new nWo. EC3, meanwhile, faces a tough task against former MMA standout Matt Riddle. Plus, a new edition of Evolution arrives in the HWL, sending group stalwart Randy Orton to face Seth Rollins, representing the MAGA Powers. And can Heath Slater continue his improbable run as Television Champion for another week? Who will step up to challenge him tonight?
 
As always, we’re taking you right to the action as Matt Riddle and Ethan Carter III make their way to the ring.
 
Match #1 – Matt Riddle vs. EC3
 
The two men tie-up and EC3 backs Riddle into a corner, but Riddle turns the tables and chops EC3 across the chest. EC3 perks up and turns the tables back around and chops Riddle. Riddle turns the tables and chops EC3 again and instead of turning things back around, EC3 belts Riddle in the jaw with a big right hand. EC3 then whips Riddle across the ring into the opposite corner and follows him in with an Avalanche Splash. EC3 then hoists Riddle onto his shoulders and drives him into the mat with the Death Valley Driver. Riddle slowly stumbles back up and EC3 cinches him around the neck and delivers the One Percenter and makes the cover for the three count.
 
EC3 makes his way to the back after an impressive debut and our cameras take us to the parking lot where our broadcast colleague has picked up on a limo arriving at the arena and runs out along with a cameraman to get footage. As they approach the back of the limo, one of the door opens and out steps… Adam Cole? Our broadcast colleague is confused and asks Cole what he’s doing here tonight as he’s not been scheduled in a match. Cole says that’s not entirely true. He says he does have a match tonight against Heath Slater, which means the fairy tale is now over. Cole heads into the arena and we are going to take a quick word from our sponsors.
 
 
Back from the break, Seth Rollins and Randy Orton make their way to the ring and Orton may have been who our broadcast colleague was expecting in the last segment in the limo, along with other members of Evolution, but it looks like he was here good and early and prepared for his return to an HWL ring.
 
Match #2 – Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins
 
The two men circle each other as things get under way and Rollins tries for a kick to the gut, but Orton blocks it and trips Rollins’ other leg out from under him, knocking him to the mat. Orton the torques the ankle Rollins has to the side, twisting it and Rollins rolls over onto his stomach to ease the tension and then donkey kicks Orton in the face to get free. Rollins then bounces off the ropes, but runs right into a Powerslam from Orton. Orton then bounces off the ropes and connects with a Leaping Knee Drop across the top of the head. Rollins staggers back up and Orton takes him by the tights and dumps him through the ropes and out to the ring apron. Orton then tries to set up for his signature DDT off the ropes, but Rollins fights him off and then gets some distance as he shuffles to the left on the ring apron and pops Orton with a Superkick as he hangs kind of over the top rope and Orton falls into the corner. Rollins then heads up to the top turnbuckle in that corner and stomps down on Orton’s ear as he rests against the corner with his head on the top turnbuckle pad. Rollins then reaches down and tries to pull Orton up to the top rope with him, but Orton knocks Rollins’ legs out from under him and Rollins comes crashing down crotch first on the top turnbuckle. Orton then takes Rollins around the neck and charges out of the corner, pulling Rollins from the top turnbuckle and directly into an RKO. Orton then makes the cover and its academic after that as the referee makes the three count.
 
Orton is your winner, making a successful return to the HWL and boding well for the future of this fledgling new version of Evolution. In the back, we see “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero and Jake Hager and Hager is wearing boxing training target gloves as Dinero fires off rights and lefts, getting tuned up for our Main Event tonight where he will face AJ Styles. Suddenly, Hager is knocked to the floor as Eddie Edwards cracks him over the back of the head with his Kendo Stick. Pope takes off running like he’s seen the devil down the hallway and Edwards proceeds to take some skin off Hager as he swats him across the back with the Kendo Stick one, two, three, four, five times, getting some payback for the three-on-one attack from Eden’s Gate on him last week. Edwards finally pulls himself away from Hager and yells after Pope, telling him to let Marty know Eddie and Kenny are coming for him too. Don’t touch that dial, folks. We’ve still got more action to come, so stay tuned as we take you to another word from our sponsors.
 
 
Back from the break, it is Television Championship time as Adam Cole and Heath Slater make their way to the ring.
 
Match #3 – HWL Television Championship – Heath Slater vs. Adam Cole
 
The two men square off as things get started and Slater tries to pull the same trick he did on Fallah Bahh, last week, but Cole must have spent a lot of time in the camera room scouting that one as he doesn’t follow Slater’s gaze up into the lights and instead kicks his knee out from under him and Slater crashes face first to the mat. Cole then places his knee between Slater’s shoulder blades and applies a Reverse Chinlock. The crowd gets behind Slater as he rhythmically pounds his fists into the mat and then slowly starts to push back up to his feet and Cole transitions to a Sleeper Hold as he hangs from Slater’s back and Slater stumbles wildly around the ring and starts to fade before finding a second wind and drives himself backward into the corner, smashing Cole behind him and breaking the hold. Slater then elbows Cole in the side of the head for good measure and then goes across the ring to build up a head of steam and then charges back into the corner, going for a huge Stinger Splash, but he comes up empty as Cole moves out of the way. Slater turns and stumbles back toward the middle of the ring where Cole meets him with a Frankensteiner. Slater pushes back up from the mat slowly and regains his knees, setting it up perfectly as Cole drives his knee into the back of Slater’s head with the Last Shot. Cole then makes the cover and gets the three count.
 
Just like that, the Cinderella story of Heath Slater comes to an end and Adam Cole is the NEW Television Champion. In the back, our broadcast colleague is standing by with none other than the boss, Big Sugar, who has a special announcement. Sugar says that in the current climate we find ourselves in, events have often had to been canceled, postponed or rescheduled on a dime and we here at the HWL promised you a Pay Per View in July. Due to a hiatus in July, we didn’t give you one. We wanted to give you two in August to make up for it, but had to deal with COVID-19 like so many others and that didn’t work out either. So, now, we are going to add a special Pay Per View event Friday, Sept. 4, on Labor Day Weekend and that event is going to be called Hard Labor. Now, with less than two weeks to this show and a changing roster, we don’t have enough time to fairly evaluate all of our contenders and determine proper No. 1 Contenders for this event, so unlike other Pay Per View events, there will be no championship matches at Hard Labor. Each of our champions will, however, defend the gold later in September at Fall Brawl. Instead, we are working on a special concept for Hard Labor to determine who will challenge the World Heavyweight Champion, currently Marty Scurll, when we get to Fall Brawl. We will have more information on that for you next week. With that news, we are going to take one last commercial break.
 
 
Back from the break, it’s Main Event time as “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero and AJ Styles make their way to the ring and Dinero frequently looks back over his shoulder as he makes his way to the ring, keeping an eye out in case Eddie Edwards comes after him.
 
Match #4 – AJ Styles vs. The Pope
 
Pope is distracted, continuing to look up the rampway and around at the crowd, expecting to see Eddie Edwards coming at any moment. Instead, he gets a big right hand from AJ Styles that sends him reeling back into a corner. Styles pummels Pope in the corner and then whips him across the ring hard into the opposing corner. Pope hits hard enough that his momentum propels him back toward the middle of the ring where he stumbles into a Dropkick from Styles and Pope rolls out to the floor to regroup. Styles goes out after Pope, but Pope pokes him in the eye and slams Styles head first into the side of the ring apron. Pope then delivers a Gutwrench Suplex out on the floor and puts the boots to Styles, stomping on his head and chest. Pope then drags Styles back up by the tights and throws him back into the ring. Pope then heads up to the top turnbuckle and Styles staggers back up and Pope goes for a Flying Crossbody, but Styles catches him with a Dropkick in midair. Styles then locks in the Calf Crusher, but Pope is able to frantically crawl to the ropes and force a break. Pope pulls himself back up using the ropes and Styles kicks him in the back of the leg, right on the calf he just had tied up in the crusher. Styles then clubs Pope a couple of times in the back of the head and pulls him back toward the center of the ring and sets up for a Suplex, but Pope fights him off with a series of Upper Cuts. Pope then goes for a Swinging Neckbreaker and then follows up with a Leaping Elbow Drop, getting fully parallel with the mat, and drops the elbow across the back of Styles’ neck. Pope then goes for the cover, but Styles kicks out. Pope then calls for the end as he stands back in the corner and takes down his knee pads and watches as Styles slowly crawls to the opposing corner and pulls himself up to one knee, favoring the back of his neck. As Styles starts to step all the way back up to his feet, Pope looks like he’s about to charge across the ring, but instead is starting at the announce desk where Eddie Edwards has popped up and is standing on the barricade behind our broadcast team, Kenny in hand. Pope goes over to the referee and frantically points at Edwards and the referee goes over to the ropes and yells for Edwards to get down as Pope looks on with interest. While Pope is watching that, Styles capitalizes and punts him in the nuts. Styles then hits the Styles Clash and the referee turns his attention back to the competitors and makes the three count.
 
Styles is your winner and he makes his way to the back, leaving Pope down and hurting. Edwards slowly makes his way down from the barricade and over to the ring, stalking the fallen Pope. Edwards climbs the stairs and Pope, down in a cradled ball in the middle of the ring is about to lose some skin off his back and the crowd cheers raucously as Eddie gives him the same five shots across the back with the Kendo Stick that he gave Hager in the back and Pope slowly rolls out to the floor, now with his not just his nuts and head hurting from Styles, but his back hurting as well as Edwards stands tall, holding Kenny above his head. Eddie then goes over to the ropes and gets up real close to our cameraman up on the ring apron. He says, that’s payback for two and that leaves just Marty. He’s says Marty can either show up next week and take it like a man or he can know what it’s like to be hunted. Personally, Edwards says he’s hoping for option B. With that, that is all the time we have for you here tonight. We are signing off. Be sure to join us again next week and don’t forget about Hard Labor, coming your way Sept. 6. Good night.