His music hit, and it occurred to Kaid that 'Rip it Up' might not suit him anymore. But that was thoughts for another time, as he stepped out from the curtain. The fans met him with a mixed reaction, as they always did, but this time he would acknowledge their presence and raise both his arms up to them. His welcoming surprised them, and a few more people cheered. This was going to work out better, he thought.

He made his way to the ring, and began to stretch and warm up. "God I haven't done this in a long time" thought Kaid, as his shoulders cracked as he rotated them. He knew he was facing that Zero guy again, and hoped that he had enough wrestling talent to really defeat him, the right way...

In the hallway, Zero slowly walked towards the backstage curtain. Kaid' theme had yet to die down. Zero pulled the curtain back ever so slightly, looking out into the crowd and to the ring, seeing Kaid stretch. Around him, the crowd was opening up ever so slightly to him. Zero pondered where the change had taken place.

Pulling the curtain closed, he took a deep breath. Last week had been a warm-up and reintroduction for him. This week, it was just another step that he had to overcome. He didn't know why he was attempting some sort of an attempt for progress in the CWL. It felt like a natural thing to do, but his head told him it wasn't right or necessary.

As Kaid's theme died down, Zero heard the familiar Bad Religion tune start up. Familiar to him, at least. With one last deep breath, he pulled the curtain back and stepped out. The first thing he noticed were a few more heads turned in his direction. The ovation was nothing spectacular, but it seemed slightly bigger than the week prior. Perhaps it was just his mind.

As he walked down to the ring, he didn't slap hands. It was just a slow, careful and silent walk. Getting to the ropes and climbing inside the ring, he leaned back against the turnbuckles. Here comes another one, he thought. Mentally, he tried to prepare himself for yet another reckless match like the last one had been.

The bell sounded, causing the two to approach each other. Zero had a hard demeanor as he walked up to Kaid. Kaid, though, kept a much more solemn aspect about his appearance.

Anyone could go at any moment. Kaid had found it out the hard way. In return, he had to be careful in making sure that he wouldn't let someone else go on a bad note with him. In that case, as Zero stood before him in the ring, from Kaid there would be no hardcore moves. There would be no violence. There was no point to it. As he and Zero locked arms, Kaid took control with an arm bar, the most basic and nonviolent moves in an arsenal.

Kaid pushed his arm down into an arm bar. Zero didn't know what to make of it. He had been mentally trying to get his mind into the right mindset as he had entered the match. Now… an arm bar? A quick power out and Zero had slammed Kaid onto the mat. He stood over him, nonviolently, and just looked down at him.

Kaid rebounded back up to his feet. He circled around Zero, careful not to charge in too suddenly. Then, the idea of a test of strength came to his mind. Raising his arm into the air, he motioned for Zero to accept. He held it into the air, awaiting the physical reply.

Zero saw Kaid's arm go into the air. It was the clique test of strength. Zero's arm twitched to accept. He motioned his arm up halfway, but instead charged into Kaid with a high knee. As Kaid bent from the blow, Zero grabbed hold of Kaid's head and put it atop his shoulder. With a giant kick of his feet, he slammed Kaid to the mat with an upper-level DDT.

Kaid's face hit the canvas. He tried to roll with the move, but it was a direct slope down. All he could do was roll away after the point of impact and take the blow. He rolled to his knees and shook his head, but kept an arm against the back of his neck. In making sure he wouldn't hurt anyone, he was taking an awful lot of punishment in the process. He saw Zero coming for him. Just as Zero approached him, he slid down, taking Zero down with a scissors leg takedown.

Zero hit the canvas. He didn't land in a great amount of pain. He landed in confusion. Where was the Kaid Mann that he had seen just a week earlier? Where was the man who had the fire burning in his eyes, the blood pouring from his face and hands? Who was this man doing arm bars and leg takedowns?

Kaid grabbed Zero from the waist and Irish whipped him into the ropes. As he released Zero, he bent down for the first step of the back body drop. Instead of the expecting rotation of someone over his back, though, he felt a body slam him into him after rebounding from off the ropes.

Zero went into the ropes. As he followed through with the recoil, he saw Kaid Mann, bent over and awaiting him for the body drop. Instead, perhaps if just to ignite the fire once again inside of the man, Zero plunged straight into Kaid with a bounding leap. He crashed into Kaid's body and the two went sailing down to the mat. As soon as he slammed into Kaid, Zero rolled out onto the outside mat. Looking around for the acquired instinct of his in wrestling, he grabbed a metal chair from ringside. With a quick toss, it crashed inside the ring.

Kaid toppled down to the ground from the lunging shoulder block maneuver. He lay on the mat for just a split second to catch his breath. But as he caught it, he heard the sound of metal crashing down beside his feet. With a glance up, he saw the metal chair rolling onto its side. Then, he heard someone jump back up inside the ring. With a tug, they grabbed his head and pulled him to his feet.

Zero pulled Kaid up to his feet. "What's your deal tonight?" he grumbled in a low tone, just loud enough for Kaid to hear but not anyone else in attendance. Grabbing the chair, he hoisted it up into the air to come down with a strike onto Kaid's head.

Kaid saw the chair rise into the air. There was a fine line between not wanting to hurt someone, and being sure to look out for yourself. With a quick jump, he dropkicked the chair back into Zero's chest, sending him down onto his back. Kaid latched onto Zero's arm and placed it across his bent knee for another arm bar. It didn't need the self-defense. "Like you care anyway, dude," he snarled back to Zero's earlier comment.

"Like I really do," Zero shot back in an annoyed tone. He used his free hand to slam a punch into Kaid's face.

Kaid's grip loosened on Zero's arm as Zero punched him. He felt Zero rising to his feet. Kaid went along with it until they got to their feet. Then, with an over twist, he applied an even greater amount of pressure on Zero's arm. He tightened it up so that Zero's arm was stiff as it glanced out from behind his back.

What is this? Zero had no idea what was going on or what kind of "wrestling" match this Kaid Mann was trying to do. He had him in some kind of arm bar… again. With a violent kick behind him, Zero felt his foot connect with Kaid. And then, the hold was released.

Kaid fell to the floor as his stomach exploded in pain. What was the point? Do people even realize what they're doing to others? They can be gone, forever, the next day, and all someone has is a remembrance of some kick or punch to hurt someone. The thoughts ran through Kaid's head as he tried to get up. Suddenly, he felt a chair shot against the back of his head. It knocked him back down to the mat.

Zero hit Kaid once with the chair he had earlier thrown into the ring. With Kaid back down on the mat, Zero took the chair and propped it up in the middle of the ring. If he had to be in the middle of the ring, then he at least could do something that he was more apt to do. Not any of this stupid "conventional" wrestling that they taught in schools from "respected" wrestlers.

As he sat the chair in place, he turned back around to grab Kaid. But as soon as he turned around, he saw Kaid jump up in front of him, legs extended, clutching him across the neck and flipped him over with a scissors head takedown. He flipped across to the other side of the ring, shaking his head as he landed.

As Kaid leaped up to grab hold of Zero's head, he made sure to do it in the actual method. Too much strain one way or the other and it could snap someone's neck. Crashing back down to the mat, he saw Zero flip over, landing against the ropes in the corner. Satisfied with the move, he stood up and paced to grab a stunned Zero.

Zero stood to his feet, only to take a shoulder into the stomach. Kaid muscled him into the corner. As Kaid grabbed him to put him atop the turnbuckles, Zero knew what move was coming. He had never taken one before, but at least it was something in the match. At least Kaid was doing something more risky than just the arm bar.

Kaid had Zero perched atop the ropes. He climbed up, careful not to let the shaking of the ropes cause any disturbance. Once he got up, he looked out to the crowd in order to keep striving to please them while he wrestled. He raised his arms up, pointing towards the sitting Zero. The crowd responded to his motions, slowly but surely coming around to the praise Kaid was extending to them.

Zero sat on the turnbuckle, waiting for whenever Kaid was going to jump in order to do the hurricanrana. He looked up to Kaid and saw him motioning out to the crowd. He's taking too long, Zero thought. His ears peered around to the chair down in the ring. Looking back up at Kaid, he realized Kaid had waited too long.

With a quick grab around Kaid's waist, Zero lunged off the turnbuckles with all of his strength. Kaid matched him nearly pound for pound, so it was definitely a test of strength… the real kind.

Kaid felt Zero grab hold of him. He reached for something to stop the jump, but he could only grab Zero's head. At that moment, he felt the two leap off of the turnbuckles, with Kaid feeling the force of Zero's arms pushing him backwards.

They crashed down onto the propped metal chair with a sit down power bomb from off the ropes. Kaid's back landed flat against the seat of the chair, crushing it and sending him flat to the mat. At that moment, he felt the air leave his chest.

Zero's knee landed up against the chair and then under the seat when Kaid crashed through. He quickly looked at the chair, seeing that they had completely destroyed it.

With Kaid struggling to regain his air, Zero got out from underneath him and stretched an arm across Kaid's chest. He felt a slight throb in his knee as he heard the referee count. 1… 2… 3.

Zero had won the match. He quickly stood up from the twisted metal, leaving Kaid to lie there for a few more moments. He took one glance back to Kaid, but continued on with his walk out of the wresting ring. While walking out, he thought he could hear the fans in attendance. Were they responding to his move? He didn't know. Honestly, he didn't care. He just made his walk back to the curtain.