Welcome to Gaia! ::

The ref reached five within the blink of an eye, perhaps counting faster so medical personel could get involved and help escort Hiro to the nearest medical fascility. The Ethnic Enigma was still out like a light next to his assailant, blood pooling from his head as it seemed most of his wounds were knocked bloody once again. Salem Croft was, in the moment, more snake-like than ever before. The only thing that was missing was an attempt at unhinging his jaw and swallow Hiro's body whole. The fans were continuing to project a cacophony of sounds in both support and dismissal of this match continuing, but for now it was falling upon two sets of deaf ears.

This was it -- Salem began to drag Hiro's lifeless body across the ground and pieces of broken table. It broke the ref's count, but Salem couldn't give even the slightest s**t about that now. He used whatever he had left in the tank to completely lift Hiro up and continued this match, thrusting him under the bottom rope. Seriously, he'd knocked Hiro out cold and there was little to no resistance, but this also meant that Salem was working with a completely unwilling partner here when it came to movement. The fans were confused that Salem had given up an easy victory in the moment, assuming that he perhaps planned to pin Hiro instead, or maybe just wanted to drag things out longer to prolong the help Hiro would get from the medical staff. No matter the answer, this was the most sadistic and downright criminal that Salem had been in an incredibly long time. The ref began his count again, hoping to make it speedy as he shook his head in disappointment with Salem's actions.

Hiro had finally begun to stir, seemingly regaining consciousness finally after being out cold for a little over a minute. He looked around lazily at the sky as he heard the ref get to six in his count, and started to mumble to himself through an obvious concussion. He rolled lightly on to his side as the ref got to seven, and on to his elbows as he reached eight. The fans were stunned that Hiro could move at all anymore, there was a silence over taking them as they were more so soaking in what was spectacle of long-since-forgotten proportions. The Ethnic Enigma got to his knees as the ref called eight and his head jerked to the side to see Salem on the apron. It took every last ounce of will power that Hiro had left not to fall forward and accept the 10 count loss...instead, he started to rise as the ref was at nine, seemingly against all odds attempting to say something to Salem -- thought nothing came out.

"youre...bette-" Hiro had finally managed to squeeze enough air out of his lungs to barely speak a word and a half before Salem leaped from the heavens and drilled him down to hell with an incredible springboard cutter. How Salem was able to do something that athletic after the damage he'd taken to his back and legs was a miracle, or perhaps simply a fathers instinct to protect his daughter. It wasn't wearing off yet, but Hiro had once again been knocked unconscious by another of Salem's devistating moves and that perhaps inflated Salem's energy even further. The ref was disgusted as he once again began the count over again, hoping that this would be the one that would allow him to end the match...but everyone in the arena had the feeling that with Salem at ringside again, that may not be the case.

Hiro's dead weight was on display again with Salem pulling him by the wrist towards the ropes. It didnt take long for wrap after wrap after wrap of tape, layered like a retirement cake, to bound Hiro's arm to the rope. It was the arm that had been slit open by the gurney earlier, his right, and blood began to pour out of it again as circulation was cut to the wrist. Hiro was still unmoving and out like a light, his left eye opened just a little bit of not moving at all. Some fans began to boo the imagery, their silence breaking as it seemed their understand only went so far with Salem, they were no longer happy with how much damage he was unnecessarily doing to a defenseless hero.

As the ref was about to put a mericiful end to this match, Salem Croft had spit the two most dangerous words of the entire night. The crowd tonight was going to see a man burn, and they couldn't help but think that man would be Hiro. The Ethnic Enigma was the only person in the building with no reaction one way or the other -- as he was still unconscious. The ref shook his head and even yelled down to Salem "ENOUGH!", but naturally Copperhead Croft had already decided things would go the way they were about to. These two were a long time removed from 2012, the WWE:E arena, battling in a Lumberjack match. Now, Hiro's career and life were in Salem's hands...and they were very cold, and very steady hands.

The fans incredibly loud reaction wasn't enough to awake Hiro...but the overpowering smell of gasoline fumes did wonders to bring him back. His eyes opened up, but he could barely see as they burned -- tears mixing with the fumes and blinding Hiro. He coughed a few times, his mind running dial-up but not slow enough to realized this was gasoline...and his arm was starting to get wet. The ref began to scream for security and medical officials to get back out here, and to bring fire extinguishers asap. The Ethnic Enigma's head moved around as if he were a free item given away at a baseball game to the first 18000 fans in attendence, but he couldn't see Salem anywhere. He knew though, deep down, what was about to happen. "Please....no..."