SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain Career Mode

**SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain Career Mode** was a series on Gore and Perkins' channel, where the duo took turns playing through the game's one year season mode. For this series, G&P decided to take control of Rob Van Dam and wrestled solely on the Raw brand, not being booked at all during their one month stint on SmackDown. RVD was also the leader of the stable, Rulers of the Ring, which also consisted of Kane, Goldberg and Stacy Keibler.

RVD previously held the Hardcore Championship, as he is the champion by default in season mode, and also had a brief run as Intercontinental Champion.

## WWE Raw

### April

RVD began his tenure on Raw being welcomed to the brand by general manager Eric Bischoff. Almost immediately afterwards, G&P decided to ask for an Intercontinental Championship match on that week's Raw, which Bischoff granted. Gore then decided to confuse Bischoff by asking for another title match, again opting for the Intercontinental Championship. After perusing through the season mode menu, Gore progressed to the championship match, which he lost against Christian.

The following week, Perkins decided to have RVD confront Christian in the parking lot. The confrontation was interrupted by the arrival of Trish Stratus, who Christian decided to bad-mouth RVD to. RVD stood up to Christian, who angrily stormed off, and earned the approval of Stratus. In turn, this began something of a rivalry with Christian. Perkins then decided to ask Bischoff for another title match, but decided against it in the end, wanting to save the title match for a pay-per-view instead. RVD was not booked on Raw as a result, but did get called out by Vince McMahon, who pretty much said he could make or break his chances at being on the WrestleMania XIX card. Since Perkins wasn't booked on Raw, his match carried over to next time he was booked.

The third week of April was a relatively quick one, as nobody was backstage for Perkins to chat with. However, RVD was booked on Raw to defend his Hardcore Championship against Chris Jericho. Perkins retained the title in a back and forth match and chose to attack Jericho after the match. The post-match assault backfired though, as Jericho turned the tables with a low blow and continued to stomp away at RVD after the bell. This also kicked off a feud with Chris Jericho.

The fourth week of April was quiet yet again, as RVD was not booked on the show. However, he did get in the middle of a confrontation between Chris Jericho and Trish Stratus, in which Jericho commented on apparent accusations of Stratus sleeping her way to the top of the women's division. Perkins apparently made the wrong dialogue choice, which caused Stratus to get pissed off. Funnily enough, Stratus lost a Women's Championship match against Jazz on the show directly after the confrontation. Perkins joked that RVD was probably the cause of the loss.

RVD was not booked on the Backlash card and did not find anyone to speak to backstage either, however he was attacked by Chris Jericho in a post-PPV cutscene. The attack began an impromptu Hardcore Championship match, which RVD lost after Jericho went for a cheeky pin following a Walls of Jericho that failed to get the submission. The match was notable for Jericho spending a majority of it riding around the parking lot on Undertaker's motorcycle.

### May

The month of May started off badly for RVD in the wake of his Hardcore Championship loss, as he was not booked on Raw. Despite this, he did get to witness Chris Jericho lose the title to Kane in a triple threat match that also involved Goldberg the night after he won it. G&P were both relieved that Goldberg didn't win the title, after being told by multiple subscribers that he and Brock Lesnar are damn near impossible to beat. RVD was once again left off the Raw card in Week 2 of May, but was invited to be a part of WWE's UK tour by Tazz, which G&P accepted without hesitation. Week 2 was also notable for RVD's conversation with Steve Austin in the boiler room, where Austin named the entire roster as potential opponents and declined a match against RVD.

In the third week of May, RVD was finally booked on Raw, but merely in the opening tag team match where he teamed with The Hurricane to face Rodney Mack and Randy Orton. G&P spent a lot of the match berating Mack and had no idea who he was. RVD and Hurricane were victorious and attacked Mack after the match was over. The following week, an irate Rodney Mack instigated a backstage brawl against RVD and came out on top somehow. RVD was not booked on Raw following the loss to Mack.

Judgment Day quickly came around and after coming to the conclusion that they most likely would not be booked, G&P decided to have another try at facing prominent rival Christian for the Intercontinental Championship. This time around, Perkins was victorious and chose to attack Christian after the match was over. RVD laid into him with multiple mounted punches, which made G&P laugh at how badly Christian was being beaten. After the pay-per-view, they were approached by Jerry Lawler about a potential World Tag Team Championship opportunity. They initially said yes, but changed their minds when Lawler revealed that he wanted RVD to team up with Test.

### June

The first week of June started off with Jim Ross telling RVD that he'd give his all while calling his match, as he was back in Oklahoma and was in a great mood. Things quickly turned sour when he confronted Christian backstage, who initially praised RVD's efforts at Judgment Day, but then challenged RVD to a handicap match after he was joined by Stuff of Legend teammate Chris Jericho. Stuff of Legend pretty much mugged Jericho in a one-sided handicap backstage brawl, beating him to a bloody pulp outside the arena. After proceeding to the match card, G&P realised that their night was not yet over, being booked against Shawn Michaels in an Intercontinental Championship match and again in the main event against Test. Michaels nearly won the title match and destroyed RVD's balls at one stage, though RVD prevailed despite the beating he took from Stuff of Legend earlier in the night. RVD came up short against Test in the main event, though he returned to stand up for JR after he got attacked by Eric Bischoff in the post-match cutscene.

Before Week 1 could end though, Jericho attacked RVD backstage to prevent him from being on the UK tour, triggering another backstage brawl. While Gore did manage to get RVD to hit a frog splash off the top of the semi, he was pinned by Jericho after attempting to do it again. Because of his loss, RVD ended up missing the UK tour.

Jim Ross approached RVD to start the second week and thanked him for his help fending off Bischoff the week prior. After Perkins defeated Randy Orton, Bischoff confronted RVD in the post-match cutscene and threatened to put RVD out of commission for disrespecting him. Kane suddenly attacked him from behind, to Bischoff's approval, hinting that the two had formed an alliance. This was confirmed next week, as Bischoff initially booked RVD in a handicap match against Kane and Test. However, Jerry Lawler decided to stand up for RVD and team with him, turning the match into a tag team match. Prior to the match, G&P decided to speak to Vince McMahon backstage and tried to get the match changed. The proposal was rejected, but Vince did show faith in RVD getting a push in the future. Vince kind words were not enough to motivate RVD though, as he and Lawler were defeated by Test and Kane.

In the fourth week of June, Lawler approached RVD and warned him that Eric Bischoff had something planned against RVD. Following RVD's loss in an extremely one-sided champion vs champion match, Bischoff very nearly fired Van Dam, but was stopped by Vince McMahon. Instead, Bischoff was booked in a steel cage match against RVD at the upcoming Bad Blood pay-per-view. At the pay-per-view itself, G&P discovered that RVD was double booked yet again, defending his Intercontinental Championship in a triple threat match against Goldberg and Chris Jericho before the cage match against Bischoff. Gore left Perkins to defend the championship, as he wanted to face Bischoff.

Despite Perkins putting up a good fight in the Intercontinental Championship match, Jericho made Goldberg tap out to the Walls of Jericho to become the new Intercontinental Champion. Gore got redemption for Perkins' loss however, as he practically squashed Bischoff in the cage match. Gore did want to hit a frog splash from the top of the cage, but ended up climbing out to win. Following the match (and an intense staring contest in a post-match cutscene), G&P decided to beat up Bischoff with a steel chair. Before the pay-per-view ended, Jerry Lawler offered another opportunity at the World Tag Team Championships, this time teaming with Ric Flair, which the lads accepted.

### July

The tag team championship campaign with Ric Flair began on an odd note, with Flair handing RVD a signed copy of his autobiography. While Perkins wanted to keep the book, Gore tested fate and randomly selected the chosen path of the storyline, selecting to throw the book away and pretty much screwing up the tag team before it even got going. After this, they approached Booker T backstage and asked to be shown "his little spinaroonie", which caused Booker to get upset. After a tag team loss to Randy Orton and Kane, Flair complained about a foot injury, though RVD made Flair drive to the hotel anyway. However, Flair was having none of it and forced RVD to get behind the wheel.

Flair apologised for his behaviour to start Week 2, which prompted RVD not to respond at all. Gore then chose to speak with Eric Bischoff backstage in the boiler room, who asked where Triple H's dressing room was despite being the GM of Raw. Even though they helped Bischoff, the game for some reason said that Bischoff ignored them and penalised them. Gore then went on to lose a chaotic tag team match against The Rock and Lance Storm, wherein Gore tapped while the referee was distracted, but lost anyway. Flair then absolutely lost the plot and yelled at RVD for about 5 minutes, causing The Rock and Lance Storm to intervene.

Week 3 began with a disastrous interview, where Flair spoke for basically the entire thing and acted like the blow out with RVD never happened. When the time came for RVD to finally speak, he threw Flair under the bus by pretty much implying he would've preferred anyone else being his partner. In spite of RVD's comment, Flair still seemed excited to be tagging with him in hopes of capturing the World Tag Team Championship. Following this, RVD spoke to Lance Storm in the training room, though he wasn't happy to see him even though he tried to keep the peace between Van Dam and Flair the week before. After Stacy Keibler interrupted the conversation, Storm stole Christian's pick-up lines he used on Trish back in April, word for word, and used them on Stacy. Gore opted to watch instead of stepping in to defend Stacy, which led to her yelling at both Storm and RVD, though they weren't penalised.

Following yet another tag match loss, this time against Kane and Lance Storm, Flair called out RVD for throwing out his copy of his autobiography. Gore also got confused while Flair did the promo, as he wasn't sure anyone used the phrase "one one-hundredth" ever. The next week, Flair tried to make amends by throwing a party for RVD, though Gore opted to smash Flair through the cake instead, essentially ruining the plans for them to go for the tag titles. The lads also noted that the cake was probably a year old since it seemed solid when Flair got smashed into it, with Gore adding that it was a "corona cake". RVD was then the judge of some weird bodybuilding competition between Triple H and Scott Steiner, where both Gore and Perkins declared Steiner the winner. Triple H got proper salty about it and wound up knocking out RVD in the boiler room. RVD was squashed by Kevin Nash immediately after the confrontation, with Triple H's knockout blow a likely cause of the loss.

At Vengeance, G&P confronted the Undertaker backstage and slapped him, causing much laughter from the two. Undertaker admired RVD for having the guts to do that, and asked him to do it again, prompting RVD to knock him out with one punch. This was one of the few times that they got rewarded for their backstage choices. Due to Gore smashing Ric Flair's head into the cake on the previous Raw, they lost their World Tag Team Championship opportunity, with Stuff of Legend taking their spot instead and winning the titles. Meanwhile on the midcard, RVD and Ric Flair faced off in a steel cage match, with Gore looking for redemption after an anti-climactic ending to his last cage match at Bad Blood. Though Flair was close to winning at several points, Gore got the win after some strong grapple cheese. This win in the steel cage was the only win G&P earned in the month of July.

After suffering 13 losses at that stage in the game, G&P took Jonathan Coachman up on his offer to have a Diva be their manager. They ended up choosing Trish Stratus, since she was the Women's Champion and since Stacy Keibler was the other option.

### August

In their first interaction with Trish, Gore decided to randomly select the dialogue option after having a choice between shaking her hand or staring at her body. Of course, fate chose the stare at her body option, which made Trish think he was a pervert. They then confronted Chris Jericho in the boiler room and were supremely confident after knocking out Undertaker at Vengeance, but pissed him off with their dialogue choice and were penalised for it. After a victory over Christian, Gore influenced Perkins to attack Christian after the match, which he did so successfully. At the conclusion of the show. RVD was approached by Victoria in the parking lot, who tried to coerce him into aligning with her and dropping Trish, though they opted to not be sucked in by Victoria.

Week 2 began with Trish gifting RVD a pie that she had baked, with the lads opting to reply with a reference to The Rock's "poontang pie" phrase from the 90s. The reference was not well received by Trish at all. After this, they approached Christian in the boiler room, who spieled off the same speech that Rodney Mack did after he was attacked post-match. Instead of instigating a fight though, RVD said he didn't have time for losers like Christian and wandered off for his match against Randy Orton. Orton was beaten quite handily, though Gore advised against attacking Orton. At the show's end, RVD was chosen to be a judge for a beauty contest between Victoria and Trish, with Trish coming out the victor upon Perkins' insistence. Trish then challenged Victoria for a match on next week's Raw, which was accepted. After the contest, they then had a weird encounter with Lance Storm, where he said he wanted to get his hands on Trish's pie.

RVD was not booked on the third week of Raw, though Perkins was forced to play the Trish vs Victoria match. After a bullshit rope break call by Earl Hebner, Perkins got Trish disqualified after hitting Victoria with a chair. This loss is not counted in the record table, however, since RVD was not in the match. RVD was again not booked on Raw the following week, but a rematch of Trish vs Victoria was booked, with the Women's Championship on the line this time. Thankfully, the match was skippable though, and Trish retained her title. Summerslam rolled around and RVD was left off the card yet again, though he insulted Kurt Angle in the training room backstage.

At the end of Summerslam, G&P informed JR that they would be forming a faction next month. August also marked the first time that they went undefeated in a month during the series, despite winning them only two matches as RVD in the month.

### September

To begin the first Raw of September, JR asked RVD who was going to be the first member of the new faction. After a bit of deliberation, G&P opted to ask Kane to join, with the reason being that they didn't want to face him anymore and that the two being in a faction together could prevent that from happening. It somewhat backfired though, as they faced Kane in the main event of Raw that same night and ended up losing. In a cutscene after the match, RVD held his hand out in a sign of respect for Kane, though he did not reciprocate and left the ring.

The following week on Raw, RVD suffered another loss against World Heavyweight Champion Triple H in a non-title match. Triple H attacked RVD after the match, but was saved by Kane, who sent Triple H flying with a clothesline. This united Kane and RVD, as well as effectively turning Kane face. Week 3 began with RVD earning the respect of Eric Bischoff, who was happy to help out with the faction in any way, confusing G&P since they had problems with him back in June.

Gore had also hinted that he planned for RVD to move to the SmackDown brand, as he and Perkins were both having trouble with the heavyweights on Raw (Triple H, Goldberg, Kane, etc). However, he decided to see how the faction storyline would play out before plans were concrete. They also confronted The Rock backstage, looking for revenge from a copyright strike from his entrance in an earlier episode of the series. However, it turned into a pretty boring 5 minute monologue that involved The Hurricane at some point.

After this, Kane and RVD lost a tag match against Lance Storm and Test, as Earl Hebner was constantly distracted by Kane trying to give an assist while RVD was in trouble. After the loss, Gore went full shoot mode and announced that the loss was the final straw and RVD would be leaving for SmackDown, telling the crowd to enjoy the entertainment that is Lance Storm, Test and boring monologues from The Rock on Monday nights. Perkins also screamed out at the beginning of the match to transfer to SmackDown after seeing that their opponents were Lance Storm and Test. In a post-match cutscene, they selected Stacy Keibler to manage the faction, but had zero interest since they wanted a transfer to SmackDown right away.

Stacy approached RVD to begin Week 4 and was excited to be joining the faction, though G&P were still uninterested and wanted a trade right away. They visited Eric Bischoff and requested the trade, but the request was blocked due to them being involved in the faction storyline. They then asked for a championship match, but were denied yet again. After interrupting another cutscene where Lance Storm tried to hit on Trish Stratus, they moved onto their tag match against Lance Storm and Ric Flair, where Perkins remarked that Raw must have only had about 5 different Superstars at the time. The match quickly broke down, with Stacy Keibler and Ric Flair going at it, while RVD and Kane attacked Lance Storm. Ric Flair also went after Lance Storm, after retaliating against Stacy. After regaining control of the match, RVD and Kane picked up the win.

Scott Steiner confronted RVD after the win and asked to be a member of the group. Gore opted to decide later on, after there was no option to punch him. Unforgiven quickly rolled around and RVD was promoted as being in a feud with The Rock. G&P were mega confused, as the game created a video package with promos and attacks that never happened, though it's possible that Rock heard Gore's comments about his boring monologues. Before RVD's match with The Rock, Kane spoke with RVD about the fourth member of the faction, rubbishing Steiner for not being a good fit. G&P instead opted to have Goldberg as the fourth member of their crew. The Rock then squashed RVD in the main event of Unforgiven, possibly a punishment by Eric Bischoff for having the audacity to ask to transfer to SmackDown. The match's finish seemed like a massive middle finger to everyone, with The Rock trolling the crowd by teasing a People's Elbow after a running back elbow, though he ended up going for the cover after the back elbow.

After the match, the faction announced Goldberg as the newest member instead of Scott Steiner, and also named themselves Rulers of the Ring.

### October

After officially naming the faction, Rulers of the Ring introduced themselves in an awkward manner to start off Raw. Vince McMahon interrupted the proceedings and disapproved of the new group, despite Jim Ross informing him of RVD's plans. RVD defeated Test in the main event of Raw, though a post-match attack from Stone Cold, Triple H and Chris Jericho injected some life into the excitement of that main event. Vince McMahon revealed that he had orchestrated the attack and that Austin, Triple H and Jericho were members of his faction, The Corporation.

The Corporation got the better of Rulers of the Ring in Week 2, as new recruit Victoria defeated Stacy Keibler, and the team of Triple H and Stone Cold defeated RVD and Goldberg. It wasn't all bad though, as RVD got another invite on the UK tour from Tazz, after Chris Jericho took his place at the last one back in June. Kane and Goldberg got a bit of retribution for the previous week's embarrassment, defeating Austin and Jericho, though things definitely took a turn for the worse after Triple H pretty much dismantled Stacy Keibler in an intergender tag match that also involved Victoria and RVD. Following that terrible match, Austin and McMahon destroyed the extremely flammable private bus/motorhome that RVD had used to transport the team from city to city.

Week 4 started poorly again for Rulers of the Ring, with Austin and Jericho defeating Kane and Goldberg in the mid-card. In the main event, Triple H cut a promo where he made fun of RVD for not having a mode of transport anymore. He was then interrupted by RVD ramming the ring with a pick-up truck, which disappeared as soon as the match between him and Triple H began. Although the match was competitive and Triple H was pushed to his limit, RVD could not get the win unfortunately. After the match, Stone Cold challenged RVD to a match at No Mercy, which was accepted under a hardcore match stipulation.

At the No Mercy pay-per-view, RVD attempted to converse with Stephanie McMahon, wherein Gore half-joked that he wanted to jump ship to SmackDown and end the feud with himself and The Corporation. It didn't go well though, as they pissed off Stephanie by interrupting her phone call. They then proceeded to the hardcore match against Stone Cold, which RVD dominated in the early part, thanks to a multitude of sledgehammer shots. However, Austin managed to reverse and get some shots of his own in, giving him three finishers and essentially giving him the win. Austin continued the attack after the match, until Booker T rushed the ring, supposedly to make the save. However, Booker turned heel and sided with Austin and The Corporation.

### November

The next night on Raw, Vince McMahon celebrated Stone Cold's win at No Mercy, along with the addition of Booker T to his faction. He then called out RVD to decide whether to join The Corporation or continue to slum it up with Rulers of the Ring. Meanwhile. RVD confronted Goldberg in the parking lot, but decided against talking to him, which seemed to annoy him quite a bit. During the main event, which was a tag match with Kane against Stone Cold and Booker T, Perkins made RVD take out the referee and use a weapon. RVD ended up hitting the referee with a steel chair instead of Austin and got his team disqualified, marking G&P's first DQ loss as RVD in the series. Once again, RVD got ambushed after the match by Booker and Austin, with Rulers of the Ring seemingly absent. However, SmackDown's Brock Lesnar turned up and assisted RVD, hinting that he joined Rulers of the Ring and quit SmackDown to become a member of the Raw roster.

Rebellion pay-per-view quickly rolled around, with Perkins slightly concerned that they wouldn't make the card. However, Gore pointed out that they got an invite from Tazz in Week 2 of October. To the annoyance of G&P, they had to face The Corporation yet again in a six-man tag. After a lengthy affair and multiple run-ins from the illegal men on both sides, Rulers of the Ring finally picked up a victory. To add insult to injury for The Corporation, RVD attacked Booker T with a chair after the match upon Perkins' insistence.

Upon returning to Raw, and the United States, RVD was approached by Brock Lesnar backstage. Lesnar informed RVD that he was not planning to join Rulers of the Ring, but saved him because he didn't like what The Corporation were doing. RVD then approached Booker T, who called on Stone Cold to beat up RVD following his actions at Rebellion. Austin handily put RVD away after Perkins made him fall off the truck multiple times. Despite the loss in the backstage brawl, Gore managed to get an emphatic win over Chris Jericho.

The night was not over for RVD though, as he had the option to save Brock Lesnar from a Booker T beatdown or leave Lesnar high and dry. Gore "accidentally" selected to not help Lesnar, though he immediately realised that he would have to take on Lesnar the following week. It was not to be, however, as they instead took on Stone Cold and Booker T in a tag match, where he and Kane picked up the win. The match was notable for having very little to no crowd noise, with both Gore and Perkins joking that the crowd were probably sick of the Rulers of the Ring vs Corporation matches. Following the extremely silent match, RVD and Kane beat down Austin in retaliation for him defeating RVD in the backstage brawl the week before.

Later in the night, Vince McMahon challenged RVD to enter the Elimination Chamber match, which Gore accepted with zero hesitation. However, on the go-home Raw, Kane revealed that none of the other members of Rulers of the Ring could enter the match, leaving RVD in the match alone. RVD then squared up to Brock Lesnar in the training room and got knocked out after one punch. However, RVD got right back up and initiated a backstage brawl, which he lost after a devastating F5 through the roof of the boiler room cage.

After the squash match backstage, RVD competed in a six-man tag with Kane and Goldberg against Stone Cold, Chris Jericho and Booker T, to the bemusement of G&P and the crowd. Despite getting the win, Perkins screamed out that he never wanted to see another tag match again in the series. Following the silent six-man tag, RVD drove a milk truck into the ring and coated The Corporation in milk, much like Kurt Angle did to The Alliance in 2001. G&P had a good laugh as well, as RVD poured cartons of milk down the side of his face, rather than into his mouth.

At Survivor Series, RVD put up a valiant effort in the Elimination Chamber match, despite spending most of the match taunting. He made it to the final two before unfortunately being eliminated by Triple H after not being able to climb to the top rope to hit another Five Star Frog Splash. Although they were upset at not getting a win and lambasting Triple H for winning all the time, they were relieved that the faction rivalry was over. November also marked the most wins for G&P in a month, as well as a 50 percent win-loss record.

### December

Episode #15 of the series started off with G&P requesting a transfer to SmackDown yet again, with the transfer finally being granted, since RVD was not involved in a storyline. As the video cut to Armageddon about 30 seconds in, it's assumed that RVD was not booked on Raw, nor was he involved in any sort of storyline. While G&P quickly recapped the last episode to one another, they realised they were not booked on the Armageddon card at all. However, they were approached by SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon in the parking lot, who asked if they wanted to participate in the Royal Rumble match. G&P accepted immediately, thinking it'd be stupid to not accept, and then judged Stephanie for making a "see you next year" joke in December.

### January

Still on the Raw brand despite his transfer being accepted, RVD wrestled Booker T in his first match of the new year, but lost after a crappy lariat laid him out. Booker then cut a quick promo on RVD after the match, calling him a loser and claiming RVD would be eliminated by the time he entered the match. The promo then cut to a weird talking head segment, wherein a few members of the Raw roster discussed the importance of the Royal Rumble match. The following week, RVD faced off against the seemingly invincible Test, who dispatched of RVD in barely any time. During this match, both Gore and Perkins were irritated about facing the super heavyweight Test, wishing to move to SmackDown and face the cruiserweights.

Week 3 began with Vince McMahon opening Raw, where he announced a fatal four-way match to determine who would pick their Royal Rumble entry number, though he barred number 30 from selection since he had "other plans for it". Before the fatal four-way, RVD confronted Test in the parking lot, who had Jonathan Coachman backing him up. However, Gore decided against fighting Test again, not wanting to get in a feud with him. Before he was able to leave though, Test called RVD boring, which was pretty much the pot calling the kettle black because Test was never really exciting. In the fatal four-way, RVD finally managed to pick up a win over Christian, Lance Storm and Booker T, pinning Christian with a Five Star Frog Splash. With RVD picking up the win, he chose number 29 to be his spot in the Rumble. However, Vince McMahon interrupted again and clarified that he never mentioned the winner being the one to pick their spot, instead offering the choice to the loser. Christian, the man that took the pin, stole the number 29 spot from RVD. While Perkins found the ordeal hilarious, Gore was fuming that the fatal four-way essentially meant nothing, since his spot was stolen by an inferior competitor.

On Raw's go-home show before the Royal Rumble, Eric Bischoff spun a roulette wheel to determine RVD's entry number. He ended up drawing 20, which both Gore and Perkins seemed satisfied with. They also half-jokingly asked whether their transfer to SmackDown had gone through, as they should've been on SmackDown during this storyline. RVD then defeated Ric Flair in the second match on the card, building momentum heading into the Royal Rumble. At the event, and in the namesake match, RVD managed to score a few eliminations and was in the final five, but failed to win the match. Shawn Michaels won the match, last eliminating Christian, which is somewhat ironic, given that 29 was supposed to be RVD's spot in the Rumble.

### February

To kick off February, and the final episode of the series, Gore immediately asked for a trade to SmackDown. This was done to seemingly correct the game's error, as RVD should've been on SmackDown in January. RVD then teamed up with Stacy Keibler to wrestle Rodney Mack and Jazz in an intergender tag team match, which RVD and Keibler won. The duo then tried attacking Jazz after the match, but this went horribly wrong for them, as Jazz hit them with a double clothesline. RVD then had a brief absence from television, not being seen until No Way Out. At the event, Jazz confronted RVD and threatened to kick his ass. Gore decided to joke around with Jazz, who warned RVD to never show his face in the Raw locker room again.

Following the confrontation with Jazz, RVD appeared as one of the lumberjacks in a match between Booker T and The Rock. Gore grabbed a chair and whacked The Hurricane, who was also acting as a lumberjack, causing a confusing disqualification finish. This match is not counted in the match table below, since RVD wasn't really a competitor. This marked RVD's final appearance as a Raw superstar, as he was traded to SmackDown after the event.

## WWE SmackDown

### March

The first week of March saw RVD finally get his transfer to SmackDown, though it appeared to be too little too late for G&P to get RVD a chance at obtaining a WrestleMania spot, as he missed the entire month of March. When RVD was not a part of WrestleMania XIX, Gore decided to play SmackDown's WWE Championship match between champion Kurt Angle and challenger Undertaker. Angle was decisively beaten, after Undertaker went ham on Angle with a chair. G&P also noted that Royal Rumble winner Shawn Michaels did not receive his title match at WrestleMania, as World Heavyweight Champion Kane instead faced Brock Lesnar.

To round off a fairly depressing season mode, wherein G&P suffered more losses than wins, the pair got a depressing final cutscene where Jonathan Coachman offers to take the player's chosen character to dinner.

## Impact of the coronavirus pandemic

G&P's SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain series, as well as their FIFA 21 Career Mode series, were both suspended on November 5, 2020 after lockdown was being enforced yet again in the United Kingdom, due to COVID-19 cases increasing in Europe. Two additional episodes were uploaded prior to the series being suspended, though Gore did note that they were recorded before lockdown in the comments section.

On January 11, 2021, Gore and Perkins decided that they would implement a similar recording system for their Here Comes the Pain career in order to finish it faster, while waiting for lockdown to end. Gore would film the gameplay, then record commentary over Skype with Perkins, who wouldn't know the outcomes of matches or storylines.

## G&P's season mode record

1Episode #15 began at Armageddon pay-per-view, which RVD was not booked on. As previous weeks of Raw were not shown, it's insinuated that RVD was simply not booked on the show or was not involved in any sort of storyline.

It should be noted that the records above, as well as the table below, do not include the matches G&P played where RVD was not a participant. This includes the Trish Stratus vs Victoria match, The Rock vs Booker T lumberjack match and The Undertaker vs Kurt Angle WWE Championship match.

## Championships and accomplishments

**WWE Raw**

* WWE Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
* WWE Hardcore Championship (1 time, inaugural)