defeated Ric Flair by submission. Masters regularly teamed with Carlito, albeit in a rigid business relationship. Michaels competed in a Master Lock Challenge on September 5. Masters, upset at the vigorous resistance of Michaels, released the hold and beat him with a steel chair before re-applying the hold. The Master Lock Challenge, which had not decided a clear victor between the two, led to a match at Unforgiven which Michaels won. Masters, alongside fellow Raw wrestler, Edge, was one of several wrestlers to "invade" SmackDown! in preparation for the match between the SmackDown! and Raw brands at Survivor Series. The two ambushed Rey Mysterio, leading to a tag match at Taboo Tuesday against Mysterio and Matt Hardy. Edge chose not to participate, so Masters teamed with Edge's replacement, Gene Snitsky. Masters and Snitsky lost when Mysterio pinned Masters. At Survivor Series, Masters competed in a five-on-five Survivor Series match between SmackDown! and Raw wrestlers. During the match, there appeared to be a near-break in the Master Lock by Bobby Lashley, who "powered out" of the hold. As the hold was never completely locked in, however, the "Master Lock" had not been officially broken. Masters was eliminated by Rey Mysterio. Masters then set his sights on WWE Champion John Cena, attacking him after a match and forcing him to pass out with the Master Lock. This set up a Triple Threat Submission Match for the November 28 edition of Raw with Cena defending his title against Masters and Kurt Angle, with whom he had already been feuding. The idea was to put Cena at a major disadvantage and guarantee a new champion; Masters and Angle, who used the ankle lock as a submission finisher, both were submission experts while Cena did not employ a submission hold as part of his repertoire at the time. On that night, however, Cena emerged victorious by making Masters tap out to his new submission finisher, the STFU. Masters portrayed the role of a bailiff during the mock trial for then General Manager Eric Bischoff on the December 5 episode of Raw, with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as judge. Upon being called to the stand to testify for Bischoff's defense, he was asked to give his name, which he did saying his name was Chris Masters. He was immediately accused of perjury and disqualified as a witness, as McMahon broke kayfabe and stated that Masters' real