So this is a story I have been working on for awhile, the one-shot Hounds of Justice was written based off of this story. Based off of the reactions I got about it, I decided to post this one now and see how you guys like it.
Disclaimer - I do not own WWE or any of it's characters. I only own my character Siren and her family.
So without further adieu I give you Wake Up.
"Follow your heart" that's a saying that I've heard since I was child. When you're young it sounds easy enough; follow your heart, do what makes you happy, make your dreams come true. That's what we all want, right?
But what happens when you finally get what you've been chasing? What happens when you finally make your dreams come true? Is it ever truly enough, or will we always keep wanting more?
Some say once you get a taste of the spotlight, you yearn for more, that you can never get enough. You crave the attention, the money, the fame. Inevitably you begin to alienate the ones who were behind you from day one, the ones that were there before you became famous. And then one day you'll wake up and realize that you're alone. On that day you have to ask yourself one question… is fame and fortune worth what you lose….
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tasha Rene', however most people know me as WWE Diva Siren Rose. I have been with the company since I was 16 years old. The people I work with have become my family and close friends.
Now when you spend the better part of 15 years in the WWE, the majority of your relationships are with the people you spend 24/7, 365 days with. However like some of my more promiscuous co-workers, I can count the number of boyfriends I have had in the company, on both of my hands.
Over my lengthy career as a WWE women's wrestler, I have had only 6 relationships, all of which were real both on and off camera. Before I get to the story of my current relationship, which is the center of this story, let me give you some background on the men that drove me to where I am now.
When I started in the WWE, alongside my mentor Eddie Guerrero, female wrestlers were explained as Divas. We were simply eye candy for the fans, and a few of the male superstars. We had ridiculous matches designed solely for the purpose of displaying our bodies. Bra/panties matches, pillow fights, etc. None of which I ever participated in, I refused, which is something you simply didn't do if you wanted to keep your job. However, management seemed keen to work with me on this, as I was one of the best managers they had ever seen.
I was willing to put my career and my body on the line, I would do whatever I had to, to ensure my client's success. I have spent many nights in the hospital receiving stitches, surgeries to repair broken bones, and weeks of rehab to get back to the ring. I never thought about the consequences of my actions, of how much something was going to hurt. That was how I earned the respect of my fellow wrestlers. I wasn't afraid of anyone, I would go toe-to-toe with any of the divas or superstars. It didn't matter how much bigger or stronger they were than me, I never backed down.
My first client ended up being the first man to steal my heart on and off camera. Adam Copeland, known to the WWE Universe as Edge. Our relationship started off scripted, but over the course of a year it bloomed into something more.
I proved my managing skills and knowledge later when I lead the team of Edge and his best friend Christian, to multiple Tag Team Championships as well as the team of the Hardy Boys later on.
But as time proves, some things just don't last forever, and sadly mine and Adam's relationship was one of those things. It was a mutual breakup, no hard feelings or hate, and I continued to manage him and Christian.
I tried dating a few others in the months after that, but it never went past one date. There was just something missing… that spark you're supposed to feel, just wasn't there.
Until he came along.
June 22, 2002 was the day I met the man that not only stole my heart, but captured my soul as well. His name was Johnathan Felix Anthony Cena.
From the day he debuted on Smackdown, I was a goner. He had me hook, line and sinker from that first dimpled smile. He was every thing I had ever wanted in a man. Smart, strong, handsome, caring and the cherry on top; funny. He could make me laugh even in the worst of times. I've always had a weakness for a man who could make me laugh.
John and I were such a cohesive team that the big bosses terminated all of my other client contracts and I became a one woman manager.
Until the day that John's best friend also made his way into my managing graces. Randy Orton. Third generation wrestler and a legacy in his own. Randy was a force to be reckoned with, a strong competitor and fierce wrestler.
Under my reign, Cena and Orton became the two youngest and hottest superstars WWE had to offer. We were inseparable backstage, find one of us and you would always find the others. The other superstars called us the Three Musketeers, they were my two best friends.
Now as you all know, not all relationships are sunshine and rainbows. Every one has their own issues and problems. I am no saint, I will admit that and I have made some huge mistakes in my life. So, some of you may criticize me for what I say next, but believe me when I tell you I am not proud of it.
Over the next year I bounced back and forth between John and Randy, intimately. I loved John, but I also loved Randy. Each of them gave me something that the other couldn't. John gave me kindness and romance, while Randy gave me fire and a raw passion that I craved.
Now before you whip out your flaming torches and pick axes, my relationship with Randy started by accident. I had found out that John was seeing his ex behind my back, and I turned to my only other close friend, Randy.
Now when I say that I bounced back and forth, it wasn't like a ping pong ball. I started out with John, went to Randy and then I ended up back with John until things went sour again. After that I had a brief stint with Brock Lesnar, which resulted in a long month stay in a hospital (a story for another time) followed by John winning me over again.
Things were perfect the second time around, but nothing good ever lasts forever, however I was hoping for the best. John proposed to me in the middle of the ring in 2004 at Wrestlemania 20, right after he defeated the Big Show for the US Title. One year later we were saying our vows in the middle of the ring at Wrestlemania 21, and right after that John beat JBL for the WWE Championship.
Our marriage lasted for 4 years until John's infidelity caught up with him again. I wish I could say it was just one girl, but I would be lying.
I decided after that, that relationships and I just did not work.
Until a certain tattooed straight-edged wrestler set his sights on me. Though on camera he and I shared a hatred for one another, because of my managing his rivals Cena and Orton; behind the scenes it was quite the opposite. I found something in Punk that I had never had before, an ear. No matter what I had to say, he always listened. We had long conversations that lasted for hours into the night and sometimes well into the morning too.
That was until Triple H and Stephanie decided to announce our real-life relationship to the world, in order to throw some heat into the storyline between Punk and Cena. And as my track record has shown, my relationships are short lived and end in pain, just as this one did.
But there is a silver lining to this one, Punk and I were able to remain very close friends. So much so, that later down the road after he left the company, I was standing there the day he said his vows to my good friend AJ. They are blissfully happy together and I could not be more happy for them.
But that's jumping too far into the future, let's rewind just a little while to the day I set eyes on the man I would eventually call "the one true love of my life."
Survivor Series, November 18, 2012. During the main event of the WWE Championship match, a triple threat between Punk, Cena and Ryback.
I was standing alongside the ring trying to rally my boyfriend Punk (at the time), when over the barricade to my right jumped three men. Dressed in black from head to toe, I watched as they proceeded to rip apart Ryback, before lifting him up and giving him a triple power-bomb through the announcer's table. Afterwards Punk was able to pin Cena to retain his title.
On the November 26 episode of Raw, the mystery group identified themselves as "The Shield", and vowed to rally against "injustices." Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. Despite claiming that they were not working for either CM Punk or Paul Heyman, over the next few weeks, on both Raw and Smackdown, they would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries such as Ryback, The Miz and then WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan).
Despite multiple interviews and claims by myself and Punk, everyone thought that the group was working for us. Truthfully, neither of us had any idea of why they were intervening on Punk's behalf.
The group also attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Brad Maddox; Maddox was the referee who helped Punk defeat Ryback during their Hell in a Cell match at the previous Hell in a Cell event for the WWE Championship. This led to The Shield's debut match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view, where they faced Ryback and Team Hell No in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match and emerged victorious.
After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair, Brodus Clay and Sheamus, The Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other wrestlers, such as Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer and Ricardo Rodriguez. The Shield's attacks were also used to write off wrestlers from television via injury angles, such as Randy Orton and Sin Cara, who were already suffering from legitimate injuries.
On the January 7 episode of Raw, The Shield once again aided CM Punk by attacking Ryback during his Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the WWE Championship, which resulted in Punk retaining his title.
On January 21, during the last Raw before the Royal Rumble, The Shield triple-power-bombed The Rock, Punk's WWE Championship contender at the event, resulting in Mr. McMahon declaring that their interference in the title match would result in Punk being stripped of the title.
Four days later on Smackdown, Punk and myself denied an alliance with The Shield before calling them out and informing them that he did not want them to interfere in his upcoming title match. However, during Punk's title match at the Royal Rumble, a blackout occurred and The Rock was attacked by The Shield in the darkness; when the lights came back on, The Rock had been put through the announce table leading to Punk pinning The Rock and retaining his title, only for the match to be immediately restarted by McMahon with The Rock winning the WWE Championship. The following night on Raw, it was revealed through footage played by McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along.
Over the next months the group continued to dole out their own brand of justice to the WWE. The part that had everyone enticed was the fact that whenever I seemed to be in the ring, whether it was alongside Punk, Cena or Orton, all of whom I was still managing, The Shield seemed to make an appearance. The fans began thinking that there was something going on between myself and the three men. Which there wasn't, but you try telling millions of fans that their theories are wrong.
It wasn't helping my case that a certain two-tone haired Hound of Justice seemed to have developed a small crush on me. Whenever the two of us were down around the ring together, his eyes seemed to instantly find me. He would constantly pop up out of nowhere when I was backstage and he enjoyed bringing me flowers.
One night in particular during an unscripted and unplanned backstage segment in which I found myself surrounded by the three men, Rollins managed to leave me speechless, which anyone who knows me, is very hard to do. After giving me their message for my boyfriend Punk (whom I was still dating on camera, however we had split months earlier), and me aptly giving them the moniker "Hounds," Rollins handed me a single purple orchid before smiling and walking off.
I stood there for a moment dumbfounded, I couldn't understand what on earth was going on. Rollins' actions were not scripted, which I found out during a lengthy chat with Stephanie and Hunter, who by the way thought that it was cute. But despite my concern, I couldn't remember the last time a man had given me a flower, or made me feel special.
I smiled as I placed the orchid over my right ear and then took a picture, posting it to my Instagram with the caption; " wwerollins just gave me this beautiful flower. Hmm, what is he up to? I wonder if he knows orchids are my favorite?"
Things went on this way until April 7th on the grandest stage of them all, Wrestlemania, when The Shield debuted their new manager to the world; and the reaction from the Universe and the superstars backstage nearly imploded the MetLife Stadium. They had given an inkling on Monday Night RAW during their promo, that they had an ace up their sleeve that would ensure their win over Orton, Sheamus and Big Show.
And that ace…. was me; Siren Rose.
It had finally been revealed that I had been the one guiding the hounds for months without anyone being non the wiser. It seemed to everyone both backstage and in the WWE Universe that I had officially crossed the line and turned heel; I had been flirting with that line during my time with Punk, but now everyone agreed that I had joined the dark side. The truth was that management wanted The Shield to turn face in the coming months, and who better to help them become truly likeable than everyone's favorite manager.
All I knew, was making my way through the massive crowd at Wrestlemania with the three hounds behind me, was by far the coolest thing I had ever been apart of in my career thus far.
January 26, 2014 was without a doubt the second hardest day of my life, the number one being the first show without Eddie after his passing. This was the night that I said goodbye to one of my closest friends, Punk. After everything that he had endured and the way that he was treated by the company I could hardly blame him for leaving, but that didn't stop the aching in my heart that his absence brought.
Once Punk was gone, it felt like I had no one. Despite how close we were in the beginning, myself, John and Randy hadn't really spoken in months. Part of this was due to Randy going through his own relationship problems and John beginning to date Nikki Bella, whom did not like the close friendship that John and I shared.
Being alone sometimes drives you towards the most unlikely people, and I found myself spending more and more time with the Hounds of Justice. Even though I had been managing them for the prior 10 months, I hadn't fully opened up to anyone of them like you would someone you were dating.
But despite that, Roman and Dean were like the older brothers I had always wanted. Roman was my rock, an ear to listen and my protector. Dean was my partner in crime, we were forever messing around and pulling pranks on the other two, as well as the rest of the roster.
And then there was Seth. There was an undeniable chemistry between the two of us, but for some reason the two of us dating just never felt right. Still he was the one that I spent the majority of my time with. We would sit together on planes and road trips, go sight seeing together, watch movies, go dancing. Everything that a couple would do, but we just couldn't figure out how to take that next step.
So it went for the next 5 months, wherever The Shield went, so did I. Stephanie and Hunter had taken advantage of the response from the crowd, deeming me the Alpha of the pack. It was hardly true, the three men were a cohesive unit, they didn't need a manager, they were perfect on their own.
But every once in awhile I proved myself to be a part of the team. Whether I was interfering on their behalf in a match, standing between them and another superstar aiming to attack them, or making a suggestion to the bosses that would benefit them. In five months I had been beat up, bruised, bloody and had bones broken; not nearly as many or as bad as when I was backing up Cena, but enough.
And they proved on multiple occasions that I was a full member of the pack, including me in their interviews and promos. They would back me up if another superstar was harassing me, and they would not hesitate to fight for my honor if I was disrespected. Before long the entire WWE roster knew that I was not to be messed with, because if you did, you would find yourself at the mercy of the Hounds.