Roman Reigns's promo, reminding everybody his excellent performance during the Royal Rumble match when he eliminated 12 opponents, among others his teammates Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, was coming to an end and it was time for Renee to make an interview with the Hounds of Justice.
A big approving smile appeared on Roman's face as the video was over.
„Roman, we just saw highlights from your historic night at the Royal Rumble," Renee opened the backstage segment. „But now, you, Seth and Dean face perhaps your biggest challenge in Wyatt Family in 6-man tag match at the Elimination Chamber," she continued. „And the Wyatt Family actually got some pretty harsh words for you, guys, lately, do you have a response to that?"
Renee placed her microphone in front of Roman who was ready to answer her question.
„Babygirl," he tried to charm her with his confidence and sweetness, but her reaction was rather cold and ignorant. "Actions always speak louder than words, remember that," he finished his part without letting people see his disappointment.
When it was Seth's turn to continue, Roman shook his head a little in disbelief, but it referred to Seth's words as well so nobody would notice.
"Wyatts love to speak in riddles," Seth professionally noted before getting even stricter. "Renee, we don't. We speak in absolutes," he said as his gimmick was getting the best of him.
"As in," Dean crazily shouted to get everybody's attention, "we will absolutely destroy," he calmed down to continue, "the Wyatt Family at Elimination Chamber."
"Dean, on another topic, there's actually been some talks lately about the fact that you haven't defended your United States Championship in quite some time," Renee focused on Dean but made a brief eye contact with Seth while asking Dean, "do you have a comment on that?"
He switched on his crazy mode and let his character come to life making the best use of gesture and posture as he countered Renee, "So am I supposed to just pull out a United States Championship match and contenders out of thin air, is that what I am supposed to do? You know how this works?" Dean asked Renee what made her feel uncomfortable but he felt confident and natural in this kind of environment. "Do you know how much paper work goes into something like this?" he finished his part and looked at Roman who was calling his name and was about to make Dean's Championship reign a joke.
"What are you talking about, man?" Roman smiled and was glad it was his time to speak again.
On the other hand, Seth, standing in the middle, was being kept out of the conversation so the only thing he could do was to observe and hope people would still notice him reacting to the situation by closing his eyes and making meaningful head movements.
"What kind of champion do you wanna be?" Roman continued while keeping his cool.
Unlike Dean, who was losing his temper and saying, "I resent that," while pointing a finger at Roman. "Alright? The bottom line is," he continued to make excuses, "there's nobody in this company with the guts," he emphasized, "to try to step up and take this," he said while making sure everybody knew he was talking about his championship belt, "away from me. I'll prove it tonight. I'll put up an open challenge. Tonight," he shouted, "U.S. title on the line." He turned the crazy level down and smoothly continued, "Anybody who wants to step up, I will remind the world," he changed his attitude and spoke loudly again, "that I," he said, then made a pause so that it would kick his speech up a notch, ". . . am the Champion," he finished and casually walked away.
His partners watched him, Seth a little confused, Roman smiling, before the scene changed, and the cameras around them went off.
Only after the end of their segment, Roman burst into laughing and Seth soon joined him.
"Nice one, Dean," Seth appreciated his mate's performance. "You almost got me," he joked.
"Yeah, for a second I got scared of myself," he admitted jokingly. "But I really enjoyed the scene. The aftermath . . .," he sighed, ". . . not so much fun."
"Come on, man," Roman joined them, "I'm really looking forward to you cowardly trying to escape Mark Henry."
"Why are they trying to make me look like a pussy? I could totally beat that guy up if we were in a real fight," he tried to convince them.
"Yeah, right," Roman just kept laughing at him.
"No, no, wait!" Seth started. "I can totally see you two in a dark alley when nobody's around and you hit him over and over again, add some kicks, old-school style, while he begs you to stop but you, as crazy as you are, enjoy seeing him in pain so you hit him into his stomach before you lift his half-unconscious body and throw it at the fence nearby," Seth made fun of him.
Dean pretended to be offended so he made random mouth movements and played with his hands angrily.
"But don't worry," Roman patted his shoulder. "We've got your back."
"Fuck you, guys," Dean exclaimed.
Then he looked at Renee who was still standing nearby enjoying their little fight and commanded her, "Tell them, Renee, that I would win in a fight with Mark Henry."
She didn't expect him to ask for her support or anything but she knew how to respond even without imagining the fight.
"Of course," she smiled. Then she tried to charm them all by saying, "Any of you would win. You've got what it takes. You're the Shield and I believe in the Shield," she played her part.
Seth had to smile at her as her words really pleased him. He even let out a little "aww." Then he reached for her hand and pulled her closer to him to hug her.
"That's why you're my favorite interviewer, Renee," he told her.
She looked at Dean who was approvingly looking back at her, but when she turned to see Roman's reaction, he was rather ignorant.
Seth noticed it too. "What's wrong, man?" he asked him. "Don't you appreciate how sweet this little girl is?"
"Nah, I don't care whether she's sweet or not. She's not gonna win me over that easily after what she did."
"What have I done?" she wanted to know as she wasn't aware of anything what might have upset the future main-eventer.
"What have I done?" he repeated sarcastically in a girly voice. "You totally ignored me calling you a babygirl," he reminded her.
"Oh, that's right," Seth realized. "You acted like it was nothing special."
"Yeah. I mean, I gave you some of my best flirting and you blew it off."
"I'm so sorry," she tried to make it up to him. "I guess I was too focused on the next line," she made an excuse so that Roman would forgive her.
"Or," Dean joined the conversation, "you don't have it. I didn't give a fuck about your pick-up line so I don't know what happened there, but I remember me flirting with Renee during one interview few weeks ago and I clearly delivered."
"I don't remember that," Roman said.
"Come on. You have to remember how I called Renee darling," he repeated it while looking at her and he could see the exact reaction he hoped to get. "See," he pointed at her while still talking to Roman. "That's how you seduce a woman," he smiled confidently.
"Leave it guys," Seth interrupted them. "Babygirl failed. And darling . . . not bad, Dean, but wait until it's my turn and then you'll see some first-class flirting," he assured them.
Then he kissed Renee on the top of her head and left. The other two followed him, but before being out of Renee's sight she could clearly hear Dean mumbling "I totally won."
But Renee was the only one who knew the true reason behind different receptions of their pick-up lines. It wasn't that she didn't notice Roman's babygirl part. It just didn't work on her. Roman was handsome and everything, but she didn't have a thing going for him. She also liked Seth but he was more of a brother to her, that's why she supposed she would look ignorant again when he would be the one delivering the line. But Dean . . . oh, Dean, that was a totally different story.
For some time now, she thought, no, she knew, that his charm was working on her. She didn't know why, but she felt attracted to him. She could say that he had no idea, and she wanted it to stay that way. She hoped that it was just some crush and it would go away eventually. But until then she might get into some trouble because of it. It was difficult for her to focus, keep her cool, especially when she was looking directly at him. And situations when they were sharing an eye contact were simply unbearable. When he was near her, she just wished to kiss him, and she spent some time imagining what it would be like. What it would be like if she told him how she felt and he felt the same. But that situation seemed too dreamy and unrealistic. It was probably best for her to let it go and shut her emotions down. She was a professional after all and she wouldn't allow her feelings get in the way of her career.