A/N: This story follows on from Bad Reputation, but I will be writing it in such a way that new readers can pick this one up without necessarily needing to read Bad Reputation first.
We're now in 2019 in this world, so I'll have to make a guess at pay-per-view dates and things like that.
Monday Night Raw – 19th August 2019
Baron Corbin, Raw's General Manager, loomed over the commentary table with a menacing expression on his face. There was also an element of sadistic pleasure in his eyes. He was evidently going to take pleasure in what he was about to do to the unfortunate woman sitting in front of him.
A "No!" chant filled the arena. The fans knew what was coming, and were doing what little they could to try and prevent it. No one actually believed the effort was were going to be successful.
Corbin raised his microphone and put some bass into his voice. "Clementine, you're fired!"
The crowd erupted into boos as the now former commentator's head dropped in resignation.
"Now get out of here, before I have security throw you out," Corbin barked at her. With that, he turned and walked back towards the curtain.
As she slowly pushed her chair back and got up from the commentary table, Clementine actually did feel sad, despite the fact that she very much approved of the angle that had just started with Corbin's words. It would pave her way to transition from being a commentator to an active wrestler – something she had been training incredibly hard for over the past nine months.
But leaving the commentary table for the final time still made her heart feel heavy. She had a lot of fond memories of that job, and of working with Michael Cole and Jonathan Coachman. Initially she had gotten off to a bit of a rocky start with Cole, but he had seemed to resolve whatever problem he'd had with her, and had at times been a good mentor to her as she had looked to refine her skills. For that reason, when she stood up and offered her hand to him, the words she said to him applied both in and out of character.
"It's been a pleasure, Michael. Thank you."
Cole took her hand and said, "All the best, Clem. I'm sorry this happened."
Meanwhile, Jonathan Coachman had stood up out of respect. He offered his hand and said, "Good luck, Clem."
Clem smiled as she shook hands with him. "Thanks, Coach. Don't let whoever replaces me push you around like I always have done."
Coach laughed, genuinely, Clem thought. "Got it," he said with a smile.
After picking up her phone and her tablet from the table, Clementine began her walk across the stage towards the curtain. A lump formed in her throat as she noticed that she was getting a standing ovation. The fans were not idiots. Most of them knew by now that she wasn't leaving WWE. The fact that she had been training down in Florida was a pretty well known fact. Yet even so, they were giving her a standing ovation out of respect for the work that she had put in at the commentary table. It made her tear up as she paused for a moment to look around the arena.
As a mark of her own respect for the audience, the majority of whom had always been kind and supportive of her, giving her generous ovations each week when she came out before Raw, she took off her cap and bowed slightly.
A chant of "Clem!" started to take hold. She knew she had to get to the back quickly before she started crying. It wasn't something she wanted to do on television.
"Thank you," she said humbly, giving the crowd a final wave before turning and heading quickly towards the curtain.
When she walked into Gorilla, she didn't get much of a reaction at all from the production team. More attention was being paid to getting ready for an upcoming tag team match. Hunter Helmsley did call out to her as she passed through. "Okay, Clem?" he enquired.
"Yeah," she assured him, not meeting his eyes in case he saw the tears. She waited until she was out of the other side of Gorilla before wiping them away.
And that was that. She was no longer a commentator. That chapter of her story was finished. But a new one would soon be starting. Her on-screen firing was due to the fact that her character had gotten physically involved with Sasha Banks, one of Raw's most hated heel characters, at the previous night's Summerslam pay-per-view. In just a few minutes, it would be time for step two in the plan that would see her debut as a wrestler, not on NXT, not on Raw, but on Smackdown.
The fact that she wouldn't be going to NXT despite never having had a televised match as yet would be a huge surprise for the fans, as it had been for Clem herself when she had learned about the way she was going to be used. Hunter's idea was to actually make an angle about the fact that she was on the main roster with no experience. That was all well and good, but it came with a lot of pressure.
As she walked back to the women's locker room, Clem found herself thinking that even with the pressure of the angle, she was delighted to be making the move to Smackdown. Alexa Bliss, her girlfriend of almost two years, and Ronda Rousey, her best friend, had both been traded to the blue brand during the WWE draft back in April. Working the opposite schedule to Alexa in particular had been indescribably hard for the past few months, but that unpleasant period was coming to an end now.
When she entered the women's locker room, Clementine found it to be a hive of activity, as usual. A naturally shy person, she kept herself to herself and went over to her locker. She changed next to Bayley, but the huggable one wasn't currently in the room.
Sitting down in front of her locker, Clem looked at her phone, intending to send out the tweet that she needed to put out as part of her angle. However, she saw that on her way from the commentary table to the locker room, she had received a text message and two Whatsapp messages. The text was listed first on her screen.
DDP: So it begins, kid! Proud of you!
A big smile immediately appeared on Clementine's face, not least because he insisted on referring to her as kid even though she was twenty five.
DDP had become her mentor when she had started to work with him down at the Performance Center in Orlando. WWE had agreed a deal where he would be down there a couple of days a week, teaching his brand of yoga to trainees who were interesting in it. It had been a particular help to Clem as she built herself up to peak fitness for the first time in her life.
At the yoga classes, DDP had shown a keen interest in her unique situation, and had offered to help with her training if she wished. Clem and Hunter had agreed, and DDP had been assigned as her official mentor. They had hit it off from minute one, and he had eventually even given her his blessing to use his Diamond Cutter as a finishing move, rebranding it The Diamond in the Rough, which was also going to be the nickname for her character.
Clem typed back a quick thank you, then moved on to the Whatsapp messages. The most recent one came up first.
Ronda Rousey: I'm crying. I love you. Call me if you need to.
"Aww," Clementine said under her breath. Her friendship with Ronda was something that she really treasured. She could well believe that her best friend had shed a tear as she had watched her leave the commentary table for the final time. She decided to call Ronda later, when she got back to her hotel. With that, she moved on to the last of the three messages. There was no surprise who it was from.
Alexa: I'm so emotional right now. Honey, I love you so much, and I'm so proud of you. Please don't be sad and think of this as any kind of ending, it is a beginning. And we get to be on the same show again! I can't wait to see you tomorrow! It's going to be the best thing ever.
Clementine had come close to tearing up again as she read the message. At no point in her life had she imagined she would fall so deeply in love with someone in the way that she had with Alexa. And the best part of all was that the feeling was undoubtedly mutual. She had not a single doubt in her mind that theirs was a relationship that would stand the test of time. With a happy smile on her face, she typed out a response.
Thank you, honey. I have only been able to come this far because of your support. It means the absolute world to me. I love you with all my heart. I will Facetime you later, and I will see you tomorrow at Smackdown!
Messages responded to, there was one more thing that Clem had to do. It was crucial to the progression of her angle. She loaded up her Twitter app and typed out a simple tweet.
I guess I'm looking for work.
A/N: Thanks for reading this introductory chapter! I hope you enjoyed it.
Clementine is only twenty four hours away from her debut as an active wrestler, and it will be happening on Smackdown! As regular readers of my work will be aware, I like to have plenty of interactivity with my readers. With that in mind, I have a question for you all. If you were going to book Clem's debut as a totally green wrestler, how would you do it?
Let's see if anyone gets close to what I'm going with. If someone does, I'll give a shout out at the end of the next chapter.