*walks over to plot animal zoo cage and releases plot elephant that this took on* Be free, fair gentle giant. Roam about now that I've written this up! *coughs* OK. shiki feels the need to do some explaining...which will happen down at the bottom of this part. All I can say for now is that this is Part 1 of a two-shot based around the RAW Women's segment from last week's RAW. To all of you that give this a read, I hope you all enjoy it. =)
(Disclaimer: I own none of the wrestlers used in and mentioned in this story. They are the property of themselves and the WWE. I only own the ideas that went into this two-shot. Now that this author's note is done, hope you guys enjoy. =) )
She had done it. After being promoted to the main roster and finding her place among the women of the RAW roster, Bayley had finally won the RAW Women's Championship in a main event bout against former champion Charlotte. It all just felt like a dream come true, with her winning the NXT Women's Championship a few years ago almost paling in comparison to this moment.
...But, that wasn't to say that this win came easy.
Down the stretch towards the end of the match, Dana Brooke had come out on Charlotte's behalf to try to help the champion retain her belt, and done a bit to distract the ponytailed brunette so that she wouldn't so easily clench the win. ...Then, the numbers were evened up with former champion Sasha Banks running out to help deal with Dana and to help with distracting Charlotte in her own right so that Bayley could hit a belly-to-Bayley suplex on her and secure the win, thus beginning her first reign as RAW Women's Champion.
It all just felt like a dream. Winning the top prize for the women of RAW, and it all happened in the main event of an episode of RAW?! This all just had to be some kind of crazy dream! ...But, no. It was real. All of that really happened. And now, Bayley had something that could help serve as proof of her hard-fought match and resulting victory.
...That was how the brunette had felt after winning the championship title. Sitting in her hotel room now as she looked at the belt two days after the match, Bayley couldn't help but let two prominent questions float around in her thoughts.
"Did I really earn my win for this belt? Do I really deserve to be RAW Women's Champion?"
Sure she had gotten messages from fans on Twitter and her other social media accounts saying that she deserved the win for the belt. And, sure she had been told similar things by a lot of her friends in the WWE about her big win. But, ...her win just didn't feel...right. It just didn't feel like a completely Bayley win, meaning that she won the belt all by herself with no outside help at all. While Bayley knew Sasha had meant well in running out to help her out because, with Dana helping Charlotte, chances are she probably wouldn't even have the championship belt now. ...But, even then, getting help from Sasha just didn't feel right. Because, now that she really thought about it, getting help during such a big match felt like a cop-out. It felt like cheating! And cheating was something that never really sat all that well with the ponytailed brunette; even if it was in a simple game like Go Fish, she never really felt all that comfortable with cheating or being cheated.
And this seemed to be even more evident when Charlotte had pulled her aside after the match and told her "Congratulations. Although, the Bayley I know wouldn't be so okay with a win like that. Getting help from others during such a match just doesn't seem like her thing" before heading off to her locker room, with Dana following behind her.
Even though Sasha had told her a number of times that she earned her win, Bayley just didn't want to believe her pink-haired friend was telling her. After all, these were words coming from Sasha Banks. Resident Boss in the WWE. One of the most confident women she ever worked with and saw work from. ...And, she was just Bayley. The ponytailed kiddy dork of a wrestling superfan that commanded a wave of inflatable tube men for her entrances and wasn't shy about hugging people. They were two polar opposites, and this especially rang true with their in-ring records. While Sasha wouldn't hesitate sometimes to take any openings she could find in her opponents during a match, Bayley would rather do things fair and square so that her wins would feel big to her. Getting help from Sasha to win the RAW Women's Championship...it just put a big black mark on what was otherwise a pretty darn great match.
So now, here she sat. With a championship belt that she felt like didn't quite earn or deserve to win. ...And feelings of guilt pressing down on her. And, with next week's episode of RAW coming, Bayley just knew she was going to have to address the fans watching in the arena and across the world about how she was feeling after her win. She honestly didn't even know how she could bring herself to show her face to the fans that were so supportive and celebratory of her win this past RAW. She didn't want to disappoint anyone, but at the same time, she didn't want to carry a belt that was a big reminder of the fact that her first big main roster main event championship win was tainted with help from her friend.
"What do I do? What do I do? What on Earth do I do?!" Bayley thought to herself as she had begun to pace in a bit of a circle at the end of her bed. It wasn't until she had begun to pace about in what seemed like her twentieth circle of the day that Charlotte's words replayed back through her thoughts. "Congratulations. Although, the Bayley I know wouldn't be so okay with a win like that. Getting help from others during such a match just doesn't seem like her thing." Stopping in her tracks, Bayley couldn't help but agree with the whisper of a message
"Charlotte's right. I'm not okay with getting my win like that! Getting help during what was one of the biggest matches of my career...that just wasn't okay. Even though Sash meant well, it still didn't make me winning seem any better," Bayley reasoned out loud. Taking one last look over to where the championship belt was laid across her bed, Bayley thought 'I now know what I have to do' with a silent nod of her head.
And just what is it that Bayley feels she has to do? That shall be revealed in Part 2. Until then, don't forget to R&R please. =)
(And, here's the explanation I mentioned up at the top (which includes SPOILERS FOR THOSE THAT HAVEN'T SEEN THE PAST TWO RAWs): Last week on RAW (that I delayed my watch of to Wednesday last week on Hulu) saw Bayley coming out to the ring to celebrate with the fans her having won the RAW Women's Championship from Charlotte the week before in a pretty great match. Now, I'm just gonna say that I was not the biggest fan of that whole segment largely because of Bayley came off in it. She got called out by Stephanie McMahon and Charlotte that she got help from Sasha during the match (wherein the Boss only ran out to help because Dana had come out on behalf of Charlotte), and was told that she should "do the right thing" and hand over the belt. Bayley's response = a polite "Hell no" that resulted in me mentally flipping over tables. It's probably just me, but honestly that just seemed out of character for Bayley (the character) to do largely because she's the personification of good in the WWE. Now, unless that's all setting up for her to have some kind of odd heel turn, I still honestly don't know what to make of that segment. I'm probably just making a big deal out of nothing, but it's just something that stuck out to me the most from everything I saw. But, *shrugs* Oh well. Guess we'll have to wait and see just where it all goes from here.)