Arriving at a WWE arena for the first time, Bayley Martinez had almost no idea what to expect. All she knew was that as the owner of the fourth most popular YouTube channel in the world, she had been approached by the wrestling company with an idea that had intrigued her.
WWE would be granting Bayley backstage access, albeit not quite to all areas, where she would film videos for her channel. Stephanie McMahon, the woman in charge of WWE's branding, had explained that they saw featuring themselves on Bayley's channel BayleyPlays as a way of reaching out to millions of potential new viewers.
An added bonus was that Bayley knew literally nothing at all about wrestling. She had never watched a show, let alone attended one. WWE liked the idea of her viewers who were totally new to wrestling seeing her experiencing everything for the first time, as they were themselves. The one caveat was that she painted a positive picture as much as possible.
Right from the first phone call, Bayley had been interested in the idea. She was at a point now, having made her fortune and grown her channel to the point where she could get millions of views on a video pretty much regardless of the actual content, that she could pick and choose exactly what she wanted to do. Something about being backstage at a wrestling show had sounded like fun. She knew nothing about the business, and learning new things had ways been of interest to her.
For those reasons, the negotiations with WWE had been quite easy to conclude, and the resulting deal had been quite flexible. Bayley could attend as many or as few televised WWE events as she wished, with her travel paid for by the company, and they would pay her for each video relating to them that she put on her channel. In return, they got access to her viewer base. Either party could pull the plug on the arrangement as and when they saw fit to do so.
With the car that had picked her up from the airport now approaching the arena, Bayley quickly loaded a mirror app on her phone and checked her appearance. Her modest make up was on point, and her trademark side ponytail was neat and tidy. She was ready to meet Stephanie McMahon, who would apparently be waiting for her.
"We're right on time," the driver reported as he slowly entered an underground parking garage. Through the blacked out windows, Bayley had seen a few wrestling fans standing about outside, presumably hoping to get a glimpse of their favourite stars. She idly wondered if any of them happened to be viewers of hers too, and how big the crossover currently was.
The car glided to a stop in the parking garage, and the driver got out to open Bayley's door for her.
"Thank you," she said sweetly. Despite being a multi-millionaire thanks to her channel's success, she had always made a conscious effort to keep herself grounded. She didn't particularly like people pandering to her like that, but at times she just had to go with it.
A tall woman with long dark hair was standing near the entrance to the building. She was wearing an expensive black dress and knee high boots. Beside her was a man wearing jeans and a t-shirt that marked him out as a member of the WWE backstage crew.
"Bayley. Stephanie McMahon," the woman said with a dazzling smile, stepping forward and offering her hand.
Bayley felt a little underdressed, wearing a dark grey leather jacket, light grey shirt, with black pants and boots. Her outfit was good for warmth, though. A California girl didn't belong on the east coast in January, she thought as she extended her hand.
"Hi, Stephanie. Good to meet you at last. Thanks again for inviting me."
The two women shook hands. They had spoken several times on the phone and gotten along well. Always keen to meet new people, Bayley put genuine warmth into her smile and handshake.
"Not at all. We're delighted to have you," Stephanie replied.
While they greeted each other, Bayley's driver had retrieved her travel case from the trunk of the car. The man who had been standing beside Stephanie took the case without being instructed, and headed into the building with it. Bayley assumed she was going to see it again at some point.
Stephanie turned to walk into the building, making a welcoming hand gesture for Bayley to walk beside her. As they slowly walked inside, McMahon continued speaking. "Bayley, as we discussed, I've arranged for one of our top stars to accompany you whenever you spend time with us. You'll be shown around backstage, and you'll be able to make videos almost anywhere you like. I've also arranged for you to sit ringside during Raw tonight, so you'll get to see your first wrestling show up close."
"Thank you, Stephanie. That all sounds great. I'm looking forward to it. I've made a point since we started our discussions of avoiding looking anything up or watching any of your content. I've never watched a wrestling match in my life, so I have no doubt it's going to be a lot of fun."
Stephanie chuckled before proceeding to state once again what WWE were hoping to get out of this new partnership. Bayley listened politely, although she already knew it all. It was fair enough on McMahon's part, though. She didn't know Bayley well enough to know that she was an attentive and diligent person, not someone who let things go in one ear and straight out of the other. During the reiteration, they had stopped walking, not far from a locker room door. Bayley noticed that there was no name on the little plaque, not that it would have meant anything to her even if there had been one.
"So, who am I going to be shown around by?" Bayley enquired once Stephanie was finished with what she had been saying.
"Last night, we had the 2019 edition of our Royal Rumble event, at which we crowned a new Raw Women's Champion. I figured the best thing for your videos would be for you to feature our champion, so you'll be with Nikki Bella." Stephanie gestured towards the nearby door. "I've set you and Nikki up with a separate locker room so that you've got space to do whatever you need with equipment and such. I can introduce you to Nikki now if you'd like?"
"No, that's okay. I'll introduce myself," Bayley said comfortably.
Stephanie smiled. "Alright. I'll catch up with you later and introduce you to my husband and my father. They'll be keen to meet you."
"Sounds good," Bayley said with a smile. "Thanks for the warm welcome."
"Of course," Stephanie replied. "And make sure Nikki shows you to catering so you can get something to eat. It's top quality stuff."
Bayley nodded. "I'll do that."
"Then I'll leave you to it," Stephanie said with another smile. "Anything you need, don't hesitate to come find me."
"Thanks. Will do," Bayley promised.
With that, McMahon walked away, leaving Bayley to approach what was apparently her locker room. At least this Nikki Bella person had been given the heads up ahead of time, saving Bayley the need to explain what she was doing there. She walked over and knocked on the door, deciding it was best to wait to be invited in on this first occasion. The door opened only a few seconds later, and Bayley found herself face to face with the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her life. She had long brown hair, thick red pouty lips and a stunning figure, shown off to its fullest in a dark blue outfit that must have been what a wrestler wore to the ring. It comprised of a pair of shorts that were so small they were almost invisible, a sports bra with the words 'Fearless Nikki' on it in black and white lettering, that pushed up a truly incredible pair of boobs – probably too incredible to be real, Bayley thought. The rest of Nikki's figure was nicely toned and tanned. Taking it all in, Bayley, felt like her heart had missed a beat.
"Hi!" Nikki said excitedly. "Bayley, it's really cool to meet you. Please, come in."
"Thank you. Nice to meet you," Bayley said, quickly pulling herself together and walking into the locker room. She found it bigger than she had expected, and there wasn't much clutter. She had imagined there would be make up, hair straighteners and that kind of thing all over the place, but there was none of that stuff. She noticed her travel case in a corner, apparently having been delivered by the WWE staff member. "Nice locker room," she opined.
"Yeah. A bit of an upgrade for me, thanks to you being here," Nikki chuckled as she closed the door. "Usually, all of us women change together. There wouldn't be anywhere for you to sort out your stuff in there though."
"I don't really have all that much to be honest with you," Bayley said, walking over to her case and lifting it up onto a chair for easier access. "Just a camera, a load of batteries and memory cards, and a laptop."
"Everything you need to make videos," Nikki smiled. "I've watched some of your stuff before, so it's quite exciting to know I'll be appearing on your channel."
Bayley smiled in delight at the fact that Nikki had watched her before. BayleyPlays had started off as a video game playthrough channel, back when that type of content was just starting to blow up. These days, she played games less often, focusing instead on traveling around the world and posting vlogs from her trips, as well as any other vlog she chose to make. "What did you watch?" she wondered. "Was it some of the more recent stuff?"
Nikki chuckled again. "The first thing I watched was one of your drunk streams."
"Oh god," Bayley laughed loudly in surprise and embarrassement. "I haven't done many of them. They were good fun, but I suffered big time the day after."
"I remember laughing my ass off at you singing," Nikki said.
"Ahh, don't!" Bayley said, theatrically putting her hands over her face.
"As I remember it, it was Easy Lover you were singing," Nikki said, enjoying sticking the needle in. She broke into song. "She's an easy lover. She'll get a hold on you, believe it."
"Enough!" Bayley said, laughing hysterically. "We're going to fall out before we get started."
"Aww, don't be like that," Nikki pouted playfully.
Bayley found herself thinking again how stunning this woman was. Christ, it was unfair for someone to be so pretty. She was in a different league to any of the women Bayley had been with in the past, that was for sure. Trying not to let her feelings show, she pulled her camera case out of her luggage and started opening it up, getting her high definition camera ready to film.
"Oh, we're going to do a video now?" Nikki asked.
"Yeah, just a little intro," Bayley said. "I'll be editing stuff together later. I want to shoot something saying why I'm here and what I'm here for."
"And who you're with?" Nikki ventured hopefully.
"Of course," Bayley smiled. For a second she thought she had seen something in Nikki's eyes, like she was eyeing her up. But no, that was her stupid imagination, she told herself. Telling herself to stop thinking like that, she finished getting her camera ready. "Okay, Nikki, here we go."
Bayley raised the camera, turned it to face herself and began filming, with a big smile on her face. "Hello again, everyone. Bayley here, and today I've got something new; something pretty damn cool going on. I'm backstage at WWE Raw, and I'm here with Nikki Bella!"
Bayley's plan had been to turn the camera around to film Nikki, but she didn't get a chance. Nikki scooted over, put an arm around Bayley and leaned into the shot. "Hi, everyone!" she said enthusiastically.
Looking at Nikki for a second, Bayley giggled before returning her attention to the camera. "Nikki's going to be showing me around backstage, then later, I'll be watching the show from ringside. I have no idea what's ahead of me, so I'm really looking forward to it!"
Bayley turned the camera off.
"Is that all?" Nikki asked, sounding disappointed.
"For now, yeah. But don't worry, I'll be filming the whole time when you show me around. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun. I've got a little tripod in my case too, so we could put the camera on the side there later and maybe film you telling me about yourself. My viewers can get to know Nikki Bella, the… what championship is it called that you've got?" Bayley asked, looking over at the red and white belt that was standing on the counter top that ran almost the length of the room, in font of several mirrors.
"I'm the Raw Women's Champion, much to everyone's distaste," Nikki reported.
Turning to her, Bayley raised an eyebrow slightly. "To everyone's distaste?"
"People hate the fact that I won the title. But that's kind of the point."
Bayley laughed and shook her head at her own lack of knowledge. "I wish I had the first idea what that meant."
Putting an arm around Bayley shoulders again, Nikki gave her a friendly squeeze. "Don't worry, I'll soon show you everything."
Unable not to look at Nikki's amazing cleavage, Bayley thought, 'I wish you would.'
A/N: Thank you for checking out this first chapter. This concept has been on my mind for some time now, so I decided to make a start on it. Next time, we'll be seeing Nikki taking Bayley on her first tour backstage. Who else would you like to see her interact with? Leave me some names in reviews and I'll see what I can do!