This is a story of a wrestling journalist. She is out to find out the whole story behind the marriage, divorce, and aftermath of the Triple H and Stephanie McMahon story. She interviews former wrestlers and friends, former lovers, family, and employees. She never is sure who is telling the truth or who is harshly lying due to their impact by their relationship.
Emily was sitting in her office of WOW wrestling journalism flipping through the latest WWE magazine. She was reading an article on the Attitude Era. She looks at a picture of Stephanie McMahon (Helmsley at the time) with her husband's huge arm wrapped around her waist. She thought about what an impact they made on the business together. Then an idea came to her. She threw down the magazine and walked briskly to her boss's office.
"Emily, how can I help you?" Her boss Mr. Davis smiles at her as she knocks on the open door.
"Actually, I think I have an idea for a story." She grinned back nervously as she sat down.
"Ok…well lets hear it." Mr. Davis said sitting back in his leather chair.
"I want to interview Hunter Helmsley and Stephanie McMahon…individually. I want to get their individual take on their relationship and it's influence on the business." she said getting really excited at the idea.
She saw her boss's face fall and he began to softly shake his head from side to side.
"Emily, that's a great idea in theory…but don't you think we have tried that? We tried interviewing while they were married, right after the divorce, and even a year ago. Nice idea though." He said turning back to his work on his computer.
"Ok well we will interview those that know or knew them best. Come on Mr. Davis. This could make us!" She said pounding her fist on the desk.
"And it could break us. People as important as the McMahon's could shut us down. If you go snooping around their precious daughter's business, they will be irate." He said glaring at her.
"Ok…well I'll go under a free lance…independent. That way I can only get in trouble. And I'll just interview those they have screwed over cause those people won't go back tattling on me. Come on, Davis. If this blows up, it will be my ass. But if it works…it could be one of the biggest journal stories, and you could get most of the credit. It's a win win for you." She said trying to sound sensible.
"Alright look Emily. I'll let you try it but don't drag my companies name into it. But you better think of it like this. If you were a normal entertainment journalist you would be chasing celebrities like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. Well what you are about to do is like going after the White House or British Royalty for the tabloids. It could really cost you." He said setting down his pencil and reaching out to shake her hand.
"OH! Thank you Mr. Davis…you won't regret it." Emily exclaimed shaking his hand excitingly.
Emily walked cheerfully out of her boss' office. She couldn't believe this opportunity. She had only be in the wrestling tabloid business for five years, but she had enough connections to get this done. And plus, HHH and Stephanie have pissed off so many people….their enemies will probably be begging her to spill.
She sat down to her desk. She started a list of people she thought would rat on the exes in a heartbeat. The first five she wrote down would be a little harder to reach, but the sixth guy she wrote down shouldn't be hard at all. Shaun Waltman. Formerly known as X Pac.
Emily thought about how people in the wrestling business are great liars. Everything X Pac tells her could be over exaggerated or a lie. But Emily would take what she believed to be the truth and document it. That doesn't mean she didn't want to hear everything that he probably had to say. She wasn't out to make HHH and Stephanie McMahon look bad. She personally was a fan of them both and hate to see them split.
Emily picked up the phone and dialed her friend at one of the wrestling schools were she heard Shaun use to train at after his departure from the WWE. The guy told her that X Pac was in rehab up in LA. Ironically, it was rumored that a Hunter Hearst Helmsley was paying all the bills of his rehabilitation for him. Emily smiled and called the rehab.
"Los Angeles Second Chance Rehab, how can I help you?" the receptionist answered.
"Yes, I was wondered if I could be rang to Shaun Waltman's room." Emily said politely.
"I'm sorry. We don't have a patient by that name." the receptionist replied rather rudely.
"Of Course. I'm sure he is under an alias. But if I could just talk to him, I swear you will be greatly rewarded." Emily remained polite.
The receptionist was quiet on the other line for a while, then she finally spoke up.
"Ok look, if you come in at the end of this week with 500...I'll ask him if he wants to see you…that's all I can do." She finished shortly.
"That'll be enough." She said grinning from ear to ear as she set the receiver down.
She booked an airplane ticket to LA for Thursday.
Thursday came fast and Emily sat in the back of her taxi on the bypass of LA. She looked around and saw the Rehab right in front of her.
"This is it!" she yelled to the cab driver as he came to a halt.
She paid the man and walked up to the receptionist. She didn't even say anything. She handed the woman an envelope with Shaun Waltman written on the outside of the envelope and it smelled of money. The receptionist nodded and called up to Shaun Waltman room.
"He will meet you in the courtyard." She said briskly pointing towards the door that leads out to the courtyard.
Emily waited at a table outside for about five minutes when she saw him walk up. His greasy, black hair was pulled into a low ponytail. Emily gave him a weak, sympathetic smile.
"I'm Emily." She said introducing herself with her hand extended. Shaun just looked at her hand and sneered.
"Yeah yeah. So what magazine do you work for?" He said sitting down and lighting a cigarette.
"No magazine. I'm freelance." She lied watching him closely.
"Yeah well you wasted your time cause I ain't talking to nobody about my drug problems." He said puffing on his cig.
"No no. I didn't want to write on that. I wanted to talk to you about a friend." she said.
"Friend. Ha…what friend?" he sneered.
"Hunter Helmsley." she stating getting her recorder out.
"Friend? Trip ain't my friend." X said rolling his eyes.
"But he is paying for you get to help is he not?" Emily asked.
"I guess you could say so. He gets reimbursed from Vince and the WWE. It helps them keep their image clean if former wrestlers are still clean. That's why Hunter came a put me in here. He said it wasn't good for his image if everyone he use to hang around was on "Dope" and drugs. They said if I got cleaned up maybe I could get back into at least the ECW." Shaun said with a defeated sigh.
"Wow…that's shitty." Emily said instigating. "I am actually writing a piece on him and Stephanie. I know you probably don't know much about the end of their relationship but do you know how it began?" she questioned.
"Wow…you got some balls girl. Hunter definitely won't talk to you about that. He won't talk about it period. Man, he loved that girl. But who are you kidding I'm not going to mess up my shot back in the WWE just to spill to some free lance writer." He said throwing away his cig and starting to get up.
Emily grabbed his wrist. "Wait…just hear me out." She shouted as he sat back down. "First off…do you really think Hunter is going to let a charismatic guy like you back on TV. You might interfere with his success." Emily laughed in the back of her head. She knew she was just feeding his ego now. "And second of all…I'm not going to mention names. You couldn't possibly be held responsible legally. And you have got to be dying to tell someone. No one ever gives you the attention you deserve." She said flirting now.
"Yeah well what do you wanna know?" he said lighting up another smoke.
"Do you know how it all began…like the revenge on Vince?" he said putting her pen to the paper.
"No not exactly. I remember when Hunter told me him and Steph were a team. He said if we went along, we would get every opportunity we ever wanted. It was before her and Andrew's wedding though so the plan change often as their relationship got heated and they started screwing around." He said nonchantly.
"Wait…what?? Hunter and Stephanie devised this plan even before her real wedding to Andrew?" Emily asked shocked.
"Oh yeah. They weren't fucking yet though. I think the original plan wasn't suppose to expose Steph. She was suppose to be kinda behind the scenes. She loved Andrew from what I witnessed." he said puffing on his cig.
Emily couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So the wedding and marriage wasn't originally apart of the plan of revenge on Vince?" Shaun shook his head no.
"So how did she become PART of the plan…when did Hunter become intimate with Stephanie McMahon in your eyes?" she asked trying to hide her shock.
"Hmm…I don't remember exactly when. I remember it was when Joanie and I became close because she would cry to me about how Hunter was treating her differently ever since Steph came into the picture. I felt so bad for her. Hunter acted like their five years together was nothing. Ignoring Joanie like she was some ring rat. But then again Joanie get a huge head when her fame started to boast. She was pretty obnoxious. So I guess it was both their faults even though at the time I was taking Joanie's side." Shaun said sounding sad at the thought of Joanie.
"Yeah I always heard their relationship was ending anyway." Emily said scooting the recorded close to Shaun.
"Oh yeah it definitely was. I just took Joanie's side because I was falling for her. But her and Hunter were far from over…I don't know why it bothered her so much. Anyway, Hunter started saying stuff like, 'I would love to get with her' and such about Stephanie. Then this whole jealousy thing started with Andrew. Hunter hated Andrew. He would always make critical comments when Andrew's matches were on. He would yell at Stephanie when she had to go wedding shopping instead of meeting up with him. It was obvious. He would even do it in front of Joanie." He said throwing out his second cigarette.
"So Joanie knew somewhat about the plan…why didn't she tell on them?" Emily asked.
"I don't know probably scared. Well she ain't anymore. That's probably who you should talk to too. She don't care what Stephanie McMahon thinks." he said fixing his hair.
"So when did they decide to do the whole wedding plan thing?" she questioned.
"Hmmm…well they started fucking around with each other about three months before the wedding. That's why Steph faked that whole amnesia thing when she got hit with the trash can by bulldog. Hunter didn't want them to get married so she faked that she didn't remember Andrew. But then people started suspecting her, so to save her own ass, she re set the wedding date. Well about a week before the wedding, she came into the hotel room all of DX shared, wearing her engagement ring. She didn't usually do that around Hunter after they starting fucking. But when he saw that he lost it. He went off on her in front of all of us." Shaun said pausing.
"What did Stephanie do?" Emily asked now so intrigued.
"She began crying. She was holding onto Hunter as he looked away from her. I didn't know they were so close. I thought she was just fucking him to get some secret sick revenge on her dad. That girl hated her dad for what he did to her. So anyway, Hunter said he won't let her marry Andrew. He came up with the Vegas-drugged-wedding idea. It was sick but a good idea. Stephanie agreed to it but she ironically kept crying. Then Hunter kicked us all out of the room and I think he told her he loved her." Shaun said seeming bored with his own story.
"Why do you think that?" Emily asked.
"Cause she came back out ten minutes later glowing and grinning and NOT wearing her engagement ring." Shaun said with a chuckle. "She loved Andrew too though. I would watch them closely. There was no way she was just playing Andrew." He paused and look up at Emily. "I need to be going." he said standing up.
"I understand. Thank you for your cooperation. Any last statements…" she asked as she started gathering up her stuff.
"Sure…I don't really have a problem with Stephanie…or even Hunter for that matter. They are all about business, but when they were married…they were all about each other. They would have died for each other, and as much as I got screwed…I got to amend them for that." he said grabbing his pack of smokes, shaking Emily's hand and walking inside.
Emily put her voice recorder up to her lips and said a memo.
"This is already good. One person down and I already know what the main public doesn't know about the previous relationship of Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Next up will hopefully be another member of DX." She said and then walked out triumphantly.