"Guys, just so you know, there are way more people out there than there should have been. Someone screwed up and too many wristbands were given out. The place is packed. You're not going to have anything like enough time to get through everyone because we've only got an hour and a half," a male security guard informed Seth and Ronda. He had just come to their dressing room to pass on the news. It was the morning after Extreme Rules and they had been sent to do an autograph signing session at a local convention centre. It was a similar setup to that which was used at Axxess before the WWE's main pay-per-view events, the only difference being that Seth and Ronda were the only two stars there.

"Right," Seth said to the security guard, confirming that he understood. "We're ready to come out now," he added as he looked at Ronda just to be sure. Both of them were dressed in their WWE merchandise and he had his WWE title belt with him too. Ronda's makeup did a good job of hiding the two black eyes that had arrived courtesy of the broken nose that she had suffered in the cage match the previous night. She had gotten her nose straightened, thankful for the fact that there would be no lasting damage. The cut on her cheek was still visible, but, again, it would not leave a scar.

Ronda stood and followed Seth out of the dressing room and along the hallway towards the entrance to the conference room which was theirs alone to use. It would bring them out right behind the small stage which had been erected for the purpose of the meet and greet session. As they walked, Ronda found herself thinking about how unfair it was that some of the fans who had waited in line for hours to get a chance to see them, to get a picture with them, or to get their signatures on something, would have to leave empty-handed and disappointed. It didn't feel right to her at all.

"You go out first," Seth smiled at her when they reached the door.

"Huh?" Ronda asked. His words had brought her out of her thoughts, but she hadn't really heard what he had said.

"Ladies first," Seth said. "We'll go out separately, get them worked up a bit."

Ronda smiled, liking the idea. "I like that. But, you go out first. You're the champ."

"Okay," Seth agreed, leaning down slightly for a kiss. When he walked through the door and around the back of the stage, Ronda heard the waiting crowd erupt into a loud cheer. There was no feeling like that in the world, getting adoration from so many people. She absolutely loved it. She decided to hang back a moment before going out onto the stage, to keep them waiting for her. It did not take long at all for the delay to have the desired effect. Even through the closed door, she could hear a chant of "Ronda!" building up.

She left it for another moment before walking through the door and around the back of the stage. When the crowd saw her, they roared loudly. It seemed to her that it was louder than they had for Seth a few moments before. She climbed up the couple of small steps onto the stage and saw that Seth was laughing as he looked over at her.

Seth was laughing because he now knew that Ronda had gotten him to walk out first so that she could enjoy the bigger reaction. He had to remind himself at times that Ronda was very new to all of this, and had not worked her way up through the minor leagues and NXT before hitting the big time as he had. He figured that it must seem incredible to her to have so many people going crazy at the mere sight of her. It was something that he enjoyed a lot himself, but Ronda seemed to have some special connection with the fans. She fed off of them and they fed off of her at the same time, in a way that was hard to explain but great to watch. It was why she got such insane reactions every time she went out to the ring on one of the shows. He laughed again as he watched Ronda stand at the front of the stage and yell, "I can't hear you!" as she gestured for the fans to up the volume. They roared loudly in response.

"This is the best job in the world," she said to Seth as she walked over and joined him behind the table.

"You sure know how to fire them up," Seth said pleasantly as he stood his title belt up on the table in a position which would make it appear in the photos that fans would get with him. He was sitting to Ronda's right, which meant that he was the first one the fans would speak to before moving on to her. The member of the security team who was stationed at the bottom of the steps leading up to the stage stepped aside, allowing the first fan to walk up. Seth settled in for the long haul. These sessions were cool in a way, but could also get tedious. "Hey man, how are you?" he greeted the diminutive guy wearing a baseball jersey and a cap as they shook hands.

"Hey, Seth. Great to meet you. How are you?" the guy asked as he put a glossy photo of Seth and Ronda down on the table for him to sign.

"Good," Seth said as he signed. "Thanks for coming out."

There was another security team member on the stage, this one a woman. Her job was to take the fan's phones and take the photos that they wanted. Seth posed with a smile on his face and a clenched fist, and with that the first of many such brief encounters was complete. The guy moved on to Ronda. "Hey, Ronda," Seth heard. "Great to see you."

"Hey. Great to meet you. Thanks so much for coming," he heard Ronda reply. "What's your name?"

"Ben."

"Okay, Ben. Let me sign this for you." Seth glanced over as Ronda took her time in writing a personal message: Great to meet you today Ben. Remember, we win and lose together. Ronda. She then drew a heart and wrote 2015 underneath it before finally signing. They posed for a picture together and Ronda asked the guy another small talk question before he finally walked off the stage.

"You need to be quicker than that, babe," Seth urged. "Look at all these people we've got to get to, and we're limited on time."

"Relax," Ronda smiled and gestured over to the side of the stage where the exit was. "Look at that guy. He's as happy as a pig in shit." Seth looked over and saw the guy looking at the signed picture, obviously reading Ronda's message again.

The subject was automatically dropped because the next fan in line had arrived at the table. For the next hour and a half, Seth had to admire the way that Ronda spoke to everyone she met as if it was her pleasure to meet them, rather than the other way around. He could tell that everyone, particularly the guys, left the stage buzzing and unable to wait to tell their friends, "Hey, guess what Ronda Rousey said to me when I met her?" Seth had found himself trying to elevate his game, but he was also very mindful of the time issue. There was a reason that things had to be kept brief, and that was evident when three more security staff walked onto the stage with the line of fans nowhere close to cleared.

"That's it, guys. Time to go," one of the security staff announced.

The fans were quick to catch on to what was happening, especially when Seth and Ronda stood up behind the table. Some of them began booing. Seth felt bad for the fans who had missed out, but it was what it was.

"No chance, I'm not leaving all of those people to go home disappointed," he heard Ronda say, causing him to sigh.

"Come on, babe, you know the drill. Time's up," Seth said, turning to face her.

"We've got plenty of time before we have to be at the arena, and this hour and a half thing is stupid. I'm not leaving," Ronda said defiantly.

One of the security detail attempted to take charge of the situation by trying to gently usher Ronda towards the steps as he said, "We're going, and we're going now."

"Don't fucking touch me," Ronda growled as she aggressively shrugged the guy off her and walked up to the front of the stage. "These security people are telling us to leave without meeting you guys," she announced to the crowd, loudly enough for them all to hear, drawing loud boos directed at the security staff. "That's bullshit," Ronda said, pointing at the head of the security team. The crowd roared their approval. "No one's leaving here without a picture," Ronda continued, facing the crowd once more. "Get your phones out. I'm coming out there and we're going to get some selfies." Another loud cheer filled the room.

"You're going to get in shit for this," Seth warned her as he walked over to her. "These security guys are doing a job. They're here to keep us safe, and we have to follow their orders at times like this." He could already see that he was wasting his time. When Ronda had decided to do something, there was no changing her mind, whether she was right or wrong.

"Fuck their orders," she said before hopping off the stage.

A chant of "Ronda!" broke out, but then turned to boos as Seth made his way off the stage with some of the security detail. Being booed really pissed him off because it was Ronda who had caused it. Her stunt had made her look great as far as the fans were concerned, but it had also made him look like an asshole when all he was doing was obeying orders. "Take me to the arena," he ordered one of the security guys who was walking alongside him. He had decided that he was going to do what he was supposed to do, when he was supposed to do it, and Ronda could deal with her consequences herself. Maybe that would teach her that she couldn't continue to defy authority whenever she thought it was best for her or the fans. He was starting to get seriously tired of it himself.

Anything relating to WWE or its stars and their presence on social media was ultimately Stephanie McMahon's responsibility. It was for that reason that it did not take long to come to her attention that Ronda Rousey was one of the top trends on Twitter. What was most odd about that fact was that it was lunch time, and not many people had even arrived at the arena yet. The fact that it was Ronda of all people caused an involuntarily feeling of irritation for Stephanie. Anything relating to Ronda seemed to have that effect on her lately. Out of curiosity, she loaded up some of the tweets which were being sent out with Ronda tagged in them. A lot of them were selfie-style pictures of Ronda, taken with people who were obviously fans.

A smile spread across Stephanie's face as she remembered that Seth and Ronda had been at a meet and greet session earlier in the day. "Please tell me you did what I think you did," Stephanie whispered at one of the images of Ronda on the phone's screen. She spent another few minutes looking at the pictures and reading the tweets, and, to her delight, it was true; Ronda Rousey had defied the security detail assigned to her and Seth and had gone out into the crowd to take pictures with them.

A few moments later, Stephanie had a runner standing in front of her. "When Ronda Rousey gets here, have her brought to me right away. She and I need to have a chat."

"Yes, ma'am."

The runner departed the office and Stephanie was left to her thoughts. This was exactly what she had been waiting for. Ronda Rousey and her bad attitude had been a problem for way too long. Stephanie was convinced that her husband had been played by Ronda and that she had essentially tricked her way onto the Raw roster. She shook her head slightly as she thought that not only had Hunter put Ronda on the roster when she didn't deserve it, he had only fined her ten grand for breaking script and winning a match against orders. There would be a bigger fine coming Ronda's way for today's latest lack of respect for authority, that was for sure.

When she walked into the arena, Ronda knew that she was going to take some heat for what she had done. She wasn't stupid, and she knew that Hunter would have some stern words for her over ignoring the orders of the security personnel, but it was what it was. Everyone at the meet and greet session had gone away happy and she had also seen that she was trending on Twitter, with a lot of people sending her messages about how awesome she was to have done what she had done. People had said things like "That's the difference between Ronda and everyone else at WWE," and other people had written about how great she had been to everyone that had spoken to her. Her popularity was soaring ever higher, and Hunter was a smart guy. He would know that this could only be a good thing in the long run, for both her and WWE. Popularity for her meant money for them.

The fact that Seth had cleared out of the convention centre and left her to it pissed her off a little, but she wasn't going to make an issue of it. When all was said and done, he had done the right thing and followed orders. Her plan now was to go find their locker room right away and make sure that things were okay between them. The plan didn't even get off the ground, however, as a runner came up to her before she got halfway down the first hallway. "Ronda? Stephanie McMahon wants a word with you, right away please."

"I need to put my case in my locker room," Ronda told him dismissively, sighing inwardly at the mention of Stephanie's name.

"She said right away," the runner insisted, stressing that it had been an order not a request.

"Fine," Ronda growled. "Where?"

"Follow me." They headed off along the hallway and, a couple of minutes later, they arrived at a closed wooden door. "Right in here," the runner said, before quickly making himself scarce.

Wasting no time, Ronda knocked, opened the door, and walked into the office. "You asked to see me?" she opened, not bothering with any kind of fake pleasantry. She realised that this wasn't Stephanie and Hunter's own office. The furniture was not expensive enough for one thing. This was someone else's office that Stephanie had taken over for the purpose of this meeting, so that it would happen in private. There was only one reason that she would have done that, and that was so that she could tear into Ronda without Hunter being there to intervene. "Come at me, bitch," Ronda thought as Stephanie stood from behind the cheap looking desk.

"Why is it that you find it impossible to do what you're told, Ronda?" Stephanie began, her voice cold but not aggressive.

In the back of her mind, Ronda heard a voice telling her that she should apologise for her actions, swallow her pride, and get out of the office as soon as she could, but that had never been the way that Ronda Rousey had lived her life, much as she wished it was at times. "I'm here before the call time, everyone left the session happy, and I'm trending on Twitter. What's your problem?" she saw the anger building up in Stephanie as she spoke.

"You are the problem," Stephanie said, walking around the desk. "Your attitude is disgusting. You think you're something special, that you're better than everyone else around here and you don't have to live by the same rules as long as it makes the fans happy."

By this point, Stephanie was standing in front of Ronda, close enough to be intimidating to some people, but not to Ronda, who fired right back, "Still pissed off that I didn't lose your stupid handicap match, huh? Maybe you should look at your so-called creativity to find the real problem."

"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Stephanie snarled, starting to lose control in the face of Ronda's insolence.

"Why are you in my face?" Ronda asked with a sneer. "You don't intimidate me, believe me. If Hunter has a problem with what I've done, I'll speak with him about it. He's the boss after all."

Stephanie totally lost it, screaming right in Ronda's face. "You will not speak to me disrespectfully like that! I am your boss and you respect me as such!"

Despite any number of things that she could have said to push Stephanie's buttons even further, Ronda heard the voice in her head again and realised that she would only land herself in deeper hot water with Hunter, the real boss, if she let this thing go any further. She settled for imagining herself beating the hell out of Stephanie as she backed down. "Alright, you can stop screaming. I'm sorry, okay? I don't accept that what I did was wrong. Every one of those fans left that convention centre happy today, and I'm proud of that. You're going to punish me for defying the security guys. You don't have to punish me for it, but you're going to. I know that."

"You're damn right I am," Stephanie huffed. "You're going to be fined fifty grand for what happened today, and take this as a final warning about your attitude. You might think that you're something special because the fans love you and you draw money, but I have news for you. That doesn't mean you're bulletproof. I'll tell you in plain English: Improve your attitude and do it fast if you want to keep your job. You only have a one year contract, and we're under no obligation to extend it. Don't forget that." She gestured to the door. "You can get out now."

Ronda left the office and closed the door behind her. As she walked along the hallway, she felt a different kind of anger rising inside of her; anger at herself. The voice in her head began to chirp away at her once more, telling her that she was the one in the wrong here, not Stephanie. The voice was right. "You're doing it again," she mumbled to herself, thinking about all of the jobs that her confrontational attitude had cost her in the past. She stopped walking and closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath and let it out. She knew what she had to do. "God damn it," she growled before turning around and heading back towards the office. When she got there, Stephanie was just walking out of the door. Ronda saw the surprise on Stephanie's face that her tone of voice caused when she spoke. "Stephanie, can we go back inside? Please?"

Stephanie's head cocked to one side slightly for a moment as she looked at Ronda, looking like she was wondering if this was indeed Ronda standing in front of her or someone else who looked like her. "Okay," she agreed, eyes narrowing slightly in confusion. The two women walked back into the office and Stephanie closed the door. "What is it?" she asked. She certainly didn't expect the torrent of emotion which was to come next.

Ronda shifted awkwardly on her feet and looked down at the floor as she began to speak in awkward, sort sentences. "I'm sorry, Stephanie. I really am. I know I shouldn't do the crazy things that I do, and that I shouldn't speak to you like that, either. I just, I can't help myself. I've always been like this. Every job I've had I've ended up losing because I clash with the people I work for and I don't follow orders. I don't want to do this stuff, but it just happens. I just can't seem to help it. Like today, I knew that I shouldn't have defied the security guys like I did. Seth even told me not to do it, but I still did it. Then I come in here and give you a bunch of attitude. You're right to cut loose at me and to fine me. But what you're not right about? You're not right about me playing Hunter to get this job. I never did that. I came here in good faith as a referee. When I signed for WWE, I never thought that I would be able to wrestle or anything like that again. You know why? Because I broke my neck, God damn it. I broke my neck and I nearly paralyzed myself. I was so scared that I might hurt myself again, even though I was cleared by the doctors to do things like I'm doing now. Thankfully, I met Seth and he helped me to get past it, and then Hunter was good enough to give me this job because he saw how good I could be. I was so lucky to get the job and I love it. I love it so much and I don't want to lose it." By this point, she had tears in her eyes, but she forced herself to look Stephanie in the eye. Her voice broke as she continued, "I want this job. I want to be the best. I didn't play you Stephanie. I didn't play your husband. I didn't."

As she had listened to the outburst of raw emotion, Stephanie had felt stunned. She believed what Ronda said about her neck injury and how she had been struggling with the mental trauma it had caused her. The emotion in her voice and, more importantly, in her eyes couldn't be faked that well. The fact remained that Ronda had been pushed too fast, but that was not really her fault. She could hardly have been expected to turn down the opportunity to join the Raw roster when it was offered to her. As for the attitude problems, it was clear that she was a troubled woman, and it was also clear that deep down, she knew it.

Stephanie was left in a tough spot as she tried to think about what to say in reply, and what to do with Ronda in the long term. Only minutes before, she had been screaming in Ronda's face, but now a different type of management was required. Over the years, she had seen her father deal with many people who were difficult to manage for various reasons. It was hardly a rarity in the wrestling business. Now was Stephanie's turn to try to do it for herself. Rather than Ronda being someone who needed to be gotten rid of, she could actually be an opportunity for Stephanie to show what she could do as a boss. Leading a company the size of WWE was not as simple as screaming at everyone until they did what you wanted. No, there were other ways to succeed. If Ronda really meant what she said about wanting to change her destructive and disrespectful attitude, she needed to be given a chance to prove it.

"Wipe your eyes Ronda," Stephanie began, trying to calm down her employee. "You can't keep going around doing whatever the hell you want and mouthing off at me and others, but I hear what you're saying. If you really mean it, and you really do want to keep this job, then we can't have things like what happened today, or that night when you broke script, happen again. You need to get in line, Ronda. Having said that, and having heard what you said about your past jobs, I'll do what I can to help you. You can be one of the biggest stars we've seen in this business." She pointed at the office wall, but she was clearly referring to the arena. "Out there, you have it all. You're a great wrestler and you have the rarest kind of connection with the fans, but back here you've got a lot of improving to do." She paused again before making a final decision about the next thing she had to say. "Also, I need to apologise. You're not the only one who's been unprofessional and disrespectful here. I see that I was wrong to accuse you of playing us in order to bypass the developmental process and NXT, so for that I apologise."

Ronda nodded her acceptance of the apology with a hint of a smile, realizing that it was a big step forward. "So, what happens now?"

"What happens now is I have to tell Hunter what we discussed here, and you should probably tell Seth about it too. I know Hunter will be pleased to learn that we've managed to work this thing out and that you've promised that this wild stuff will stop. If you still find yourself struggling for any reason, or thinking that you might do something stupid, you can always come to one of us and we will talk it over with you and do our best to help you. We take care of our employees here, Ronda, despite some of the bullshit you might hear from certain people."

"Thank you," Ronda said. She looked down at the floor before mumbling, "Seth's pissed at me. He didn't like what I did earlier. We kind of rushed into this thing and he doesn't really know me all that well. He doesn't understand why I do the stupid things that I do. Hell, I don't even understand why I do them. They just happen at the time and... I don't know." She shook her head in frustration.

"He loves you, Ronda," Stephanie said as she opened the office door. "Anyone who sees the two of you together can see that you love each other. Come on, let's get back to it."

Ronda followed Stephanie out of the office. "Thank you for listening to me. I know I sound stupid, or crazy, but like I said, I don't know why I do some of the things I do. I'm going to try my best not to let it happen again."

"Again, come find Hunter or myself if you need to talk about something." With that and a reassuring smile, Stephanie headed off along the hallway in the opposite direction to Ronda, feeling a lot better about Ronda and also about herself. Showing someone understanding and kindness in order to get the best out of them was more satisfying than getting there by shouting at them. A minute later, she walked back into the office which she shared with her husband. When she walked in, she greeted him with a smile. "Hey, honey. Wait until you hear about the conversation that I just had."

Monday Night Raw 27th April 2015

Following a video package to recap the cage match at Extreme Rules, Sarita Lopez was shown in her locker room, apparently furious, in the process of reading the riot act to her two teammates. "I mean, we didn't just put one of you in that cage match, we put you both in it! Both of you! You had one job to do!" she screamed in Anna's face before moving on to Alex. "One job! All you had to do was make sure that one of you won that stupid Money in the Bank briefcase!"

"You saw what happened, they ganged up on us," Alex reminded Sarita.

"They ganged up on us," Sarita whined, mocking her. "I suggest you two idiots remember how exactly you got promoted to the Raw roster. You owe JBL, and, more importantly, you owe me. You failed in what I told you to do, and that's not acceptable."

Anna looked angry, but she assured Sarita, "We know what to do tonight. Everything will go according to plan."

Sarita looked down at the shorter woman, her voice quiet but threatening as their noses almost touched. "That damn well better be what happens, or you'll regret it." She returned her attention to Alex and spoke to her in the same manner. "Both of you." With that, Sarita walked away, leaving Anna and Alex looking angrily after her.

"I thought those guys were teammates," Cole mumbled.

Later in the show, following a video package to recap the Extreme Rules cage match, Renee Young was shown, ready to give an interview. "Please welcome, Sarita Lopez." The crowd booed loudly as the shot panned out to reveal Sarita. "Sarita, we saw what looked like a heated exchange earlier tonight between you and your teammates, Anna Hollenbeck and Alexis Styles. We've never gotten an insight from any of you as to what your relationship is?"

Sarita looked insulted by the question. "An insight into our relationship?" she asked, sarcastically. "There is no relationship. Those two were brought in to do what I tell them to do, when I tell them to do it."

"It almost sounds like you're hiding behind Anna and Alex," Renee ventured.

"Hiding behind them? I'm the Divas Champion," Sarita reminded Renee, holding the title belt in her face as she did so. "I'm the most dominant woman in the WWE."

Renee moved on. "You're not concerned about the fact that you owe Nikki Bella a one on one rematch? Or that you owe Ronda Rousey a one on one rematch? Or that Brie Bella has a Money in the Bank contract that she can cash in at any time? I'm sure each of those women could claim to be more dominant than you."

"You don't think I'm dominant, Renee? I'll prove it to you." Before Renee could react Sarita had caught her with a right hand and knocked her down. The crowd booed as Sarita began to stomp the fallen and defenseless Renee.

"Come on!" Cole pleaded. "Renee Young isn't a wrestler! Stop that!"

Sarita stopped attacking Renee and glanced off to her right before running off along the hallway. When they saw the reason for it, the crowd cheered loudly. Ronda Rousey came running past Renee, who lay crumpled up on the floor, and chased after Sarita, who had already covered half of the length of the hallway in a full sprint.

"Look at Lopez running from Rousey," Booker T said, as if the sight amused him.

Sarita was shown in a different hallway now, running down it and around the corner at the end. Cole said, "I hope Ronda catches up to her and kicks her..."

"Careful," Saxton cut in. At that moment, Ronda reached the corner that Sarita had disappeared around, but as she tried to turn the corner herself, she was met by a clothesline from Anna Hollenbeck. Alex appeared also and the two began beating Ronda down.

"Damn it!" Cole exclaimed. "Those two again, going to work on Ronda."

The beating lasted for several moments before Sarita reappeared, holding a steel chair. She delivered a kick to the side of Ronda's head, which seemed to almost knock her out. "Get that crap off her knee," Sarita barked at Alex, who began unwrapping the bandaging on Ronda's injured knee.

When the bandaging had been removed and tossed aside, Sarita raised the steel chair high above her head. "Not this again! No!" Cole cried out, but Sarita smashed the chair down on Ronda's knee, as she had done when she had first inflicted the injury.

Ronda rolled around on the concrete floor, holding her knee and screaming in agony as her three attackers walked calmly away. "Someone needs to do something about this," Booker moaned. "Sarita Lopez is out of control."