Sleeping on a plane had never been something that Thea was able to do easily, which wasn't good considering that the flight from LA to London's Heathrow airport was scheduled to take more than eleven hours. At least WWE had booked her and Adam in first class along with Seth and Ronda, who had also organised a first class seat for Maggie. Thea wasn't sure if they had managed to pull strings and get that extra seat paid for by the company too, but it definitely would not have surprised her.
With sleep ruled out and the in-flight entertainment consisting of movies that she had already seen, Thea had decided to spend the time putting thought into the documentary and the plans that she had for the rest of it. There was also time for reflection on what had happened so far. Perhaps the most surprising thing to date had been Ronda's reaction to Paige's aggressive rant about her, or rather the lack of reaction to it, at least compared to what Thea had expected.
"Doesn't surprise me," Ronda had snorted after she'd watched the whole thing. "That's the way some people are around here. When the only thing a person can do is resort to personal insults rather than coming to you face to face to argue their points, you know what kind of weak individual you're actually dealing with."
"I expected you to want to go find her and have a fight about it or something," Thea had said, rather frankly.
"Fight her?" Ronda had looked at her quizzically. "Why? Because she insulted me? That says a lot about her and nothing about me. Have I insulted Paige at any point? No. All I've said is that I find her to be weak. That's my opinion and I'm entitled to it. All she's done with this little outburst is prove me right. If she has a problem with me, my locker room isn't hard to find. It's the same as that meeting she was talking about, where Hunter asked me to lose to her twice. You want to know why I refused? Because it made no sense, and no one came with a reason as to why it made sense. They just wanted me wrestle Paige three times and lose two of them out of the blue. No build to it, no rivalry, nothing. That's why I refused it. It wasn't personal against Paige, despite what she might think. I rejected the idea because it was crap. Look at my record with WWE and you can't possibly tell me I don't put people over. I've never won a match at Wrestlemania. If they had come with a good idea that ended with me putting her over that actually had a purpose, I would have done it. Of course, she didn't mention any of that to you, did she? No. It's all about poor little Paige not getting what she wants."
And that had been that. Thea had been left thinking that she wasn't sure which version of the story was closer to the truth, or whether they both were and it was just that Ronda and Paige were people with two very different outlooks on how business should be done. She decided that it would be good to speak to Hunter himself on the subject if the opportunity presented itself. Regardless of who was right, it seemed very strange to her that Ronda had the stroke to outright veto a creative idea like that. It sure looked like favouritism, despite what Ronda obviously believed. It was impossible to believe that things would have gone the same way if it had been Paige trying to refuse to put her over is a similar situation.
The rest of the previous week had been spent following Ronda to events that had been organised first by WWE - a meet and greet on Wednesday and a Make-A-Wish visit to a children's hospital on Thursday - and then a photo shoot for Adidas, her main sponsor, on Friday. It had been a frantic schedule, but the filming had gone well and they had gotten plenty of good material that could be used for the show.
Things had slowed down to a much more reasonable pace over the weekend, with Seth and Ronda spending time at home together like any other married couple. Thea had found it nice to see how happy there were together. Again it had struck her that Ronda's demeanor was a lot different when she was around Seth. There could be no doubting the fact that he was a stabilising force in her life. Thea was also starting to genuinely like spending time with Ronda too. Once you got to know her a bit and she loosened up around you, she could actually be a lot of fun. The two of them had shared some stories from their past over a few glasses of wine, which had resulted in almost hysterical laughter on several occasions.
Absently looking around the cabin, Thea's gaze settled on Adam for a moment, which caused her to grin as she thought about the weekend's other notable event. After Seth, Ronda and Thea had gone to bed Saturday night, Seth had gone back downstairs for some reason. On his way past the living room, he had glanced in there and had seen Adam and Maggie making out on the couch. Unclear as to exactly how Ronda and Seth thought of their housemate, Thea had wondered if the rocket would go up when Ronda found out about it the next morning, and had suspected that she might call off the whole documentary and throw them out of the house, but that hadn't been the case at all. For some reason, Thea had gotten the idea in her head that there might be some kind of protective, almost parental instincts from Ronda and Seth towards Maggie, but she had been proven wrong on that. Ronda's reaction, far from anger, had been to tease Maggie about it. Not only had that been a relief, it had also been amusing.
Sleep definitely wasn't on the agenda for Adam or Maggie either, Thea saw. They had asked to be seated together and were talking the flight away as if there was no tomorrow. It was impossible to feel anything else but happy for them because from the little that Thea knew about them, they both seemed like genuinely nice people who deserved happiness. If it worked out that they were able to find it together, good for them.
Closing her eyes again in a vain attempt to find sleep, Thea found herself looking forward to spending a couple of days in London. It was going to be her first time visiting England. While Tuesday was going to be spent with Ronda and Seth at the O2 arena for Smackdown, they had set Wednesday aside for some private time in order to do some sightseeing. That promised to be fun, she thought.
"This can't be good," Seth mumbled to Ronda. They had just arrived at the 02 arena, with Thea and Adam in tow as was now always the case. Approaching their locker room, they could see that there was a runner waiting there for their arrival, which could mean only one thing: One of them was going to be summoned to see the boss for some reason. If it was urgent enough to have someone standing there waiting for them, there had to be some kind of problem. "Ten bucks says it's you," he grinned at his wife.
"No bet," Ronda chuckled. "I've probably said or done something to piss someone off. Either that or someone else has, and I'm going to get the shit for it."
"Ronda, you're wanted in Hunter's office right away, please," the runner said when he noticed them approaching.
Much as she would have liked to, there was no point in griping at the guy about not even making it into the locker room yet, so Ronda just allowed him to lead the way, purposely not looking at Seth so that she didn't have to see the grin that she knew would be on his face. It would only have started her laughing, and she had the feeling that whatever was going on, walking into Hunter's office laughing wasn't going to be an appropriate thing to do.
Sensing that something out of the ordinary was going on, Thea decided that the best thing she could do was keep her mouth shut, stay out of the way and let Adam film whatever was about to transpire.
When Ronda knocked on the door to Hunter's office and walked in, she was surprised to see that the place was almost full. Half of the Divas roster was in there, along with the boss himself. "Ah, Ronda, good," Hunter said. "You're the last one I needed." It was a simple statement rather than an accusation; she had arrived well before the call time.
"What's going on?" Ronda asked, looking around at everyone who had apparently been awaiting her arrival. Emma, the current Divas Champion, was there along with Bayley, Elena D'Agostino, Sarita Lopez and Nikki Bella. The first thing Ronda noticed was that Emma looked very upset.
"Emma hurt her back at a live event a couple of nights back," Hunter said. "We've had some scans done on it today, and it's going to require her to take some time off. It's a real shame, but it obviously means we've got to do something with the title. Emma has said that she doesn't just want to forfeit it - she'd rather put someone over, so we've given her some injections to get her through a match tonight, although she obviously can't take many bumps. We're going to make it the main event, which is the first time a women's match has been the main event of a WWE show in England. After the long reign Emma's had, no one will be expecting the title to change hands. It should go over well."
"But who's going to get to be the new Champion?" Nikki asked, which told Ronda that the others had heard the story up to this point before she had walked in, but no further.
"We've been working on that all day," Hunter said. "We've managed to come up with something that I like. So, here's what we're going to. The title is going to go on you, Daga." Before the Italian Diva could thank him for giving her the first title reign of her career, Hunter added, "But not tonight. You against Emma would be heel versus heel, and that's no good. We also wanted to do something a bit special with Ronda tonight because it's the first time she's been to England with us since she re-signed."
When she heard that, Ronda expected to be told that she was going to win the title later in the night, only to drop it to Elena the following week. That wouldn't be a problem for her, she decided immediately. As Hunter continued though, she soon realised that she was wrong.
"What we're going to do tonight is put the title on you, Bayley," Hunter said, smiling at the soon-to-be Champion, who would also be winning the strap for the first time. "Then next week, you're going to drop it to Daga. I assume you don't have a problem with that?"
The question was an attempt at humour. It was obvious that Bayley would have no problem putting her girlfriend over for the title. "Of course not," Bayley giggled, looking at Elena with something approaching delight at the prospect, knowing how much it would mean to her to be the Champion.
Creative thinking not being her strong point, Ronda was confused. "Where do I come into all of this?"
"I'm about to tell you," Hunter replied. Over the next five minutes he outlined the rest of what he had planned for later in the night.
Footage courtesy of WWE Network
Bayley was in the middle of some warm up exercises backstage when she was interrupted by Nikki Bella, Sarita Lopez, Elena D'Agostino and Emma. The four women who had inflicted a sickening beat down on her the week before quickly surrounded her, leaving her with no means of easy escape.
"Bayley, maybe you can tell me why Sarita and I have just been told that we can't have the rematch that we're owed for our tag team titles tonight?" Nikki began, talking to Bayley as though she was the lowest form of scum on the planet. "You know, the titles that you and Ronda Rousey stole from us at Survivor Series?"
"And even worse that that," Sarita said from behind Bayley, "We find out that you've been put in the main event tonight, wrestling Emma for her Divas Championship. Why is it that you get two title matches in less than two weeks?"
"Maybe someone felt sorry for me after the four of you attacked me from behind and beat me up last week, for no reason?" Bayley suggested sarcastically.
"Oh, there was a reason," Elena assured her. "We had to do something about you and Ronda teaming with each other. That idea didn't work for us. But we don't have to worry about that tonight, do we?"
"That's right, we don't," Emma said, getting up close to Bayley and brushing some of her hair away from the side of her face in a gesture that only seemed even more threatening because of how gentle it was. "Because we all know there's no way Rousey is going to be here tonight. She's not going to show up in this embarrassment of a country, is she?"
Drawing cheap heat like that was easy. The crowd in the arena booed loudly as they watched on the big screen.
"Even if she was here, we all know Ronda doesn't want to team with you," Elena sneered. "Even your so-called partner doesn't give a crap about you."
"You're right, Ronda's not here tonight, and she might not want to team with me for all I know, but I don't need her help," Bayley said defiantly. "I can beat you one on one, Emma. I won't need anyone's help to do that. But is it going to be one on one, or is it going to be four on one like it was last week?"
"You think I need help to beat you?" Emma snapped back at her, offended by the suggestion. "I can easily beat you one on one, Bayley. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. There will be no outside interference tonight."
"That's right," Sarita said. "We're going to watch from the back and enjoy the beating that Emma gives you. Then when she's beaten you and left you lying in the ring with one of our tag team title belts, we might come down and have some fun with what's left of you."
"See you later, Bayley," Nikki snarled, then slapped her hard across the face.
"I've got a bad feeling about this for Bayley," Mauro Ranallo said, then the show went to commercial.
The main event had been underway for more than ten minutes, with Emma having the upper hand for almost the entire contest. "You've got to hand it to Emma," JBL said. "She told us she'd come out here tonight and take Bayley apart one on one, and that's exactly what she's done."
"So far," Ranallo added poignantly. "One thing we know about Bayley is that she's someone you can never write off. She never gives up."
Emma whipped Bayley across the ring, intending to send her into the ropes, but the referee found himself in the way and was unable to react and move quickly enough. Bayley hit him full force, sending flying through the ropes out to the floor, where he lay motionless. "Oh, Bayley just inadvertently took out the referee," Otunga said.
The challenger, perhaps unwisely, turned to check on the referee. Taking full advantage of the mistake, Emma ran at Bayley and hit her in the back of the head with a powerful forearm. After Bayley collapsed to the mat, Emma glanced out of the ring at the referee. Seeing an opportunity, she turned towards the entrance ramp and began beckoning for someone to come out.
Someone actually turned out to be three people. "Come on now," Ranallo complained. "Here come Sarita, Nikki and Elena. We saw these four women bullying Bayley backstage earlier tonight."
"Now you're going to see it again," JBL said, relishing the prospect.
"Emma said she was going to fight Bayley one one one," Otunga complained.
The three new arrivals all rolled into the ring and joined Emma in brutally kicking and punching the fallen Bayley, who tried her best to curl up into the fetal position and protect herself from the blows. The crowd booed loudly at the sickening display.
"Looks like she lied," JBL said with an unseen smirk as the attack continued.
"This isn't a wrestling match, this is a mugging," Ranallo said.
After a few moments, Emma hauled the nearly lifeless Bayley to her knees and then shoved her towards Sarita, who got her in position to deliver her finishing move - a sit down powerbomb.
"Come on, this is not right," Ranallo said angrily as Bayley was lifted into the air. "Sarita Lopez with a sit down powerbomb on Bayley. This is not fair, JBL. How can you be enjoying this? Bayley is being crucified by these four women, and there's no referee to stop it."
"It's a fantastic main event," JBL said. "What's not to enjoy about it?"
In the ring, Emma was issuing more instructions to her impromptu teammates as she hauled Bayley back to her feet again. This time Elena rolled out of the ring and pulled a steel chair out from under the apron. The crowd began to chant "Becky" as Elena got back in the ring, in the hope that the Irish Diva might come to Bayley's defense, having originally been scheduled to be her partner at Survivor Series the week before.
Emma had hauled Bayley back up for a third time and was now holding her from behind, pinning her arms behind her so that she was powerless to block the chair shot that Elena began to carefully size up, taking a couple of practice swings with the chair. "Elena's going to finish Bayley once and for all here," Otunga said, making his distaste plain.
Having seen a similar spot many times in the past, a large number of the crowd expected Bayley to break free and duck when Elena swung the chair, leaving her to nail Emma with it it instead, which would give the challenger a way back into the match. When that didn't happen and the chair actually did hit Bayley in the head, the fans groaned in real disappointment. Their cry for help to Becky Lynch hadn't worked, and now Bayley was out cold in the middle of the ring. Out of resignation, the crowd now fell almost silent.
"Well, this is over," Ranallo said, deflated. "Emma and her new friends have really done a number on Bayley."
Ronda's music hit, causing the kind of eruption from the fans that could only come from a mixture of total surprise and sheer delight. "Wait!" Ranallo yelled as Ronda marched out onto the stage holding a steel chair. "Ronda Rousey is here!"
Emma was shown with a look of horror on her face, barking orders at Nikki and Sarita to go and deal with Ronda. Nikki was first to obey, rolling out of the ring and running at Ronda, with her partner not far behind. It had only taken a few seconds for all of this to happen. Ronda was halfway down the ramp when Nikki reached her. After kicking her in the stomach, Ronda brought the chair crashing down onto her back, with the crowd roaring their delight at the impact.
"Ronda with a chair to the back of Nikki!" Ranallo called out.
Seeing that Sarita was quickly approaching, Ronda swung the chair as she turned, catching Sarita with a much harder blow to the side of the head than she would have liked. The crowd didn't care about that, greeting the second impact with another roar of delight.
"Down goes Sarita!" Ranallo exclaimed. Elena met a similar fate as she rolled out of the ring, trying to block Ronda's approach. "Down goes Elena!"
Emma had picked up the chair that Elena had used to hit Bayley only moments earlier. After Ronda rolled under the bottom rope, Emma ran at her with her chair held above her head. The plan failed miserably. Seeing her coming, Ronda kicked her in the stomach and then as Emma doubled over in pain, took a baseball style swing at her head with her own chair. Luckily, Emma blocked most of the shot with her hands or the impact could really have been really nasty. Ronda's adrenaline had gotten the better of her, but that didn't matter to the fans. Another roar of delight accompanied the devastating impact.
"Down goes Emma!" Ranallo shouted as Ronda angrily tossed the ruined chair across the ring and then rolled back out under the bottom rope. "Ronda Rousey just knocked out four people with a steel chair! She hit everyone in the ring apart from Bayley!" The crowd were too busy cheering wildly to chant anything as Ronda walked away up the ramp, leaving the destruction she had caused behind her.
It seemed to take a moment for everyone to realise that the match was actually still in progress. Emma and Bayley were now the only two people in the ring, and they were both struggling to get to their feet. Once again Emma picked up Elena's chair, only to repeat her previous mistake by running at Bayley with it held above her head. Bayley had no weapon of her own, but she was still able to counter.
"Bayleycanrana!" Ranallo called out, over another deafening roar from the crowd. This time the challenger was back on her feet almost immediately, poised and ready to strike Emma, who was using the ropes to pull herself back up.
"Oh, Bayley's going to... Yes! Bayley-to-Belly! Bayley hooks the leg! We need a referee!"
"Here he comes!" Otunga called out. "The referee is getting back in the ring!"
Most of the crowd still didn't seem to actually buy the fact that Bayley was going to win, not after the amount of time that Emma had held the title, and not in England, where WWE never booked anything of significance, for some reason. Their disbelief was obvious from the way they joined in with the count and the sheer elation that greeted the three.
"Wow, Ronda," Thea said backstage, with genuine awe in her voice. The crowd continued to go absolutely crazy for Bayley. "I've never heard a crowd like that before. The roof came off the damn place when your music hit. What a moment. Look at them out there. Bayley must be buzzing so much right now."
"Yeah, it went well," Ronda said, not sounding surprised at all.
"It must be such a rush to get a reaction like that?"
"There's nothing else like it," Ronda confirmed with a nod and a smile.
Nikki and Sarita walked through the curtain, still selling the chair shots that they'd taken until they were out of sight of the crowd. "Christ, Ronda," Sarita said irritably, walking over. "You want to swing any harder with that thing?"
"Sorry," Ronda said, surprisingly convincingly. "You came at me a bit quick so I had to react. Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Sarita sighed, although she still didn't look particularly happy about it.
Emma came through the curtain next, with Elena helping her. Thea looked on as Ronda walked over to the now former Divas Champion and put an arm around her. Although she couldn't hear the quiet words that Ronda said to Emma, it was obvious that they were supportive in nature. She was able to lip read Emma when she said, "I will. Thank you."
It was another side of Ronda that Thea hadn't seen before. She had seen a colleague who was hurting both physically and mentally and had wanted to try and help somehow. "What did you say to her?" she asked when Ronda walked back over to her.
"Something she needed to hear," Ronda said evasively. "She'll be back, better than ever."
Meanwhile, Bayley had just walked through the curtain with the title belt that would belong to her for the next seven days, as well as the tag team belt that was hers for a longer period. Ronda and Thea watched as she shared a tight and loving embrace with her girlfriend. Both of them were struggling to hold back tears of joy. Similar scenes were to be expected the next week.
"Nice girls, those two," Ronda opined quietly. "I'm glad Daga's getting a run with the belt. It's overdue." They waited out of the way while the other women congratulated Bayley. Hunter and Stephanie showed up and also passed on their congratulations and praise for an excellent night's work. Emma also received kind words from them. It stood out to Thea that Ronda was most definitely not the centre of attention for once, although Hunter did come over and say a few words about her part in the finish. Even that didn't seem to offend Ronda, who still had a smile on her face. Predicting her mood was next to impossible, or at least it seemed that way to Thea.
"Thank you, Ronda," Bayley said when she eventually walked over. There was technically no reason for Bayley to thank her because she had just been doing her job out there, when all was said and done, but that was the kind of person Bayley was.
"Nothing to thank me for," Ronda said, slapping her on the shoulder. "I'm just glad it went over so well. You deserve it. You'll never forget a moment like that."
"Thank you. That means a lot," Bayley beamed.
"Enjoy your night. I'll see you next week," Ronda smiled back. It would have taken the coldest of hearts no to, with it being so obvious how delighted Bayley was.
"See you next week," Bayley said.
Neither of them could possibly have imagined how differently they would be feeling the next time they saw each other. A lot can happen in a week.
