Monday Night Raw – 12th March 2018

Kurt Angle was shown in his office backstage, busy on his phone, as often seemed to be the case. He looked up when Finn Balor approached him. Watching on the screen in the arena, the fans cheered loudly.

"Finn," Kurt greeted him. "Something I can do for you?"

"Yeah, Kurt, there is. You can tell me what you're doing about what happened last week. In case you missed it, I had Seth Rollins beat, again, and Zelina Vega cost me the match, again. That's twice now, and I've had more than enough of it."

"I understand. I totally understand," Kurt said in a placatory manner. "Frankly, I'm reaching my limit with Rollins and Vega as well. With that said, you'll probably be pleased to hear the match I've made for tonight's main event. You will be facing Seth Rollins one on one, again. And if you win, you'll be added to the Universal title match at Wrestlemania, making it a triple threat match."

The fans cheered their approval of that announcement.

Finn smiled to signal his appreciation. "Thanks, Kurt."

Angle just nodded as Balor walked out of the office.

On commentary, Corey Graves was not nearly as happy. "This is getting ridiculous. More bias from Kurt Angle against Seth Rollins. I want to know what Zelina Vega has to say about this."


Graves didn't have to wait long for his answer. After the next match, Renee Young was shown standing outside a locker room with Seth Rollins' name on the door. She had drawn the short straw with the assignment to break bad news again.

"I'm here outside Seth Rollins' locker room, hoping to get a word with Seth or Zelina Vega about tonight's main event, where Finn Balor with meet Rollins one on one. If Balor wins, he gets himself into the Universal Championship match at Wrestlemania."

Following that introduction, Renee knocked on the locker room door. It opened after just a moment, and Zelina walked out.

"Look who it is," Vega said dryly. "What is it this time, Renee? A plague of locusts? You must have some bad news to bring?"

"Actually, I do," Renee said, coming close to sounding pleased about the fact. She was obviously getting to the end of her rope with being talked down to. "Kurt Angle made a match for tonight: Seth Rollins against Finn Balor one more time, and if Finn wins, he gets added to the Universal title match at Wrestlemania."

Zelina closed her eyes and bunched her fists up at her sides in anger. After a moment, she was able to open her eyes again and speak. "You're not winning any friends here, Young, you know that? This is blatant abuse of power by Angle. Seth Rollins already won the right to face Braun Strowman, and Angle himself said the victory was legal."

"But Seth is still in the match," Renee pointed out. "The issue is whether or not Finn gets added."

Raising her eyebrows, Zelina cocked her head to one side slightly. It was hard to imagine a more threatening look. "You're on thin ice, Renee, and you're wearing spiked golf shoes. Not a good position to put yourself in. Do you understand me?"

"Yes. Uh, thank you for your time," Renee said hurriedly, before making herself scarce.

With a final glare in the direction of the retreating interviewer, Zelina went back into the locker room to break the news to her client.

"That went about as well as I expected," Graves commented.


A bit later in the show, Sasha Banks was shown doing some warm-up exercises in a hallway. Finn Balor, her partner in the recent Mixed Match Challenge, approached her.

"Hey, Sasha," he greeted her.

"Hi, Finn. How are you?"

"I'm doing a lot better now that I found out I have another shot at the Wrestlemania main event. I've got to beat Seth Rollins tonight."

Sasha nodded. "Yeah, I heard. You got this. You already nearly beat Rollins twice. If it wasn't for that witch Vega, you would have."

Finn nodded this time. "Exactly. That's why I came to find you. I wanted to ask you a favour."

"I'm listening," Sasha said, intrigued.

"Like you said, I've proven I can beat Rollins one on one. I should have done it at Elimination Chamber, and I should have done it again last week on Raw. But he's got Vega out there with him; that's the problem I've got. She always manages to find a way to get involved, and get away with it. I was thinking, maybe you could do something about her for me?"

Sasha considered that for a moment, then a smile spread across her face. "With the way she walks around here like she's the second coming? Sure, I got you."

Finn smiled broadly. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

"You got it."

"I don't like the sound of that for Zelina Vega," Cole opined as Balor walked away, leaving Banks with a mischievous look on her face.

Graves had to agree. "No, neither do I."


With Raw's main event at hand, Finn Balor was shown walking through the backstage areas towards Gorilla. There was an expression of sheer determination on his face. If he wanted to appear at the biggest stage of them all, he had to get the job done in the coming match. It was do or die for the Irishman.

"Here comes Finn Balor," Cole said. "He's focused; he's motivated. One victory over Seth Rollins is all that separates him from going to Wrestlemania."

The shot cut to Seth Rollins, also walking towards Gorilla. Contrary to his opponent, Seth didn't look focused at all. In fact, he looked distinctly distracted. The reason was obvious: he was walking alone. La Arquitecta – the one he had come to rely on - was nowhere to be seen.

"There's Seth Rollins," Graves said. "But where's Zelina Vega? She should be coming out here momentarily with her client. I smell the hand of Sasha Banks in this."

The show went to commercial.


After the break, Cole welcomed the viewers back, with Finn Balor already in the ring. "We're back on Monday Night Raw, and we've taken our final commercial break. We'll be with our main event until its conclusion, when we'll find out if Finn Balor is going to Wrestlemania."

Rollins' music hit, drawing some boos from the fans. He walked immediately out onto the stage, but stopped for a moment to look back at the curtain. He spread his arms in confusion, clearly lost as to where his manager was.

"Here comes Seth Rollins," Booker announced. "And as you can see, he's not sure, as we're not, where Zelina Vega is. Since Elimination Chamber, they've gone everywhere side by side."

"I don't know where Vega is, but it's obvious that Seth's not focused or prepared for this match," Graves objected. "It should be postponed until we can figure out what's going on."

"Postponed," Booker mocked. "Or maybe Seth can just wrestle Finn one on one, how about that?"

"Wait a minute," Cole interrupted.

The shot had just changed to show some kind of dingy backstage storeroom. Sasha Banks was in there, putting the finishing touches on tying Zelina Vega to a wooden chair. There were black chords securing each of her wrists to the arms of the chair, and her ankles were secured to the legs in the same manner. Tying a knot in the final, longer chord, which was wrapped around Vega's chest below her breasts to secure her to the back of the chair, Sasha smiled in satisfaction at her handiwork.

"You're going to regret this, Banks!" Zelina raged at the top of her voice, straining ineffectually against her bonds. "This had nothing to do with you! Now you've attracted my attention, and that's not going to end well for you!"

"Girl, do you ever stop shouting at people?" Sasha asked, cringing away from her.

Ignoring the question, Zelina screamed, "You'll pay for this! Let me go! Now!"

"What, so you can go out there and ruin Finn's match again? I don't think so, boo."

Zelina roared like a wild beast, straining to break free. "I'll get you Sasha! You'll regret this!"

"I think I've heard enough of that garbage," Sasha said. "Besides, I don't want someone coming in here before the match is over and letting you go, now do I?" With that, she rolled up a white cloth that she had been holding and crammed it into Zelina's mouth.

"Mmmppph!" the Latina cried in surprise.

"Now something to keep that in there," Sasha said. She had one more white cloth to use. She forced it between Zelina's teeth, then tied it around her head tightly. There was no way she would be able to force the packing out of her mouth.

Over the top of continuous, but muffled, rage-filled protests, Sasha made for the door. Before leaving the room, she gave a cheeky little wave. "Bye, Zelina. Have a good night."

"Mmmmmppphhhh!" Vega screamed after her as the door closed.

With that, the shot returned to the ring, where the match between Balor and Rollins was underway.

"Cole, Sasha Banks is out of control," Graves complained. "Braun Strowman was out of control last week. Finn Balor was out of control the week before that. Every week we have people attacking Seth and Zelina, and Angle does nothing about it. I'm telling you, there's an anti-Rollins conspiracy going on here on Raw."

Cole didn't sound sympathetic in the least. "Personally, I think that new look suited Zelina Vega. Maybe we can find a storeroom for her every week? It's certainly a lot quieter out here without her."

"You think this is funny?" Graves demanded.

"It kind of is," Booker had to admit. "Actions have consequences in this world, as Zelina Vega is finding out right now."

"You want to talk about actions and consequences?" Graves countered. "I wouldn't want to be Sasha Banks after tonight, I can tell you that."

As it had been the previous week, the Balor – Rollins match proved to be one of the best of the night. The action was back and forth, with both men having the advantage for substantial periods. While the contest went on, there were short, periodic cuts back to the room where Zelina had been left by Sasha. She was shown struggling with her bonds and yelling into gag. None of her efforts were producing a noticeable result, and no one was coming to her rescue.

In a carbon copy of the previous Raw episode, the match took a decisive turn when Balor seemed to get a second wind and hit a string of fast-paced offensive moves.

"Slingblade!" Booker called as Finn hit the move. "Rollins is in big trouble."

"This is very reminiscent of last week," Cole said.

Indeed it was. Balor started backing up into the corner in preparation to run across and hit Rollins with a dropkick into the opposite corner. This was the moment in the previous week's match where Zelina had interfered and cost Finn the match with a low blow. This week, she wasn't there to do it.

Spiriting across the ring, Finn launched himself at Seth, connecting with a powerful dropkick. The fans were going wild, sensing a victory on the cards.

"Finn Balor heading to the top rope!" Cole yelled over the raucous atmosphere.

"Someone stop this!" Graves protested. "This is not right!"

He was the only one in the arena who seemed to think so. The fans went crazy as Balor came off the top rope and connected with a Coup de Grace.

"Balor into the cover!" Cole called.

Everyone in the crowd joined in with the count.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"He did it! Finn Balor wins!" Booker called out loudly.

"Finn Balor is going to Wrestlemania!" Cole added.

"This was a travesty!" Graves raged. "Seth Rollins was in no state of mind to compete out here without his manager. I blame Balor, I blame Banks, and I blame Angle!"

"Blame whoever you want," Cole said while Balor celebrated with the fans. "Finn Balor will compete in a triple threat match at Wrestlemania against Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman, and the Universal Championship will be on the line."

The shot cut back to the room Zelina had been shut away in. She still hadn't been able to do anything to free herself. The door opened and Kurt Angle walked in.

"Gmm mmph mmmmpph!" she growled at him through the effective gag.

"I'm sorry this happened," Kurt said, quickly setting about untying the cloth that was wedged in between her teeth. He pulled it free and she spat the mouth packing out onto the floor.

"Untie me, God damn it!" she raged at him. "I need to get out there to Seth!"

"It's a bit late for that," Kurt said as he worked on freeing her wrists. "Balor already won."

Zelina roared like a wounded animal and thrashed against her bonds once more. "This is your fault, Angle! You let this happen! You practically made this happen!"

"Just sit still so I can get you free, will you?"

To Angle's surprise, she actually did as he asked. Within thirty seconds, all of the bonds were removed. Zelina shot up out of the chair as soon as she was able and rushed out into the hallway. There was a cameraman out there.

"Banks!" Zelina snarled, looking right into the camera lens. She had the expression of a woman possessed by the devil, such was her anger. While she ranted, the Raw branding appeared in the corner of the screen, signalling that the show was about to go off air. "I'll make you regret tonight. You just wait. I'll make sure you get hurt for doing that to me. I'll make sure you get hurt so badly that every time you close your eyes during your rehab, you see my face. I'll make sure you get crippled, Sasha. And then I'll haunt you. Watch me."


A/N: Many thanks to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter. Your support is always appreciated.

Once again, things didn't go well for our heroes in this Raw episode. Sasha Banks added her name to the Vega hit list in a big way.

For those who aren't huge fans of the kayfabe stuff, worry not. We're back to Seth and Zelina off-screen next time. This will also be the last Raw I cover before Wrestlemania, now that we know what the Raw brand's main even will be.