Warnings: Slash (Roman Reigns/Shane McMahon), Drunkeness, Hangovers.
He doesn't get it. His father is a stubborn old man, and Shane knows that, but he'll never get his father's obsession with big, muscular men. It's a running joke really. In Vince McMahon's house of oily boys in panties fighting you have to be big and strong to get anywhere. The guys that the fans get behind doesn't matter, what Vince wants is what happens. Shane listens to fans, mostly because he is one. The booking annoys him as much as it annoys the hardcore fans, but again that's because Shane is one. He loves professional wrestling. He loves the drama, the humour, the athleticism. He loves wrestlers, from the powerhouses to the high-flyers. He admires the men and women who get in the ring and lay it all on the line, but Vince doesn't. Vince likes the guys he can shape and form into his own superhero.
The latest of Vinnie Mac's chosen ones isn't much if you ask Shane. Somehow still green, on the mic and in the ring, and the man should never be allowed near interviewers unless he's been scripted. That was the opinion Shane met Reigns with, and it's still the opinion now. He's been back for a while now, and there's a solid reason he's over on the B show. If Shane had been picking his roster, he'd have taken all the Indy darlings he likes, but he'd not been given an actual pick so he has who he has. He resents Stephanie getting certain guys, he'd kill to have his hands on Zayn or Owens or Cesaro, but he's got who he has, and he's not complaining. There are some gems on his roster, and he's delighted with his on-screen cohort, Bryan's a blast to work with. Whilst it's not the roster he'd have picked, he is glad that he got Cena rather than Reigns.
"Hey, Boss-man." Ambrose is a strange one. Shane likes him, certainly admires his in-ring work, but backstage he lurches from hyper and overexcited to maudlin and lethargic. Today, he seems to be in fine spirits, which is always a bonus.
"Morning." Shane smiles easily, and wonders what Ambrose is there to discuss, because he looks like he's got something on his mind. "What's up?" He gestures to the chair beside him, but Dean shakes his head and grins.
"No time for sitting, Boss-man. I'm here to do some inviting then I gotta go over a segment with Ellsworth." Dean fidgets from foot to foot, grooving to a tune only playing in his head. Some of his in-ring mannerisms are carried over to his everyday life, but all the best gimmicks are really. The amount of beers he's had with Uncle Steve confirms that.
"Inviting?" Shane can't keep the smile from his face as he watches Ambrose's grooving shift into something more like nervous fidgeting.
"Yeah, yeah… Me and a few of the boys are having some Christmas drinks tonight. Nothing too crazy! And we thought we'd invite you along. Kind of like a work night out… Just in the hotel bar. We're grown-ups and know that we got work in the morning. I mean if you don't wanna I'll fully understand." Dean smiles awkwardly, and Shane barks a laugh.
"You sound like a kid telling his mom he broke her favourite vase." Shane shakes his head, and gets to his feet to clap Dean on the shoulder.
"Hey, I just thought I'd extend the offer. If you're not up for it, I understand. I mean you're the boss-"
"Dean. I'll be there. I love work nights out. Tell the boys the tab's on me." Shane grins at the slightly shocked expression on Dean's face, but he can't blame him. When it comes to being the boss, Shane O'Mac, and Vinnie Mac are two very different men. Shane believes that the way to get the best out of your employees is for them to know that you're all in this together, that their boss is human just like them. But Shane's father wants his employees to see him like a god, and to believe that their jobs hang on the capricious whims of their master.
"Alright! We're meeting after the show. See you there, Boss-man." Dean grins straight back at Shane, and heads off with a spring in his step. Shane shakes his head, and gets back to work.
After the show the Smackdown Live crew assemble in their hotel's bar. Again, unlike his father, Shane always tries to stay at the same place as the boys. He knows he romanticises the idea of wrestling, but he can't help it. He grew up in the midst of it, and he loves it. There's a very good reason he has no fear when it comes to leaping off stupidly high things. It's pretty much all he can do when it comes to being in the ring, but he can do it and do it well. So, he does it and loves every second of it.
"Alright!" Kane's taken charge of the first toast as the most veteran of the veterans there, his glass raised with a smile on his face. "We've a lot to be celebrating, and I know we're gonna have to sit through a thousand of these over the course of this, but the first toast goes to one man." Kane looks over at Shane and tilts his glass at him. "Our boss. The man who's doing everything he can to help us become the A show. Ladies and gentlemen, to Shane." The rest of the roster chorus to Shane, and Shane hopes he's not blushing, because he thinks he might be.
"I dispute me getting the first toast." Shane gets to his feet, and holds his glass out. "The first toast should go to the people who are making Smackdown the A show." He waves his glass around the gathered men and women. "My first drink goes to all of you. Thank you." He drains his drink, and thumps the glass down on the table. "I don't know if Ambrose mentioned it, but it's an open bar tonight." A cheer sounds, and Shane retakes his seat, then bangs his glass on the table. "So, who's getting me a refill?"
The night progresses, and Shane's glass is definitely refilled more than his fair share of times. He's gotten a drink handed to him by everyone on the roster, and he's feeling more than a little cheerful when Ambrose approaches him for the third time with a new glass in his hand.
"Boss-man!" Ambrose throws an arm around Shane's shoulders, and gestures to the two men who are with him. "You sober enough to recognise the enemy?" Dean laughs, and Shane rolls his eyes, taking the glass from Dean's hand.
"Seth! It's great to see you again! You here to jump ship to the better show?" Shane hugs Rollins, much to his apparent confusion. Stephanie always did follow in their father's footsteps more closely, so Shane supposes that hugs from the boss aren't all that common over on Raw.
"How much have you put away?" Seth laughs, and claps Shane on the shoulder.
"Not enough." Shane drains the drink he'd taken from Dean, and grins at Seth. "Reigns." He nods at Roman, but nothing more. He's not impressed with man, and not even drunk Shane in all his inebriated joy can pretend to be.
"Shane." Reigns sounds slightly putout, but doesn't otherwise comment.
Talking with Indy guys is always a joy for Shane, and Seth seems to have been gifted to him for that purpose. It's a slight point of annoyance for Shane that he never really got much of a chance to tap the various Indy guys who came through the WWE in his absence, but now that he's back he loves hearing tales of matches for twenty, and high school gyms. Shane is at heart a wrestling fan, and listening to Seth talk about his time out in the Indys fills him with glee and a slight dose of jealousy. Reigns returns from wherever he'd been about an hour into Seth, Dean and Cesaro, another Raw interloper, regaling him with Indy stories. Shane supposes he should try and include Reigns in the conversation somehow, but his mind is caught up in all the chatter about exciting Indy matches and the fact that he's been on a Samoa Joe kick lately which had led to them discussing Joe.
"Have you ever wrestled Joe?" Comes out of Shane's mouth instead of any sensible question for Reigns. The big Samoan looks at him blankly for a moment and then nods.
"Yeah, I wrestled Joe." Reigns shrugs, and Shane fills with glee. He never knew, and finally there's something he'd want to talk to his father's latest favourite about.
"Really? When? I never knew that. I'll have to get the tape from the library." Shane sounds too excited, at least based on the looks he's getting from Seth and Dean.
"It wasn't a thing though… Just a match." Reigns sounds confused, and takes a sip of his beer. "Why you looking at me like that? We've all wrestling Joe. He's good, but he's not that great. Nothing like his dad."
"Ro, I don't think you're thinking of the same Joe." Seth says it slowly, and Shane pointedly finishes off his drink. His father's latest isn't wrong about Joe Henning, but Samoa Joe is a different kettle of fish all together.
"What Joe you talking about then?" Roman drains his beer, and scowls.
"Samoa Joe… Big guy down in NXT." Dean flags the bartender over, and gets them to refill Shane's glass. "I don't think you know him."
"Nah, it ain't ringing any bells." Reigns laughs, and Shane stamps down the urge to start listing off some of the incredible matches Joe's had in his career. It doesn't matter. This is a silly work night out, and he's not going to get riddled up, he's going to get liquored up instead, and not worry about Stephanie's employees cluttering up his good time. "If he's one of my people I should though." Roman mutters.
"Shots!" Seth says suddenly, and Shane can find no flaw in that plan. The night gets fuzzy after the first shot. It happens in snapshots. Shane drinking and laughing with Ambrose, flirting with a giggling Alexa and a flirting back Becky, dancing on someone big and male, more shots, more flirting with Naomi, more dancing, a taxi, then a bed.
The next morning Shane wakes up feeling groggy. His head is throbbing, and his body still feels drunk. He doesn't recognise the hotel room he's in at all. The bedspread is different to the one in his room, and the luggage on the chair definitely isn't his. He groans, and buries his face against the pillow. He's gone home with someone, and knowing him it'll have been one of the boys, because Shane likes being one of the boys a bit too much. If he's lucky it'll be someone from the Raw interlopers, and if he's very lucky it'll have been Seth, but he'd not object to having landed Cesaro. The Swiss Superman isn't too hard on the eyes, and he certainly looks like he'd know how to show Shane a good time. Although, his body doesn't feel like it had a good time last night, so maybe it was one of the ladies from his own roster he bedded.
"Hey, c'mon get up. I gotta plane to catch, so I gotta get outta here." Shit is the first and only thing that runs through Shane's mind.
"What happened last night, Reigns?" Shane asks it with as much innocent inquiry as he can muster. Reigns laughs, and holds out a glass of water along with two tylenol.
"You proved that no one can out shots Ambrose, and that for an older gentleman you got the moves on the dance floor. Then you forgot what room you were in, and the other two had other plans." Reigns smirks, and Shane quietly fills that away for future reference. If Ambrose and Rollins are a thing, it might be useful leverage in getting Rollins to come over to Smackdown.
"Thanks for the bed, Reigns." Shane drags himself out of the bed, stuffs his feet into his sneakers, and shuffles over to the door. He's sure his room's on the third floor, and he's sure he'll find it before he needs to puke. Reigns regards him coolly.
"Any time, but don't go accusing me of sucking off your dad again then try to kiss me again." He laughs, and slams the door in Shane's face.
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