A/N: I tried to publish this chapter yesterday, but I was told no one could access it because of the site issues. Hopefully we have better luck today! Enjoy!
Tuesday Night Smackdown – May 8th 2018
Earlier in the show, Stephanie McMahon had added a stipulation to the cage match between AJ Styles and Seth Rollins for the WWE Championship. The winner would be the first person to escape the cage. There would be no pinfalls, no submissions, and no disqualifications. One way or another, there had to be a definite winner. Stephanie had cited the cowardly way that Bayley had retained her Smackdown Women's Championship by deliberately losing by count out the previous week as the reason.
When AJ was able to deliver a top rope superplex to Seth, the first real chance for one of the competitors to win the match was at hand.
"Both men have put so much into this contest, but Styles is crawling for the door," Renee said. "All he's got to do is get out of the cage and touch the floor with both feet, and he will regain the WWE Championship that he never lost."
"Well, he did lose it. Seth Rollins is the WWE Champion," Graves pointed out sarcastically.
"You know very well what I mean," Renee fired back. "Zelina Vega and her cartel stole the title from AJ at Fully Loaded."
"Speaking of Vega," Coach said as she was shown on the screen standing at ringside, in front of the commentary table, looking very concerned with how the match was proceeding inside the cage, where she could do nothing about it other than shout encouragement to Seth. "She looks very worried to me. Styles is halfway to the door."
Seeing what AJ's intention was, the referee went over and opened the door, then stood in perfect position to make the decisive call if Styles managed to touch the floor with his feet.
When AJ made it to the ropes near the door, Seth was only just starting to stir.
"Get up, Seth!" Zelina screamed, frantically grabbing hold of the cage.
It was obvious that Rollins wasn't going to catch AJ in time. Walking around the corner of the ring, Zelina looked towards the door in panic. Her man, her cartel, were about to lose the WWE Championship.
The noise in the crowd rose when Zelina started marching towards the door. They knew she was going to do something, and were trying to warn AJ.
"Watch Vega," Coach said in a warning of his own.
Neither the crowd nor commentator were able to alert Styles to the danger. As he started to climb through the ropes and stuck his head out of the door opening, Zelina grabbed hold of the door itself and slammed it shut as hard as she could.
"Damn it!" Renee yelled as the crowd groaned their disappointment. After a few seconds, they began to vent their anger at Zelina, booing loudly. "Vega just slammed the cage door on AJ's head! He could be out cold!"
"Get away from there!" the referee could be heard shouting at her angrily.
Holding her hands up in a protestation of innocence, Zelina walked back around the ring towards the commentary table.
"Renee, sit down," Graves said, before the audience had a chance to see what was going on.
"What the hell was that?" Renee shouted, still wearing her headset. The shot changed to show the fact that she was on her feet, remonstrating with Zelina as she walked around to that side of the ring. "AJ had Rollins beaten, again! Why can't you just stay out of it, Vega?"
"Renee," Coach said, urging her to calm down.
"Who do you think you're shouting at?" Zelina demanded as she approached the table, reacting heatedly to aggression being shown towards her, especially by a commentator.
"I'm shouting at you! I'm sick of seeing you cheating all the time! You and your cartel are just pathetic bunch of cheats and cowards!"
The look of fury on Zelina's face had to be seen to be believed. By now, most of the fans were focused on the drama unfolding at the commentary table and were cheering Renee on.
"Get out of my face and sit down, before I put you down!" Zelina shouted in Renee's face.
This time, Renee was too angry to back down. She shouted right back at Zelina: "Why don't you get out my face? Go crawl back into whatever hole in the ground you come from every Tuesday, parasite!"
There wasn't even a pause before Zelina reacted, shoving Renee hard in the chest, sending her flying back onto her chair, which then tipped over backwards with her momentum, leaving her a crumpled mess on the floor, up against the barricade.
Satisfied, Zelina stood there for a second with a cocky expression on her face, indifferent to the boos and abuse that were raining down on her from the stands.
"Renee, are you okay?" Coach asked, leaning down to check on her.
As Zelina turned around and stepped closer to the cage to resume watching the match, Graves was left to carry the commentary. "We've got Renee Young down out here behind the commentary table, and we've got Seth Rollins taking it to AJ Styles in the ring. Yes, there is still a match going on."
"Are you okay?" Coach's voice again, obviously talking to Renee.
The shot changed to show the commentary table again. Renee was on her feet now, looking dishevelled, and seriously pissed off. She had her headset in her hand, having picked it up from the floor, but rather than putting it back on, she slammed it into the commentary table in a gesture of pure anger.
Seeing that, the crowd realised that Renee had literally been pushed too far by Zelina this time. They started going crazy as Young stormed around the back of Coach's chair. It was obvious where she was heading.
"What's she doing?" Graves demanded.
Oblivious to anything going on behind her, Zelina was still standing in front of the commentary table, next to the cage, focused on the match.
Young rushed at Vega from behind, grabbed the back of her head and slammed it into the steel cage. The reaction she got from the crowd sounded like she had just won a championship.
As she hit the cage and went down to the floor, Zelina knew this was the moment she had to sell this rivalry if it was going to amount to anything. She had to put Renee's attack over. Pleasingly, Vince had agreed, and had instructed that a small blood capsule was to be passed to her by Coach. The handover had gone like a dream, while the ringside cameraman had been showing Renee sprawled on the floor.
Lying face down, under cover of holding her head in pain, Zelina went to work with the blood capsule while Renee added insult to injury with a mouthful of furious abuse.
The sight of Renee Young standing over a fallen Zelina Vega was apparently nectar to the fans. The roof had almost come off the place at the initial attack, and it now sounded like every single one of them was chanting, "Yes!"
Happy that she had done the best she could to make it look the right side of her forehead was cut open, Zelina rolled over onto her back, looking up at Renee with a look of total shock on her face and even some fear in her eyes.
At the sight of the blood, the fans erupted again. They were delighting in what had been done to the evil bitch Zelina Vega.
Zelina was happy to see that Renee was also playing her part well. She stood there looking down with an expression that said, "There's more where that came from."
Selling it even more, Zelina raised a hand slowly in a defensive manner.
Then, as had been planned, a bunch of backstage personnel came running onto the scene. Some of them started shepherding Renee away, escorting her to the back, while others acted the part of helping Zelina up and leading her to the back also, around the opposite side of the ring.
It was music to Zelina's ears when another chant broke out. "You deserve it!" was soon reverberating around the arena. They really despised her. That was great, both for her and for the rivalry with Renee. Once the match was made, they would be desperately hoping to see something like what had just happened, or even worse, from a Vega point of view.
Shortly, Zelina had been led around the side of the entrance ramp and the stage, then through the curtain to the back. Renee was there waiting, and so was TJ Wilson, the road agent for their rivalry, with a damp towel to get the fake blood off her face. It was a nice touch on his part. The guys who had walked her to the back quickly disappeared.
"Great job, Zelina," TJ said as he stepped forward. "You sold that really well."
"Thanks," she replied, meaning for the compliment and the towel, which he had just started to put to use.
"Are you okay, Zelina?" Renee asked with some nervousness.
"Fine," Zelina assured her pleasantly. "Relax, you did a great job out there."
"Thank you, Zelina, seriously. You were amazing, making me look like a legitimate threat out there. The look on your face was priceless."
"Let's hope it's going all over Twitter," Zelina said as TJ finished his towel work. "Thanks, TJ."
"You got it," he said.
With that, the three of them walked off, heading in the direction of the locker rooms and Gorilla. They chatted about what they thought the writing team might have happen in their rivalry on the next episode, before they passed by Gorilla and Zelina said she would wait there for Seth. His music was playing in the arena; the cage match having just ended.
A couple of minutes later, he came walking through Gorilla, carrying his title belt. The way he smiled when he saw Zelina made her stomach flutter. Only true love made someone smile like that when they saw you.
"Hey," Seth said, walking up to her. Sadly a kiss was out of the question. Stupid secrecy, she thought.
"Hey yourself," she smiled up at him.
"They got the blood off you pretty quick."
"That was TJ. He was ready with a damp towel for me."
"Good of him," Seth said genuinely. "Christ, the fans lost it out there when Renee attacked you. I didn't expect it to go off like that."
"Neither did I. I guess I really do have heat."
"You're certainly hot," Seth said, telling her exactly what he was thinking with his eyes.
"Save that for the hotel," she told him, before biting her bottom lip seductively. She knew he was a sucker for that. They could make a proper night of it, too, since this wasn't a tour bus night. Hotel tonight, airport tomorrow morning, she thought. Sadly, they would be catching separate flights.
Zelina's flight to Orlando on Wednesday morning was an earlier departure than Seth's flight to New York. With that in mind, he had sat with her at her departure gate until it was time for her to board.
"I hate this," she said, holding him tightly as they hugged.
"Me too, muñeca. At least it's only tonight we're apart. I'll get the Today show appearance out of the way, then I'll be straight to the airport to come home. And then we have no shows until Monday. It'll be Friday, Saturday and Sunday, just you and me."
"Mmmm," Zelina purred, loving the sound of that. "I say we don't leave the house."
"I say we don't leave the bedroom."
Zelina looked up at him, smiling. "Your ideas are always better than mine."
Seth laughed softly, noticing that there wasn't much of a line left for boarding her plane. "You should go through, babe."
"I guess," she said reluctantly. "I love you, Seth."
"I love you too, so much."
They exchanged a passionate kiss, then, with a heavy heart, Seth released the embrace he had held her in for several minutes.
"I'll see you tomorrow, baby," Zelina said.
"You will. I'll miss you, muñeca."
"I'll miss you, too." She turned and walked over to the back of the line to proceed through the gate.
Seth stood there, having no intention of leaving until his girl was out of sight. He watched as her boarding pass was checked. Before walking through the gate, she turned and gave him a gorgeous smile and a wave. He forced himself to smile and wave back, glad that he could at least keep that smile she had given him in his mind while they were apart.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the last chapter. Even with the site acting up, you guys are still smashing the support, and it's much appreciated.
Renee did a number on Zelina and the fans loved it! What's going to happen on the next episode?
