Disclaimer: Still own no one. Anything discussed here is strictly my imagination. Don't know what's going to happen at SummerSlam, so if it turns out I'm right, don't get mad.
Leigh strolled into Sacramento's Arco Arena; tonight would be her first RAW as a member of WWE's creative team. She arrived early and walked into the bowels of the stadium. The heels of her black Nine West pumps clicked against the concrete floor as she searched valiantly for the meeting room. She was early but wanted to get herself situated for the upcoming day.
The past month has been a whirlwind for Leigh. After accepting the position, Steph and Vince told her they'd ideally like her to start as soon as possible. She was sent home to Houston to settle her affairs and then was offered the corporate apartment in Stamford until she found a suitable place to live. Leigh had been working the shows from Titan Towers since then, attending meetings via conference calls and communicating with other members of creative, who were on the road, thanks to the wonders of fax, email and cell phones.
Steph initially told Leigh that she would be starting out with the RAW brand; attending house shows on the weekends when necessary and following that up with the 2 hour live broadcast on Mondays. While Leigh got along well enough with her creative team members, she did sense some discord from some of the men. She had walked into the Head of Creative's office with no wrestling experience to speak of and managed to charm herself into being Steph's right-hand woman. Leigh wasn't worried, however; she knew that she could back up all her ideas and they had been the right ones. The RAW ratings had been steadily climbing since she officially came on board three weeks ago. She was obviously doing something right.
Leigh had been the one to suggest the Battle Royal gimmick to get Randy Orton into the number one contender's slot. Vince was ready to go all the way with the young rookie, but Leigh wasn't convinced yet. She knew better than to try and change McMahon's mind, however, and came up with a way to make the win look believable. She knew that with the Iron Man match on the card, there would be a lot of wrestlers annoyed that they had to show up for RAW without any t.v. time, so she figured this would be the best way to accommodate everyone. Having the correct order of elimination, however, would be everything.
Rhyno had been at the start of a decent push, finally coming up from the ranks of Velocity. Leigh had several conversations with Paul Heyman concerning his ECW phenom. She knew that the wrestler's talents were being wasted and he could be a huge monster, preferably as a heel. His intensity and drive were there, he just hadn't been given a chance. Having Rhyno among the last eight contenders had been a good plan; he could perform his signature moves and allow the fans to see how devastating he really could be. Coupling that with Jim Ross' outstanding commentary and there would be no stopping the man.
The Edge and Chris Jericho combination had been a good idea, as well, thanks to Brian's input. He was determined to start a feud between the two Canadians and needed the reason. Having them team up to eliminate a good portion of the Royal combatants, and then Jericho eliminating Edge (accidentally on purpose) will hopefully lead to a good feud down the line for Edge's Intercontinental belt. That left only Randy Orton, Vince's up and coming golden boy, and Chris Jericho, an outstanding proven talent that could have a good match with a broom. It was vitally important to have Jericho as the last eliminated; the two men would wind up having at least a two minute match and Chris was going to have to make it shine. Leigh knew that he could be counted on to put Orton over without hurting any of his own momentum.
As the remaining members of the Creative team filed into the make-shift boardroom, Leigh went to refill on her cup of coffee. She ran into Stephanie on the way back, and the two spoke like long-lost college friends.
"You ready for your first real day here, Leigh?" Steph asked, smiling.
"As I'll ever be. I'm actually excited to see the production side of everything, too. Will I have time to slip off to the booth during the show?"
"Honey, we're home free when the show is actually going on! Honestly, though, we should be okay. I'd like to go over a couple promos with you for Trish. She gets so nervous when she gets in front of a mic, so I'd like you to look them over and make sure she sounds natural." Steph led Leigh into the boardroom and got everyone to settle down. Vince was still out from his recent hospital stay and Steph was relishing the power that was handed to her. Her husband, Paul, came in and kissed her, and then sat down. He shot Leigh a grin and winked, hoping to make her feel more comfortable. Steph and Leigh had been spending a lot of time together lately when the Levesque's weren't on the road, since the two women were so close in age. Finding they had a lot in common, she had been a welcome guest in their home on more than one occasion.
"Good morning, everyone," Steph said, glancing around the room. The small group of creative team members and bookers grumbled their hellos. Even though the weekly shows had been going smoother, they still had to be at the arenas at ungodly hours. "We've got the line-ups settled for tonight, but why don't we start out with SummerSlam. We're only 3 weeks away and we need to get some more matches lined up and need to increase the build up for the announced feuds. Any ideas?".
"Actually, I have a thought," Leigh started, tucking her bangs behind her ear and adjusting her glasses, while ignoring more grumblings from around the room. "Thanks for that overwhelming response. I was thinking last night about Benoit v. Orton…"
"I'm sure you're not the only woman who thinks about Randy Orton at night," Michael Hayes laughed good-naturedly. He grinned at Leigh before she continued.
"That's a sick fantasy life you have there, Mike. Seriously, though, I'm having some issues accepting it."
"You've got to accept it. It's a little late to go back now, Leigh," Paul said while drinking a bottle of water. He wasn't sure where she was going with this.
"I'm not saying I'm not going to accept it, hell, I'm looking forward to it. My issue with it is that you have Randy Orton, who's fresh off his title loss not one month ago, going forward to main event a combined pay-per-view with Chris Benoit."
"Thanks for the summary, gorgeous; now what's your point?" Brian Eiworth piped up.
"My point is that there's no reason. Why is Triple H giving up so easily on what he considers his title to have it handed to some pretty boy, even a pretty boy that's in his faction? Honestly, Hunter has been wrestling Benoit since April trying to get the title back, but Randy's going to go in and win it on his first attempt?" Leigh glanced towards Stephanie's husband to gauge his reaction. Paul was incredibly protective of his Triple H character, with good reason. He had been the one to stick around when the company was going to pot during the Monday Night Wars and had been rewarded handsomely when the then-WWF started to take the lead again. He had taken advantage of the opportunities presented to him and had undoubtedly made the most of them. Like him or hate him (and, for the record, Leigh loved to hate the character), he played a large part in getting the company back on the right track. Austin and Rock were the 'stars', but they needed to have good opponents to get them in the limelight. Paul Levesque had happily put them there.
"What are you trying to say, Leigh?" Stephanie asked.
"I think we should do a series of training matches before SummerSlam. Stay with me here. Randy's talking to Batista in the dressing room, going on and on about how excited he is to be going up against Benoit for the world title. He doesn't hear Hunter come in, so Hunter stands behind him, just glaring, I mean completely shooting daggers with his eyes. Randy finally notices his leader and starts backtracking about how HHH was robbed by Eugene and how Evolution is going to get back at him. Then HHH brings up the fact that Randy didn't go down to the ring at the end of last week's match with Batista and Flair." Leigh looked around the room as she spoke. She could see she had gotten the attention of everyone with her excitement and grinned. "So, then HHH says something to the effect of 'No hard feelings, I'm sure you were exhausted' blah blah blah, and then offers to help Randy train."
"That's good; Triple H wants the title back in Evolution because, obviously, that's where it belongs," Paul started, while many in the room groaned. He smiled before going on, looking from Leigh to Stephanie and back to Leigh again. "And what better way to make sure that happens than to have Hunter involved in it from the start?"
"Plus, it makes sense because no one on the RAW roster knows Benoit better right now. Triple H has been wrestling him since March, knows his moves, knows his ring psychology," Stephanie said, now getting excited about the prospect. If they did a series of these, it could take them right into SummerSlam. Possibly have Benoit come out to help call the matches with JR and Jerry Lawler, or even just going down to ringside to scout out his opponent.
"Not only that, but to also have Ric Flair giving his two cents'? This is wrestling gold!" Brian Eiworth jumped out of his seat.
"Wait a minute, Leigh. I agree these are great ideas, but do we really want to give away Triple H vs. Randy Orton on free tv? That's what's probably going to headline Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania next year; we need to keep it fresh," Paul said. He liked the ideas, but wasn't sure about the execution. Without Vince around, he needed to keep the bottom line dollars in mind.
"Okay, then, how about you coach Randy? We could do a Flair vs. Orton and then Batista vs. Orton. Possibly build up a HHH vs. Orton for the week before SummerSlam, but have you sidelined with an injury that week. That's it! For the second match, you're supposed to go out to the ring with Randy, but he can't find you. He thinks you've dumped him for the night, because you've been acting weird ever since the Battle Royal, when, in actuality, Eugene's jumped you backstage. You're hurt and have to sit out the week before SummerSlam; you're preoccupied with making sure Orton brings the title back to Evolution, plus you've got Eugene on your back and you just snap!"
"Leigh, you've just earned yourself a gold star," Steph grinned. She knew she had made the right decision in hiring Leigh. The newcomer had proven herself valuable beyond her wildest imagination. "Okay, everyone, why don't we take a quick break and then we can go over the rest of the line-ups for tonight's show. Meet back here in 10 minutes."
As the group slowly dispersed for coffee refills and bathroom breaks, Leigh knew she had hit the jackpot. She had been worried about Paul's reaction to her proposal, but he seemed to be embracing the series whole-heartedly. She watched the Levesques smile and converse as Stephanie wiped away a crumb from the corner of Paul's mouth; she felt a pain that she thought was long gone. She missed Jim.
The remainder of the morning was spent plotting out the night's show; they outlined matches and changed outcomes. They added a Highlight Reel and tried to figure out what they would do with the Diva Search plot. Leigh knew they couldn't drop it from the storylines, but wished they could. She hated the fact that these women were taking up valuable television time, and knew that the fans resented it, too. She found it unbelievable that WWE could make beautiful women boring.
After the break for lunch, Leigh made plans with Stephanie to go around the different locker rooms and formally introduce the newest member of the WWE family. Before doing so, Leigh knew she needed to meet up with Trish Stratus and go over her promo. The diva had been sidelined with a hand injury as of late, but being the women's champion, Leigh knew Trish needed to be kept in the forefront of an angle. She couldn't wait until Christian was back from his own injury; she had so many ideas for that pairing.
As Leigh walked down the backstage corridors, she shuffled through the pages of conversation she and Marc Andrews had come up with for Trish during her backstage encounter with Lita. Marc was a member of the creative team as well, and found they both had a knack for writing out conversations that didn't sound too stilted. He had asked Leigh to dinner several times, but she always managed to find an excuse not to go. Apparently he finally got the hint and seemed resigned to a friendship.
Leigh smiled as she realized how much she was enjoying herself at her new job; it seemed the perfect fit for her newly created life. She almost found herself questioning her luck, when she tripped and her files for Trish went flying.
"Shit!" she muttered, bending down to collect them.
"That's no way for a lady to talk," a deep voice answered.
Leigh glanced up quickly at the figure before letting out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.