Arriving at Full Sail University for the first time was quite a moment for Sonya, and she could tell that Mandy felt the same way. Some day, with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck, they would be showing up here every few weeks to take part in NXT TV tapings themselves.
For now, though, they were on the very bottom rung of the ladder. Their purpose for being there was not to wrestle, it was to help put the ring together and set up the arena for the show. Sonya knew that it was part of what was known as paying dues, and she had no problem with doing so at all. Whatever she had to do make it in WWE, she would do.
The thing Sonya and Mandy were both looking forward to the most was the chance to meet the members of the active NXT roster for the first time. They had been talking about it nonstop since they had finished training earlier in the day. William Regal had told both of them they had made a good start to the promo classes, which had helped to put them in good moods.
The backstage area at Full Sail was small, which meant that finding the women's locker room was a simple task. Opening the door and leading Mandy inside, Sonya saw that they were the first two recruits to arrive. As if that wouldn't have made her feel awkward enough, the entire NXT women's roster were there, presumably having been given an earlier call time.
"Uh, hi," Sonya said shyly, which was uncharacteristic for her.
Becky Lynch happened to the one standing closest to the door, so she was the first to greet the new arrivals. "Hello. Good to meet you. I'm Becky," she said in her strong Irish accent.
"Sonya Deville," she said with a smile. "And this is Mandy Rose."
"I thought we moved away from people like her when Vince McMahon retired," Sasha Banks said at the far end of the room, referring to Mandy and speaking to just loudly enough to ensure that everyone heard her.
Six months earlier, in a move that had shook the wrestling world to its core, Vince McMahon had decided to retire, and instead of leaving his shares in WWE to his children as everyone had expected, he had sold a controlling interest in the company to an English businesswoman by the name of Lucy Thorne. Under Thorne's ownership, Hunter Helmsley and Stephanie McMahon had stayed on in their existing jobs. The new boss had wisely left Hunter in charge of NXT, recognising the great job he was doing with the developmental brand.
Sasha's unpleasant comment was clearly a jab at Mandy's appearance, making reference to days gone by, when Vince had hired female wrestlers for their looks, not their in-ring abilities. It was a remark that Sonya deeply resented. She wanted to stand up for her lover, but she knew that making a scene moments after showing up would be a bad career move. Glancing at Mandy, she saw her thinking the same thing.
"Don't be like that, Sash," Bayley said, also at the far end of the room. She walked forward, smiling at Sonya and Mandy. "Hi, I'm Bayley. Come in, please. You guys have lockers in the back corner here."
"Nice to meet you, Bayley," Mandy said, ignoring Sasha's comment. "Do I have Trish's old locker? I do at the Performance Centre."
"Yeah, you're over here next to Lacey."
"Which one was Clementine's locker?" Sonya asked.
"Clem was next to Trish," Bayley said as they followed her over to the lockers.
Lacey Evans gave them both a welcoming smile. "You guys are giving me flashbacks right now. It doesn't seem like five minutes since I was walking in here not knowing anyone. Don't worry, none of us bite. Well, maybe Sasha does sometimes." It was supposed to be a joke, but after the comment about Mandy, Sonya didn't find it funny.
Kairi Sane was next to come over and introduce herself, followed by another woman Sonya had been wanting to meet, Shayna Baszler.
"Sonya, I'm looking forward to working with you," was Shayna's opener, taking Sonya by surprise.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah. I saw one of your fights. Your second one, I believe. You won by knockout."
"Yes, that was my second fight," Sonya confirmed.
Shayna nodded. "It'll be good to have someone else with an MMA background to work with. I figure we could put on one hell of a fight somewhere down the line."
"I was kind of hoping for that to happen, so it means a lot to know you were thinking the same thing."
With Mandy chatting away to Lacey, apparently quickly making a friend, Sonya stood and talked to Shayna for a while about their backgrounds in MMA fighting. Shayna provided some knowledgeable insight into how Sonya could take the skills she had already learned and adapt them into her move set in wrestling. It was advice that Sonya greatly appreciated, knowing full well that any chance to learn from someone more experience than her was not a chance she should pass up.
"On one of the shows we're taping tonight they're announcing me as the one to face Elena D'Agostino in her debut at the next Takeover," Shayna said eventually.
As probably the biggest names in women's wrestling never to have appeared in WWE during her career, D'Agostino had recently been snapped up by NXT when her contract with a rival promotion had expired. The news had only been made public a couple of weeks ago, with the announcement being greeted with a lot of hype by fans online. Sonya could only hope that one day the name Sonya Deville could illicit that kind of reaction. It was something to aspire to for sure.
"That'll be something to see," she said in response to Shayna. "You guys will tear the house down, I'm sure."
"Thank you, I do hope so," Shayna said. "I'm hoping for a run with the title soon, and giving me this opportunity shows that I may be in the picture soon."
"No, hands off!" Bayley said good-naturedly, having overheard. She picked up her NXT Women's Championship and hid it behind her back, drawing laughter from Sonya, Shayna, and also Sasha Banks. At least Banks is nice to someone, Sonya thought.
While the conversation had been going on, the other three recruits had arrived. Sonya discovered that Zelina Vega actually knew Bayley and Kairi. Apparently they had already worked together elsewhere. It was another reminder that while Zelina was part of the group of recruits, she was no rookie like the rest of them.
About fifteen minutes later, a female crew member wearing an NXT shirt entered the locker room. "I need the five people working with the ring crew to come with me, please."
Mandy looked at Sonya and smiled. "Let's see how much of a mess we can make of building a ring."
Sonya had to laugh. "I'm actually good at DIY. Maybe I'll surprise them."
"Don't surprise them too much, they might put you on the ring crew full time," Lacey said, making Sonya and Mandy laugh.
Heading out of the locker room, Sonya felt very pleased overall with the way things had gone in there. With the exception of Sasha, the recruits had been welcomed figuratively with open arms. The women could not have done more to make them feel at ease. It was a very encouraging start.
It turned out that it didn't take ten people all that long to put together a ring, especially with a bunch of crew members on hand to give advice and step in if anything was done incorrectly.
"That went well," Mandy said to Sonya when they were done, standing back and surveying their handiwork.
"Watch it fall to bits half way through the taping," Sonya replied.
Mandy laughed. "Don't say that! Imagine how much shit we would get in."
Sonya shrugged. "I'd blame the crew members."
"That's awful!" Mandy said laughing again. "But yeah, I'd blame them too."
With the small arena now prepared for that night's event, the recruits were given permission to head back to the locker room. They were to be allowed to watch the TV tapings from there, experiencing for the first time what went on during a show. It was all part of the learning experience, and as with everything else, Sonya was looking forward to being a part of it.
One thing Sonya realised she did need as they walked back into the locker room was a drink. She hadn't had anything since she and Mandy had left their apartment. "I could kill for a cup of coffee," she said to her lover. "Would you like me to fetch you anything?"
"Oh, yeah. Coffee, please," Mandy said. "I'll take it black, no sugar."
"Alright, coming up." Turning to Bayley, Sonya said, "Hey, can you tell me where catering is?"
Bayley was happy to do so. "Left out of the door, on your left at the end of the hallway. You can't miss it."
"Thanks. Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm good, thank you," Bayley said with a smile.
Sonya walked across the room and out of the door, wondering if the coffee was going to be good. Although recently her financial situation had forced her to settle for what she could afford, she was by nature something of a coffee snob. It was her mom's fault, due to the fact that she had only ever bought expensive coffee back home in New Jersey.
Turning to the left, Sonya froze in her tracks as she set eyes on one of the last people she had expected to see at Full Sail for the tapings. Lucy Thorne, the new Chairwoman of WWE, was walking towards her with a cup of coffee in one hand and a phone in the other. The boss was reading something on the device, but she noticed Sonya enter the hallway and looked up, making eye contact.
Sonya was face to face with one of the richest and most powerful women in the world, at least as far as she knew. What she did know for sure was that Thorne had paid whatever astronomical sum it had taken to acquire a controlling interest in WWE basically because she liked the idea of owning the company and 'making wrestling great again', as she had put it. The choice of phrase could have been chosen better, in Sonya's opinion, but the sentiment behind it had been positively received by all, as had the changes to the product that had started to be made.
"Afternoon," Lucy said. Switching her phone into the same hand as her coffee cup, she approached Sonya and offered a handshake, along with a warm, genuine smile. "Your name is?"
"Sonya. Sonya Deville," she answered. Although the greeting had been perfectly pleasant, Sonya felt unusually shy for second time that afternoon, this time at finding herself unexpectedly talking to the boss. The black business suit Thorne had on was likely worth more than all of Sonya's possessions combined. The silver watch on her wrist or her the silver ring with a dark blue diamond that she was wearing on her right index finger most definitely were. How the other half live, Sonya thought.
"Lucy Thorne," the boss said, continuing in the same pleasant manner as they shook hands.
"Nice to meet you. I'm one of the new NXT recruits," Sonya said, unsure if Lucy would be aware of that or not. She also couldn't help thinking that Lucy was a very attractive lady. She had long dark hair, striking blue eyes and a very pretty face. Then there was the English accent which sounded awesome to Sonya. If there was a Mr Thorne, he was a lucky guy.
"Yes, I know," Lucy said. "You started with us on Monday. How are you finding it so far?"
"I'm learning a lot," Sonya said positively. "The Performance Centre is amazing, and Coach Paige and Coach Purrazzo are so good at teaching us."
"That's what I like to hear," Lucy said, smiling. "What have they had you doing so far? Embarrassingly, I have no idea how wrestling training starts."
"We've done body slams, we've run the ropes, and we've done promo class. Oh, and we did a bleep test."
Lucy cringed. "Rather you than me. Bleep tests are the absolute worst."
Given the chairwoman's relaxed demeanour, Sonya decided to risk attempting some humour of her own. "So you're saying we're not going to see you in the ring one day?"
Thorne smiled. "I didn't say that. You won't see me doing a bleep test though, that's for bloody sure. So, any idea when you move on to character creation?"
"Not yet," Sonya said with a shake of her head.
"Well when they do, I want you to go for a hard hitting MMA fighter. Stick to what you know. I have high hopes for you. I have to get on, but I'm sure I'll see you again."
"I'll look forward to it," Sonya said politely as Lucy walked away. She was feeling a little dazed by everything she was able to read into that last part of the exchange. The boss had approached and asked her name, but knew she had an MMA background despite it not being brought up in the conversation. Had Thorne known who she was all along and gone through the formality of asking her name merely to make her feel at ease? Or had the name Deville rang a bell for her? And 'I have high hopes for you' was an amazing thing to hear from the woman who ran the company. Sonya realised she should have expressed gratitude, but she hadn't been able to properly process what she had heard in time.
Making her way into catering, Sonya found Coach Purrazzo in there, making herself a cup of some kind of tea.
"Hey, Coach," Sonya said as she approached.
"Oh, hi," Purrazzo said, turning to glance at her. "How are you getting on in the locker room?"
Thinking better of saying that Sasha Banks seemed like a bitch so far, Sonya said everyone had been great. "I just ran into Lucy Thorne on my way here," she announced.
"Oh, really? I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her. I know she was here, in a meeting with Hunter for a while. Apparently she's stopping to watch the tapings."
"Does she do that often?" Sonya asked, thinking it unlikely.
"It's the first time, I believe," Purrazzo said, finishing fixing her tea.
An even more chance encounter than I realised, Sonya thought. "She said she has high hopes for me," Sonya said, noticing that she sounded like a child who had been praised by the headmistress.
Purrazzo didn't look all that impressed by what she had heard. She struck Sonya as a good teacher, but a tough person to get close to. "You got signed to NXT. That means we all have high hopes for you, and the rest of your group. It's what you do with that opportunity that matters. Keep your head down, and keep working hard."
"Yes, Coach," Sonya said. Abruptness from Purrazzo or not, she took Lucy Thorne's words to heart. The boss saw something in her, and in the grand scheme of things, that meant a hell of a lot.
It was in that moment, fixing coffee in catering at Full Sail that it really dawned on Sonya for the first time. "I'm going to do this," she muttered to herself. "I'm going to be a wrestler. I'm going to own this, and I'm making it all the way to the main roster no matter what it takes."
Imagination starting to run wild, Sonya pictured herself in Lucy Thorne's office, conjuring up a picture of what it might look like. The boss was sitting opposite her with a smile on her face and a pen in her hand. On the desk was a new contract with Sonya's name on the front.
"Okay, Sonya, let's make it official. You're being promoted to the main roster," imaginary Lucy Thorne said in that fancy-sounding English accent.
Carrying two cups of coffee back to the locker room a few moments later, Sonya still had the imaginary contract signing on her mind. "One day, it's going to come true," she vowed. "And Mandy's going to be in there right after me to sign her contract."
A/N: Thank you to those who left a review on the previous chapter.
Regular readers of my work will be familiar with the idea of Lucy Thorne running WWE as it happened in my La Arquitecta/Executive Orders world. This story isn't related to that world in any way, but I liked Lucy as the owner, so I decided to go with it again.
Sonya drew a lot of confidence about her future from her encounter with the boss, but next time we'll be focusing on the more immediate future when the time comes for the recruits to work on creating their characters. What style do you think Sonya will go for? And what will she choose for a finishing move?