By the time the next Raw episode came around, there had been confirmation from WWE that the new female only brand was indeed coming to fruition. In a short post on the company's website, the announcement had been made that the show, named Women's Evolution, would be debuting the week after Summerslam.
With that in mind, Bayley was surprised that the announcement hadn't been made a little sooner. While she considered it a good thing that the women of Raw and Smackdown were going to be united on one roster and given their own show, she did have a major concern. What if she was put on a different travel schedule to Seth? That would mean they would see a lot less of each other, something she would not be happy about at all.
"Let's get some kind of clue what all this is about then, shall we?" Sasha Banks said, walking beside Bayley. While they had become enemies on-screen, they were still best friends off it. They had spent the past half an hour talking about the possible positives and negatives that could result from the new direction their careers were heading in with this new brand. They, along with the rest of the women from both Raw and Smackdown, who were all in attendance, had been summoned to a conference room to see Hunter Helmsley.
"Hopefully most of our concerns will be unfounded," Bayley replied. "You know what I think is odd, too?"
"What?" Sasha asked.
"It's Hunter we've got to see, not Vince. What do you suppose that's about?"
"Hmm," Sasha said thoughtfully. "I did see rumours that Hunter would be given control of the new brand. Maybe it's true? I know I'm not going to be complaining if it is."
"I hear that," Bayley said emphatically.
They were among the last of the women to enter the large conference room. Hunter was standing at the front of the assembled group, with a projector screen pulled down from the ceiling. It currently displayed only a WWE logo.
Naomi and Carmella were the last two women to walk into the room. Hunter confirmed that everyone was in attendance, then asked for the door to be closed. Once that was done, he brought the meeting to order.
"Okay, everyone, you know by now why you're here. WWE will soon be launching a new brand, exclusive to you guys, the women of the main roster. We've decided to call it Women's Evolution."
With a click on the mouse pad of the laptop that was connected to the projector, Hunter brought up a promotional image for the new show. It featured all of the women currently in the room, along with the name of the new brand. Bayley also saw that it also mentioned the show airing on Monday nights. That was the first surprise.
"As you can see, the show will air Monday nights," Hunter explained. "It will run for an hour, and will take place before Raw, with Raw itself switching to two hours."
"Isn't that basically just keeping Raw the same but rebranding the first hour?" Alexa Bliss asked, sounding confused.
"On the face of it, I guess it could seem like that right now," Hunter admitted. "But the reality is that Women's Evolution will have nothing to do with Raw, other than sharing an arena. Backstage, Women's Evolution will have its own writers, its own production team, its own staff, and of course you guys, the wrestlers. Some of you may be wondering why I'm the one standing here presenting this to you instead of Vince. The answer is that I have been given the job of managing and producing Women's Evolution, along with my role in NXT."
Bayley exchanged a look with Sasha that said, 'There you go.' They had been spot on with their guesswork.
"So, what this means is everyone in this room is going to build this brand," Hunter went on. "We're going to build it together, and we're going to make it WWE's best show. Frankly, I already think the women's action has been the highlight of the main roster for some time, so I jumped at the opportunity to work with you all."
"Are we getting a new championship?" Becky Lynch asked.
Bayley nodded her appreciation of the question, since she had just been wondering the same thing. If the existing divisions were to be merged under a new brand, it was obvious that the current Raw and Smackdown Women's Championships were not going to be applicable.
"You certainly are," Hunter said. He clicked the mouse pad again and a picture of a title belt very similar to the current Raw Women's Championship appeared on the screen. "And here it is, the WWE Women's Championship."
There were mutterings of approval from around the room, which Bayley went along with. She had always preferred the red of the Raw belt to the blue of the Smackdown one.
"So what about the people who are currently champions?" Carmella asked. Since she was the Smackdown Women's Champion, it wasn't hard to see why she was concerned by what she was hearing. Alexa was probably feeling the same way.
"Whoever is in the two women's title matches at Summerslam will be competing for the honour of being the final Raw and Smackdown Women's Champions. The belts will be retired that night, and we'll begin Women's Evolution with a tournament to crown our new WWE Women's Champion."
Carmella didn't look thrilled about the news. Bayley felt sympathy for her friend, but it was what it was.
"We're also going to have these," Hunter said. With another click, he brought up an image of a pair of title belts.
"Ohh, tag titles," Bayley said to Sasha as chatter filled the room. "Not that we're likely to go for them anyway."
"Yeah, we'll be working with each other for a while," Sasha said.
"Alright, quiet, please," Hunter said loudly. Once he had everyone's attention again, he continued. "As I said, Women's Evolution will take place before Raw. You will also be on the same schedule as Raw for live events. So, those of you who are on Smackdown currently, it's unfortunate, but you'll be leaving to come over to Raw effective the night after Summerslam."
There were more murmurs around the room. Personally, Bayley felt quite happy about that aspect of the new show. She had friends on Smackdown, and would now get to work with them again.
Hunter went on for a few further minutes, explaining that a brand new team of writers, a team that he had high hopes for, had been brought in by WWE and were starting work on angles for Women's Evolution as they spoke. He ended by reiterating that it was on every person in the room to make the new brand as success. "I really think that if we all work our asses off and stick together as a team, we can make this the best wrestling show on the market," he asserted.
"You're right," Natalya said. "And it's not just we can; we will!"
Cheers of agreement went up in response. Bayley joined in, smiling happily. She really believed it was true, and even better, she had to assume that with the heel turn she had just taken, she would be in the picture for the new Women's Championship.
Hunter dismissed everyone, and the women began to scatter in different directions. Bayley and Sasha went back to the locker room, talking about what they had just heard.
The conversation continued while Bayley changed into her clothes for the speaking segment that she had to do on Raw. Much like the previous week, she put on boots, jeans, a t-shirt and her leather jacket. She stuffed her leather gloves into a pocket, not needing them yet.
"Here you go," Sasha said, handing Bayley her sunglasses.
"Thanks." Bayley perched the glasses on her head, and the look was complete. The only difference from the week before was the t-shirt, which this time was chosen from her new line of merchandise. It was a plain grey one with 'I don't care anymore!' written on the front in angry-looking black capital lettering, along with the new angry-looking Bayley logo.
"You really look like that bitch," Sasha said in admiration.
Bayley giggled. "Well, that's what I'm going for. I'm looking forward to the segment later. It's a shame you're not on the show, but the time will come when you confront me."
Sasha had found out that she would not be appearing on Raw this week as her character had been written as being at home nursing her injuries from the serious ass kicking she had taken the previous week. In Sasha's absence, Bayley would go to the ring and cut a promo, reiterating what she had said to Renee Young the previous week. She would be interrupted by Kurt Angle, who would make a match between Bayley and Sasha for Extreme Rules, promising that Banks would be back and ready to go by then.
"I'm going to go tell Seth about the new show," Bayley announced. "He'll be delighted to hear we're staying on the same travel schedule."
"I'm sure he will," Sasha said with a little laugh.
With that, Bayley headed off to the men's locker room. She bumped into Roman along the way, and asked him to go into the room and fetch Seth for her.
"Your boss is outside," Roman took pleasure in telling Seth, in front of everyone. It was a running joke that Seth was under the thumb in his relationship with Bayley.
"Then I'd better hurry," Seth said, rolling his eyes as he played along with the joke. He walked across the locker room and out of the door.
"Hey," Bayley greeted him with a loving smile.
"What's up, angel?" he asked, leaning down to give her a soft kiss on the lips. "Mmm, you look so sexy," he added, kissing her a second time.
"So do you, baby," she replied, savouring the taste of him on her lips. "Sadly, we're going to have to wait until later for sex."
Just hearing her say the word made Seth want it so much more. "I'm sure we could find a room somewhere."
"No!" Bayley said with a surprised laugh. "I'll make you a deal, though. I'll dress like this for you tonight, if that's what you want?"
"That's a deal I'd have to be crazy to turn down," he said with lust in his tone.
Bayley smiled broadly at him. "Anyway, what I came to tell you about was the new show, not that you're probably all that interested in hearing about it now."
"No, I am interested," he assured her, forcing himself to try and keep his desires under control for now. "What did Hunter tell you about it?"
"Well, the best piece of news is that it's being filmed Monday nights, and us women will still be on the same travel schedule as Raw."
"So nothing has to change for us," Seth said happily. "That's amazing news."
Bayley nodded. "It really is. I was really nervous about it when we went in there, so it was such a relief when Hunter said that. The show is called Women's Evolution, and it's starting after Summerslam. And guess what else? We're also getting women's tag team belts!"
"About time," Seth said. "Better late than never, though. Kind of a shame you've just become this lone wolf type of character; probably means you won't be in contention for them."
"Nope," Bayley admitted with a shrug. "But hopefully I might get the new Women's Championship."
"I'm sure you will," Seth said without doubt. "If I was doing the booking, I'd have you beat Sasha a couple of times, at Extreme Rules and at Summerslam, then I'd have you go for the belt after that."
"I think you might be a little bit biased, I'm just saying," Bayley giggled.
"Maybe," Seth conceded with a big smile on his face.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a suggestion for a name for the new show in the reviews for the previous chapter. It seems to have been a difficult one, because I didn't any suggestions that blew me away. Women's Evolution was the best option, so I went with that. Shout out to Forza Azzurra for that suggestion.
What do you think of Seth's booking idea? A good plan? Or is he biased? ;)
As some of my regular viewers already know from a discussion we had on Twitter, I will soon be starting a spinoff story from La Arquitecta, featuring Lucy Thorne as the main character. Those who have read that story will know that Lucy is the owner of WWE, so I think it will definitely be something different to pair her with a member of the roster. We had some discussion about the pairing for the story on Twitter and narrowed it down to a few options. I've decided to give all of my readers the chance to have a say as well, so leave your preference in a review. The options on the table are:
Roman Reigns
Randy Orton
Bobby Roode
AJ Styles
Lastly, if there are any of you who are on Twitter and not following me as yet, my username is on my account page. Hit me up with a follow, let me know you came from FFnet and I'll follow you back!