There was real excitement in the air when Seth and Bayley arrived at the arena the night after Summerslam. New York's Barclays Center was going to host the debut episode of Women's Evolution.
Lasting an hour, the new show would happen before Raw, which would revert to its old two hour format. The announced changes had been received with overwhelming positivity by the fans. Bayley had seen a lot of people saying that they thought Women's Evolution had a shot at becoming the best of WWE's brands, if it was done well. That was certainly Hunter Helmsley's vision for it.
There were, however, questions still to be answered, and not just for the audience. Bayley and the rest of the roster had been told precious little themselves about the new show as yet. The list of tag teams that Alexa Bliss had somehow found out about hadn't even been formally announced. No one knew who the commentators were going to be. No one knew who the general manager was going to be, assuming there would be one. No one knew who the first Women's Champion was going to be. No one knew who the first Women's Tag Team Champions were going to be.
Expecting to receive answers to at least some of those questions, Bayley headed for the women's locker room after saying goodbye to Seth with a kiss. At least she was going into the new show with some momentum behind her, she thought. At Summerslam the previous night, she had been victorious over Sasha Banks for the second pay-per-view in succession. Presumably, that rivalry was now complete, with the start of Women's Evolution.
Dragging her travel case into the locker room, Bayley saw that she was among the first to arrive, as was most often the case. Sometimes, she was first of all. On this occasion, Sasha Banks was already in the room, along with Bayley's new tag team partner, Alexa Bliss. The two women were standing together, looking at something at Sasha's phone and laughing.
"Hey, guys," Bayley said pleasantly as she approached them. She always used a locker next to Sasha. It was a little surprising to see Sasha getting along so well with Alexa.
"Oh, here she is," Sasha said, laughing again.
"What are you laughing at?" Bayley enquired, feeling on the defensive. Clearly, for whatever reason, she was the subject of the laughter.
"Oh, nothing bad," Alexa clarified quickly, realising how they had come across.
"I was just telling Lexi a bit more about you since you're apparently going to be a team now. We got onto the subject of Bean and Gone, and I randomly decided to look it up and see what your reviews are like."
"And why is that funny?" Bayley demanded, even more defensively. People laughing at the business she had worked hard to build was not something she appreciated in the least.
"You have great scores," Sasha assured her. "We're not laughing at you or the shop. We're laughing at a comment someone left. Look." She held her phone out to Bayley, pointing out the particular comment in question.
Taking the phone, Bayley was happy to see that the reviewer had given Bean and Gone five out of five stars. So what was so funny? Initially puzzled, she read the comment out loud. "We enjoyed our visit to Bean and Gone. Will definitely go back again next time we're in the area. The coffee was some of the best we've ever had, and we both enjoyed a delicious cake to go with it. The best part was the manager who served us. She appears to be a Bond villain who runs a coffee shop in her spare time! You've never heard an accent like it! I asked her if she planned to take over the world, and she said one coffee shop at a time. Hilarious!"
All three women started laughing. Having visited the coffee shop with Seth and Bayley, Sasha was familiar with Elena D'Agostino, the manager Seth had hired to run the place in their absence. Elena was a very good manager, with plenty of experience in the industry, but she spoke English that was awkward at times, and had a very thick Italian accent. Bayley could definitely see the Bond villain comparison. It would be worth remembering for the next time she had a conversation with Elena.
"Brilliant, isn't it?" Sasha asked, a huge grin on her face.
"It really is," Bayley giggled. "I do hope Daga has seen it. I'll have to text her and get her to look if she hasn't already."
"I need to go to this coffee shop of yours," Alexa said. "Maybe I'll cosplay another Bond villain and we can fight it out."
"So long as you don't trash the place," Bayley said with another laugh.
"She practically is a Bond villain anyway," Sasha said, meaning Alexa. "I've just been getting the inside scoop on the new tag team division. Lexi here knows all the teams, somehow."
"Yeah, I know," Bayley said conspiratorially. "And we're one of them. Alexa Bliss and Bayley. I like it the more I think about it."
"Sasha and Ember is another good one," Alexa said.
"I'm looking forward to teaming with her, for sure," Sasha nodded. "I'm just wondering who's going to get the first run with the belts."
"No idea," Bayley said with a shrug.
They chatted away for fifteen minutes, while the locker room gradually filled with their colleagues on the newly-enlarged roster comprised of the former Raw and Smackdown women's divisions.
Sonya Deville entered the room and announced, "Guys, Hunter is outside, wanting to come and see us. Make yourselves presentable, at least as much as you can," she added with a laugh.
It took a couple of minutes for those who had been in the process of changing to get themselves sorted out, then Sonya went outside to fetch the boss.
"Hello, everyone. Excited for the show?" Hunter asked cheerfully as he walked in, finding them all sitting in front of their lockers, ready for him to address them. Rather than heading over to stand in the middle of the room, he lingered near the door as the women replied to confirm that they were indeed excited.
"Excellent," Hunter said. "Now, I have a fair few things to bring you up to speed with. I'd have liked to have done it sooner, but frankly we were still making last minute decisions and preparations." He began by running through which women would be competing as singles wrestlers and which of them would be assigned to tag teams. The new pairing were also announced.
Chatter filled the room while people struck up conversation with their new partners. Bayley remarked to Alexa about the fact that her information, from wherever she had gotten it, had been spot on. Alexa just grinned in response.
"Alright, quiet, please. We've got more to get through," Hunter called out. He was quickly granted the silence he had requested. "Now, that's the rosters sorted out. I'll be calling you to my office in groups over the course of the afternoon so that we can discuss what your first creative angles are going to be on the new brand. Before then, there are a couple of other announcements I'd like to make. Firstly, we needed a new commentary team. The only thing that made sense to me for an all-women's brand was to have an all-women's announce team. I'm going to bring them in now."
While Hunter opened the door and asked whoever was outside to come in, Bayley looked at Sasha and Alexa for clues as to who was about to enter the room. This time, Alexa was as nonplussed as everyone else.
There were several loud exclamations of delight as Renee Young and Trish Stratus walked into the locker room. "Renee and Trish are your new commentary team," Hunter announced.
"Oh my God, this is so fricking awesome!" Bayley exclaimed to Sasha.
The two commentators were given a moment to walk around the room, receiving congratulations from their friends and colleagues. Renee was the first one to come over to the Bayley, Sasha and Alexa's little group.
"I'm so excited for you, girl!" Sasha exclaimed.
"This is brilliant," Alexa added.
For her part, Bayley offered a hug which was gratefully accepted by Renee. "I'm so happy for you, Renee. You really deserve this chance. You'll do a wonderful job."
"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate all the positive words," Renee said, smiling at them all before moving on.
Trish came up to them next. "Surprise!" she said, spreading her arms theatrically.
"No shit," Sasha said with an excited laugh. "How did Hunter talk you into coming back on the road again?"
Trish accepted a brief hug from Bayley before answering. "Quite easily, when he told me about this new brand. I couldn't not be a part of it when they're getting behind women's wrestling this much. Besides, it's only one night a week on the road, plus pay-per-views."
"Well, I can't wait to have you calling my matches," Alexa said.
Sasha and Bayley voiced their agreement with that sentiment before Trish moved on to greet Ruby Riott and Nikki Cross, another of the new pairings for Women's Evolution.
Waiting patiently, Hunter didn't move on to his next and final announcement until Trish and Renee had exchanged a few words with everyone. "Okay," he said when the new commentary team walked over to join him. "There is one more position to be filled. Women's Evolution needed a general manager. We considered many names for the positon, but I'm delighted to announce that our first choice agreed to take it on. What I'm not going to do, though, is tell you who it is. You'll have to find out tonight during the show, the same as everyone else. Tonight's debut episode will kick off with all of you in the ring; a real celebration of how far we've brought women's wrestling so far. But remember, this is only the start!"
In agreement, a loud cheer went up from everyone in the room. After thanking them for their time and reminding them that he was going to start calling them to his office in groups shortly for further discussion, Hunter left the room.
"I'm so frustrated right now!" Bayley exclaimed to her two friends. "I want to know who the new GM is!"
"Don't we all?" Alexa replied.
A/N: My thanks to everyone who voted on the new commentary team. As you now know, Renee and Trish got the nod.
Following feedback from my readers, and multiple requests for this story to be updated, I've decided to focus on this one for a while over the other stories that are ongoing. With that being said, we'll be seeing the first episode of Women's Evolution next time, and we'll be seeing the introduction of the general manager.
I'm sure you've already figured out what the prediction question is going to be this time. Who is the general manager going to be? I'll shout out anyone who manages to leave a correct answer in a review. Good luck!