Smackdown Live – February 12th 2019
The first contest of the night saw Lana take on Charlotte in the first round of the Women's European Championship tournament, the final of which was to take place at Wrestlemania.
In her first singles match since her elbow surgery, Charlotte made short work of Lana, utterly destroying her for a couple of minutes before getting a three count with Natural Selection.
Wearing her title belt, Sonya had accompanied Charlotte to the ring and watched the short and one-sided affair from ringside. When it was over, she climbed into the ring, shoved the referee out of the way and took pleasure in being the one to raise her girlfriend's hand in victory.
"You're looking at the first European champ!" Sonya yelled at the fans while Charlotte stood there looking as regal as ever.
With a disparaging look down at the remains of Lana, Charlotte led the way to the ropes. The current two most dominant women on the blue brand left the ring as the show went to commercial.
Half an hour later, Sonya and Charlotte were shown once more. Charlotte had changed out of her ring attire, and they were walking out into the parking garage, obviously about to leave the arena.
"Sonya! Charlotte!" Kayla Braxton called out, hurrying over just in time to stop them as they reached their rental car.
"What?" Charlotte demanded of the diminutive interviewer, who had chosen to go to the passenger's side of the car.
"I wanted to get some thoughts from you on the Women's European Championship tournament, but it looks like you're leaving?"
"Yes, we're leaving," Charlotte confirmed icily. "I dismantled Lana earlier, Sonya doesn't have a match, so our business here tonight is done. We're going to dinner, where we'll be toasting the fact that we run the Smackdown Women's Division."
"And don't you forget it," Sonya added, pointing a threatening finger at Braxton.
With that, they got into the car and Charlotte slammed her door shut, preventing Kayla from getting another question in.
"There you have it," Kayla said, looking into the camera as the car fired up and pulled away. "Sonya and Charlotte, the self-proclaimed most dominant women on Smackdown, are going to a celebratory dinner together."
Right before the main event of the night, a shot of an expensive restaurant appeared on the screen. Among the well dressed clientele were Sonya and Charlotte, sitting at a table for two with expensive-looking meals in front of them, along with glasses of red wine. They were chatting away, having a great time as they ate.
"I was literally about to snap Becky's arm," Sonya said gleefully. "She was squealing like a pig, flailing around like she might have a chance of getting out of my Kimura."
Charlotte grunted derisively, a forkful of fish ready to be eaten after she spoke. "Some chance. But she's 'The Man', I heard."
"I heard that too," Sonya said. "You know what else I heard? Becky's hand pounding on the mat as she tapped out to me."
Both women laughed heartily, revelling in Becky's failure and Sonya's success. Slowly, Charlotte leaned across the table, wanting a kiss.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a wooden chair smashed Charlotte in the back, exploding into pieces across the restaurant.
As Charlotte and her chair fell sideways to the floor, the other restaurant customers all got up and ran, some screaming in panic. Flair lay motionless, face down on the floor.
The camera panned across to reveal who had swung the chair at Charlotte. It was Carmella. "I'm not here for a dance break," she told Sonya, who leapt to her feet, ready for a fight.
Carmella had the upper hand, though, by virtue of the fact that she was able to start punching Sonya as she was getting up.
On the defensive, Sonya tried her best to get her hands up and block the incoming blows. She had limited success.
Pressing her advantage, Carmella sent Sonya reeling against the back wall of the restaurant.
Backing off slightly, Carmella superkicked Sonya in the face, making her collapse to the floor.
"You want to put me through a table, Sonya?" Carmella yelled. With that, she dragged Sonya to her feet and body slammed her through the closest table. There had been two meals on it at the time, so in addition to the pain of going through the table, Sonya was left with some kind of white sauce from the food all over her clothes and in her hair.
Still Carmella wasn't done. There was a bar at the far end of the room, now without a bartender behind it after everyone had fled the scene. Carmella hauled her foe up once more, grabbed her by the back of her head and ran towards the bar, propelling Sonya over the top of it and into the drinks rack behind, before she fell out of sight to the floor.
"Maybe now we can have a dance break?" Carmella said to her unconscious and unseen opponent.
Turning to face the camera, Carmella did a quick floss before walking out of the shot, leaving a scene of utter destruction behind.
The scene at the restaurant had actually been taped on Monday, ready for use on Smackdown. Watching it on a TV on the locker room wall along with everyone else, Sonya and Charlotte joined in with the ripple of laughter at the mess Sonya had been in by the time she went flying over the bar.
"You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get that crap out of my hair," Sonya said, drawing another ripple of laughter.
"Oh my god, she finished it off with a floss!" Zelina Vega called out, laughing even harder.
"You have to have a dance break," Carmella giggled.
With the show now moving on to the main event, the women began talking among their usual groups of friends. Sonya had noticed that Mandy Rose had only made a token gesture of joining in with the laughter. Something was obviously on her mind.
"Hey," Sonya said in a friendly manner, approaching Mandy. "That was some ass kicking they had me take. Who knows, maybe I'll actually have a match next week, huh?"
Sonya had been speaking in a cheerful manner, but Mandy looked singularly unimpressed. "Are you serious right now?" she demanded. "You're going to complain to me about not getting matches? You're the champion, Sonya, or did you forget that?"
Taken aback, Sonya wanted to avoid having what was for some reason going to be a heated conversation in the middle of the locker room. Several of the other women were already looking at them, including Charlotte.
"Uh, why don't we go outside and talk?" Sonya suggested.
Mandy also realised they were about to become the centre of attention if she carried on. "Fine," she huffed, heading for the door.
Sighing, Sonya followed along behind. She made eye contact with Charlotte, whose expression asked if she was okay.
Sonya gave a shrug in response. She didn't know what Mandy's problem with her was, do she didn't know if she was okay.
Following Mandy out into the hallway, Sonya closed the locker room door behind her. "What's going on with you, Mand?" she asked. "You seem pissed with me for some reason."
"Oh, you think?" Mandy snapped, standing with her hands on her hips. "What planet are you on these days? You actually stood there and complained to me about not having matches. You're the damn champion, Sonya!"
Wow, Sonya thought. Jealousy was what this was about? One of her supposed best friends was angry that she had been given her first title run? What kind of bullshit was that? "Yeah, I'm the champion," she replied, more heatedly than might have been helpful. "So, what, I'm not supposed to wrestle anymore? And you're going to come with this, whatever this is?"
"You don't get it, do you?" Mandy said, shaking her head. "When did I last have a match, apart from the battle royal last week? Can you tell me that?"
"No," Sonya admitted after a moment. It didn't escape her that it was pretty shameful on her part to not know the answer.
"Four weeks ago. Four! Apart from that battle royal, I've not been on TV in four weeks, and you haven't even noticed. And not only haven't you noticed, you think you're hard done by because you're sitting at the commentary table with the women's title!"
"Alright, I'm sorry," Sonya said, wanting to cool things down. She wasn't above admitting when she was in the wrong. "I'm sorry for complaining to you, and I'm sorry for not realising how much they've been neglecting you. You should have said something. You know you can always talk to me about stuff."
"Oh my god, really?" Mandy cried in disbelief.
"What?" Sonya objected.
"I have called you a bunch of times since we stopped traveling together. Every couple of days I was calling or texting at one point, before I stopped bothering. I hardly ever got an answer or a reply. You want to know what I think? You got the title, you got an angle with Charlotte, and that was it for you. You moved on to bigger and better things, right?"
Sonya was genuinely hurt by that, even if it was true that she had been doing a poor job of staying in touch with Mandy. The truth of it was she had been having such a great time with Charlotte, she hadn't kept up with anyone else. Even so, she resented what Mandy had said. "That's not fair," she insisted. "I would never think about a friend like that."
"But you would treat a friend like it, evidently," Mandy snapped.
Realising it was time to give serious ground if she wanted to resolve this argument, Sonya held up her hands in a sign of submission. "Alright, I'm sorry. You're right, I've not be there for you, Mand. I'm glad you've confronted me on it, because it wasn't deliberate. It really wasn't. The truth is, Charlotte and I really hit it off since we started traveling together. You know how it can be when a new friendship takes off." She had deliberately chosen to use the word friendship, not relationship.
"Yeah, you forget about your other friends," Mandy said sourly.
"I haven't forgotten you," Sonya promised her sincerely. "You're my best friend in that locker room, you know that. I've dropped the ball, and you have a right to be mad at me for it. What do you say I make it up to you tomorrow? Before the show, meet up with Charlotte and I, and we'll go to a donut bar. She can make a guest appearance on Dandy's Donuts. What do you say?"
Dandy's Donuts was a fun YouTube series where Sonya and Mandy ate and talked about donuts, a favourite food for both of them.
Finally, seeing that Sonya felt bad and meant what she was saying about making it right, Mandy relented and decided to cut her a break. "Okay, you're on," she said, taking the heat out of her voice. "I guess I went in hard just now, but it had been bottling up for a while."
"Don't bottle things up. Come talk to me. Slap me in the face if you need to, just get me to listen," Sonya said with a hint of a smile.
"I'll hold you to that," Mandy said, managing a smile of her own.
"Good. Now give me a hug, girl."
Conflict resolved, the two friends embraced each other. It was a relief to Sonya, who had briefly feared things might have gotten out of control.
"I do have one question," Mandy said as they parted.
"What's that?"
"What do we do if Charlotte doesn't like donuts?"
Sonya laughed loudly. "Trust me, she likes donuts."
A/N: Thank you to those who left a review last time.
Carmella showed another side of herself with the beating she gave Sonya at the restaurant, didn't she? She's willing to stand up for herself and go toe to toe with the champ, but will it be enough at Fastlane?
Next time, the visit to the donut bar. How do you think things will go between Sonya, Charlotte and Mandy?