He awoke the next morning to an annoying buzzing in his ears: his cell phone vibrating against the nightstand. The only person who would dare call him this early in the morning was Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, so this couldn't be good news. He managed to press the green button before it went to voicemail, struggling to answer "uhh…hell…lo?" through his post-drunken stupor.
"Hello, Randy? This is Stephanie McMahon-Levesque." Duh, who else? Why so formal at 8 o'clock in the morning? "I've got some bad news Randy. Last night's ratings are in, and we've decided to make some major changes. I'm sorry, but it looks like you just aren't keeping up with the natural charisma of John and Chris. We're going to have to have you drop the title and move to ECW in the following weeks."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Randy Orton is a 3rd generation superstar, thank you! He doesn't belong on ECW! "Wait, Stephanie, can't we talk about this! I mean, the C show? Really?"
"No, decisions have already been made. We will transfer you over to a storyline with Michelle McCool, and perhaps in a few months we'll give you a run with the ECW Championship. Look, why don't you come down to Smackdown and ECW tonight, get a better feel for them, and we'll further discuss your future with the WWE." With that, Stephanie McMahon hung up the phone, and Randy Orton felt his whole world begin to fall apart.
It was more than his fragile little mind could handle. It all kept rolling around in his hung-over brain: Michelle McUgly? Her inability to either wrestle or act well was not going to help his cause. Plus she has the personality of a shiny new doorknob! No World Heavyweight Championship? He'd spent his whole life working for that thing. He thought he was doing a pretty good job being the champ. E C Fucking W? Really? He thought he was more valuable to the company than that! For one, he could actually wrestle. On top of that, all the ladies clearly love him. What were Vince and Stephanie thinking?
While that little tirade stormed through his tired brain, Randy managed to stumble in the shower, get dressed, and make his way down to the café in the lobby to get some breakfast. What do you know? There was the last person he wanted to see!
Veronica sat at one of the farthest tables from the entrance, deep in conversation on her cell phone. He snuck closer, curiously eavesdropping.
"Are we still on for tonight? You know, after the show? What's your room number?" she asked the mystery person on the other end, and she grinned from ear to ear at their response.
"Oh, I hope you know you'll be going down tonight Adam." Wait! Adam…Adam Copeland? So, she wasn't willing to fuck him behind John's back, but she sound pretty eager to fuck Edge?! It wasn't like Adam was single anymore either, at least as far as he had heard.
"Why? Because I'm always on top, that's why! I'm just that good at pushing all the right buttons." Whoa…he didn't really want to hear the rest of this conversation, and luckily his coffee was ready too. As he walked away he could faintly hear "Oh, come on Adam, just do it already!" and he kept right on walking, shaking his head in confusion.
From there he bumped into John, presumably on his way to meet Veronica in the coffee shop. He almost wanted to break the news about Veronica and Adam, but his own selfish hope of nailing her was still stuck in his brain.
"What's up? What are you doin' today?" were the words of the ignorantly blissful Dr. of Thuganomics.
"I'm going to ECW tonight. I'm…umm…getting moved there" Randy confessed reluctantly. John was surprised, of course, and Randy explained the whole thing to his friend, only leaving out his interactions with Veronica.
"Hey dude, sorry to hear it. I'm gonna miss hanging out this much. Ronni has a match with Natalya tonight too, if you want to ride over there with us. It's less than an hour away, but what's the point of riding by yourself if we're all just coming back here, huh?"
Randy nodded in agreement and John continued on his way, leaving him to his still troubling thoughts.