Stephanie groaned and rolled over on her bed as her cell phone started to ring beside her successfully waking her up. Stephanie glanced over at Paul lying beside her to see if he had woken up. As the ringing continued, Stephanie snatched the phone from the night table and flipped it open. "What?" she asked annoyed.
"Is that any way to answer your phone?" her father asked.
Stephanie titled her head to look at the alarm clock. "It's six in the morning Dad. Someone better be dead," she replied dryly.
"My God are you not the early bird," Vince chuckled.
"Dad…" Stephanie warned.
"I just wanted to call and inform you that we have a meeting with the board this morning at ten," he informed her.
"So you had to call me four hours in advance?" she wined.
"I called you earlier because I know that you wouldn't get here on time if I didn't," he replied. "Most people would be grateful that I am letting them know in advance so they don't make idiots of themselves by showing up late."
"I'm not like most people Dad."
Vince laughed over the phone which caused Stephanie to frown. "I know you're not, Princess."
"What's this meeting about anyways?"
"I have no idea honestly," Vince answered. "The directors called it, not your mother or me."
Stephanie sighed. "Alright, I'll get up now so I can beat traffic."
"That's my girl."
Stephanie chuckled and closed the phone, throwing it down on the bed as she rubbed her eyes. She looked over at Paul and wondered if she should wake him up and have him join her. He had always sat in dozens of meetings with her, even offering his own ideas and input. Stephanie quickly and quietly got out of the bed and walked into the bathroom wondering what the meeting could possibly be about.
The second that Stephanie made it into the building for the meeting, she saw her family waiting outside for her. She smiled and hugged each of them, greeting them. She then turned and looked through the glass office. "So what's this meeting about?" she asked, looking back at her family.
Shane shrugged. "We really don't know."
Stephanie raised an eyebrow in question. "We're the McMahon's and we don't know?" she asked amused.
Vince chuckled slightly. "Just standard procedures and few changes," he admitted. He grabbed his wife by the waist and smiled at his children. "Let's go, shall we?"
The family nodded in agreement and headed into the office greeting the partners and took their rightful places at the conference table. Just like her father had said, the meeting was primarily about the ratings between Raw and Smackdown and the direction on certain storylines and superstars. During the duration of the meeting, one of the senior partners, Frank, turned to Stephanie to specifically ask her opinion about the direction of the WWE.
"So, Mrs. McMahon, what do you think?" Frank asked.
Stephanie looked up from her reports and looked at him through her glasses. "About…?"
Frank gave her a small smile, amused by her in every way. So young and naïve, yet a McMahon at heart. "About the direction of Raw and Smackdown. Do you believe there should be any changes?"
Stephanie bit her lip and looked at her family before sighing and taking off her glass, placing them in front of her and folding her hands. "I think there can be changes, yes," she admitted.
Vince leaned forward suddenly very interested in what was being discussed. "Like what?" Frank pressed.
"Well…the divas for one," she answered.
"What about them?" Vince asked his daughter.
Stephanie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose feeling a tension headache coming. "I think that there are less female wrestlers and more skimpy women in bikinis seducing the wrestlers, and acting like a ditz, walking around the arena. That's a waste of talent and money."
"We've never had a problem with this in the past," Frank pointed out.
"Because we had more than four active female wrestlers too," Stephanie shot back. "There are no good rivalries between women. They're always seducing the wrestlers and standing behind them."
"But when the business became big, women wrestling was frowned upon," Vince said. "It was never thought of."
"And what is it that we do the best, Dad?" Stephanie said turning to him.
"Not give a shit," Shane answered for his father, smirking at Stephanie, amused.
Stephanie nodded her head and watched her father's face fall. Linda nodded as well and turned to her husband. "She's right. Women need to play a bigger part in this business like they used to."
Frank nodded. "Okay, Stephanie. What exactly did you have in mind about that? How can we introduce females back into the ring?"
Stephanie thought for a minute then shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure really. But I can certainly work on it."
"Ok. What about this John Cena?"
"What about him?" Stephanie asked.
"Well, the ratings show us that DX and Cena are the fan favorites of Raw. Currently however, Cena has no title defense for the PPV."
"He has that celebrity though," Shane said. The turned to his father. "What's-his-name?"
"Kevin?"
Shane nodded. "Yeah, him."
"But the ratings during those segments suck," Stephanie said at once. "I honestly don't know why you wanted that," Stephanie questioned her father.
"Well, what can be done to help it?" Frank asked.
"We could pair a superstar with Kevin. Stack the odds against the WWE Champion and get better and longer segments since this Kevin cannot be at Raw every week," Shane suggested.
"Yes, but whom?" Linda asked. "All the wrestlers we have in Raw are currently somehow involved in a story."
"Well, why not bring back a legendary star?" Vince suggested.
"What, you mean like Hogan or Rock or something?" Shane asked.
When Vince nodded Stephanie immediately suddenly shook her head. "No, no. We need fresh blood. New people, new talent. We're going to lose fans and a following if we use the same wrestlers over and over constantly bringing them back into the ring."
"It's a good idea," Vince frowned, slightly offended.
"Both are actually," Linda jumped in. Both McMahon's looked at her as if she were crazy. Linda immediately held up her hands signifying that she didn't want an argument. "I mean, why not do both? Bring in a recognizable wrestler that fans will take too right away. The way they react to them will determine whether or not they are a face or heel. Then we can have Stephanie bring in a new talent and spice things up."
Both Vince and Stephanie looked at each other and nodded, silently agreeing to the suggestion. "That's not bad," Vince smiled at his wife.
Frank nodded, pleased. "Okay. One last thing before we adjourn. Raw still has no General Manager. On one of the websites that myself and a few others have run across, the question was raised on whether or not any of the McMahon's will return on television." Frank paused and looked at each of them making sure they had his attention. "I propose that we put both Shane and Stephanie in the position of General Manager."
Stephanie's jaw dropped and she looked at Shane then back to Frank. "You're kidding me."
When Frank didn't answer, she scoffed. "Why not, Steph?" Shane asked.
"For one, I haven't even had my honeymoon yet. I just came back to the road," she answered. "And for the second…." Stephanie paused. What was the second reason?
"Stephanie, it's perfect. We can have one playing the bad guy and the other the good guy," Vince said happily. "It's perfect! It'll create so much drama!"
Stephanie still shook her head, unsure. "I dunno…"
"Come on, Stephanie," her mother whispered to her. "Your father and Shane are right. It's perfect for television. And it gets you back out there," she added.
Stephanie smirked. Yeah…the Billion Dollar Princess returning to television…returning to Raw.