4 YEARS LATER…..
John lifted Adam up and performed his signature move; the F-U. As Adam hit the ground, grunting from the contact, John jumped on his feet and held his arm up, his thumb and pinky extended, as the crowd roared their approval. John looked down at Adam and grabbed his leg, wrapping it around his own, and fell to his knees, putting his arms around Adam's throat. Adam screamed out in pain; even though John wasn't really choking him, they were making it real enough to seem so. In the 'pain' that he was in, Adam hand no choice; he tapped out. As John's music hit, the referee handed him the belt. John raised it high above his head as the crowd continued to cheer loudly. John basked in his glory and lost himself in the cheers as he slowly headed in the back.
As he came in backstage, John grabbed a water bottle and took a sip, slinging the belt on his shoulder, as Randy came over to him, already dressed to leave after the conclusion of his match. "Hey, nice show out there," he said to his best friend.
"Thanks," John replied.
A few minutes later, as John was drying himself off, Adam walked backstage and grabbed a bottle of water as well, and shot daggers at John. "You didn't have to slam me to the mat so damn hard," he whined.
Randy chuckled as John shrugged. "Had to make it seem real."
Adam nodded. "Alright…I'll remember that."
John laughed at him and grabbed the belt, handing it off to one of the crew members. "Alright, I'm gonna take a shower, then I'm out."
"Me too," Adam said.
"I'm leaving now," Randy said, grabbing his stuff. "See ya all tomorrow."
John slapped his forehead. "Oh…we got that stupid ass meeting, don't we?"
Adam nodded. "Yeah…you remember those, right?"
"Probably not," Randy joked. "Since he missed the last three."
"Two of which you were with me," John shot back.
Randy rolled his eyes. "Whatever man," he said walking away.
---
The next day, John parked his truck and walked into the Titan Towers, dreading the meeting. Normally, they were time-consuming and boring. The only good and meaningful meetings they ever had were those just before the kick off of the show. Once he stepped off the elevators, he made his way to the conference room, and walked in, seeing mostly everyone else from Raw, already seated, and waiting. John made his way into the room and greeted everyone, and sat in between Trish and Randy. He leaned back in the chair, making sure that he was comfortable. As Vince entered the room with his son, Shane, the sidebar conversations died down, as their boss cleared his throat.
"Alright," he began. "This meeting, as I know John already can't stand," he said looking at Cena, "Won't be long." John was quietly cheering in his mind. "I have a flight to catch in an hour, so this'll be brief. As you all know, Eric is leaving the WWE for a while, and taking a well deserved break." Everyone nodded. "Normally I would take over Raw, as I have been, until I appoint a new GM with much consideration, but, because my time is short because of a few business trips that I have to make with Linda, I had to make a quick decision. So," he continued. "I have hand picked a transit GM and someone that will be taking my place and running things, particularly on Raw, while I am psychically absent."
"Who is it?" Paul asked.
"The GM?"
"Both."
"Well, the General Manager is a surprise," Vince said. "And the person that will be taking my place for the time being will be my daughter."
John's eyes widened and he sat up straight unsure if he heard correctly.
"Wait," Randy spoke up. "I thought she left?"
"She did," Shane said. "And now she's back."
Randy frowned and clutched his fists, wanted to knock the arrogance out of Shane. But Trish grabbed his hand and calmed him.
"So, she's running things then?" Carlos asked.
Vince nodded. "Yes. The GM is in the storyline, but it's Stephanie that you will have to answer too. Now, she's doing this as a favor to me. This and the storylines. She'll be running Raw and the creative team. I know how you all get on the trips and flying to and from… but I won't be gone that long and I expect better of you all in my absence."
"We will," Trish promised.
Gwen rolled his eyes and mouthed, Kiss ass, to her. Trish responded by giving him the finger.
Vince watched them and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, just what I mean," he muttered under his breath as he walked out.
---
Stephanie stood at the curtain and went over her notes on her clipboard and the schedule for that night. In the ring was Paul and Ric Flair; even though her father spend a lot of time and promotion on the two wrestlers and their storyline (especially), Stephanie found no profit in it. As she wrote out the matches for next Monday night, she heard someone down the hall, a voice that was all too familiar to her. She turned around and rolled her eyes as she saw the male approaching her, a huge smile plastered on his face.
"Stephy!"
Stephanie smiled sweetly. "Christopher Irvine."
Chris chuckled and hugged her tightly as Stephanie rubbed his back and said, "I missed you."
"Missed you too, princess."
"How's the family?" she asked as they broke apart.
"Great," Chris beamed. "Kayla's two already."
"Wow! I remember when she was just starting to walk."
Chris nodded. "Yeah, she's getting big. How's your family?"
"Crazy, as usual."
"Running the big show now, huh?"
Stephanie rolled her eyes and went back to her schedule. "Shut up."
"Told you Raw was better," Chris sang. "I always told you that."
Stephanie shook her head and flipped through a few papers and gave the clipboard to Chris. "Sign on the highlighted part."
Chris took the clipboard and her pen and sighed where he was told. "Am I signing my life away again?" he joked.
Stephanie watched him sign and took the clipboard back, then signed herself. "Yep. I now control you."
"When haven't you?" Chris laughed.
"Alright," Stephanie began, switching back to business mode. "You know what to do tonight, right?" Chris nodded. "And next week?" Chris nodded again.
"You know, I have worked in this company before…"
"I know, but this is a different ball game now with different players."
Chris rolled his eyes and jumped on a crate to sit down. "Yeah, but I'm the pro."
Stephanie rolled her eyes again as her radio crackled. A voice came over it to announce the commercial break, as Paul came backstage. "Chris," he greeted, shaking hands with the man.
"What up, Trips?"
"Not much," Paul replied. "I didn't know you were back."
Chris nodded. "Yep, until Stephanie decides that she no longer needs my services." Paul glanced at Stephanie and she shot Chris a look. "Okay…that sounded much better in my head."
Paul laughed and patted Chris on the shoulder. "Well, regardless, it's good seeing ya."
"You too."
Stephanie and Chris watched as he left towards the lockers. Chris laughed quietly as Stephanie grinned, shaking her head, and pulled her radio out, calling the crew to take an extended commercial break, as they were waiting for the next wrestlers to come to the curtain.
"Who's on next?" Chris asked.
"Eddie and John."
Chris looked at her and frowned. "Who's Eddie?"
"Oh, um, Umaga. Umaga and Cena."
"Oh."
Eddie made his way from the lockers and introduced himself to Chris as Stephanie briefed him on the small changes that were made. Stephanie took out her radio again and asked, "We ready?"
A few seconds later, it beeped, and a man said, "Yeah boss. We're live in one minute."
Stephanie clipped the radio back to her belt and Chris smiled at her. Stephanie haven't changed that much; although he had seen her just last month, it wasn't business related. Despite the fact that their on screen characters hated each other's guts, Chris and Stephanie were very close. He was surprised when Stephanie chose to leave Smackdown and the company and pursue her college again. He thought for sure that she'd go crazy, being at one place and not so extremely busy, but she didn't. For three years she was content with her new life, up until the company switched back to their old network; then she began to get stir crazy.
Chris himself had left the company only two years after she had, pursuing his music career and doing the interviews and auditions. His three biggest fans were his wife, mother and Stephanie. Having two kids kept Chris busy and when he couldn't be there, from being overseas, Stephanie was. That was one reason why his wife and Stephanie were such good friends.
Watching Stephanie now, back in working environment, reminded Chris of the old times. The only difference now was that they were older, both in higher positions (at least on paper for him), older, though they didn't look it. Chris's hair stayed short, which Stephanie said she always like better, and Stephanie's hair was still brown, only longer and shiner.
"So…when do we come out?" Chris asked her.
Stephanie continued to write out the schedule as she spoke. "Just as John will go to cover Eddie, Mike will get to two just as my music hits. I'll go out, blah, blah, blah. Then your cue will be 'Chris Jericho'."
Chris grinned. "Sounds easy…and exciting."
"Live in thirty seconds," her radio crackled.
"Alright, let's get going," she said while slipping on her headphones as John jogged up to the gorilla curtain, his belt around his waist.
Chris raised his eyebrows. "Cutting it a little close there, Champ?"
John shrugged as he buckled the belt. "I'm here now."
Chris looked at Stephanie, but she wasn't paying an attention. He noted though how John seemed to avoid Stephanie as he walked up to the curtain as Eddie walked out when his cue came on. "Remember the script, Junior!" Chris called out to him.
Stephanie looked up from her papers and looked from Chris to John as John turned around and gave Chris the, 'Shut the fuck up look.' Chris grinned and popped his gum as John's cue came on. Stephanie looked back at Chris, once John left, and asked, "What was that about?"
Chris shrugged. "Guy seemed to be a jackass to me."
Stephanie shook her head. "You don't even know him."
He titled his head and looked at his best friend. "And you do?"
"I worked with him briefly on Smackdown," she replied.
Chris nodded, chewing his gum loudly. "And I assume that you think you're the shit because a Smackdown star is now a Raw Champion?"
Stephanie glared at Chris. "First of all, no, I do not think that. Secondly, we only worked briefly. Why are you making it sound like I have a crush on him? A third, stop chewing that gum so loudly before I slap it outta you." Chris stopped chewing loudly but laughed. She narrowed her eyes at him, but said nothing more.
About twenty minutes later, Stephanie unhooked her radio from her belt, put her clip board and headphones down, and straighten her outfit and hair out as the crew members signaled for her to come out. She nodded, as she walked toward the curtain, Chris giving her a thumbs up and wearing a cheesy grin that reminded her of little kids getting so excited whenever the ice cream rolled around the corner.
Out in the ring, John nailed the F-U on Eddie, and dropped to his knees, pinning him. Mike slid on his stomach and brought his hand down to hit the mat. "One! … Two! …"
Just as his hand was coming down for a third count, Stephanie's music and images on the titantron came up. People rose to their feet, confused, and excited, as Mike turned around and John rose to his knees. As Stephanie walked down the ramp, she felt the excitement and some confusion from the crowd. Amazingly, the arena was filled with cheers directed towards her. Stephanie smiled and danced in it; it had been a long time since she was ever cheered. As she stepped into the ring, John stood up and watched her, as Eddie and Mike rolled out of the ring. As she grabbed the microphone, she caught John staring at her. She noted how nervous he seemed, but shrugged it off as him trying to play out the scene better. She brought the microphone up as her music faded out and the fans quieted down some.
Looking around the ring, she said, "Well…I guess I have to work on my timing." John shook his head and rubbed his neck, looking around at the crowd as few laughed. "I'll work on that," she added. "However, I did come out here for a reason. I very important one at that. I realize that Smackdown has Teddy Long as a GM, and ECW has Paul Heyman." She shook her head, hating to say the latter name as she waited until some cheers died down again. "But Raw has no one. I won't even acknowledge Coach for the plain and simple fact that he sucks." Stephanie smirked. It was one of her, 'Ha-ha, you suck, I'm the Billion Dollar Princess and I'm so funny,' smirks. Her, 'bitch' smirks. But no one, save for herself and most of the WWE staff and personal, knew what happened to Eric Bischoff. While on television, John threw him in a dump truck because he took advantage of his power, Eric took personal time off, first to check out ECW, and then retired from the Wrestling business. Last Stephanie heard; he was writing a book. Even though their characters loathed and despised each other, she and Eric got along fairly well. She particularly enjoyed her earlier Smackdown moments when she and Eric literally went head to head with each other. That kiss on Halloween, couldn't have been played any better if it were fake. That's how comfortable they were with each other and their work together.
As Stephanie was pacing the ring, and the crowd was cheering, he watched as she smiled and lowered the microphone, giving the fans a chance to scream their heads off. John was just amazed by her; how much she had changed in the four years, while still staying the same. Her radiant blue eyes captured him and needless to say, if he didn't think of something to take his mind off of her, he'd do something in front of a live audience and get fired for it. The night, four years ago, as John was doing promos and going up against one of Stephanie's oldest friends, Mark, the Undertaker, he remembered the last minute air time that Vince McMahon gave him, since one of the live segments had a set back. He had played the whole thing out, showing Stephanie that he could freestyle and get the fans into it. He just never expected her to actually go along with it. In fact, he was expected to get yelled at or slapped because of it. He actually slapped her ass! And it was real; nothing about it was fake, and she let him. It was one of John's greatest moments; he just hoped that someday that ass would be his.
As Stephanie spoke again, he was brought of his trance and began pacing, to get the feeling back into his legs. She ignored him and turned to the fans, where she knew the cameras were. "Since my father is doing business overseas right now, and technically no one is running Raw, it's been left up to me to make sure that things go more…smoothly, here on Raw. Therefore…I have hand picked Raw's new general manager." When Stephanie turned around, she saw John, with his title belt over his shoulder, simply leaning against the post. "Let me introduce to you all, Raw's new general manager…Chris Jericho!"
As a good majority of the fans rose to their feet and screamed with joy and surprise, John pulled off his bit and looked at Stephanie with a shocked expression then watched as Chris came walking out, cocky, as always. John wasn't the biggest fans of Chris; he always thought he could do better and the creative team was holding him back. He respected what he had done for the company in the past, John being a wrestling fan and all; but Chris Irvine always could do better.
Stephanie smiled, and clapped, as Chris entered, ignoring John, who was still in a state of shock. Chris lifted Stephanie's hand and kissed it, and Stephanie blushed, as he took the microphone from her. In the corner, John frowned. Chris lifted up his hand and the fans quieted. "I only have to say one thing," he said in the mic. "And that is…now that Y2J is running the show; things will never…evvvvveeerrrrr…be the same!"
Stephanie smiled and clapped her hands in approval. The fans cheered and screaming, forgetting about the unfinished match. Stephanie knew one thing; Chris was right…
Thing never would be the same anymore.
No one knew it yet, though…