"Your girlfriend stood you up," Roman taunted as he set his empty plate aside and sat back. There was a huge grin on his face.
"Seriously?" Seth moaned. "You're going to start with this? You're really going to start with this?"
"You're the one who walked in here like you saw Nikki Bella with her tits out," Dean said, talking with his mouth full again. "She's hot, dude," he mimicked.
Seth decided to no-sell the ribbing, knowing that reacting would only make things worse. Instead, he just shrugged. "See for yourself when you meet her, but don't come with an attitude. I think she'd kick your ass."
A snort was the only response from Dean, who had now cleared his plate. Roman stood and said his goodbyes, telling them that he had to go work on his match preparations with Big Show.
When Roman left, Seth suggested to Dean that they should head out to see where Ronda had got to. It had been twenty minutes since they had parted ways when she had gone to the bathroom. She had said she was going to come to catering right after she was done, but there had been no sign of her.
The two men had just walked into the hallway when Seth saw Ronda hurriedly approaching them, full of apologies. "Sorry, Seth. I came out of the bathroom and walked right into Cesaro. He dragged me off to work on the tag match. I know I said I'd..."
"Calm down, it's all good," Seth said gently. "Dean, this is Ronda Rousey. Ronda, meet Dean Ambrose."
"Hey," Dean smiled as he shook hands with the female referee that everyone in the back was talking about. Seth certainly had not been lying, the girl was hot, and she was a unit, too. If he had not been with Renee, Seth would have had some competition on this one.
Seth suggested that they find an empty area to sit and go over the ending of the match. Fifteen minutes later, they had it all agreed. Ronda confirmed that she was happy with how to play her part in the ending. She then had to make her excuses because she had a brief segment to film with Stephanie McMahon.
"I like her," Dean admitted once Ronda was out of earshot. "She's got confidence, and she's going to need it with some of these idiots. You know they're going to botch and fuck around in matches on purpose to make her look bad."
"Yeah, I know," Seth admitted with a shake of his head. It was pathetic, but some of the guys really were that petty and backwards in their attitudes. "At least Hunter will be expecting it too. He hired her, so he'll be sure to back her."
Seth was already changed into his ring gear, but Dean was not, so he announced that he was heading back to their locker room. Raw would be going live fairly soon, so the two men agreed to meet back up and watch the tag match which was second on the card from the Gorilla position. It was Ronda's debut, and both men wanted to check it out.
There was a lot more about Ronda that Seth wanted to check out, but he had to make himself focus on business. If the ending of their match sucked it would bury Ronda on her debut, and that would not be good for any of those involved.
"Here it comes, check this shit out," Seth enthused to Dean. They were standing in Gorilla, watching the tag team match that Ronda was officiating.
Seth knew that Cesaro was setting up Jimmy Uso for his uppercut, which would result in the first close near fall of the match. The crowd had been loud since the start of the show, and were getting into the pleasingly mistake-free contest, so the upcoming pin would give a good indication of the kind of reaction that Ronda's count could get on a near fall. Seth needed it to be good as the finish for later in the night was built around it.
Cesaro nailed the move perfectly. Although he and Kidd were supposed to be the heel team, they were getting cheered, which meant that the crowd popped loudly for the potential winning move.
The art of refereeing a wrestling match was lost on most fans simply because they never gave any thought to it. However, those who were watching in the back who were not blinded by sexism appreciated how quickly Ronda got in position for the count, ready as soon as Cesaro made the cover. As Seth, and indeed Hunter had suspected it got a great reaction, with half of the crowd even fooled into counting three and then groaning as Jimmy got his shoulder up as late as he could.
Ronda indicated two to the timekeeper and then to Cesaro, who unwittingly helped out with the later finish by remaining his knees and complaining that he thought it should have been three. Stern faced, Ronda stood there and would hear none of it.
"Okay, you sold me," Dean admitted. "She's good, and that finish will go over great. Let's go tell Hunter how we want the commentators to sell it, so he can give them the word."
The Ambrose - Rollins match was not the main event of the night, but the crowd were still into it. Seth and Dean took it to each other both inside the ring and out for over fifteen minutes. The seed had been planted with the fans before the earlier tag match, with a clip with no sound being shown of Ronda and Stephanie sharing a hug backstage. Hunter had made a late decision to leave the audio missing, so that what the two women were actually saying to each other would be a mystery for the fans. At the time, no one in the crowd seemed to have thought much of it, or even paid much attention to the clip.
Ronda had actually gotten a cheer of her own during the match for dragging Dean away from Seth as he was repeatedly stomping the fallen Authority member in the corner. She had then read him the riot act for ignoring her instructions. Ambrose was the face character, but the crowd could not help cheering the no-nonsense refereeing that this new woman was delivering. It was hard for Seth not to smile as he got to his feet, already impressed with how well Ronda worked. Again, the crowd did not seem to suspect anything sinister was going on, even though the distraction caused Seth to get the upper hand for a couple of minutes.
With the end of the time slot for the match approaching, Ronda got the word in her earpiece to call for the finish. "Go home," she told Ambrose quietly as she checked on him as he lay on the canvas.
Dean got up and reversed Seth's next move, going on to work through his signature chain of offence, ultimately leading to the Dirty Deeds finishing move. Dean nailed the move and Seth looked like he was done as he lay flat on his back right in the middle of the ring. Ambrose made the cover, and the count went exactly as planned, drawing an even better reaction than the earlier one in the tag team match had. Almost everyone counted three as Seth's shoulder popped up slightly - not even a real kick out.
At ringside, Michael Cole announced to the world in plain English that he did not like that call at all as Ronda repeatedly motioned that the shoulder had been up to the irate Ambrose, who was stalking her across the ring. The crowd agreed with Dean, booing the call loudly. The venom only increased as Seth attacked from behind, quickly getting the Curb Stomp on Dean, followed by an easy three count.
"It's only her second match so I guess we should give her a break, but I think Ronda Rousey blew that count," Michael Cole announced as Seth celebrated his victory. "I think Ambrose got the three. Rollins got his shoulder up slightly yes, but not before three."
JBL argued the opposite point of view, and with that the segment was in the books.
Seth was the second of the three to get to the back, finding Dean waiting for him. The two hugged briefly, a tradition after any match they had against each other. "Good job, bro," Dean said as Ronda walked through the curtain. Clearly thinking it wasn't appropriate to speak to the two wrestlers, she walked right by their embrace.
"Ronda," Seth called out. The blonde woman turned but did not approach, so Seth walked towards her. "Great job. That was perfect; the reaction was off the charts. You knocked it out of the park." Without even considering it, they embraced each other.
Seth was covered in sweat and dirt from fighting on the outside of the ring, but Ronda still liked how he felt as she hugged him. He felt how a real mad should: hard, tough, powerful. And he seemed like a really nice guy, too. The embrace went on for a half-second longer than it should have, leaving Ronda feeling awkward when they did pull apart.
"I'll leave you to it," Dean quipped as he sauntered away. Apparently they were not the only ones to have noticed the nature of the hug.
"I really enjoyed that," Ronda said in a weak and ill thought out attempt to get the conversation back onto the match.
"What the match or..." Seth let his voice trail off before laughing.
"Seth, I'm sorry I..."
"Relax, I'm joking," Seth said kindly. "First night on the road, huh? What have you got planned?"
"Nothing," Ronda admitted honestly. "Haven't even thought about it." That part was not honest. Her idea had been to try to find out where the other referees were eating dinner and see if she could tag along, even though some of them probably were not too keen on her. A voice in her head told her to avoid wherever this conversation with Seth was heading, but a louder voice told the first to shut the hell up.
No guts, no glory, Seth thought. He had felt an undeniable attraction towards Ronda since first setting eyes on her earlier in the night. Not being the shy and retiring type, he had decided to ask her out to dinner. If nothing else, it would at least let him know if there was a guy already in the picture because if there was, that would be her first response. Given the length of the embrace a moment before, he considered it to be unlikely.
"Dean and Roman filled their faces earlier, but I need to get something to eat when I get out of here," he began confidently. "Join me, if you like?"
Ever since the opportunity to sign for WWE had presented itself, Ronda had told herself to avoid dating one of the wrestlers like the plague, yet here she was on the very first night, about to accept an offer of dinner from one of them. If nothing else she was a woman of instinct, and right now her instincts told her that yes was the answer she should give.
"Sure," she said, playing it cool. "I'll go to dinner with you. Where?"
"There's a nice place not too far away. Let's shower and change, and when the main event is over we can take off right away. I'll drive us over there."
"I have my car too, so I'll have to follow you," Ronda pointed out with a smile.
"Alright," Seth smiled back. As he and Ronda started walking towards the locker room area he said, "I'll meet you in the garage in an hour?"
"Sounds like a plan," Ronda agreed.
A couple of minutes later, Seth walked into the locker room. He was not really surprised to find his two brothers looking at him as if they already suspected he had asked Ronda out. He gave them their answer with a little nod and a wink.
"Nice job, man," Roman said, slapping Seth on the back. Both he and Dean had felt bad when Seth's previous relationship had recently fallen apart. Joking aside, the three men really did always look out for each other, and both Roman and Dean were pleased that Seth had asked Ronda out, and even more pleased that she had accepted. The guy didn't waste any time, that was for sure.