A huge fist pounded into a black punch bag, the sound of the impact filling the almost empty gym. Roman and Ronda were among the earliest arrivals of the day.
"Keep going," Ronda ordered as she held the bag for him. Again the sweat-soaked Roman hammered his fist in the bag as hard as he could. He had totally lost track of how long he had been in the gym with Ronda, and of how many times she had insisted that he keep going, beating the crap out of this punch bag. One thing was for sure: it was helping.
What should have been the greatest moment of his career to date had been ruined by the fans, who had almost unanimously turned on him like a pack of wolves. It had not only been the fans in the arena at the Royal Rumble, either. Fans around the world had followed their example and had made a hashtag on Twitter urging people to cancel the WWE Network the most popular trend in the world. Now, many hours later, it as still the number one trend by a huge margin. It was an utter disaster as far as both he and WWE were concerned. The company would be losing money hand over fist, and he expected to find out when he reported for Raw that night that he was going to lose his main event spot at Wrestlemania as a result. He could just picture Hunter and Vince sitting in some office or hotel suite raging about how much of a mistake they had made in showing faith in Roman Reigns.
At least Ronda had made him come down to the gym first thing in the morning with her and work out his frustrations, rather than doing what he would otherwise have done, which was to keep it all bottled up inside and let it eat away at him all day. Sure, he had talked to his wife about it when he had gotten back to the hotel the previous night and she had been supportive, but talking over a phone could only do so much. It was one of the biggest down sides to being married to someone who did not work for WWE.
"Thanks for this Ronda," he said a few minutes later when he stopped striking the bag. "You were right, I did need to do this. I feel... I can't say better, but yeah, it's helped."
"Keep going," Ronda ordered, stern faced. "We're not done here."
"No, we're done," Roman insisted, running a hand through the mess that was his hair. "It's as good as it's going to get. Thank you, again. I'm glad we did it."
"You're welcome," Ronda nodded slightly. "Like I said, if you need to talk, you know where I am. I know you're married and you're very close to Seth and Dean, so you have people you'd prefer to turn to, but the offer is there."
She was a little surprised when Roman gently pulled her into a brief hug. "I meant what I said last night," he insisted and then released the hug. "You stepped up when you saw that I needed help last night. Seth and Dean are like brothers to me, and you're a sister now, too."
It meant a lot to Ronda for her to be effectively adopted into her boyfriend's second family, but there was still a concern. "I don't know if Dean sees it that way," she said as she handed Roman a bottle of water, which he immediately opened and drained.
"Trust me, Dean won't see it any differently," Roman assured her. "He might seem like he's got a screw loose... Hell, he has got a screw loose, but he's one of the good guys, and in his own way, he looks out for Seth and I just as much as we look out for him. Neither he nor I could be happier to see you and Seth together. I mean that."
"Thank you," Ronda smiled warmly as she opened and sipped from a bottle of water of her own. With that, the two of them headed towards the gym's exit. There was still plenty of time to shower and still make it to the hotel's restaurant in time for breakfast.
"You wanted to push Reigns, not me," Hunter Helmsley reminded his father-in-law one more time, later that night in his office at the arena where Raw was taking place. "I said this might happen, but you insisted you wanted him to win the Rumble. I've put together what I think is as much of a damage limitation exercise as we can hope for, and it doesn't involve taking the 'Mania main event off Reigns either. So, how about you back me instead of arguing? We don't want another 'Mania ending getting booed out of the arena, do we? We had that at twenty nine when Cena beat Rock."
"Fine," Vince snapped angrily. "I'll tell you what I'll do. You sit there talking like you want to take over the booking completely from me? That's exactly what you're going to do. You're going to book Wrestlemania, all of it. Let's see what you can really do."
"Fine," Hunter echoed, standing up from behind his desk. "I'll book it, and I'll make it even better than last year's."
"Fine," Vince repeated again, not realising how childish they both sounded. "I'll leave you to it then, shall I?" With that he stormed out of the office, slamming the door hard behind him.
"Well, that went well," Stephanie sighed. She was standing against the wall near the door. "Now what?"
"Now I start fixing this disaster," Hunter said with determination. "And I already know how I'm going to do it."
"What are you going to do with the main event?" Stephanie asked, referring to Wrestlemania. A smile slowly appeared on her face as she studied her husband. "I see that look on your face. I know when you've got a good idea."
"How would you like a vacation?" Hunter smiled back at her, sitting back down on the comfortable chair behind his desk.
"Huh?" Stephanie asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"After 'Mania. You and I should take a break for a few weeks. The public might think that when we're not on the show we're not here, but really, when was the last time we took a long vacation? Me, you and the girls, all of us should get away for a few weeks. What do you say?"
"It sounds great," Stephanie smiled. "Of course it does, but if we're not on the show, who's supposedly going to run the place? And how are The Authority going to disappear this time? We already did the firing angle at Survivor Series and the ratings tanked right away, so we had to come back ahead of schedule. What's your idea?"
"Come here," Hunter said, now working away on his laptop as Stephanie walked around to stand behind him. "I don't know who will play the part of running the show. I'll probably have to write a GM again, and I don't mean some stupid laptop gimmick either." Stephanie put an arm around his huge shoulders and leaned down to look at the laptop just as he pulled up a picture. "But what I do know is, that these guys are going to take out The Authority."
There was no response for a moment as Stephanie looked at the picture. "No," she insisted, standing back upright and putting her hands on her hips. "No, Hunter. What are you trying to do to me?"
"Like it or not, honey," Hunter gestured at the picture. "These are going to be the new faces of WWE."
Now that she was not required as a referee, Ronda had no real purpose to be at the arena for Raw, but she was of course allowed backstage as she was a WWE employee. When Seth, Roman and Dean were changed into their ring gear, Seth had found Ronda in catering and she had returned with him to the locker room. The four of them had already eaten lunch together at a local restaurant, and everyone had been pleased to see that Roman was not a total mess. He had not been his usual self, but he had not been too far from it, which was as much as they could realistically have hoped for given that the cancel WWE Network hashtag was still the top trend in the world, and countless users were spewing hate of all kinds towards him. It was an unprecedented situation. The atmosphere backstage was tense, the usual hive of conversation and laughter replaced by a much more subdued feeling. Even when the four of them were back together in the locker room, the atmosphere was different from how it had been over lunch, largely because they were all awaiting the inevitable: the summons for Roman to go to Hunter's office for the verdict on what was going to happen next, and also what the status of the Wrestlemania main event was. Would they take his main event match match away from Roman?
With the conversation leaving something to be desired, Ronda found herself idly checking her social media on her phone. When she checked her Instagram, she saw that among the usual crap that people insisted on tagging her in, there was an upload of an amazing piece of work that someone had drawn. The pencil drawing was of Ronda's face, neck and shoulders, wearing a referee shirt. Her facial expression was portrayed as if she was literally growling at whoever she was giving an order to in some imaginary match. The artist had made an incredible job of turning the other half of her face into that of a cat, complete with the teeth and whiskers. It looked very fearsome indeed. The quality of the drawing was like nothing Ronda had seen before. Intrigued, she brought up the profile of the user who had sent it to her. "Seth," she said, surprised by what she saw. "Is that who I think it is?"
Seth looked at the phone's screen as Ronda held it out towards him. He recognised the smiling face on the profile picture. "Hey, that's Maggie," he grinned.
"I thought so. Look what she sent to me." Ronda pulled up the amazing drawing and showed Seth the phone again.
"Wow," Seth mumbled, taking the phone so he could study the drawing in more detail. "That's amazing. Damn, she's good." Then he read out the message underneath. "I was so overwhelmed meeting Seth and the guys last week that I didn't really say what an honour it was to meet you, Ronda, so I drew this for you. I hope you like it?" He ended by saying, "She's put a hashtag: Gattina. What does Gattina mean?"
"I don't know," Ronda said as she took her phone back. Roman and Dean asked to see the picture that Maggie had drawn and they were equally impressed with it.
While Ronda had been showing each of them in turn, Seth had looked up the strange word on his own phone. "Gattina is Italian for little cat," he announced. "I'm not so sure about the little part, but I do like it. Gattina," he repeated to himself quietly.
"You're going to start calling me that now, aren't you?" Ronda smiled as she sat back down beside him.
"You can't complain," Seth chuckled, "Your nickname for me is asshole."
"That figures," Dean quipped. "I couldn't have thought of a better one, actually. I might use it for you myself."
"Oh, great," Seth feigned being miserable. "Now I'm going to have all three of you calling me asshole."
"For good reason," Roman grinned, playing along.
Only a few minutes later, the expected knock arrived on the door. A runner responded to Dean's yell of acknowledgment and opened the door. "Triple H is asking for you to come to the production office please, right away. All of you," he clarified. It was a surprise that all four of them were required, but they knew that there was no point in questioning the runner, therefore they headed off to the production office, exchanging confused glances with each other along the way.
"What does Hunter want me for?" Ronda asked Seth quietly as they walked along the hallway, trailing slightly behind Roman and Dean, who were having their own quiet conversation.
Seth gave the obvious answer with a shrug. "No idea. I don't even know what he wants me for."
A couple of minutes later, Roman knocked on the office door and they were invited to enter. None of them could have imagined what they were about to hear.
Saturday March 28th 2015
The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony was being held the night before Wrestlemania. For Seth and Ronda, it was the first time that they would be in front of an arena full of WWE fans as a couple, as well as being filmed on the red carpet for the WWE Network. Their relationship had gradually became public knowledge over the two months they had been together, but it still felt good to finally appear at an event together. When they walked through the curtain into the arena at the SAP Center in San Jose, they immediately heard fans calling to them from the first few rows of the nearby seating.
"Come on, let's go give them a few pictures," Ronda urged excitedly.
"We're not supposed to do that," Seth reminded her.
"Oh, who cares?" Ronda asked. "Look at Brie and Daniel over there, they're doing it." That settled the matter. Seth and Ronda walked over the group of eager fans and posed for pictures, Ronda's arm linked with Seth's.
"You look stunning," Seth whispered to her when they were done and heading for their seats, contemplating her incredible figure in the dark red dress that she had bought especially for the occasion.
"You're not so bad yourself, asshole," Ronda chuckled, after making sure no one else was listening. Her man having the affectionate nickname asshole would be a tough one to explain.
"Hey, there's Hunter, Steph and the girls." Seth gestured as they neared their seats.
Hunter saw them approaching and greeted them in turn, first with a handshake for Seth and then a peck on the cheek for Ronda. He spent a brief moment asking Ronda if she was enjoying her first Wrestlemania week so far, even though she had not been directly involved in it. He then made his excuses to both of them and then his wife, saying that he had to get backstage.
"Say hi to Seth Rollins," Stephanie urged her three daughters who all did so excitedly. "We need to go sit down," Stephanie smiled at Seth. "Ronda," she nodded, the smile disappearing from her face before she turned to leave.
Seth had not noticed the change in expression as he was attempting to locate where his and Ronda's seats were, but Ronda definitely had noticed it, and it confirmed what she had suspected for some time. "That bitch has got some kind of problem with me," she hissed quietly.
"Huh?" Seth mumbled back, taking Ronda's hand and leading her towards their seats.
"Stephanie," Ronda hissed once more. "She just looked at me like a piece of dog shit she'd stepped on. What the hell is her problem?"
Seth turned to look at her and saw a look on her face that he had not seen often since meeting her. Not many women had the kind of 'I'm pissed off' expression that Ronda had. "Calm down," he urged. "I don't know what her problem is, but we're here to enjoy the night. Just forget it. It's not like she runs the place, is it?"
"No, she can stick to running her fucking Twitter account for a living," Ronda growled sarcastically as they took their seats. "If she gives me that look again, I'll soon wipe it off her face for her."
It was fairly obvious to Seth that being Chief Brand Officer for WWE meant a lot more than running a Twitter account, but Ronda's disrespectful sarcasm made him laugh. "Chill," he grinned. "This isn't the time for Gattina to make an appearance. Like I just said, forget it. Her and Hunter are out of here for a few weeks anyway, and you know what will have happened by then."
"I know," Ronda sighed, the aggression finally leaving her. "I can't wait, I really can't."
"Neither can I," Seth grinned. "Only twenty four hours to go."
Ahead of them and those sitting around them was not only the biggest wrestling event of the year, but possibly the biggest ever. Ahead of them was Wrestlemania thirty one.