Quitters

Sometimes, it takes a stranger to realize that the way you do things might not be the best way to do things...

Monday Night RAW

Two Weeks Until TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs

Tulsa, Oklahoma

"After, he had said that Colby was not good enough and that I need to 'stick to my decision for the rest of my life', I cried for like an hour and called my psychiatrist for consultation and comfort. We talked for another hour, before Renee called me downstairs, so we can have Thanksgiving dinner. I acted like nothing happen and I tried putting a smile on my face. Obviously, they all knew what was on my mind, but decided not to say anything, which I'm fine about, but my anxiety is at a high tonight with the Stone Cold podcast, which is on after RAW tonight," Daphne Consuelos chuckled as the realized that she was being conceited by talking about herself to her fellow wrestler at the backstage area, "I am so sorry, but how are you feeling about the podcast with Vince McMahon? You obviously know about his feelings towards you, but are you worried it about it being known to everyone that is a subscriber to the WWE Network?" she asked Claudio Castagnoli, who was the fellow wrestler that went by the name Cesaro that she had been opening up to about the Art of Wrestling podcast.

The thing was outside of the group, he was one of the male wrestlers that she was close to. Colby Lopez and him went back and he was the go-to wrestler to hang out with, when they were touring in Japan. Daphne thought that Claudio was not being used in the right way and that he was an underrated talent. She, along with some people in the IWC thought that he would have been a great face after WrestleMania 30, but the WWE dropped the ball on that.

"Do you think that Stone Cold will bring me up? He does not bullshit around and I am anticipating with how Vince responds to Stone Cold's questions. I'm going to be with popcorn and a nice chair back at the locker room and just be amused by Vince's sweating and feeling the heat. I've heard around the locker room that everyone is awaiting for the podcast." Claudio explained as Daphne nodded in agreement, knowing for a fact that she could not wait for the podcast, but she was afraid with what was going to be mentioned at the same time.

"Are you kidding? Stone Cold praises you in his podcasts. He brings you up every time and he even brings you up randomly. I would not be surprised if the interview revolved around you. You're one of his favorite performers at the moment. Look, it sucks that Vince does not see what kind of talent he has within you, but whenever you get the opportunity, show him that with your promos, matches, segments—whatever, but don't piss off the boss. I did that back at Chicago RAW and well, Hunter had to step in and make sure that I did not get sent to jail or whatever. If it worked out for me," she said kindly as she shouldered towards him her Divas Championship, "I believe that it will work out for you."

"Backstage politics sucks. I admit that, but I don't give a crap about what Vince thinks. I agree with Punk, when he said that he is out of touch. I do think that the WWE would be better if Vince stepped down and Hunter took over. Do you see what he has been doing with NXT? The matches that I have had with Rami are matches that we should be having back in the main roster! Have you seen the Womens Division? Those are matches that the Divas should be having night in and night out! Those matches with Annalise Romanoff and Rebecca Knox are matches that the Divas Division needs. Also, the match with Ben and Rami at Takeover: R Evolution for the NXT title? It will be a stellar match that is going to threaten the main roster and really put them on the spot. Plus, the Slammys are going to be handed out and I can promise you that it's going to be down to Reigns and Cena for Superstar of the Year—so rigged to make them look strong!" Claudio count rant all night if he wanted to, but just like he said: backstage politics sucked and that if someone were to hear what he was saying and say something to Vince, there goes his chance in making it in the WWE.

"Shh! Look, I know backstage politics suck, but we have to make the most of it and not expressing our feelings at a public place is not the way to get things to be your way. Besides, RAW is being run by a computer again and I am scared because he is such a huge mystery to me. Just like God, the computer sees and hears everything." she coward behind Claudio as he laughed at her childish antics.

"Isn't the RAW General Manager Hornswoggle?" Claudio questioned as Daphne raised a brow at him.

"Claudio, we're not supposed to remember that! Now, go back to creative, so they can try to make you not remember that ever occurring!" Daphne jokingly instructed as Claudio raised his hands in defense in a joking matter.

"I forgot—we're not supposed to ask that!" Claudio joked back as Daphne giggled.

She knew that it was almost time for RAW to begin and Seth Rollins, Daphne Anne and John Cena were opening the show tonight. She felt like it was almost an honor to be opening up the show because her face turn was beginning. It was not going to all happen at once, but people will begin to see the development and build-up to it. John came out to speak first and ended up closing the computer because just like the WWE Universe—he had enough with the computer a few years back. So, where was Edge to kill the computer again? There was no knowing that. "Second Coming" blasted throughout the WWE Universe as Mr. Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins, Divas Champion, Daphne Anne and J&J Security came behind them, wanting to get a word in with the number one contender for Brock Lesnar's WWE World Heavyweight Championship as Cena watched them with every step that they took to the ring.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, John Cena! Give him a hand, will you?" Seth sarcastically instructed as a mixed reaction was heard, but cheers seemed to overpower boos thanks to the high pitched voices of the females and little kids, "God, you know John? I actually myself need to give you a hand as well because you are just ultra-talented. You are so good at so many things, you know? You got bad jokes for days, my friend."

"I got a lot of them." John countered from the podium, where the RAW GM was located.

"Yeah, you know? You're really good at waving your hand in front of your face like some stupid little kid that is trying to figure out what his fingers are for." Seth mocked John's 'You Can't See Me' hand wave.

"It's what I do right before I defeat you. Exactly." John countered again.

Seth pretended to laugh as his joke along with Daphne—but, he realized that Daphne was actually laughing at Cena's joke, "Do you seriously find this funny?" he asked her with a tint of anger in his voice as Daphne continued to giggle, but it was a little faded.

"Babe, he's got a point there." Daphne responded as she shrugged her shoulders.

Seth exchanged a look with her, before he focused his attention back to John, "Don't worry, I'll get to that part," he responded as he walked around the ring, "You've also become quite efficient over the years and made nearly half of this crowd chant 'you suck' at a nightly basis!" he argued as the crowd began to chant "Cena sucks" as John smiled all around, before it transitioned to a "you sold out" chant, "Do you know what you're really great at, John? Taking credit. Particularly, taking credit that you are not due. You did not win anything at Survivor Series and if I remember correctly, Daph, boys, correct me if I'm wrong here, I eliminated you," he pointed at John, "Alright, I pinned your shoulders to the mat, while the ref counted—one, two, three and on top of that, I would have been the sole survivor and The Authority would still be in power if it was not for one man—Sting." he argued as Daphne and J&J Security nodded in agreement.

"It was exciting to see Sting, but uh, in your recourse of history, you seem to forget that Team Cena had one left, one man left, a man that you had outnumbered three to one. This man almost single handedly eliminated the entire Authority, including yourself and that man is Dolph Ziggler," Cena argued back even stronger, "and I am not out to take credit; I ought to give credit to the Superstar that got The Authority out of power and the Superstar that beat you, Dolph Ziggler."

Seth gave an evil grin, "Alright that's neither. You say Dolph, I say Sting, apples oranges, whatever that's really why I am out here. That's not really the question I want to ask you. The question is this: after a week, do you honestly, you honestly have to ask yourself, you all need to ask yourselves this: is WWE really better off without The Authority in power?" he asked as the entire WWE Universe cheered "Yes! Yes! Yes!" as he talked to his security, not believing what he was hearing, "No, no, no, no, no! You honestly believe that? John, you said it yourself: all of the hard work and sacrifices, you and your team members put in to taking The Authority out of power, just for the board of directors to be naming…The Anonymous General Manager in charge of RAW?"

"Who is currently taking a leave of absents at this moment." John joked as he rubbed the top of the computer.

"Hey, hey, last week it was Daniel Bryan, I mean, what's next? We're going to have JBL taking over RAW?" Seth questioned as the WWE Universe cheered with John Cena walking over to place the cowboy hat on the commentator's head.

"Cool, JBL, it could be anyone. It could be Batista, right? I mean—hey, hey, he's proven to be terrible at wrestling and terrible at acting, maybe, he'll be a good GM, I don't know?" Seth shrugged his shoulders as the crowd continued to boo him, "Or, if we're going way back into the machine, how about we give Eric Bishoff a call? He'll make a great, GM! Or how about, Daphne?" he suggested as the WWE Universe began to chant for the tweener Diva with the intentions of become more face leaning, "I mean, she's probably the smartest person standing in this ring right now! Now…"

"Seth, just drop it already," Daphne spoke up as the crowd cheered a bit, "Look, Mr. McMahon gave John the power to bring back The Authority and as long as John has the power, we can't do anything about it," she tried to reason with her boyfriend, "Cena is took goody-goody. He will not give us what we want. I think that our best bet is to wait—"

"Why are you giving up that easily? Look, we will not stop until The Authority is back in power. You need to stay strong, Daphne. This is what Cena would like for us to do. Do you want to give him wants or do you want to fight for what you want? You want The Authority back as much as I do." Seth tried to convince her as she remained silent, looking at everyone, who began to chant, "No! No! No!"

What was on Daphne's mind?

"Look, everything is going to be fine," Colby assured Daphne for the thousandth time in a row in the Superstars locker room. She was not sure in her mind if this was the best place to be, but if she was not in a public place, people would wonder where she was, so she was torn with what she should do. So, she decided to be with Colby, "Stone Cold is not going to mention you." he added on as Jonathan Good, Nick Nemeth, Jon Fatu, Ryan Reeves, Jon Huber and the person that she talked to earlier in the night, Claudio were all in the locker room as they watched the Stone Cold interview with Vince McMahon.

"There is a part of me that should not care about what Vince says about me, but the more that I think about it, I do care about what my bosses care about me. No matter what, I feel like I owe an apology to Vince for what occurred back at Chicago. I was not in my best mental state back then and he may not like me, but I want to be on good terms with my boss because I think it will do me best in the long run." Daphne had been thinking about doing this for a while, but there was always a voice in her head that had been telling her not to do that.

"Why would you consider doing that? Have you finally sold out? Have you become one of those people that needs to please their bosses? Look, I get that you want to be in good terms with Vince, but you might change your mind after the interview." Claudio was against the idea of Daphne apologizing for Vince because he had treated some of the talent like shit.

"Sorry, but I was just thinking." Daphne said as she looked at the television. The interview began and Stone Cold started by asking a question about the WWE Network and how it was doing. Vince responded by saying that the Network was doing very well and it got a ninety-seven percent satisfaction rate. He says that the WWE Network is meeting up to his expectations and it will continue to amaze him. Stone Cold also asked questions about the Network in the United Kingdom and Vince responded that it will be coming soon.

Then, Stone Cold asked a question about CM Punk, which Vince responded with, "I would like to do this. I would like to apologize. Sometimes in a big corporation, the legal people don't necessarily know what talent relations are doing and conversely. Punk got his severance papers moreover on the day he got married. That was coincidence. So I want to personally apologize for that."

When Stone Cold asked him about the guys in the back afraid of going out on a limb because they do not want to risk their careers, if they ever piss someone off and Vince responded with, "Well, don't piss anyone off…... You have... this is a different group of guys and gals - it's millennials. They're not as ambitious, quite frankly. And they're not trepidatious at all. I just don't think they necessarily want to reach for that brass ring. The last person to really reach for that brass ring, in all likelihood was John Cena. There are others coming up now who definitely want to reach for it: Ambrose is one of them, Seth Rollins is another one, Roman Reigns is another one, Bray is another one. So I think you've got some people here chomping at the bit to make a difference but when you're walking around backstage you don't hear as much camaraderie perhaps and laughter as in your era. But then again there are some other things they do. ... I would suggest this locker room is not as ambitious as the one you were in, correct. It's a different... Again, I said it's millennials. It's a different point of view. If you reach for that brass ring and you fall on your butt... no one wants to fail and there's this feeling, this insecurity, that if you fail you're exposed. I think that's largely pretty much what it is. Because you give everybody the opportunities, you give everyone resources, which you never had. The things that we do now from a television production standpoint, social media. Oh my god, social media is huge. It helps talent in so many different ways. It gives them the tools that you did not have, and other people like you didn't have. It's the utilization of those tools that's very important for talent to use. And they do use them but not in the way you did."

"Where's my brass ring, Vince?" Claudio yelled at the television like he were yelling at Vince McMahon, "You took away my brass ring by taking away my swing!" he continued to yell as Jon Good and Colby tried to get him to calm down and continue to listen to the podcast.

Then, Stone Cold asked Vince about Cesaro, in which he responded with, "He's not connecting yet and we hope he will. He doesn't quite have the charisma. He doesn't quite have the verbal skills as well, and maybe because he's Swiss, I don't know, in terms of the European style. But those are the big things that he's lacking. The audience needs to care about you. They need to be able to feel your presence. You need to be able to project that. He's an extraordinary physical talent, extraordinary. But at the moment, and hopefully he'll get it, he lacks 'it.'"

Claudio had enough with listening to Vince saying that he did not have the "it" factor. He did not want to be like John Cena, Randy Orton or anyone—he wanted to be himself and wrestle. He knew that his verbal skills were not the best, but wrestling was the only thing that mattered to him, not connecting with the audience of anyone, "Wow! That's what he thinks of me," he chuckled darkly and disbelief, "Give me the fucking opportunity and I will give you all of the charisma you want!" he yelled at the television again.

After Stone Cold asked about Daphne Anne as everyone got quiet. Vince responded with, "Daphne is never happy with anything that we give her. She can come across the board of directors and the first impression is that she is quite spoiled. People may think that, it's all part of her gimmick, but it's who she really is. The issue with Daphne is that she comes across as a little bi-polar; one day, she's happy and tolerable, but the next, she's angry and she wants the world and everything in it. This is one thing that is holding her down—her attitude needs to go or she will. If she continues to seek the treatment that she has, then she can have many years in the WWE. The thing is: I do not think that Daphne is actually like this. It is just a wall she has built for herself. I am hoping that she is watching this and it is a wake-up call that she needs to get her stuff together. We want our Divas Champion to be a good role model for younger girls and I believe that can be her. There is something about Daphne and she knows how to push everyone's buttons."

Daphne looked at the television—it all made sense to her. The one thing that had been holding her back from reaching greatness was not Vince, Hunter, Dunn or the Board of Directors. It had been herself all along. Her attitude had been the major problem. It was an issue for Phil and it made him get fired. Daphne does not want to fall in those footsteps and she obviously does not want to be another CM Punk. She took her title and got up, before racing out the door. There was something that she needed to do.

What do you think Daphne is going to do next? Where did she run of too? What do you think about what Vince said about her? Was he right on the money or was he way off about some things? I suppose, this is one of the turning points in the story, where I see the moment that Daphne could change. What do you think?

Also, I am co-writing another story with darkskiesandprettylies and it is called "No More". Who's in the story? The Shield. It might be an AmbrosexOC and RollinsxOC specifically and unlike this story, there is no kayfabe and reality. Kayfabe is the reality. The story takes place at Survivor Series 2012 and it will not be like those other Shield stories. I can promise you that! So, if that seems like something that peaks your interest, you should check out the story because it's a good challenge for me to write and I think that you guys might like the result of it! First chapter will be posted tomorrow! :)

For this story though, please: favorite, follow and review! :)