Quitters
It takes more than wishing for something to happen, it takes action to make it happen...
Flashback-October 2015
"So, let's talk Royal Rumble!" Vince McMahon beamed to Kevin Dunn, who was right next to him backstage at Smackdown commercial taping.
"What's there to talk about? Roman Reigns is going to win. He is the most obvious choice to win." Kevin explained as he knew that creative, Vince and he have talked about Roman Reigns winning the Royal Rumble and headlining WrestleMania ever since SummerSlam of last year. This was the plan that they were going to go with and no one was going to change their minds.
"No duh! I already know that, but…" Vince wrapped his arm around Dunn's shoulders and pulled him closer in a secretly kind of way. What Vince was going to tell him next was going to between them—and creative, after they were done discussing it, "What in the blue hell are we going to do with the Daniel Bryan fans? I do not want the same thing that happened with Batista to happen with Reigns."
"Look," Dunn began in a whispery voice, "I know exactly what we are going to do with Daniel Bryan and his fans—we are going to eliminate him early on in the match. We do not send Roman until later in the match. We will get all of the boos out of their systems and it will work out in the end."
"Yeah, but we need to make sure that we make Reigns look strong." Vince pointed out, this was something that he wanted to make sure. He wanted Roman to look strong, but he cannot do that with Daniel in the match.
"Look, why don't we send Big Show and Kane out. Let those two be in the final four. Hell, we might as well throw Ambrose in there. It will give the fans something to root and sympathize for. The fans loved The Shield, but they loved those two. Let's just make them the final four." Dunn strategized.
"The fans are going to want Ambrose to win, but what will we do about Dolph Ziggler? The fans have been getting really behind him. They probably want him to win more than Roman?" Vince explained as Dunn realized that this was also going to be another problem.
"We'll give Ziggler the number thirty spot, but we have our sights on Roman winning in the end of the day. There is nothing that is going to change a damn thing." Dunn smirked as Vince nodded in satisfaction.
"And if it all fails, we'll just send The Rock out there! There is no way that the WWE Universe will boo at The Rock!" Vince beamed.
Without Vince or Dunn knowing, Daphne Consuelos hid in the shadows of backstage, awaiting for her part of the Smackdown commercial to be filmed. When the concept of the commercial was finally revealed, she thought it was WWE's way of making fun of the meltdown that she suffered at SummerSlam and the treatments that she has and currently has to seek because of it. She thought that it was WWE's way of making her feel like complete garbage. The concept of the commercial was that the Superstars and Divas have an appointment to see the psychiatrist and each talent sees him individually, where they are shown some black blobs on a white card and their response for each other blobs was "Thursday", which was the day that Smackdown was going to move to—just like the old days.
Daphne rolled her eyes; she heard the conversation between Vince and Dunn and she felt sick to her stomach. The thing was: she adored Joe—he was one of her closer friends, but she felt like ever since he returned from his injury that he had been giving her the cold shoulder—like she had done something to piss him off; however, the problem with Joe was that he was greener than grass. He was not ready to carry the company. Although, people said the exact thing with John Cena, but John was able to learn and grow from being a champion. John was a mid-card champion, before he went on to capture the big one. What has Joe done? He was a WWE Tag Team Champion, but he had Colby Lopez to help carry his weight. Joe was currently being protected by the company and it has been showing in his matches.
Daphne cannot stand to watch one of Joe's matches because he was that green to her, but who was she to judge? At least his division got more than three minutes per match. She just felt like there were more deserving people to win the Rumble and headline WrestleMania other than Joe. There was no doubt that he was going to be the star of the company, but this is the wrong time to capitalize on the opportunity.
"Daphne?"
Daphne turned around to find her boyfriend Colby, personal asshole, Jon Good, Brie Danielson and Nicole Garcia-Colace, who noticed that her sights were elsewhere, "Why are you paying the slightest of attention to Vince and Dunn?" Colby asked as Daphne bit her lip in nervousness.
"I know who's winning the Royal Rumble…" Daphne said in a nervous way. She did not mean for her words to come off in the certain way, but she was mostly afraid that some people were not going to be happy with the person that is in store for winning the Rumble.
"Who?" Jon questioned.
"He was in The Shield with the two of you." Daphne hinted and that was when Jon and Colby's eyes widened.
"Joe?" all, but Daphne said at the same time as the Ultimate Diva nodded, confirming that she was indeed talking about Joe.
"Wow! So obvious that they would pick him," Colby spoke up, feeling unhappy with the Rumble winner, "Look, I respect the hell out of Joe, but I feel like he is not ready to compete at the main event of WrestleMania. If Brock Lesnar ends up winning the match, he's screwed because Brock cannot carry a match and neither can Joe. People are going to hate watching the match."
"Joe's my friend," Jon spoke up, "I feel like he can pull this off. He doesn't just sit and take all the criticism in, but he does something about it. I feel like he will do something about the criticism and rise up to the occasion."
"I felt like Bryan actually had a shot with winning." Daphne said sadly as Brie shook her head in agreement.
"You'll have fans complaining about him headlining WrestleMania two years in a row." Brie rolled her eyes; she could almost predict how fans would respond if her husband would end up winning.
"No one complained when John Cena headlined WrestleMania over and over and over again. I feel like fans turn on Daniel Bryan because they want to be different and go against the crowd. They think it is the cool thing to do, but I want to see something that is ready to win. People like Ziggler, Wyatt or even Jon winning," she looked at Jon, when she said his name, "I would love the WWE to pick someone that is just right, but I feel like they already have their plans set in stone." Daphne explained.
"Daphne," the director of the commercial approached her, "Are you ready to film your part of the commercial?" he asked as Daphne nodded.
"I'm more than ready." she smiled as she walked with the director. She was sat down in one of the lounge chairs as the make-up artist did some last touches of powder on her face, before she stepped away from the scene.
"Action!" the director called.
"Hello Daphne," the psychiatrist greeted her as Daphne Anne had on a smile on her face, "I am going to show you a series of pictures and I want you to name the first thing that pops into your head."
"Bring it on!" Daphne beamed as the psychiatrist showed her a blob that looks like a cloud, "Cloud." Daphne said.
"Cut!" the director cut the scene as he went to approach Daphne.
"Look, I do not want you to name what literally pops into your head first, but to say "Thursday", whatever blob you get, you have to automatically say "Thursday", but feel free to act like your character. We encourage all of the talent to be their characters and know how their characters would approach these pictures." the director explained.
"I think I got it." Daphne said hesitantly, before the director went back to his camera as Daphne situated herself in her seat again.
"ACTION!" he called for the scene to begin.
"Hello Daphne." the psychiatrist greeted Daphne Anne as she looked like she did not want to be doing this appointment right now
"Why am I even here?" Daphne asked in her bitchy tone.
"I'm here to evaluate you," the psychiatrist explained, "Here is what we are going to do; I am going to show you a series of pictures and name the first thing that pops into your head with each picture. Understand?"
"Sure."
The psychiatrist shows her a blob of a cloud.
"Thursday!" Daphne exclaimed as the psychiatrist showed her a picture of a dog, "Thursday!" she exclaimed again as he raised a brow at her and showed her a picture of a tree, "Thursday, DUH!" she rolled her eyes, annoyed by the same pictures over and over again. He then showed her a picture of a heart, "Thursday! I GOT THIS!" she said in a cocky way as she did a little dance on her seat.
"Feel free to say something else that comes into your mind." he assisted her as he showed her a picture of the WWE logo.
"Oh Friday!" Daphne beamed.
"Really?" he raised a brow with her.
Daphne got closer to his face, "NOPE! THURSDAY!" she continued to dance around the room.
Smackdown
Two Weeks Until The Royal Rumble
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
This was the first night that Smackdown was going to be shown on a Thursday night. Daphne had just finished watching her commercial in which she filmed back in October and she adored the way that it turned out. It was barely in which she got to loosen up and be herself. Even though she was supposed to be playing a character, it all felt like things that she would do outside of her character. She was with Saraya Jade-Bevis backstage as she watched Daphne's commercial with her.
"I still like my commercial better," Saraya said in such a cocky and sarcastic way, "Although, I liked the dancing in the end of the commercial. I found it quite adorable."
Daphne smiled, "Colby loved my commercial. He just loved the dancing in the end of it as well. I never intended to dance in my commercial though, but I guess that is what happens when you come second place at Dancing with the Stars. It makes you always want to continue dancing. I loved your commercial though, Saraya! I loved the "Thursday! Nailed it!" It was just totally you!"
"Thank you, Daphne! I can tell that we are going to be ruling the Division this year." Saraya predicted as Daphne tilted her head in a confident way.
"Two girls can hope, huh? I want this to be the year of the Divas though. That is one thing I wish for." Daphne admitted to her a Saraya smiled.
"Hopefully, my match with Nikki is a step in the right direction." Saraya wished.
"I hope so too." Daphne responded.
The chapter was supposed to be a little different from the others. I wanted people to see Daphne in a sillier light and for people to see that she can have fun every now and then. Also, what did you think about Vince and Dunn talking backstage? Do you think that those two are out of their minds or do they have a clue how to handle this Royal Rumble match? Will this be the year of the Divas? Please favorite, follow and review! :)