Thea could hardly have hoped for the documentary to be going any better so far. They were only two days into it and she already had some interesting insight into Ronda's everyday life, some very useful interviews with Seth, Maggie and Bayley, and some fantastic sound bytes from Ronda. Not only were those things all good news, there was also the fact that she and Ronda were getting along quite well too. Having started to get to know her, Thea knew that if the opposite had been the case, Ronda could have made the whole process a nightmare. That was just the kind of person she was.

"So what's the plan tonight?" Thea asked. They were in Ronda's locker room at the arena where Smackdown was going to be broadcast from later in the evening, having recently arrived in the building.

"I thought you might be about to tell me that," Ronda said with a distinct edge to her voice. "What do you need to do?"

"The first priority is to film you, as always. What do you need to do?"

"Same thing you filmed me doing Sunday night," Ronda shrugged. "Go see Hunter and find out what I'm doing tonight, then work out my match with my opponent. Then wait for the show to start. Then get the fuck out of this shit hole."

Getting something to eat in catering was not on the agenda because Ronda had made sure that they went to a local restaurant to eat before going to the arena. It was almost as if she thought she might catch something from the offerings that WWE provided for their employees. The problem was that the service at the place they had gone to hadn't been good, and the food hadn't been much better, which had put Ronda into a mood the likes of which Thea hadn't seen from her yet. Right now, she felt kind of glad that Adam and his camera weren't allowed into the locker room while Ronda was changing, for obvious reasons.

"God I hate it when Seth's not on the road with me," Ronda muttered, to herself as much as to Thea.

And there was the real reason for the bad mood, Thea realised. Ronda missed her husband. It seemed that he was a huge stablising force in her life, much as Hunter also seemed to be.

"Okay," Thea said, knowing that what she had to say next wasn't going to be welcomed either. "I'd like to speak to Paige tonight, and Stephanie too if she'll make herself available to me for a few minutes. Rumor has it the two of you haven't always seen eye to eye."

"Yeah, well rumor also has it that Stephanie doesn't work Tuesday nights, so you'll have to think again on that one, won't you?" Ronda snapped, talking down to Thea for the first time since they'd met.

Thea didn't like being spoken to like that, but she wasn't really in a position to give as good as she got. There was almost a full month of filming ahead of them, so alienating Ronda this early would make the documentary almost impossible to complete. Making an enemy of her and then trying to live with her would be hell. That didn't mean that she was going to take any bad attitude lying down though; she had more self-respect than that. "Yeah, I will think again on that, and you can think again on how you talk to me."

Ronda had already changed into her ring gear, which oddly seemed to be one of her first priorities upon arrival at the arena - maybe another part of her curious pre-match routines. It meant that she was at her most imposing when she took a step closer to Thea, standing fully seven inches taller than her. There was a menacing look in her eyes too, and for a moment Thea wondered if she might actually be about to get a smack in the mouth. "You want to give me shit tonight, Thea? That's how we're going to do this?"

Standing her ground and keeping her nerve, Thea put some more force behind her next words. "How we're going to do this is with you speaking to me with some respect. Have I done anything to anger you? No. Have I been rude to you? No. I'm just doing my job, which is to put across both sides as far as opinions of you are concerned. You are not going to bully me out of doing that."

Ronda took that in for a second and then took a step back. She gave a dry laugh, which eased the tension in the room somewhat, then nodded at Thea out of what might have been respect. "You know, Thea, I've considered opening a business when I'm done with wrestling. I'd call it rent-a-spine. Unlike most of the people around here, you've already got one. What do you say we go find Hunter?"

It wasn't an apology, but it felt like one to Thea. It was as close as she was going to get to one, that was for sure. The image she had in her mind was of Ronda talking to some of the other women on the roster in that manner, over some issue with creative for example. A talking point had presented itself, so Thea decided to go for it. "Actually, I'd like to film something quickly, if we can get Adam in here?"

"Okay," Ronda agreed, out of confusion as much as anything.

Thea opened the door and stuck her head out into the hallway, where her colleague was waiting patiently. "Come in here, please. I just want to film something quickly."

Adam walked in and started filming as quickly as he could, focusing on Thea. "We've just had the camera off while Ronda was changing," the presenter began. "We had what I guess you could call a rather tense exchange of words, and I called Ronda out for trying to intimidate me." She looked over at Ronda, who was clearly confused as to what was happening. "It got me to thinking, Ronda, do you think you've ever intimidated any of the other women on the roster?"

Put on the spot as the camera turned to her, Ronda still barely missed a beat before answering, showing real vigour. "I should damn well hope so. If I have a problem with someone or we're having a disagreement, I expect that I do intimidate them. And I expect them to try and intimidate me right back. That's how you get down to the real issues, not sneaking around, whispering behind people's backs. Things should always be dealt with by force of argument, not by sticking a knife in someone's back. If I disagree with someone, I tell them. What people really might be upset about is that I win the arguments some of the time."

Adding another brilliant sound byte to the small but growing collection made Thea smile slightly as she signaled Adam to kill the camera, but she also had to admit that she felt a sense of admiration for the woman in front of her. Was Ronda ever going to be everyone's cup of tea at WWE? No chance. But there was no way anyone could doubt that she was a strong, driven person who knew what she wanted and would fight as hard as she could to get it. She was also an egotist, but in some ways that could be considered a compliment as much as a criticism. What Thea saw were some leadership qualities. Certainly not the qualities of a popular leader, but definitely those of an effective and respected one. It was an interesting thing to think about while she waited in silence in Hunter's office, staying out of the discussion about the plans for that night's show.

"You're going over Naomi tonight, Ronda," was Hunter's opening statement.

The way he said it made Ronda's first question rhetorical. "In a squash? A singles squash on the first show after Bayley and I form a tag team and win the titles? What gives?" Those were much better questions.

"The development of your storyline is being done backstage," Hunter clarified. "We've got you and Bayley as a face team, obviously. We've got Nikki and Sarita, who are pissed that they lost the titles to you. We've got Daga, who just likes to beat people up, and we've got Emma, who's been playing the cowardly heel role ever since she won the Divas title. So what we're going to do is have Emma explaining to those other three heel Divas that a Rousey/Bayley team is a bad thing for all of them, and it's better if they work together to finish it before it gets started. Someone asks how exactly they do that. Emma says, 'Follow me,' and the next time we see them, all four of them attack Bayley in a hallway, beating the living crap out of her."

"Then what?" Ronda asked. The fact that it was her first interruption told him a lot. She was hooked on what he was describing.

"Then, when they leave Bayley all busted up on the floor, she's lying near an entrance door by the way, you 'arrive.' Right now, people don't know if you and Bayley really are a team, or if you give a damn about her, any of that stuff. We want to keep that going because of the hugging angle. You're on a team with Bayley, but you have no time for her, you don't want to interact with her. You already know what the deal is. So when you walk into the building and walk past her, all you do is glance down at her and shake your head on your way past, like, 'Is that how pathetic you are?' You don't stop and help her or show any concern for her well-being. It will keep people guessing."

"Alright," Ronda said simply. "We're going to do something bigger next week in London though, right?"

"Yeah, we are," Hunter assured her. He had no idea how right he was.

"Hey, Paige. Excuse me," Thea said, approaching Paige and Emma, who were having a friendly chat, sitting on top of some equipment boxes in one of the hallways. Finding the English Diva had taken Thea a few minutes, but it promised to be more than worth it.

"What's up?" Paige asked, politely enough. She knew who Thea was and why she was there, but that was no reason to be rude to the woman. She was just doing the job that she'd been hired to do.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm Thea Trinidad and I'm..."

"I know why you're here," Paige helped out. "You want to talk to me about Rousey. Let's do it."

"I'll leave you to it," Emma said knowingly, dropping down off the crate to make way for Thea. Paige had already mentioned to her how much she was relishing the chance to have her say on Ronda.

"So is what I say actually going to make the show, or is this really just a waste of time?" Paige asked as Thea climbed onto the crate beside her and made herself comfortable.

"I'm not in a position to make promises," Thea said evenly. "WWE will have the final say on editing, so if I told you I could guarantee what you say will go out, I'd be lying to you. What I can say is that I was specifically instructed not to make the show entirely pro-Ronda. She has her faults and she has her critics, and they are going to be represented to the audience. At least, that's what they've told me."

"Fair enough," Paige nodded, appreciating the honesty of the answer. "I'm ready when you are."

While Adam got himself sorted out, Thea said, "I'd like to start by asking you about something that I've just been talking to Ronda about, then we can move on to some other questions about why you are critical of her. You would describe yourself as a critic of Ronda, right?"

"Not sure that's the term I'd use," Paige chuckled. "But you can go ahead and call me a critic if you like."

Smiling in amusement, Thea looked at Adam. "All set?" He nodded and counted her down to start the interview. "Paige, I've just been talking with Ronda and we had what you might call a heated exchange. I challenged her for trying to intimidate me, then I asked her if she's ever tried to intimidate anyone on the Divas roster. She said that she hopes she has, and she expects that if there is a difference of opinion that people would try and intimidate her right back." Paige gave a grunt of a laugh at that, but Thea continued with her question. "Have you ever had any heated exchanges like that with Ronda, and if so, what are your opinions on how she handles herself when talking to her colleagues?"

"Ronda and I have exchanged angry words before, yes. She's exchanged angry words with most people here. There's something you need to realise about her. When things are going her way and everyone is pandering to her, she's fine. She'll have a laugh with you, she'll co-operate with you on putting matches together and all the rest of it. But when someone dares to ask her to do something that doesn't suit her? That's a whole different story. I remember one time in an informal creative meeting, there was me, Ronda, Hunter, Stephanie and one of the writers. I can't remember his name. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Stephanie had proposed a series of three matches between Ronda and I, with me winning it two to one. They thought I didn't have much momentum at the time, so they wanted Ronda to put me over to 'get me back on track,' as Stephanie put it."

"Ronda didn't see it that way?" Thea guessed.

Paige nodded. "We were talking over how the three match series was going to go. The idea was that Ronda would win the first match, then I would come from behind and win two in a row. Ronda doesn't lose often, especially not clean, so I admit it would have been a pretty huge deal for me to go over like that, and I would honestly have really appreciated it if she had done it. But of course this is Ronda we're talking about. When Hunter laid out the plans to her, you should have seen the look on her face. It was like he'd asked her to go and clean the bathrooms using only her tongue. She was like, 'I'm not losing clean to her twice in a week. That makes no sense.' There was a lengthy discussion about it, with Hunter trying to talk her round, which is a joke in itself. Anyone else gets told what they're going to do and they have to go out there and do it, but Ronda? Oh no, Ronda has to be happy with it first. We can't have Ronda offended, whatever we do."

Reminded of something, Thea said, "People used to say that Vince McMahon used to work with Shawn Michaels in a similar way to that, way back when."

"Exactly," Paige nodded, impressed with Thea's knowledge of the history of the business. "The problem was that this time Ronda just wasn't having it. She was determined not to put me over. She was coming with all kinds of objections to it. I could tell that Stephanie was getting pissed off with it, and I definitely was. Hunter explained to her for the second or third time how important this was going to be in terms of giving me my first push for a while, and Ronda just sits there with her bad attitude. She shrugs it off and goes, 'This is getting tiresome now.'"

Real anger was apparent in Paige's voice now as she thought back to the encounter, and Thea noticed her hands clenched into fists as she continued to recount what had happened. "That was the final straw for me. I said, 'You know what you're going to find tiresome? When I pull you across the table and beat the shit out of you.' Stephanie and the writer laughed at that, thinking I was going to say something else to let on that it was a joke, but Hunter wasn't laughing. He saw that I really was going to go for her."

Thea's eyes had widened at that part of the story. "You were really going to get into a fight with Ronda?" she asked with a hint of scepticism in her voice.

"You're damn right I was," Paige said firmly. "I might not have won the fight, but I would have got some shots in. And you know what's worse? After Ronda and I had a shouting match for a few minutes, Hunter ended the meeting. The next thing I know, he's changing the plans we'd been discussing, saying he couldn't rely on me to be professional with Ronda. I mean, for Christ's sake, what is that about? I ended up getting a program with Becky. Don't get me wrong, I love Becky, but beating her isn't beating Ronda, in terms of getting a push."

Keen to get the perfect sound byte, Thea asked a question that she knew would be provocative. "Is there anything you want to say to Ronda now?"

Paige's expression hardened even more. "Will she see it if I do, even if it doesn't make the show?"

"If you want her to see it, I can make sure she does," Thea promised.

With that guarantee under her belt, Paige turned towards the camera, in order to talk directly to Ronda. "Rousey, you talentless fucking egomaniac. Let me tell you exactly what everyone on this roster owes you. It's the same thing that the rest of the world owes you, and that's nothing. No one owes you a thing, despite what you obviously think. And I'll tell you something else: your matches suck. All you've got is the fact that people let you work stiff on them in the ring, and that makes you look good. It makes you look tough, and the fans lap it up. But what talent have you really got? Huh? You're good at getting Hunter to see things your way, I'll give you that. And you're good at getting people to cheer you. That's it. You're just a below average wrestler who gets by on the fact that people like you, for what reason I don't even know.

"And I know what your first instinct is going to be when you watch this. You're going to get mad and you're going to decide you want to fight me. Then your weasel of a husband, and fuck knows what he sees in you by the way, will get into your head and talk you into playing the politics game instead. He'll tell you to go to Hunter with this and drop me in the shit with him. Well don't, Ronda. If you want to come at me, go ahead. I'll fight you, and I'll beat some respect into you. I'm talking about respect for me, respect for the rest of the roster, and respect for the business. And while I'm at it, I'll slap that stupid mole off your face. You make enough money now with your ridiculous contract, your sponsorships and your crappy fucking movies, I'd have thought you'd be able to afford to get your face fixed."

"God damn," Thea said, almost in awe of the outburst. "I think that'll do it for now."

Paige took in a deep breath and blew it back out, calming herself down as Adam turned off the camera. "It felt good to get that off my chest. Thanks, Thea. Make sure she sees that. I'll see you around."

As Paige walked away, Thea and Adam just stared at each other for a moment. "That was savage," the cameraman said.

"Wait until Ronda sees it," Thea replied, not sure if she was relishing the prospect or dreading it.