SmackDown Filming: October 1, 2013
I quietly follow Randy into Triple H and Stephanie's office. Triple H and Stephanie notice us and stop their discussion. Randy closed the door behind us.
I look at Stephanie. "Civil conversation?"
Stephanie smiles. "Of course. What's going on?"
"I'm sure you both saw what Randy did to Daniel last night. I could've stopped it, but I didn't because I liked watching Randy do that to Daniel. I was so critical of you guys for that kind of stuff, but I've been a bit of a hypocrite. I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted."
"We're sorry too. We've been crappy towards you." Triple H says to me. "We shouldn't have threatened you. You're actually pretty good at being a general manager."
I nod. "Thanks."
"So are we going to get along now? Or even work side-by-side?" Stephanie asks.
"I'm willing to try to work with you guys. I'm not saying that I'll agree with everything, but I'll be much nicer about it than I was. I just ask that you still respect my authority as Raw general manager."
"I think we can do that."
"Thank you. Can I ask something?"
"Of course."
"Will you two sign off on me wrestling? Not going back to wrestle full time. Just one match. I realize that I shouldn't be just doing that myself."
"Absolutely. I take it that this is about Brie."
"How'd you know about that?"
"Word got out. We're not dumb though. I'm sure she started it."
"She did, and apparently, she wants to wrestle me."
"Turns out you were right to be prepared for that."
"Yeah, I was. If she makes the challenge tonight, I want it to be on Sunday at Battleground."
"That's awfully soon." Triple H comments.
"I know, but I think with some training to knock off ring rust, I'll be fine."
"You should come down to the Performance Center in Orlando. I've got some pretty amazing female talent on the NXT roster. You can wrestle around with them. You could knock off ring rust with them, and they could learn some things from a veteran of the squared circle."
"As amazing as that sounds, I have kids at home. I can't just decide to leave longer than I planned at the last minute."
"I understand. Just thought you might be interested."
"Maybe I can plan something out to come down there soon. I'm the President of the Divas Division. I ought to go spend some time with the NXT Divas."
"That'd be great."
"You can go this week." Randy tells me.
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'll take care of everything with the kids, and we can video chat. Knocking off ring rust with the NXT Divas would probably be more beneficial to you than doing it with me. You know I've got a bunch of worries about you getting back in the ring, but you're wrestling a woman. You should train with women."
I smile. "Thanks, Randy, and thanks, Paul. I'm excited to meet your NXT Divas."
Triple H grins. "Absolutely. I'm sure they'll be excited to meet you too."
Randy held me close as we both kept our eyes glued to the monitor to watch Brie's match against Aksana. "I'm gonna have my worries, but if you really want to wrestle on Sunday, I support you."
I sigh. "I think you're worrying too much about this. I knew you'd have some worries, but this is almost sounding like you don't think I can do it."
"I think you can. I just don't want you to think that you're ready and then get hurt because you didn't actually train enough. It's been a year. You've got to make sure that you're ready."
"I know. I'm not going to argue with you over this. If she challenges me tonight, I'm accepting it for Battleground. I'm just asking you to be supportive."
"I'll be supportive." Randy tells me as Brie pins Aksana.
1…2…3!
"The winner of this match, Brie Bella!" Justin Roberts announced.
Brie and Nikki celebrate in the ring.
I look up at Randy. "Will you mind if I bring up what you did to Daniel last night to get under her skin?"
Randy laughs. "Go right ahead."
Brie grabs a microphone and starts walking around the ring. "There's something that I want to address before I head backstage. We all saw what happened this past Monday on Raw between my fiancé, Daniel Bryan, and Randy Orton. What happened was way out of line, and everyone keeps throwing the blame all over Randy. That's reasonable, but there's someone else who deserves some blame. That's Marissa Orton, who is the Raw general manager and just so happens to also be Randy's wife. Talk about bias. If she would actually behave like an authority figure, then none of this would have happened. Randy would've never done this if Marissa had done her job. Hell, he hasn't even been punished for it afterwards. I'm not surprised about that because I highly doubt she'll punish her husband. As far as I'm concerned, Marissa is unfit to be general manager. If anything, she should come back to wrestling so someone can put her in her place because…"
I know I want that girl so bad
I lie awake at night
And think of all the things that I would do
With a girl like that…
I walk out with a microphone in my hand and casually walk to the ring. Brie doesn't stop glaring at me.
I smirk at her. "So let me get this straight, you want to blame me for what Randy did? Did you ever stop to consider that maybe Daniel brought it on himself? Daniel ran his mouth and had to deal with the consequences. Plus, correct me if I'm wrong, he hit Randy first."
"Randy was out of line. We both know that. You haven't disciplined him for what happened. You have let Raw turn into absolute chaos since you've become general manager. You weren't a very good wrestler either, but at least then, you'd do less harm."
"Chaos? That's an interesting word choice. When I was wrestling, I was referred to as the Queen of Chaos. You run your mouth about how I need to wrestle instead and quit being general manager because you're so full of yourself that you think you run this division. You might be at the top of the division at the moment, but I could decide to wrestle at any moment. Then, that goes away, Brie. The fact is you can't touch me in this ring. You're going to keep pushing this issue though, right?"
"I'm pushing this issue because you don't want to accept the blame for what's wrong here. This is on you."
"How long are you going to keep pushing this narrative and acting like a victim, Brie? Is it a crime that I allowed something that the crowd was entertained by to continue? If you want to continue playing victim though, Brie, let me remind you what happened Monday night after Randy did what he did. Roll the footage."
Security camera footage of what went down last night in my office between me and Brie played.
I continued to talk. "You deliberately attacked me, Brie, and we have personal issues now." I tell Brie with a glare. "I had every intention of keeping myself neutral with this whole situation, but it's hard to do that when I get physically attacked."
Brie rolls her eyes. "What are you going to do? Cry about it? You're not a wrestler anymore. I'd love to face you in the ring over this, but you know, you don't do that anymore."
"You know what? I'm going to give you what you want, but take this warning, Brie. I'm going to make what Randy did to Daniel on Raw look like child's play. You won't make it out in one piece. You can have your match this Sunday at Battleground. Just so you know though, I'm going to remind you just how mean that I can get. You called me a bitch. I'll show you exactly what a bitch is when I embarrass you in the ring on Sunday. You've crossed the line with me." I throw the microphone at Brie.
I go to exit the ring. Brie grabs my arm and pulls me back before slapping me across the face. I hold my cheek before glaring at her as I take my leather jacket off. Brie runs at me, but I catch her with a Spinebuster and take her to the ground. I start punching on Brie. She tries to block my punches, but it doesn't help much. Referees come down and force me away from Brie. I run back over and kick her in the rib cage before exiting the ring. I grab my jacket before heading up the ramp as my theme song plays.
Sometimes, I missed doing this full time, and I honestly was holding back when I was punching on Brie.
Randy smiles at me as I arrive in guerilla. "If I'm not mistaken, you might've just become a Heel."
I shrug. "I don't mind if I'm a Heel. It's not like I'm bad at it. It's just been a long time since I've been one. Hell, it was probably unavoidable. Daniel is the best thing ever to the audience right now. All the love for him is going to rub off on her since they're engaged. While I know I'm justified and in the right, the audience doesn't get it. If they want a Heel, I can be a Heel."
"Atta girl." Randy wrapped an arm around me. "Let's head back to our locker-room."
"Our locker-room?"
Randy smirks. "I said our locker-room. Let's go."
I leaned against Randy as we exited guerilla. I was feeling confident about this match on Sunday, but I couldn't help but also have a little bit of guilt because of contacting that divorce lawyer and still not telling Randy. I didn't plan on divorcing him, but I hadn't told him what I had done. I was going to feel guilty until I said something about it.
I just didn't know how I'd do that without causing a fight.
