Wednesday: October 2, 2013 10:47 A.M.
Paul walked with me as we headed towards the WWE Performance Center. "I know you can only be here today and tomorrow since we have to be in Buffalo for that charity dinner on Friday, but I think this is a great thing for everyone involved."
I smile as I keep up my pace with him. "I couldn't agree more. I'm excited to do some work with the NXT Divas."
"You've always liked working with the less experienced talent."
"It's helping the future of this business. Why wouldn't I?"
"Not everyone sees it the way you do."
"Fair enough. I want this company to only get better in the future though. And I'd love to see the Divas get more opportunities."
"I know you would. You've always been adamant about that."
"And I'm going to make sure it happens."
"I want to see that too. The NXT Divas are incredibly talented. I want to see them go far. I think you're the perfect example of a female success story in this company for them."
"Thanks."
"I'm going to go in and get the Divas all gathered up. You wait out here."
I nod. "Alright."
I quietly wait outside of the area where the NXT roster is training.
"Didn't expect you to be here." A man says from behind me.
I turn to see John Cena. "I wasn't expecting to see you either."
John laughs. "I'm coming back to work on Monday. Plus, I'm going to that charity dinner. You'd see me soon anyway. Why are you here?"
"I'm wrestling Brie on Sunday at Battleground."
"Oh, things got that bad?"
"Bitch attacked me in my office on Monday. What did you expect from me?"
"Fair enough. How are things with you and Randy?"
"I'm not entirely comfortable talking about this here. Let me know when you're taking a break to get lunch. I'll join you then, and we can go out to eat and talk."
"Okay." John says to me as Paul gestures for me to walk in. "Looks like Triple H is ready to bring you in."
"Wish me luck." I say to John before walking in to address the NXT Divas. "Hello, if you didn't already know who I am, I'm Marissa Orton. I'm the general manager of Raw, the President of the Divas Division, and like all of you, a Diva."
Paul smiles and puts a hand on my shoulder. "I'm not going to allow Marissa to sell herself short here. She's an eight time champion. She's a four time WWE Women's Champion, a three time Divas Champion, and a one time United States Champion. She's been a trained professional wrestler for nine years. You could all learn a lot from her, and you should listen to whatever advice she offers you. She also needs people to train with as she is wrestling her first match in a year this Sunday. I expect all of you to do what is asked of you. I'm going to go back to what I was doing and leave the rest of the talking to her. Marissa, if you need anything, let me know."
I nod. "Of course, thanks, Paul. I only know a couple of you personally, but while I'm here to prepare for my match this Sunday, I want to get to know all of you. I want to get in the ring with as many of you as I can. And when I'm taking breaks, I want to watch you ladies train and see if I can offer any insightful advice just like women like Trish Stratus, Lita, and Molly Holly gave me when I was starting out. For now, I would like to do some stuff in the ring, so I'll take two of you to do some stuff in the ring for now. The rest of you can either watch to see what I'm doing or do your own training in a ring." I look around. "Ashley, I know you, so I feel comfortable starting with you, and…Paige, you're the NXT Women's Champion and my brother's girlfriend. Despite the fact this is our first official meeting, I think I can trust you to wrestle with me."
Paige nods. "I can wrestle."
I smile. "Good. I'm going to try to get around to being in the ring with all of you, so I will let you guys know when I'm ready to be in the ring with you. Thanks. Paige, Ashley, follow me."
Paige and Ashley follow me into a ring.
"Okay, I would like to have a practice match to see how well you two are doing as well as to see what I need to work on." I explain to them. "I'll let you two decide who goes first."
"I'll go first." Ashley says. "Let's lock up, Marissa."
I lock up with Ashley. She drives me into a corner. Ashley drives a knee into my gut. I fell down in the corner. Ashley runs at me, but I move out of the way. She runs into the turnbuckle. As Ashley starts to get up, I take her down with a Clothesline. Ashley gets back up and runs at me, but I catch her with an Arm Drag. I then catch her as she's getting back up with a Dropkick. As I go to grab Ashley, she tries to roll me into a pin, but I roll through and hit her with another Dropkick.
Ashley laughs. "Nice one."
Ashley gets back up, and we start exchanging right hands. She nails me with a Clothesline. She grabs me and locks in a Headlock, but I elbow my way out to escape. At that moment, I noticed that John had come by to watch my training. That was enough to motivate me to try to do more in this practice match than I had been. Ashley grabs me once again, but I kick her in the gut. I rebound off the ropes and catch her with a Tornado DDT. I pin Ashley.
Paige slides over to count the pin. "1…2…kickout!"
Ashley and I get back up. She chops at my chest. I winced in pain and ended up in the corner to try to get a breather in. Ashley comes after me, but I elbow her in the face to create some separation. When I slowly get out of the corner, Ashley catches me with a Spear before pinning me.
1…2…kickout!
I quickly lock in an Armbar. Ashley tries to make it to the ropes to force a rope break, but she can't do it and has to tap out.
"You wrestle too confidently." I tell Ashley.
"Too confidently?" Ashley asks with confusion.
"Yes, it's okay to be confident, but you only worry about what you're doing. You have to worry about your opponent too. You are confident, which makes you only focus on yourself. That's why I was able to catch you off guard with that Armbar. Your opponents may get in the ring with you and realize that. They may be like oh, Charlotte doesn't realize what I'm doing because she's focused on herself, and that's where they'll catch you off guard. You're a great wrestler, but you need to focus on things outside of just yourself."
Ashley nods. "Alright."
I look at Paige. "I need a small break, but you're next."
Paige smiles. "Great."
John looks at me and gives me a smile and nod before exiting the room.
John looks at me as we sit together at a restaurant to eat lunch together. "So how are things between you and Randy?"
I pick at my food. "What kind of things do you want to know about?"
"Whatever you feel like talking about, except maybe your sex life. I don't really want to hear about that."
I laugh. "It's nonexistent anyway. Randy and I are starting to get better. At least I think we're starting to get better. We have been getting along better. We haven't really been arguing."
"But I'm sure you still have concerns."
"Of course I do, especially when I've realized I did something stupid."
John raises an eyebrow. "What did you do?"
"If you want me to tell you, I'm gonna have to ask you to not say anything to Randy. I hate asking you to do that. I do plan on telling him, but I haven't yet. He needs to hear it from me."
"I understand. What did you do?"
"I got in touch with a divorce lawyer."
John sighs. "Marissa…"
"I know. I should've told him. I'm not sure what exactly I was even thinking. I was angry at Randy. Stephanie came to talk to me when I was emotional and brought it up, and I couldn't get the idea of it out of my head."
"So you looked into it and talked to a divorce lawyer?"
"Yeah. I don't plan on divorcing him though. I already called the lawyer again and told them that their services won't be needed. I just haven't talked to Randy about what I almost did."
"You should. If you're wanting things to get better, you can't leave a foundation where you kept something like this from him."
"He's going to be angry with me. I know it."
"I don't think angry is the right word. I could see him being upset, but I don't think he'll be angry. Plus, he will forgive you. Randy loves you too much to not be able to look past that."
"I really do hope you're right about that, John."
"If I know Randy well enough, he will. Maybe just wait until after Battleground, so you don't shake up his mindset for his match against Daniel. Plus, he'll be in a good mood after winning the WWE Championship."
"If he wins the WWE Championship."
John nods. "Is work still a big issue between you guys?"
"It was. We've talked about things with work a bit though. Plus, after Monday, I've realized that I'm no better."
"What happened Monday?"
"That beating Randy gave Daniel. I could've stopped it. I didn't, and I know it's because I don't like Daniel. That's why Brie has this vendetta against me. I let it happen because of bias. I'm no better than them."
"Just because you did or didn't do something one time, it doesn't mean it's how you are."
"I don't think it'll be just one time. The night after SummerSlam, you made a comment about how I always fight for what I believe in. I don't think I can keep fighting now. I feel like I'm no better, and all this fighting that has been going on at work between me and Randy or Triple H and Stephanie has only accomplished one thing. That's straining my marriage. I think have to stop this fight and be selfish to save my marriage."
"Then you're fighting for your marriage that you believe in, making my comment still true. Maybe you and Randy can get on the same page and fight all of this at work together one day. You're making a hard decision, but I think you made the right one."
I nod. "Thanks, John."
Friday: October 4, 2013 7:13 P.M.
Randy and I hadn't spoken much since arriving together at this charity dinner, but nonetheless, we still practically remained glued to each other for the entirety of that time. We kept up the appearance of a happy couple, despite that definitely not being the case. Luckily, the tables at this dinner were set up for only four people and Randy and I ended up sitting with John and Michelle, who were two of the people who were apart of the small group that knew that Randy and I were having issues, so we didn't really have to play up that happy couple appearance while eating with them. However, despite how close the four of us had been for the past nine years, things were very quiet at our table as Randy and I weren't really speaking much and Michelle and John seemingly didn't want to make things more awkward.
"How's the baby?" Michelle asks in an attempt to break the increasingly growing awkward silence.
I smile. "He's good. He's been doing very well. The doctors had a lot of concerns about his health because of him being premature, but he's completely healthy."
"We're very blessed for that." Randy adds. "He's doing all the little baby babbling now too. It's adorable."
John nods. "Glad he's doing well. I'm going to get some more food, anyone want to join me?"
Randy starts to stand up. "I will."
John stands up. "Okay, we'll be back. Don't go anywhere, ladies."
"We aren't going anywhere." Chelle comments as the guys walk away before turning to me. "John told me about what you told him."
I look at Chelle without saying a word.
"The divorce lawyer." Chelle adds.
I sigh. "You know you're my best friend, but I really don't need you to lecture me over this one."
"I'm not going to. I'm just concerned. If you even thought about it, then you probably need to work on your marriage."
"I know. I just don't know how we're going to do that. We haven't fought in over a week, but I don't think he fully trusts me to wrestle right now. I don't think he's confident in me as a wrestler right now, and it pisses me off. I'd get it if I was inexperienced, but I have nine years of training under my belt. He was heavily involved in my training, and as my husband, I expect him of all people to be confident in me."
"I don't think he's not confident in you. I think he is just concerned and worried. And if he is not confident in you, John told me that you were great when he saw you training at the Performance Center and that he was going to tell Randy just that."
"Bless John's heart."
"You know what you're doing." Michelle reaches over and grabs my hand. "Don't let anyone convince you that you don't."
"Thanks."
"Ryse and Eve should be here tomorrow. Do you want to grab them and Layla and get out for a couple hours tomorrow?"
"Yeah, that'd be nice. We should do that."
"Then we'll do it. The boys are on their way back over here. We'll continue our conversation about what's going on with you tomorrow."
I nod as I finish my food. "Alright."
Randy and John return to the table. Things go quiet. I feel awkward with the silence. I just wanted to talk to Randy, but I felt like there wasn't much to talk about without causing at least a small disagreement.
I slowly stood up. "I'm going to refill my glass and get some more water."
Michelle smiles at me. "Alright."
I walk away from my table to refill my glass. I know Randy had been watching me, but he hadn't said a word. I didn't know if he was upset or just didn't want to risk a disagreement either.
As I was refilling my glass with water, Daniel walked over to me. I immediately felt tense as I didn't want to be anywhere near him.
"I notice you and Randy aren't really speaking. I take it you noticed he's flirting with Brie too. Tell him to stop." Daniel comments to me.
I stop filling my glass and look at Daniel. "He's not been flirting with her, and you two are both idiots for thinking that he is. But if we're telling each other to tell our significant others things, tell Brie that the next time she comments on me as a parent, I'll knock her teeth down her throat and make sure she chokes on them."
"You're just mad she called you out for the truth. What happened Monday is your fault."
"I'm not mad about those comments. I couldn't care less. It's not my fault Randy beat your ass. What I'm mad about is that she came into my office, where my son usually is with me, and physically assaulted me. Then she proceeded to comment about me as a parent. She isn't a parent and had no reason to touch me. You two should be thankful that I didn't decide to have her charged with assault. Now, I'm going to go back to my table because, unlike you, I'm not going to attempt to cause a scene when I'm representing the company at a charity dinner."
I walk back to my table and put my glass of water down. "I think I need some fresh air for a few minutes. I'll be back."
I don't wait for a response and walk out of the dining hall without drawing attention to myself and head outside. After standing just outside the building for a few minutes, the door opened, and Randy walked out. We looked at each other, but neither of us said a word.
Randy pulled me close before finally speaking. "Walk with me."
I nod. "Alright."
Randy held me close as we started walking together. "What'd Daniel say to you?"
I shrug. "Stupid shit. Saying stuff about you flirting with Brie, blaming me for him getting beat up on Monday."
"I take it you shut him down."
"I told him that you weren't flirting, and it wasn't my fault that you beat his ass before making it clear that I wasn't causing a scene at a charity dinner."
"Good."
"Why haven't we spoken much all night?"
"Because we're both worried about upsetting the other I think. The last thing I want to do is fight with you."
I nod. "Same here."
"You look great though."
"Thanks. You aren't looking too bad yourself."
"Thanks. I'll admit that I haven't been one hundred percent confident with you wrestling on Sunday, but John said you looked great. I should've been more confident in you."
"I get you have been worried about me, but I honestly hate it when you do that. I have plenty of experience, and you trained me. I'd think you'd be confident in me. Since you're my husband, I expect you to be. If you had been off TV and injured and were coming back, I'd trust your judgment on how much training you need to do. I wish you would do the same for me."
"I'm sorry. I should've been. I know sometimes we both love how overprotective I can get when it comes to you, but sometimes, like with you having a match, I worry too much about you without even stopping to consider that you know what you need to do to prepare for this match. You're an outstanding wrestler, and one year out of action isn't going to stop that."
"Thanks."
Randy kissed my forehead. "You'll be fine on Sunday. Now, before we head back in, I want you to remember that we're better people than Brie and Daniel, and it's not worth it. Also if I seem tempted to say something to them, stop me."
"I'm surprised you didn't come up there when Daniel was bothering me."
"Believe me, John and Chelle stopped me. I almost did. Again, my overprotectiveness is kicking in."
"You would've caused a scene though. It's good you didn't."
"True. I guess if they annoy us while we're here, we can just remember we get our hands on them in two days."
I look at the time. "We also have just over an hour left."
"Fantastic." Randy grabs my hand, and we head back inside.
