Chapter 10: WWE Raw 9/23/24
WWE Raw
September 23rd, 2024
Ontario, California
Rhea paced backstage, hydrating and working like hell to manage her limp while Dom and Liv ran their mouths in the ring. She had spent another week in near silence, focusing on her physical therapy exercises and lifting weights to the exclusion of all else. She had to be ready to face those buggers.
Only Rhea and Damian knew that they had both passed out in his car after last week's debacle and didn't come to until the next day. He said he wanted to talk, but they hadn't; however, the message was clear. No one could know just how wrecked they were. They had to hide their injuries and get their asses to Bad Blood.
Rhea took another swig of her protein shake as she listened to Liv's grandstanding. Then she set down her water bottle and cracked her knuckles. Time to shut up Liv.
"I promised to take everything from Rhea Ripley," Liv said to the crowd booing her, "and that's exactly what I did. The Women's World Championship – mine. The Judgment Day – mine. And the most gorgeous man in the whole entire world…"
Dom flashed his guns, and fans booed.
"…Dominik Mysterio. And in two weeks' time, the Liv Morgan Revenge Tour will finally…"
THIS IS MY BRUTALITY!
Rhea sauntered onstage and headed down the ramp. "Liv, honey honey honey. I'm going to need you to shut up, okay? And before you go running away, because obviously this week you can't attack me from behind," she gestured behind her, "I just want you to know that I'm not gonna hit you, okay? So you can take it easy." She ascended the steps. "I actually…"
Mami! Mami! Mami!
She smiled and soaked it in. "Do you hear that, Liv?"
"SHUT UP!" Liv screeched at the fans.
"I actually have something that I need to tell you." Rhea approached the pair, and Dom stepped in front of Liv. She laughed. Crouching down before him, she said in a high-pitched voice, "Look who found his cajones, huh?" The fans laughed. She straightened to her full height. "Whatcha gonna do, Dom, huh? Whatcha gonna do? Exactly! You'll do nothing! So why don't you get out of my face before I make you get out of my face."
"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Liv pulled Dom back. "Relax! But you know what? Since we're talking about Dominik, maybe he would have stayed with you if you cared about him half as much as you care about Damian Priest."
Rhea flinched. When did that become part of the storyline?
"But let me guess, let me guess. What did Rhea want to come out and say? Is it that, week after week of me bashing your knee, you're no longer clear to compete at Bad Blood. Is that what it is? Uh huh! Uh huh! But you know what, Rhea? That's too bad, because I'm not going to let you get out of this match, because I'm going to beat you. And I'm not going to beat you because I'm bigger than you. I'm not going to beat you because I'm stronger than you. I'm going to beat you, because I'm smarter than you." She and Dom tapped on their heads. "And I've had you beat up here for months. So please Rhea, please! Tell us what was so important that you had to come out here and interrupt Daddy Dom and my victory lap? Please, let us know."
Rhea laughed. "Aw, Liv. That's actually not what I wanted to say, no, because when it comes to Bad Blood, I'm fully cleared." She saw that flash of disappointment. "This message is actually for both of you. Since Dom, you always want to stick your nose into the Women's World Championship business. You know, you're the only reason that Liv won my championship in the first place. You're the only reason why Liv has retained that championship every single match."
"I'm smarter than you," Liv butted in.
"Adam Pearce has decided something." At Damian's suggestion. "Dom? At Bad Blood? You're going to be exactly where you deserve to be – behind bars." Cue Dom's height phobic, claustrophobic freak out!
His face dropped, and he said, "I can't go back! I can't go back!"
Rhea knew she reminded him of his arrest a couple years ago. She knew just how much he hated that bloody cell; she and Damian were two of the three people who bailed him out. "Because in our championship match, you're going to be hanging in a shark cage!" she announced, swinging her arm. Dom's hands went to his head. Mic fucking drop – right out of Liv's hand!
"I can't go back! I can't go back!" Dom's eyes pleaded with Rhea. He knew that she knew his fears. "You can't do this!"
"So Liv," Rhea continued with a smile, getting up in Liv's face. "At Bad Blood, when there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide and no one to help you win, I'm going to win back the one thing that I never lost – my Women's World Championship!"
The crowd cheered.
"Oh, and another thing," Rhea added. "What I said before? I take it back."
"What? What?" Liv looked so fucking clueless – and she's the smarter one?
Rhea headbutted Liv, and Dom leapt back with his hands in the air. He bent down to help Liv, looking up with astonishment as Rhea exited the ring. Rhea turned as she reached the rope and crotch chopped. "Suck it!" she exclaimed to the pair.
Rhea paced down the ramp, grabbed her water bottle, and took another swig. She joined Damian in the clubhouse, where they watched the other matches on the monitor. Damian was breathing easier and had more color in his cheeks than last week. At the same time, he continued to draw shallow, rapid breaths and was so stiff. Was he really going to be okay for Bad Blood?
Rhea's heart was pounding fiercely, and heaviness weighed down her limbs. Her nerves strummed intensely with an energy that felt otherworldly. She marveled at the beauty of the match between Dragon Lee and Carlito, how the two gladiators threw themselves into a dance of the human struggle with fans cheering on their valor. Each fighter morphed seamlessly into others. Movement defied time and physical forms.
She immersed herself in the experience, a lightness overcoming her. She soaked in the warmth that Damian radiated, the comfort of sitting beside him more concrete than ever. Then the concretion slipped into abstraction. She didn't even feel like she was there, more like floating in ease and safety while watching their mortal frames.
Damian's promo video for Bad Blood aired, and he rose from his seat gingerly. "Piss break!"
Rhea giggled, the tittering jingling through the air and weaving around them. "No!" She saw her hand swatting the seat beside her. "Get back here!"
Damian smiled and sat back beside her, slinging his arm around her shoulder.
"Growing up, there was a saying I used to like to use. Am I my brother's keeper? Now on the street, we knew better. Everybody just wanted what you had, tried to stab you in the back. But life, life can take you to some unexpected places. Life brought me to the Judgment Day, a crew that became a family, a family that gave me a brother to keep, Finn Balor. When you joined me and Rhea, we talked about running the WWE, and that's exactly what we did. We put everybody on this roster down, and we ran it. But you always wanted it to be about you, and then what happened? Rhea Ripley becomes world champ. I shed a tear, cause I was proud of my sister."
"Aw!" Rhea exclaimed, a childlike joy buzzing through the atmosphere. She threw an arm around him, into a hug.
His promo continued. "You? You sat in the corner with a face of envy. Then I became world champion. On camera, nobody was happier for me than you, but when the camera stopped rolling, you were the first one out the door with the same face of envy. Now I should have seen it coming, cause I know better. You might think my heart makes me weak, but am I my brother's keeper? You damn right I am, and I always will be. Finn Balor, you are not my brother. Yo soy tu parca! And at Bad Blood, voy a arrancarte el corazón!"
The air was electric, and Rhea saw herself bouncing in her seat. "That was awesome! What did you say at the end?"
Damian looked her in the eye and said, "I am your Grim Reaper. And at Bad Blood, I am going to rip your heart out."
Rhea put her hand over her mouth, covering a grin. Exuberance could not be contained. "Holy shit! Damian! That's badass! I love it!"
He smiled. "Thanks. That means a lot coming from you."
Jey popped his head in the doorway.
Delirium and glee intertwined. "Aw, it's Jey!" Rhea gushed. She held out open arms, which felt less like hers. "We love Jey!"
Jey beamed. "You so sweet, uce! Hey, I'm up next! Time to get your yeet on!" He hopped out as quickly as he came in.
Rhea gasped and looked wide eyed at Damian. "Mate, we gotta go out there and dance the yeet song!"
"Como?"
Slapping his arm, she shouted, "The yeet song! You know, the yeety song he yeets out to when he yeets on out to the ring!"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Pleeaase?"
Damian sighed. "Only for you, Cariña."
"Yeet!" Rhea jolted out of her seat and bound down the hallway to the wings. She saw her limp but felt no pain. She was free, drifting over the arena with its neon lights and "Main Event Ish" blaring over the speakers. She danced, bopping hands and hopping to the yeet song. Damian was recording on her phone for the Instas. Her idea or his? Did it matter? Rhea and Damian were one in the same energy.
The music seemed to vibrate from the neon. Her hands and "yeet"s flowed with illuminations and sounds, the vibe oddly fascinating. The more Rhea danced, the more she disconnected from whatever had weighed her down, including her own body. Forgotten ailments faded as she rose above it all. Time became irrelevant. Existence came together in a stream of joy that flowed into infinity. Then joy slipped away, and emotions were meaningless.
However long later, Rhea tripped down the hallway with her arm around Damian. She staggered into him, and he kept her afloat in a sea of flashing lights and colors and sounds that both froze and propelled time. She saw her hand on his chest. She heard maniacal laughter as she blacked out.
Rhea found herself in a gray blur that sharpened on the clubhouse. Damian was facing her, holding her biceps and desperately searching her eyes. His lips moved. The words held no meaning, but the alarm in his voice stabbed through the murk. She froze. Colors and music flashed in her mind and felt more real than this moment. Why did everything seem so fake?
"Talk to me!" Damian had a hand on her cheek. She saw it pat her face but didn't feel it. She saw tears in his frightened eyes. Was this real? Or a dream? Or a memory? "What are you on? How much did you take?"
Rhea hadn't taken a bloody thing from anybody. Her words remained thoughts, her muscles tightly wound and rigid. Trying to move her lips or any part of her physical form proved futile. She was trapped in her body. She acknowledged that she had no control and felt nothing. The world spun. Another blackout.
Rhea found herself lying on her back on the couch. Damian sat in a chair next to her, hands folded and eyes closed. He was speaking softly and rapidly. She couldn't understand him but listened to his frantic pace and tone. She then realized he was speaking Spanish. All she caught was "Dios" - God. Was he praying for her?
Rhea moved her hand, surprised that she could control it. She touched his arm, and he jumped. Hands lowered. Damian's wide, panic-stricken eyes stared at her as he made the sign of the cross and hugged her. He kissed her forehead.
"¿Qué pasó?" or was she asking, "What happened?"
"No sé. You were high on something. Rhea, what did you take, and how much of it?"
She could not register if his voice hinted at accusation; she just knew logically that it should. "I didn't take anything."
"Well, you were acting like you were at a rave – erratic and laughing and handsy…"
"Handsy?"
Damian blinked hard. "Forget about that for a second." His eyes opened with intensity. "You were on drugs. I had to get you out of there before anyone suspected as much so it wouldn't cost you your contract. Then you were totally unresponsive..." He put his hands on his head. "I had no idea if you were overdosing. I didn't know what to do – Get you medical attention and end your wrestling career? Or say nothing and risk your life ending?"
"So you prayed?"
He nodded. "And God brought you back. Rhea, what is going on? If you didn't take anything, then someone had to have drugged you. This has gone far beyond ring drama. This is criminal."
"I know," Rhea acknowledged. "But there's no way we can prove any of it. There really isn't anything we can do." Her words should elicit emotion. They just didn't. She knew she should feel angry and afraid, but she felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.
