The Forming of a Brand
Collab with @Universorum & @Silver Carrot
Diana left Kevinâs office with a massive smile across her face. She was finally getting a chance at TV. Fair enough it wasnât for a couple of weeks but still, it was finally happening; now all she had to do was capitalise on the opportunity. She turned her head back to look at the mountain of a man that was now following her. Dylan seemed like a sweet enough kid, big, burly but loveable, like a German Shepherd. It was her job now to turn him into a beast, a monster that was going to run through the AWE roster like a hot knife through butter. It would be a hard task but she was the one for the job, she had no doubt about that. She walked through backstage, flanked by the giant workhorse and gaining shocked stares from the backstage crew. It was doubtful any of them had seen someone that big, lord knows Diana hadnât. Arriving outside the womenâs locker room, she turned to Dylan, brushing a strand of loose hair from her face.
âDylan, sweetheart Iâm quickly going to run in and grab my things. Why donât you go meet some of the guys, I wonât be longâ The gorgeous redhead offered her new charge a slight grin before entering the locker room. She made her way to her gear back and began to pack up her stuff. There was an age old adage in the wrestling business that permeated across all facets of the industry from wrestlers to managers to announcers to the crew; never leave anywhere without your gear.
The womenâs locker room wasnât empty at this point in time, however. Dawn Webster, better known to the AWE as Sydney Ellis, was standing in front of the mirror, applying makeup with one hand whilst the other was massaging a bruise in the side of her body; the result of Rosadoâs stiff kicks. Still, Dawn was happy to shift more towards this style. She knew how to block, and how to take a real defensive MMA stance. The act of selling offense without bumping otherwise, sheâd always found awkward. Pretending to be hurt when youâre not getting hurt. Dawn would rather actually get hurt and remove the need for acting. She was not a very good actor.
She turned round when she saw another woman enter the room, though it wasnât anybody she recognised.
âOh, hi!â she blurted out, surprised.
âDidnât know there was anybody left here! Donât mind me. Iâm almost finished.âShe was still in her ring gear when she said that.
In all fairness, Diana hadnât noticed anyone in the room when she entered and was somewhat startled by Dawn alerting her to her presence. Spinning on her heel, orange hair spinning wildly, she raised her hand in an awkward wave.
âHi there! Sorry, I was in a meeting. I donât think weâve been formally introduced yet. Iâm Suzy but I guess you should probably know me by my other name; Diana. And you are the badass the fans know as Sydney Ellis. Itâs nice to meet youâ In spite of her confidence in front of a crowd, Diana was still very much a women easily flustered by unexpected situations. It was something she needed to work on.
âI saw your match tonight. Youâre amazing out there!â She was rambling.
âIâd be surprised if there isnât a title run in your future. You are legitâDiana of course knew who Sydney was; if for nothing else she was a fan of the product first and foremost. Diana had loved this business since she was five years old watching it with her big brother at their fatherâs house. She watched it religiously, she was obsessed. Even now that she was working in AWE her obsession only got worse. She knew everything about every wrestler (though she would never broadcast her fangirling) and using the same locker room as some of her favourites was a bit of a trip.
Dawn chuckled. Now she understood why she hadnât recognized Suzy. She was that new manager sheâd heard about. Dawn had heard good things about her track record and her ability to give promos. She thought back to Barbieâs promo earlier in the night. A lot of the other women wrestlers would bitch and moan about how Barbie is not a particularly skilled wrestler in the ring and only has the top spot because of her boyfriend. Dawn fundamentally disagreed. Barbieâs promo skills were the envy of Dawn. There was simply more to being a star than the ability to wrestle well.
âYouâre flattering me. That wasnât too long a match, though it was very stiff. You oughtta see what I do on pay-per-views. I donât see myself becoming champion, though. Champions need to talk, and Iâm no talker.â She shrugged, before suddenly having an idea.
âYouâre a manager, right? Or you were trying to become one. I bet you can cut a good promo. Can you give me some tips?â she asked sincerely.
Diana was somewhat taken back by Dawnâs request. Was there something in the water here in Chicago? She was getting opportunities tonight left right and center.
âSure, of course Iâd like to help out! Kevin literally just put me with a new guy as his heater, weâre debuting in a few weeks. Iâll be working with him a lot so if youâre so inclined you can come and chill with us when you can and weâll try and hash out a few basic promo skills. Get you on your feetâ Working with someone like Dawn would be perfect for Diana. If she couldnât help the military badass with a few helpful pointers then surely she would be able to convince creative to allow her to manage her? Diana silently felt like she was one step closer to her dream faction.
âActually, Iâm off to go meet Dylan now. Why donât you get changed and come with?â âSure, that sounds like fun!â Dawn replied, before grabbing some sweatpants and a grey jacket from her locker, and putting them on over her ring gear in a non-rushed manner suggesting she did this all the time and in fact came to the arena with her ring gear under her clothes in the first place. She stuffed everything else (towel, boots, army cap) into her bag and flung it over her shoulder. The way it moved, there was definitely something heavy in it. Did she bring weights?
Diana opened the door to the hallway and grabbed her bag before stepping out with Dawn now in tow.
âShouldnât be hard to find Dylan. Heâs legit as big as the busâ She headed towards the gorilla position, hoping to find her new client standing watching the matches.
Dylan was, indeed, as big as the bus. The large man could be found not at the gorilla position â he had watched much of the show and had only left at the tail end of the main event, because⌠he was
hungry. He was big, big dude. Big dudes take a lot of fuel. Whatâs fuel? Food is fuel. So he was eating. It was close enough to the gorilla position, and he could see a monitor nearby.
Plus, he was huge! Diana wouldnât ever have any trouble finding him, he was easy to find.
So, there he was, standing near the catering table, and stuffing food into his mouth (at this moment, a large piece of pie). When he saw Diana, who was really the only person he knew very
well around these parts, he waved a massive hand.
âHey, Diana. Look what I found. They just give you all this food to eat.â He said, gesturing happily at the catering table. Yeah⌠the main roster was different than developmental, to say the least.
Dawn had a bit of a shock when she saw Dylan. Diana was not kidding when she said he was as big as the bus. Sheâd been working in this company for three years now, surrounded by wrestlers, and still thought this guy was a huge, muscle-bound beast! It didnât help that Dawn herself wasnât that tall. In fact, standing side-by-side with Diana, it was clear that she was the slightly shorter of the two women.
âDawn this is Dylan, Dylan this Dawn. Sheâs going to be working with us on her promoâsâ Diana watched the large man eat his extremely big piece of pie and was somewhat taken aback by the simple naivety that he seemed to have. He was like a newborn puppy, brought into a world he did not fully understand; in this case it was the world of pro wrestling and the AWE.
âGlad youâre keeping that strength up, youâll need it once we debut youâ Taking a seat opposite her charge, Diana motioned for Dawn to join them.
âSo, where do you want to start?âDawn sat down, and leaned back into the chair. âWell,â she started, deep in thought. âI can do intimidating growling and shouting quite well. I just take myself back to my Army days for that. But it always feels really try-hard. Itâs the subtle, audience-aggravating kind of stuff I canât do well. And I was thinking...the Requiem Pay-Per-View is in October, and Iâm not sure if I have a match then or not, but I was thinking about giving a promo there, either before my match, or to open the show if I donât have one. Itâd just be nice to actually have some mic presence in my country. Iâd probably get a heroâs welcome if I went out there so why not use that?â
âWellâŚâ Before Diana began, she reached her hand into her bag and pulled out her notebook and began to flick through it as quickly as she could. It was filled with ideas on literally everything wrestling related. Her finger stopped on one of the middle pages and she laid it out in front of her on the catering table.
âBeing a hometown girl will only work in your favour. Youâre gonna get a good reaction either way but from what I know, if you want to truly sell yourself, you big up your prior army experience. Most of our fans at this point are marks and they know everything about us. Uneducated fans will assume your military thing is a gimmick. You shove it down their throats that itâs legit, that youâve seen combat and for the lack of a better term; it fucked you up so bad youâre now only loyal to the warâTurning her attention to Dylan, Diana leaned forward and smiled.
âAs for you big hoss, we need to start actually trying to find a gimmick for you. I know you wrestle good, Kevin doesnât lie but being a good wrestler doesnât make a lick of difference for someone like you. How we sell you is what gets you over...whatâs your heritage, Dylan. Where do your family come from?âDylan stared at the woman that had asked him the question, as if he didnât fully understand it.
âWell, Texas. The Dallas area, specifically. So, uh, not very interesting. It just so happens that my mama fed me right and my dad made me work on the farm a lot so I got⌠well, yâknow. Big. Real big. Iâve never really thought about my gimmick, people always say that it should just be yourself turned up to 11, right? Well, that sucks. Cuz Iâm kind of boring.â Dylan said as he munched on more chipps, frowning a bit.
âSo weâll have to come up with something different and unique, I guess.âDawn took Dianaâs words to heart. She was right. Anybody who didnât know she was a real soldier needed to be told. Sheâd have to run this through Roddy, though she could do that at the next show. She then turned her attention to Dylan. His lack of a gimmick was something to think about. When Dawn first started, her gimmick was just that she was strong and won all the time. It was only over time and through her own input that she gradually added military and punk elements and the âThis is Warâ catchphrase, which she was proud of to this day.
âWell,â she started saying to Dylan, âWhat are your hobbies? Do you have any inspirations? Anything we can draw from? What would your ideal wrestling gimmick be?â
âWeâve got time, big country. Weâll think of somethingâ A small smile crossed her ruby red lips at a little joke she made in her head.
âMy family a norse somewhere donât the line, we could call you the Berserker. Hashtag Viking Strong. Especially if you let the beard growâ Even though it was joke, Diana still drew her pen from behind her ear and wrote it in her notebook, every little helped after all.
âForeign heel has been done to death and I donât really envision you has one of those dark, supernaturals Roddy loves so much...the corn-fed meathead shtick would last all of one week, if that. Might need to see you work first, get a feel based on your movesetâGlancing at her fitbit, Diana noticed the time and grabbed her bag quite roughly.
âWe should get going. Got to get to the next town and make some memoriesâ She smiled at the two of them before leading her new motley crew to the parking lot. She waved to Gethin who was getting in his own rent-a-car before making her way to the bus.
âAlrighty big man, letâs see if we can get you in hereâ