La Arquitecta

Chapter 20

Tuesday Night Smackdown - April 10th 2018

With brand new theme music playing in the arena, the first episode of Smackdown's new era began with a shot of the ring, with a newly-designed stage in the background. It was quite similar to Raw's, but different enough for it to be noticeable. The boisterous post-Wrestlemania crowd cheered loudly as the show went live.

Ring announcer Greg Hamilton began with an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the new commissioner of Tuesday Night Smackdown, Stephanie McMahon!"

Rather than welcome Stephanie, the fans chose to loudly boo her as her music began to play and she walked triumphantly out into her new Queendom. She posed on the stage with her arms spread wide and a big smile on her face.

There was no one at the commentary table yet, so the audience were left to listen to the music and the negative crowd reaction as the new boss made her way to the ring. More boos greeted her when she entered the ring.

Stephanie walked over and took a microphone from the ring announcer, then returned to the middle of the ring as her music faded out. "Welcome to the first ever, three hour long, Tuesday Night Smackdown!" she said enthusiastically. That did at least draw some cheers.

"As the new Smackdown commissioner, let me tell you we're in for quite a night," she went on after a momentary pause. "To start, I need to introduce our commentary team. First, now exclusively on Smackdown, please welcome Corey Graves!"

The fans cheered as Graves' music played and he walked quickly out onto the stage and down the ramp, acknowledging them with a brief wave. When he got to the bottom of the ramp, Stephanie proceeded to her next introduction.

"Second, please welcome, returning to WWE, Jonathan Coachman!"

A louder cheer greeted the return of The Coach as his music hit. He walked out onto the stage and acknowledged the fantastic reception before making his way down the entrance ramp.

"And last but not least," Stephanie went on, "Allow me to introduce Tuesday Night Smackdown's new play-by-play commentator, Renee Young!"

Another loud cheer came from the fans at the ground-breaking announcement. A woman had just achieved another first in WWE. Keeping things professional, Renee walked down to the ring with a happy smile on her face, but she didn't try and make a huge deal of herself.

While the commentary team set about settling in at their table, Stephanie moved on to the next topic on her agenda. "Now, as I'm sure you all know by now, tonight is not only the first ever three hour episode of Tuesday Night Smackdown. It is also the 2018 WWE Draft. To celebrate Smackdown's new era, I was given the honour of the first pick. So, who wants to find out who I chose?"

The fans cheered, just as the commentary team went live. "The first pick of the draft. Let's see who's coming to Smackdown," Renee said.

While Smackdown's theme music played again, the show's logo appeared on the big screen, with the faces of all the Raw superstars eligible to be drafted scrolling quickly past at a fast pace, repeating over and over again. The scrolling began to slow down, with the idea clearly being that it would stop on the picture of the new signing.

"Smackdown's first pick is..." Coachman said, hyping it up.

The pictures stopped scrolling, leaving one of Seth and Zelina on the screen. The fans erupted into boos.

"Seth Rollins and Zelina Vega!" Renee announced with enthusiasm.

"This is huge!" Graves said. "Stephanie McMahon has stolen a former WWE Champion, and the best manager in the business from Raw!"