La Arquitecta

Chapter 84

A few hours prior to the Backlash pay-per-view, Melina had asked if she could have a private chat with Zelina before they met up with road agent Sam Monte to lay out their match. Zelina had of course agreed to her good friend's requested without question, and they had gone and found a quiet hallway area away from the locker rooms and the catering area.

"You okay?" Zelina asked once they had some privacy.

"Actually, I am, which is kind of a surprise," Melina said with a thin smile.

Zelina raised her eyebrows. "That's a surprise? Why?"

"Well," Melina said, slowly breaking eye contact for a moment to look down at the ground, clearly struggling with what she wanted to say. "I had a consultation with Dr Amann a couple of weeks ago about my knee. They were really concerned about the way it swelled up after our match at Wrestlemania, and how I couldn't walk all that well on it for a few days afterwards. They made me do some more evaluations, intensive training and stuff, and it swelled up again just the same."

"I remember noticing you were limping again for a few days at live events a couple of weeks back," Zelina said tenderly, worried about where this might be heading. "I didn't want to ask any questions, but I was concerned."

Melina grimaced. "Yeah, so were WWE. Amann sent a report to Thorne, and she had me sit down with her earlier. Long story short, they've made the decision that there's too much of a risk that I'm going to seriously injure myself if I keep on wrestling, so tonight is going to be my last match."

"Oh, Mel, I'm sorry," Zelina sighed, feeling desperately sad for her friend and grabbing her into a hug.

"Thank you," Melina said with resignation in her voice. After their brief embrace, she went on. "On the positive side, Thorne said there's no issue with WWE honouring the one year contract I sighed. I passed the medical they gave me before I signed it, so I guess she would have felt bad if she ordered my release."

"So they're going to have you managing?"

"Yeah. I don't know who I'm going to be with yet. Thorne's got creative on the case to come up with something for me. I know it's not going to be Sami, but he doesn't need a manager does he?"

"No, not really," Zelina agreed. "I'm just glad to hear that Thorne was good with you about it. It's awful news that you have to stop wrestling, but you will make a great manager. I don't doubt that for a minute."

Melina smiled. "Maybe I can learn a thing or two from you. You're the best in the business at it."

"Don't, you'll start me blushing," Zelina said bashfully before quickly moving the conversation on. "I guess they're taking you off screen for a while before they put you with someone as a manager?"

"Yeah, a month or so. Honestly, I'm not worried about that. The only thing on my mind is getting through the match tonight without any issues. All this talk about my knee, consultations and everything, it's gotten me pretty anxious about it."

"I get that," Zelina said sympathetically. "Don't worry, I'll obviously take care while we're out there. I'll have to work your knee; it would look stupid if I ignored it since they had me make a point of saying last week that I was going to go after it tonight and try to cripple you. But I'll be careful, I promise."

"Thanks, Zel. I love you, girl," Melina said, looking cheered up by the conversation they'd had.

"I love you too. Come on, let's go find Sam."

BREAK

WWE Backlash – May 4th 2019

Ahead of the Vega – Perez matchup, a video package detailing how their intense rivalry had built over the past couple of months was played. The hook for the fans was Melina finally having the chance to issue Vega with the serious ass kicking she was owed after screwing Melina out of the chance to sign for NXT, taking the opportunity for herself.