Corporate Affairs

Chapter 11

In the weeks leading up to the Royal Rumble, Zelina Vega had been doing a lot of planning, both in her role as Raw's General Manager and in her role as the boss of The Vega Cartel. The most important item on that particular agenda was ensuring Drew McIntyre won the Royal Rumble, thereby guaranteeing himself a spot in the main event of Wrestlemania, competing for the Universal Championship. To that end, she had added Seth Rollins, Baron Corbin and Drew McIntyre to the rumble match, with instructions to do whatever was necessary to aid McIntyre.

It would be double duty for Rollins, who was also booked to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Elias. Back when she had been forming her cartel, Vega had seriously considered Elias as a potential member. Thankfully, she had decided against it because since then Elias has started pandering to the fans with his songs, and was now one of the most popular members of the Raw roster. Vega considered it pathetic how some people craved popularity like that. As she well knew, it wasn't whether people liked you that mattered, it was whether they respected you. And despite the abuse she took from the fans every week, she felt sure that deep down they respected the job she was doing as GM.

The third piece of business was the Women's Royal Rumble, where Bayley would be representing the cartel. What a feat it would be if the group could have all of its members competing in title matches at Wrestlemania. Considering that Vega planned to give an opportunity to Corbin and Ciampa for the Raw Tag Team Championships at the event as well, it was a real possibility.

Unlike the men's rumble match, Vega hadn't been able to add a bunch of backup for Bayley. With that being the case, the odds would have been stacked against her winning. An idea had come to Vega, though, and she thought it was a brilliant one. The first phase of implementing it involved sitting down with Baron Corbin in the hope of persuading to do something for her. Luckily for her, since she had taken charge of Raw, Corbin had been acting like a puppy with a new owner, always following her around, eager to please and impress. At times it felt like if he was small enough, she would have been able to carry him around in a purse.

Playing up to the way Corbin felt about her, Vega had decided to visit his hotel room in person to ask for the favour she needed from him, figuring it would make him more likely to give her the answer she wanted. As she knocked on his door, she looked forward to seeing the look on his face when he opened it. It would be similar to when he held the ropes open for her every time she went in or out of the ring on Raw, hoping that he would receive some kind of acknowledgement from his master.

The door opened, and Corbin stood there with the exact expression she had expected on his face. He was acting like he was meeting the President or something.

"Zelina, what a nice, uh, surprise," Corbin floundered.

"I told you I was coming in a text five minutes ago," Vega pointed out, unable to resist.

"Right. And it was a nice surprise," he said awkwardly as he stood aside. "Come in, please. What can I do for you?"

Vega walked into the room. "I need to ask you to do something, not just for me, for the cartel."

"Of course. Anything you need," Corbin said subserviently as he followed her into the room and gestured for her to have a seat on the couch.

Sitting down, Vega waiting until he sat beside her before saying anything more. She had reservations about whether his 'anything' would include the request she was about to make. "This isn't an easy thing for me to ask of you," she said, laying it on thick.

"Really, anything you need," Corbin assured her. "Just tell me what it is."

Vega looked him in the eye, wondering if she came across as a damsel in distress. "I need you to resign a Deputy General Manager, Baron."