[center][h1][color=lime]The Forming of a Brand[/color][/h1]
[i]Collab with [@Universorum] & [@Silver Carrot][/i]
[hr][hr]
Diana left Kevin’s office with a massive smile across her face. She was finally getting a chance at TV. Fair enough it wasn’t 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 hadn’t. Arriving outside the women’s locker room, she turned to Dylan, brushing a strand of loose hair from her face.

[color=lime]”Dylan, sweetheart I’m quickly going to run in and grab my things. Why don’t you go meet some of the guys, I won’t be long”[/color] 

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 women’s locker room wasn’t 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 Rosado’s 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, she’d always found awkward. Pretending to be hurt when you’re 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 wasn’t anybody she recognised. [color=00802b]“Oh, hi!”[/color] she blurted out, surprised. [color=00802b]
“Didn’t know there was anybody left here! Don’t mind me. I’m almost finished.”[/color]

She was still in her ring gear when she said that.

In all fairness, Diana hadn’t 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. [color=lime]”Hi there! Sorry, I was in a meeting. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced yet. I’m 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. It’s nice to meet you”[/color] 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. [color=lime]”I saw your match tonight. You’re amazing out there!”[/color] She was rambling. [color=lime]”I’d be surprised if there isn’t a title run in your future. You are legit”[/color]

Diana 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 father’s 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 hadn’t recognized Suzy. She was that new manager she’d heard about. Dawn had heard good things about her track record and her ability to give promos. She thought back to Barbie’s 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. Barbie’s promo skills were the envy of Dawn. There was simply more to being a star than the ability to wrestle well.

[color=00802b]“You’re flattering me. That wasn’t too long a match, though it was very stiff. You oughtta see what I do on pay-per-views. I don’t see myself becoming champion, though. Champions need to talk, and I’m no talker.”[/color] She shrugged, before suddenly having an idea. [color=00802b]“You’re a manager, right? Or you were trying to become one. I bet you can cut a good promo. Can you give me some tips?”[/color] she asked sincerely.

Diana was somewhat taken back by Dawn’s request. Was there something in the water here in Chicago? She was getting opportunities tonight left right and center. [color=lime]”Sure, of course I’d like to help out! Kevin literally just put me with a new guy as his heater, we’re debuting in a few weeks. I’ll be working with him a lot so if you’re so inclined you can come and chill with us when you can and we’ll try and hash out a few basic promo skills. Get you on your feet”[/color] Working with someone like Dawn would be perfect for Diana. If she couldn’t 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.

[color=lime]”Actually, I’m off to go meet Dylan now. Why don’t you get changed and come with?”[/color]

 [color=00802b]“Sure, that sounds like fun!”[/color] 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. [color=lime]”Shouldn’t be hard to find Dylan. He’s legit as big as the bus”[/color] 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 — he had watched much of the show and had only left at the tail end of the main event, because… he was [i]hungry[/i]. He was big, big dude. Big dudes take a lot of fuel. What’s fuel? Food is fuel. So he was eating. It was close enough to the gorilla position, and he could see a monitor nearby. [i]Plus[/i], he was huge! Diana wouldn’t 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 [i]well[/i] around these parts, he waved a massive hand. [color=ED1E36][b]“Hey, Diana. Look what I found. They just give you all this food to eat.”[/b][/color] 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. She’d been working in this company for three years now, surrounded by wrestlers, and still thought this guy was a huge, muscle-bound beast! It didn’t help that Dawn herself wasn’t that tall. In fact, standing side-by-side with Diana, it was clear that she was the slightly shorter of the two women.

[color=lime]”Dawn this is Dylan, Dylan this Dawn. She’s going to be working with us on her promo’s”[/color] 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. [color=lime]”Glad you’re keeping that strength up, you’ll need it once we debut you”[/color] Taking a seat opposite her charge, Diana motioned for Dawn to join them. [color=lime]”So, where do you want to start?”[/color]

Dawn sat down, and leaned back into the chair. “Well,” she started, deep in thought. “I 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. It’s the subtle, audience-aggravating kind of stuff I can’t do well. And I was thinking...the Requiem Pay-Per-View is in October, and I’m 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 don’t have one. It’d just be nice to actually have some mic presence in my country. I’d probably get a hero’s welcome if I went out there so why not use that?”

[color=lime]”Well…”[/color] 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. [color=lime]”Being a hometown girl will only work in your favour. You’re 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 it’s legit, that you’ve seen combat and for the lack of a better term; it fucked you up so bad you’re now only loyal to the war”[/color]

Turning her attention to Dylan, Diana leaned forward and smiled. [color=lime]”As for you big hoss, we need to start actually trying to find a gimmick for you. I know you wrestle good, Kevin doesn’t lie but being a good wrestler doesn’t make a lick of difference for someone like you. How we sell you is what gets you over...what’s your heritage, Dylan. Where do your family come from?”[/color]

Dylan stared at the woman that had asked him the question, as if he didn’t fully understand it. [color=ED1E36][b]“Well, 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, y’know. Big. Real big. I’ve never really thought about my gimmick, people always say that it should just be yourself turned up to 11, right? Well, that sucks. Cuz I’m kind of boring.”[/b][/color] Dylan said as he munched on more chipps, frowning a bit. [color=ED1E36][b]“So we’ll have to come up with something different and unique, I guess.”[/b][/color]

Dawn took Diana’s words to heart. She was right. Anybody who didn’t know she was a real soldier needed to be told. She’d 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 ‘This is War’ catchphrase, which she was proud of to this day.

“Well,” she started saying to Dylan, “What are your hobbies? Do you have any inspirations? Anything we can draw from? What would your ideal wrestling gimmick be?”

[color=lime]”We’ve got time, big country. We’ll think of something”[/color] A small smile crossed her ruby red lips at a little joke she made in her head. [color=lime]”My family a norse somewhere don’t the line, we could call you the Berserker. Hashtag Viking Strong. Especially if you let the beard grow”[/color] 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. [color=lime]”Foreign heel has been done to death and I don’t 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 moveset”[/color]

Glancing at her fitbit, Diana noticed the time and grabbed her bag quite roughly. [color=lime]”We should get going. Got to get to the next town and make some memories”[/color] 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. [color=lime]”Alrighty big man, let’s see if we can get you in here”[/color][/center]