WWE Headquarters hadn't changed much since the last time Ronda Rousey had been there. Not that she could even remember when the last time she had been there was, or why. Today's reason for being in Stamford was a good one, she thought as she glanced into one of the top floor offices that she was walking past. When Hunter Helmsley, the Chairman of WWE, had found out that she was in New York on business, he had asked her to stop by the office for a meeting to discuss her impending return to action after taking three months off to film a movie.

The movie, the fourth in her fledgling Hollywood career, already had one major thing in its favour as far as wrestling fans were concerned. Although it wasn't affiliated with WWE in any way, it featured not one, but two of the company's most famous faces in the two starring roles. Ronda played the wife of a mob boss, who was played by Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock to anyone who knew anything about wrestling. Filming with someone she already knew off-screen had made things easier and more enjoyable than usual, and they had both agreed that the movie had a very good chance of being a success. A story about two warring crime families, with an appropriate amount of action scenes and over-the-top special effects certainly had a large target audience.

Wrestling, however, was what Ronda enjoyed doing the most, not least because it gave her the chance to spend some more precious time with her husband, Seth Rollins. At times when she was away from WWE, they could go weeks without seeing each other outside of video calls. That was the worst part of stardom without a doubt, as far as she was concerned. Sometimes it made her want to give it all up; the wrestling, the movies and the charity work, and just live an ordinary life with her husband. Maybe they might even have a child. Her body had started to giving her signs that she couldn't go on wrestling forever.

Those were thoughts for the future, she told herself as she walked into Hunter's outer office and approached his receptionist. She had told the fans at the end of the recently-aired documentary about her that they hadn't seen the last of Ronda Rousey, and she had meant it.

"Hi. I'm here to see Hunter. I'm a few minutes early."

"Don't worry, Mr Helmsley is ready to see you," the receptionist said with a warm smile that was obviously well practiced. This was a different woman to last time, Ronda noticed as she stood and lead her to the door of the Chairman's office. Sometimes small things like that irritated Ronda, even though there was no real reason for them to. She was tempted to say that she could have found the way by herself. Of course, simple protocol was the real reason for the escort. It was the secretary's job to lead in a visitor and announce them.

"Mrs Rousey is here to see you, sir," she announced after politely knocking on the door, then leading Ronda in.

The name was correct, Ronda and Seth having agreed before their wedding that she wouldn't take his surname. The name Ronda Rousey was a brand almost as much as a name at this point, so it would not have made sense to change it. Besides, they had decided, it was the commitment to each other that the marriage represented that mattered, not what her name was.

"Good afternoon, Ronda," the boss said as he stood and walked around his desk to greet her.

The smile he gave her was both warm and genuine, and she returned it in kind. They had shared a close working relationship - which was referred to as 'the special relationship' by those on the roster who didn't like the fact - ever since Hunter had first signed Ronda to WWE as a referee a number of years ago, and then masterminded her promotion to wrestling on the main roster. Hunter's almost unwavering backing, added to an immediate connection with WWE's fans, had propelled Rousey to the top of the Divas division, and had seen her become one of the faces of the company in a relatively short space of time.

It was the kind of meteoric rise to prominence that had seldom been seen before, and probably wouldn't be seen again for a long time. In rare moments of reflection, Ronda would admit that she had been the right person at the right time. The fans had wanted to see change in women's wrestling, and she had embodied that change. From there, she had remained one of the people's favourites ever since, despite a previous attempt to turn her heel.

"Good to see you, Hunter. It's been a while."

They shared a brief hug, then Hunter gestured towards one of the comfortable office chairs in front of his desk. "Liza, bring some coffee, please," he said to his secretary, then returned to his own chair. Studying the woman in front of him made him want to smile again, but he hid it this time.

Ronda Rousey had certainly come a long way, particularly in the last couple of years, after she had settled down with Seth. There had been a time when her fame had gone to her head, making her almost impossible to manage on occasion, which had culminated in her departure from the company. Even when he had decided to re-sign her a year or two later, she had come back with a bad attitude. To try and help with keeping her grounded, Hunter had asked the late Ric Flair to take her on as a mentor, without actually telling her that was what he was doing. It had worked, with the help of the fact that she had rekindled her relationship with Seth, and from there she had really started to fulfill the potential that he had always seen in her, making a lot of money for both herself and WWE in the process.

Now she sat opposite him, wearing what was obviously a very expensive cream coloured dress - he was no good with designers - and a diamond encrusted wedding ring that must have cost Seth Rollins a fortune. He knew that she had been in New York earlier in the day, promoting The Rousey Foundation - the charity that WWE had helped her to set up. Always keen to back good causes, Hunter and Stephanie hadn't hesitated to help with Ronda's quest for better support for firefighters injured in the line of duty, and for the families of firefighters who lost their lives.

Yes, the first mega star that he had created in his role in management - that was how he thought of Ronda, not that he would say so to anyone - had definitely come a long way from the former Olympic athlete, down on her luck, who had applied to WWE's tryout program when they had been looking for a female referee.

"Are you okay, Hunter? You look like you're a thousand miles away," Ronda said.

"Sorry," Hunter said, smiling as he snapped out of his thoughts. "I was just thinking about how far we've come since I signed you as a referee. A lot has happened since then, huh?"

"I was thinking something similar on the way in here. But let's not look back, let's look forward. I'm feeling good, and I'm ready to come back. I'm excited to hear what you've got in mind for me."

She had decided long before arriving for the meeting that she wasn't going to mention the fact that she had felt some pain in her neck after the last few matches she had wrestled before her time off. Telling herself that it was probably a muscle or ligament strain of some kind, she had chosen to see if the pain went away during the filming, and so it had. At the back of her mind, she had wondered if the pain might have related in some way to her old neck injury.

Years before signing for WWE, she had fallen from a horse and landed right on the top of her head, breaking her neck. Recovering from that severe injury had been a long and often scary process, but she had managed it. WWE had insisted that she had to undergo extensive tests and scans with their medical personnel before they offered her a contract, and she had passed them all with flying colours. So, she had decided, the pain had to be caused by something else. And now it was gone, so why mention it?

"Great," Hunter said. "I think you're going to like what we've come up with. Firstly, we've decided that we want to do something with you and Seth together in a storyline. You've not done anything together since you've been married, and we think it will be something fresh."

Liza returned with the coffee, briefly interrupting the conversation. While she served, after asking Ronda's preference, it gave the returning star a chance to think about working with Seth on-screen. She loved the idea immediately. No one was more proud of their husband than she was. In her opinion, he thoroughly deserved the recent run that he'd been given as WWE Champion. Being a part of it would be fantastic.

"Where was I?" Hunter asked when Liza closed the door behind her. "Oh yeah, you and Seth will be together on-screen."

"That sounds great to me. But what's the actual idea? Who are we feuding with? As long as you're not about to say that it's some kind of storyline about us having marriage problems, I'm sure I'll be fine with it."

"You're not having marriage problems, are you?" Hunter asked, wondering why she chosen to say that.

"No, of course not," Ronda said, making it clear that she objected to the suggestion. "I'm just saying I wouldn't want to act that out on-screen. It would make me very uncomfortable. Anyway, forget I said anything. What's the idea we're going with?"

"Before I answer that directly, I want to remind you of the match you had with Elena D'Agostino."

Ronda had actually had several matches with the first ever Italian Diva in WWE, who was now the inaugural Women's Champion, but she knew which particular one he was referring to. Elena was a hard hitting, loud mouthed heel character who had a physique that wasn't too dissimilar from Ronda's. Those factors were the reason that Daga, as she was referred to by everyone backstage, had been booked as the first woman to stand toe to toe with Ronda and pose a serious threat to her. Their first rivalry had culminated in a no holds barred match which was undoubtedly the most vicious and bloody women's match in WWE history. Both women were very proud of that fact, and it was one of the main reasons that a friendship had developed between them off-screen.

"Trust me, I remember it," Ronda assured him with a smile.

"A lot of people do. The chance to see the two of you go at it again is one of the the things the fans request most, according to the people who do our social media analytics. We're going to give it to them, and we're going to go one step further this time."

Ronda raised her eyebrows. "Further? More of a war than last time?"

"Yep. It's going to be called an unsanctioned street fight. No rules other than having a ref there to count to three."

"I'm up for that, Hunter. It sounds great to me. What does it have to do with Seth though?"

"It's going to tie into his rivalry with Cesaro. That guy has some serious heat right now, which is great to play off of the support Seth is getting. We want to give Cesaro a run with the belt. This idea is about how we get him there. Bottom line, I'm having you and Seth put Cesaro over."

"What about Daga? Am I not putting her over? I beat her last time. But then, I've obviously not held the Women's Championship yet."

"The idea is to put the belt on you at Summerslam. Before that, the street fight will happen at Battleground, the next Smackdown pay per view."

"Alright," Ronda said, not realising herself how easily she had taken the news that she was going to be given a title run in her stride. "Cesaro and Elena aren't a thing though. In fact, most of the fans probably know she's with Bayley, so what's the deal there?"

"An alliance of convenience, rather than a relationship. As you know, Cesaro lost to Seth last Sunday, in the match that was billed as his last shot at the championship. He's not going to take being ruled out of the title picture lying down, and he's going to take matters into his own hands."

Ronda liked the sound of that, thinking that she might somehow by heading for a match with Cesaro. It wouldn't have been the first time she wrestled a man. "And that's where I come in. Am I going to wrestle him?"

"No," Hunter chuckled, which annoyed Ronda slightly. "You're program is with Daga, like I said. What's going to happen is, Cesaro talks Elena into abducting you, so that he can hold you to ransom for another title match with Seth. That will have his heat sky high for Battleground, and that's when we put the belt on him."

Surprised, Ronda considered that. Her character being abducted made her look weak, at the expense of Elena. In the past, she might have objected to the idea for that reason. Lately though, she had resolved herself to be more willing to put others over. The heat for both Daga and Cesaro would be off the charts, and her friend was definitely deserving of that kind of push. Plus, being abducted and held for ransom was definitely a good reason to beat the living shit out of someone in an unsanctioned street fight. Yes, Hunter was onto something good here, she decided.

"The way you talked about being held for ransom, you made it sound like it would go on for a while?"

"We would get it all filmed in a day, but it would span probably three weeks on Raw. Elena would have you tied up in a basement or something. We can use makeup to make it look like you've been kept there for days on end. I think it would be quite gritty television, honestly. Perfect for a TV-14 show. Daga would be taunting you, maybe even torturing you a bit. Anything we can do to have Seth beside himself, wanting his wife released and returned to him. Eventually, when Cesaro demands the title match, Seth wouldn't even hesitate to sign the contract. Obviously, we'll go through the finer details at the time. So, what do you think?"

"Let's do it," Ronda agreed without hesitation. "My character will be ready to beat Elena to death in the street fight after that ordeal. It's a good story with a good payoff for all four of us. I'm guessing you want me back this coming Tuesday?"

"Yes," Hunter nodded. "That's when the abduction will happen. I'll need you for a day later in the week to film the other scenes when we work out a location. I trust that won't be a problem?"

Ronda's contract technically only required her to work Smackdown shows and pay-per-views, but she would accommodate other requests, as long as they didn't interfere with her other commitments. "That's fine. No problem. I'm looking forward to it."

"Excellent." Hunter took a moment to drink some of his coffee, then the conversation turned to pleasantries about the movie Ronda had just finished shooting. The business part of the meeting was over, and both parties were pleased with the outcome.