For weeks the WWE had been besieged with faxes, e-mails, and letters from
all over the US and Europe. Female fans were becoming irate at the WWE,
protesting the company cared only for the male fans, catering to their
whims and fancies with posters and DVDs of the divas. "When are we going
to have posters of the male wrestlers? Why can't you do the same for
us?"
Vince had never taken into consideration the female audience, looking only
to the 18-24 year old market. His so-called "spies" had warned him for the
past month but he had never taken it seriously, until now. Vince sat
looking at the mound of paper piled high on his desk. He had come in that
morning expecting everything to be just as it always has. Never had he
expected the mess he was looking at now. He called his secretary
in. "When the hell did all this come in?"
"For the past couple of weeks. But that's not all. The FanWWE site has
also be besieged with emails. We've gotten so many we've had to close down
the site until we can get caught up. The fax machine has broken down twice
from the faxes we've received. We stopped counting. The mail room is
receiving bags of mail every day. Mrs. McMahon's office is piled high as
well as JR's office. Everyone has been so busy opening letters and
retrieving faxes we've haven't had time to do our own work."
CHAPTER 2
Vince plopped in his chair and took a deep breath. Vince was moving the
piles around when the phone rang. "Yeah."
"Vince, it's J.R."
"From the tone in your voice I take it you found your office the same as I
found mine. Meet me in the conference room in twenty minutes."
He left the office and walked down the short hall to Linda's office. He
entered, finding her doing pretty much the same thing he had done
earlier. She had a few in her hand, scanning them. She looked up. "Good
morning, dear." Seeing the scowl on his face, a slight grin appeared. "I
take it you don't like the new décor in your office."
"Very funny. I come back to find it looking like a giant waste
basket. Then I'm informed by my secretary that this has been going on for
the past couple of weeks. The fan site had to be shut down and the mail
room can't keep up."
"I've managed to read a few," she said. "It seems the female population is
very upset about the way you cater to the…" she picked up one of the
letters, "balls of your male audience."
"JR just called me with the same situation. I told him to meet me in the
Board Room in twenty minutes."
JR was waiting when both McMahons entered. Linda had brought along a few
of the letters and gave each of the men a couple to read. "I've read quite
a few others during this past week. I also had the staff read the faxes and
emails," Linda said. "In short, they all say the same thing. Do the same
for us as you do the men. And frankly, I agree with them."
Vince's brows shot up. "You agree with them?"
Linda nodded. "Vince, you forget the women make up a big part of your
audience of fans. They are just as interested in wrestling as the men are
and know more than you think. I think you would be surprised at the
percentage who pay to go to our shows."
Vince turned to JR. "What do you think?"
JR was quiet a bit. "I always look at the audience before I make my
entrance. I have to agree with Linda on this. Women do make up a huge
part of the audience."
Vince leaned back in his chair. A poster magazine made up of male
wrestlers. He rubbed his chin a bit then picked up the phone. "Shane,
come to the board room."
In ten minutes, Shane was sitting at the table and was filled in on what
they had been discussing. "I'm not surprised," he said. "I've known for
quite sometime. In fact, I've been studying the sales profit
statements. Dad, you've been missing the boat on this for a long
time." Vince sat up in his chair and pursed his lips. "You, too." Shane
nodded. "I can even figure who they want too."
"Okay, tell me."
"First would be Taker and Kane. They have the biggest and broadest fan
base according to what I've found in looking on the web. Next would be
Nash, Trips, Lesnar, Rock, Edge, and Jericho."
Vince took a deep breath and exhaled. "That's eight of my biggest
stars. How big a magazine would you suggest we do?"
"Why don't we do a small announcement on the web site," Linda
suggested. "WWE plans, by popular opinion, on doing a poster magazine of
male wrestlers. We list the male wrestlers and have the fans vote for as
many as they want."
JR and Shane nodded in agreement. Vince drummed his fingers on the
table. "Okay. Shane, you take care of the announcement and the
list. We'll keep the list on the site for say, three weeks. That should
be enough time."
Chapter 3
Although he had given the assignment to Shane to
set up the magazine list
on the web site, he was still thinking it was
going to be a waste of time
and hoped it would turn out to be a bust.
A week later, the girls in the
anything-Undertaker group found a strange
email on their list from Bonnie. After reading,
the lines were hot and
heavy with excitement.
"Is this for real?" Jade typed. "You mean they
finally listened to
us?"
"I got this straight from the WWE site," Bonnie
replied. "Word for
word. The list is up also. You can choose as
many as you want. BTW,
Taker and Kane are the first two listed."
"Ahhhhh! I'm on my way there right now!" Jade
said.
"Holy shit!" B said. "I know my two husbands
have to be there. I'm off to
vote!"
"Hot Damn!" Cat typed. "You know who I'll be
picking!"
Stonewall had signed on. "OMG! The thought of
seeing Kane in nothing but
shorts, wet shorts even… Someone give me a
drooling bucket! Fast!"
Willie was fanning herself in her apartment. She
had read Stonewall's
comment. "Stone, same here! Oh to think….I
can't speak……!!"
Sharon, who was still recuperating from a recent
illness, had finally been
able to check her messages. Her mind thought to
how Kane would look in
nothing but bikini briefs, those nipples
showing.
And so it went with the rest of the list.
Everyone saying they were going
to the website to vote for their favorites for
the magazine. The rest of
the internet groups were just as excited.
At the main offices in Stanford, Shane had a
couple of his people keeping
an eye on the voting results. It was just as he
predicted, Taker and Kane
were leading by a wide margin. Rock was third,
Nash fourth, Trips and Edge
tied for fifth. Close behind were Lesnar, RVD,
Goldberg, Matt Hardy,
Booker T, and Jericho.
After the second week, Vince had Shane report on
how the poll was
going. "Dad, it's going just like I knew it
would. I have a couple of my
people watching the site. Over 20,000 hits in
two weeks. I predict at
least another 10,000-20,000 by the end of next
week" He saw a look of
disappointment in Vince's face. "What's the
matter? Disappointed that it
isn't more?"
"No. I wasn't expecting this kind of
response."
"Wasn't expecting, or hoping it would
bust?"
Vince was mumbling to himself when he found Linda
in his office. "So,
what's the news?" Linda asked.
Vince chose not to respond. Linda started
grinning. "Oh, so it's going
better than you hoped it would. The female fans
are speaking out. You
can't ignore it, dear. I think its time to call
in our publishing
department and start putting together layout
ideas." She raised her
brows.
Growling, Vince got on the phone and asked the
head of the magazine
publication to come to his office, and to have a
sketch pad ready. For the
next couple of hours, various ideas on layouts
were tossed back and
forth. Finally they came up with at the cover
for the special edition. It
would be another week before the results were
final.
The week went by fast. Web site hits were coming
in more and more. By the
end of the final week, over 50,000 hits were
recorded. Shane took the data
and had his statistician tally the
results.
Taker - 49,500
Kane - 49,500
Rock - 42,000
Nash - 41,542
Trips - 40,756
Edge - 40,721
Lesnar -40,530
RVD - 40,156
Booker T - 39,652
Matt Hardy - 39,524
Jericho - 39,179
Goldberg - 39,000
Chapter 4
Shane gave the results to Vince as soon as they
had been tallied. Vince
scanned over the figures - 50,000 votes. He
shook his head.
"It came out just like I thought it would," Shane
said. "You can't deny it
now, dad. The women have spoken."
Vince gave the results back to Shane. "Since
you're so hopped up about
this, you can handle getting the magazine ready
for publication. You have
complete control."
Once Shane had left, he raised his arms in the
air and did a silent
hallelujah. Linda was walking down the hall and
saw Shane's
jubilation. Shane let her read the results.
"Dad put me in complete
charge of every aspect. I think right now he's
sore at having to eat just
a bit of crow."
Linda snickered. "It'll do him some good. Keep
me posted as progress
develops."
Shane spent the rest of the day working with
publications on the layout and
placement of each man. The editor suggested that
perhaps a group poster
would make a good addition to the issue, making
it the first thing the
women would see. Shane thought it was a good
idea. As the layout
progressed, Shane wondered how he was going to
sell the idea to the chosen
"centerfolds." He knew of couple of them had
big egos and would be the
first to chomp at the bit of showing themselves
off. The rest he wasn't
too sure about.
It was mutually agreed that the shooting location
be kept a secret. If
anyone ever found out there would have to be a
ton of security surrounding
it, and it would spoil the surprise. Dubious
doubts were cast also when
Shane mentioned letting the women choose what
they would like to see or not
see their men wear. His spies had informed him
that the women were already
bandying ideas back and forth.
________________
Several days later D'ville went into the WWE site
to read up on the
progress, if any, on the "special" magazine. Not
finding any right away,
she went to JR's commentary to read through.
About halfway she found a
small blurb concerning the special poster issue.
She copied the article
and sent it to the list. The item stated that
plans were underway for a
special edition poster magazine. More
information would be told on the
next RAW.
Upon reading the girls right away commented. "No
one had better touch that
TV or they will be missing some fingers," Willie
said. The girls laughed
and wholeheartedly agreed.
Women across the internet, especially in the AU
group, were glued to their
TV sets Monday, waiting for RAW to begin.
Halfway through the show, Shane
made an appearance and headed to Lawler's and
JR's table.
As usual, Lawler did his kissing up routine.
"Shane, what's this about a
poster magazine of male wrestlers?" he
asked.
Shane explained how it came about and what
progress had been made. When
asked who would be in the magazine, Shane replied
that the names would come
later.
Lawler was doing his part to the tee. "I can't
see Vince going along with
this?"
"He's the one who suggested it and left complete
control to me."
"Shane, was my name mentioned on the list? I
mean, who wouldn't want to
have a poster of THE KING. JR, what do you
think?
Shane and JR turned their faces to keep from
laughing out loud. Finally,
JR was able to straightened his face. " No
comment."
Chapter 5
It hadn't taken long after the initial
announcement for word to reach the
locker room. The men were completely taken by
surprise. Everyone knew
they were on the list, but none of them knew how
the voting would go as
Shane had kept the voting progress a secret. It
was after the first two
weeks that Shane went in to see the editor about
doing two more posters for
the magazine. "My sources tell me a lot of the
women want to see Shawn
Michaels in it." The editor replied that was no
problem. Then Shane added
the real kicker. "I came up with another plan.
Why don't we make the
overall vote getter the centerfold."
The editor didn't know what to think. This
magazine wasn't going to be
just a photo shoot like the divas, this was going
to be all out. "A
centerfold? Shane are you sure?" Shane nodded.
"The women will eat it
up."
When this got back to the locker room, two of the
men, whose egos were
already inflated, inflate even more, and any one
who watches wrestling
should know who they are - Jericho and Trips.
The banter between the two
of them was making the rest of the locker room
sick.
"Hey, slope nose, what makes you think you got a
chance?" Jericho
laughed.
"Hey, I'm practically a part of the family,
remember?" Trips snorted.
"No comment," Jericho sneered.
It was with a huge sigh of relief when they left
the locker room. "Man,
those two were a pain in the ass before, now it's
worse," Glen shook his
head. "They would drive a dead man to drink."
Mark, Kevin, and Booker T
were there.
Mark gave him a sidelong glance. "Sorry, no pun
intended," Glen added.
"I'm kind of surprised Vince went for this," Mark
said.
"From what I heard, he came in one morning and
found his office full of
letters. He couldn't even find his phone. He
met with JR and Linda, who
told him straight out it was time he recognized
the female audience," Glen
said.
"So this is what he comes up with. What next?"
Kevin asked.
"Would be kind of interesting to know who our
female fans are voting for,"
Booker T said.
"But the winner be the centerfold? If Jericho or
Trips ever wins that…. I
don't even want to think about it," Kevin moaned.
By this time the announcement of the centerfold
had hit the internet. The
wires were burning like crazy.
"A centerfold of the winner! Hot damn!!" Dville
had found the announcement
and had sent it to the list.
"My hubby would be the natural choice," Jade
cooed. "After all he is Big
Sexy."
"Not so fast," B said. "Remember, my hubby has
the people's strudel."
"No fair, B. You got two on the list. I only
have one," Bonnie said.
"Yeah, but lately he's been a big
pain-in-the-a**," Anne said.
"I don't know about you girls, but Taker should
be the centerfold," Cat
added.
"Well, what about my Matt? He's just as sexy as
anybody," Anne said.
"No, it should be Kane," Willie piped in.
The emails went on and on as to who should be the
centerfold. Shane was
having a field day reading the emails.
Eventually talk went back as to
what the guys should be photographed in.
"I would so love to have my Matt wearing nothing
but his belt," Anne
gleefully said.
"Well, I for one, sorry Kev, would love to see
Taker in nothing but leather
chaps and leaning back on his Harley." A chorus
of "yeah baby" followed her
comment. "But for me personally, I would love to
see Kev in a black thong,
his hair blowing, sitting on a rock with his legs
wide open."
"Uh Uh, Kane in wet shorts with a trace of a hard
on," Willie sighed. "Oh
hell, better get a drool bucket."
"And don't forget his nipples," Sharon
added.
"OMG! Stonewall fainted.
"We haven't heard from Kal yet. Kal, you out
there?" B asked.
"Yeah, just busy trying to catch up on what's
going on."
"How would you like to see Jericho?" B
asked.
"For the magazine. Hmm, hadn't thought about it.
Oh hell, Jericho in
anything or nothing. Makes no difference to
me."
Shane read through these last comments. Taker
with nothing but chaps,
leaning back on his Harley? He doubted if Taker
would expose that much of
him, but he did come have an idea. He let out a
long breath on Kane. The
wet red shorts were a good idea, but showing a
slight hard on? No
comment. Kevin in a black thong. Possible
keeper there. Booker T. Didn't
find any. Okay, he would have one of his staff
look through the photos as
well as the rest of the group.
Now to get word to the winners, especially the
centerfold winner. Actually
there were two. He had his secretary type up
individual memos to each
wrestler, and an extra note to the two winners.
This was going better than
he expected.
Chapter 6
Shane sat at his desk, the just finished memos in
front of him in sealed
envelopes. Eleven envelopes were to be delivered
by one of his staff to
each of the wrestlers at one of the house shows.
The two he had separated
from the others he was going to deliver
himself.
Shane flew out the next day to Nashville. Glen
and Mark were doing
signings at the arena the day before the house
show. Shane had JR inform
them he wanted to see them but were not to tell
anyone.
Reactions were varied somewhat among the rest as
they read their memos in
private.
Rock - well he was who he was. "So they want to
see the People's Strudel,"
he thought, and cocked his brow.
Edge was surprise, having been out for quite some
time and had only
recently returned.
Nash was speechless.
Lesnar was perplexed. He decided he needed to
work out and think it
over.
RVD just replied, "Cool."
Booker T - One wants to say he did a spinnerooni
but no one knows for sure
if he did or not.
Matt - "Interesting," he thought.
Goldberg - big question mark.
Trips and Jericho each puffed up. Both were
disappointed that their memo
hadn't mentioned anything else.
Shawn Michaels grinned. "The Heart Break Kid
does it again."
Shane handed Mark and Glen their envelopes. He
watched their faces as they
read. Mark was the first to reply.
"This is a joke, right? Me, a
centerfold?"
"No joke. Out of 50,000 votes, you two were tied
as the top vote
getters."
"This may sound like a stupid question, but how
are we to be posed?" Glen
asked.
"I've decided I'll go by what the women want," he
replied.
"Uh, just what do they want?" Mark asked.
Shane took a deep breath. "How should I say
this. Well, Glen, some have
suggested you wearing tight, wet red shorts. I
mean very short and very
wet. They want to see your 'package" outlined,
shall I say, and saluting.
Others prefer you butt naked and
saluting."
Glen began flushing, from the neck all the way to
top of his head. "My
package saluting!?" His mouth dropped open
wide.
Shane turned to Mark. "As for you. Uh…" he
hesitated. "The great majority
want you in nothing at all, leaning back on your
Harley, legs open."
Chapter 7
Mark looked at the memo, his mouth open in utter
shock. "I'm to be naked
as hell and showing balls to everyone?"
"Yep. See, for quite some time I've had spies on
the fan lists, most of
which concern you and Glen. These fan lists are
composed of 98%
women. One of the things they frequently talk
about, and that you includes
you also, Glen, are your 'packages.' And at
times they've even gone so far
as to highlight that particular area, especially
when you guys appear and
your clothes fit rather snug, and they can see a
faint outline. Believe
me, those women have sharp eyes when it comes to
you two, and also with the
rest of the group as well."
Shane reaching into his briefcase and gave them
printouts his spies gave
him. Mark and Glen looked the printouts over,
then gave them back to
Shane. "Well?"
"Can we think about it?" Glen asked.
"What is there to think about?" Shane replied.
"They want you,
period. They want to see the real
thing."
"Oh, you expect us to do it, no ifs, ands, or
buts," Mark said.
"Why not?"
"Why not?!" Glen yelled.
"Has anyone else agreed?" Mark asked, hoping to
hear a no.
"I know of two for sure," Shane replied. "Trips
and Jericho."
"Should have known," Glen snorted.
"Who else is to be in this supposed magazine?"
Mark asked.
"Well, besides you, Glen, Trips, and Jericho,
there's Nash, Edge, Booker T,
Lesnar, Rock, Goldberg, Matt Hardy, and RVD. And
we just added Shawn
Michaels. A group poster all of you will be in
it. The magazine will be
nothing more than posters, no bios, no columns,
just posters of you."
"A group poster of us, huh. Did they say what
they wanted us wearing in
this group photo?" Glen snorted.
"No."
"Other than Trips and Jericho, have you heard
from the others?"
"Not yet, but I'm confident they'll go along with
it. So now what."
"Not until you hear from the rest do we, at least
me, agree," Mark
said.
"Same here," Glen added.
Shane needed to get the photo shoot done and
finalize the layout at least a
month before Wrestlemania, which was only 3
months away.
Chapter 8
The wrestlers had a few days off, and Shane asked
that they meet at the
headquarters to give their consent. Everyone
arrived on time except Mark
and Glen, who were late as their flights had been
delayed.
"Well, guys, you've had a few days to think about
it. I'm not forcing
you. The decision is entirely up to
you."
"And this is what our women fans wanted?" Nash
asked.
Shane nodded.
Shawn was first. "Count me in."
"Me, too," Rock said.
"I'm game," Edge said.
"It's a go," Matt nodded.
"RVD?"
"Cool," was his only reply.
Shane looked at Booker T, who responded, "I'm
in."
Lesnar nodded silently.
Nash said "Okay."
"Goldberg?"
Goldberg said, "Yeah."
Shane hadn't had to ask Jericho and Trips, they
had given him their answer
the day after. He looked at Mark and Glen, who
were sitting behind the
rest. "What's your answer?"
"Alright, I'm in," Glen replied.
"Me, too," Mark said.
"Great!" Shane rubbed his hands. "We plan to put
the magazine out in 3
months, in time for Wrestlemania 20. I've been
in touch with the
photographer and editor as to the location. We
came up with several
places, but too many people would be around. How
do the Cayman Islands
sound? They have plenty of private
beaches."
The wrestlers nodded okay.
"Arrangements have been made to go by private
plane and arrive at
night. The plane will park in a hangar. Two
vans will be waiting to take
you to the hotel, which has already been booked,
and which has been
instructed to keep it strictly
confidential."
"How long is this going to take?" Nash
asked.
"Hopefully we should be in and out of there in
under a week," Shane
replied. "We meet back here one week from
today."
--------------------------------------------
A week later everyone arrived and boarded the
private plane, which was
parked inside a hangar. It was late afternoon
when everyone was
aboard. A couple of days before, the
photographer had left, flying down
with the equipment, along with the costume and
makeup people, who all knew
to keep it a secret.
Mark and Glen were the last to board and had
settled in their seats. "I
feel like a complete jackass," Mark said as he
leaned back.
"You can't back out now," Glen said. "You agreed
and so did I."
"Yeah, I know I did. I just don't feel like
exposing myself
completely."
"I don't think Shane is going to have us bare it
all. Just give a hint,"
Glen said with a crooked grin.
Chapter 9
When Shane had first sent out the announcement of
the poster magazine, he
had the publicity department also set up a web
site which announced a
contest, the winner would be brought to the
Caymans to work on the photo
shoot. He made sure his spies got the
announcement to the lists. The
winner would arrive the day after the wrestlers.
Every woman who had voted
entered the contest. The entry was a few lines
stating who was their
favorite wrestler and why. It had taken the
whole department at least a
week to go over the entries, some were sent by
email, others by post, and
choose a winner.
Willie had sent in her entry. She figured she
didn't have much of a chance
of winning, but she thought there was no harm in
trying. Imagine her shock
two weeks later to find an envelope from the WWE
office. With shaking
hands she tore it open. Inside was the letter
and plane ticket. Willie
fell on the couch in shock. She reread the
letter over and over till at
least her brain registered what she was reading.
She was chosen as the
winner and would be going to the Islands to work
with the photo shoot. The
last paragraph stated she was not to tell anyone
the location, only that
she would be involved with the session. It also
stated that Shane McMahon
himself would greet her in the lobby of the hotel
with further
instructions. She immediately got on the phone
and called her sister,
Betty.
B had just gotten home when her phone rang. She
barely got the word hello
out when she heard screaming on the other end,
forcing her to hold it at
arm's length. She knew it was her sister as no
one else screamed like a
banshee. "I WON! I WON!" was all she
heard.
Finally Betty was able to put the receiver to her
ear. "Willie, calm down!
Now, what is this you're saying? You
won?"
"B, I won the contest! I get to see the guys
pose for the magazine!"
"What contest?"
"Remember the contest that I told you
about?"
B's jaw dropped as it hit her just what Willie
was talking about. "You're
kidding! You won?"
"Yes! I got the letter today along with the
plane ticket! I leave out in
a week!"
"Damn! Where?"
A bit of hesitation at first. "Sorry B, I can't
tell you. The letter says
I am not to say where. I can only say that I'm
to be involved with the
photo session. It also says that Shane himself
will meet me with further
instructions. The guys won't even know."
"Can't you even give me a hint?"
"No, but I don't see why I can't e-mail everybody
on the list and keep them
up-to-date on what's going on."
"Shit!" B responded disappointed. "Well,, at
least you can do that."
Responses were immediate as soon as Willie told
the list.
"Congrats, sis! Have a good time!" Sandra
replied. "Don't get too
excited!"
"You lucky stiff!" Dville was next.
"Hey, don't get any ideas about our men!" Jade
said laughing.
"Keep us posted, especially how they pose!" Cat
exclaimed.
"I promise I'll email you every day."
Chapter 10
Willie arrived the day after the wrestlers.
Imagine her surprise upon
seeing Shane at the airport instead at the lobby
as was originally
intended. She went over to him and introduced
herself. After shaking
hands, they picked up her luggage and went out
the front door to a waiting
limo. On the way to the hotel, he explained to
her that she would be
assisting on site, but she was not to let the
wrestlers know who she
was. He asked if she had told anyone the
location to which she replied she
had not. She did ask wouldn't it be odd for the
wrestlers to see her
arrive in a limo. Shane said that they were all
down at the location so
none would see her.
As soon as they arrived, Willie went to her room
to email the girls, making
sure she did not say where, only that she had
arrived safely and would keep
them informed. She kept dropping her clothes as
she unpacked. "All that
beef on the beach!" She took a deep breath. How
was she going to manage
to keep from drooling, especially when she would
be near Kane.
She went downstairs to the small restaurant to at
least try to eat
something, plus get a drink to calm her nerves.
Just as she was about to
enter, Shane called her over to a small corner,
where he was sitting with
six other people - the photographer, 3 equipment
technicians, one make-up,
and one wardrobe coordinator. Shane introduced
her to everyone. He told
Willie they were going over the final plan and
that they would begin that
afternoon. As it was eleven, he told everyone to
go on ahead and eat, then
go to the site immediately after. The wrestlers
would arrive around
2:30.
After lunch, Willie and the rest of the crew were
driven to the
location. Several pieces of equipment had
already been set up, plus beach
umbrellas and furniture, coolers of cold
beverages, and plenty of sun
screen.
Willie was shown everything and what she would be
doing. The wrestlers
arrived on two separate carts. They wore tank
tops, shorts, and sandals.
Willie was already having problems keeping
herself under control. All
those muscled arms, legs, and chests, and they
hadn't started yet.
Shane said he would be back later to check up on
how things were going,
then left in one of the carts. The photographer
looked at his
list. "Goldberg, Hardy. You two first. The
changing room is over
there." . A few minutes later, they came from
behind the screen. Upon
seeing them, Willie took a deep breath. If Anne
and B could see them, they
would faint. The thongs were just enough to
cover (barely). When the
group saw how little and tight the thongs were,
some shifted in their
chairs.
"That's it?" Glen whispered. "OOHHH boy." And
rolled his eyes.