10 Ridiculous Stephanie McMahon Ego Trips
Mirror Kisser
Oh my god, she's back again.
Stephanie McMahon, her husband Triple H and father Vince were centre-ring and and centre-stage for the announcement of WWE's first ever all-woman pay-per-view, tacitly slapping themselves on the back whilst pretending to bestow praise on the lowly rank-and-file they'd left on the ramp. Rank-and-file that included weekly rival Kurt Angle and numerous other performers they've bantered off over the past few months performing as the heels they're supposed to be.
If that all sounds like it doesn't quite make sense, it's because it f***ing doesn't. There are broken loyalties and blurred character lines all over the shop, but such trivialities take a backseat when it comes to the famed McMahon ego.
Vince was so switched on this year that he triggered an unprecedented marketing backlash after naming WrestleMania's Battle Royal after Fabulous Moolah. Hunter pushed huge for the likes of Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Bayley as emerging NXT starlets, but only because he saw a tide turning outside of the WWE bubble. Stephanie herself had to be needled on Twitter by then-employee AJ Lee to finally stand up for her travelling sisterhood. The former Divas Champion has yet to receive a lick of credit for anything in the division that's happened since.
By her own admittance, as well as being a "philanthropist, public speaker, fitness enthusiast & mom of 3 daughters" according to her Twitter bio, she's also a "TV villain". That's quite the umbrella term for a career of overacting and undercutting.
10. Start A Revolution
The remarkable shift in attitudes towards women's wrestling by WWE (and thus, the broader wrestling audience) in the past few years has been the net result of so many people's gruelling hard work. But as the company are happy to tell you, the beguiling spirit and collected skills of four particular superstars drove that change the most - Stephanie McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Stephanie McMahon.
Because god forbid you think it's anything to do with Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Bayley. Or even Emma, Natalya, Paige, AJ Lee (more on her later), The Bella Twins OR the dedicated staffers in WWE and NXT that for years campaigned for women to be fairly represented on the main roster and often had the tiniest windows of time to exhibit exactly why.
No, in abusing her privilege yet again, Stephanie has managed to place herself front and centre for nearly all the significant checkpoints in driving WWE's gender equality problem in the right direction.
Ignore a run of NXT TakeOver matches between 2014 and 2015 that each time resulted in a census opinion of 'Oh, well now that's the greatest WWE women's match ever', or the individual lifetimes of dedication to the craft from the likes of Banks and Bayley, who dreamt of becoming wrestlers but were forced to sit through over a decade of Bra and Panties/Bikini battles that Stephanie's creative team were only to happy to peddle.
Thanks Stephanie. Thanks for everything.