10 Times WWE Babyfaces Were Heels Backstage
Randy Orton kills his own legend and Shawn Michaels stops the show...
What does Vince McMahon want from his performers in 2018?
Does he want them to be the terrified "millennials" he raged against on Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast in 2014? Does he want them to be competitive to a fault, starting fights and feuds with each other before he's even had a time to book and control the tension into something he can sell? Does he want anybody other than Roman Reigns? Does he literally even care anyway?
With exception of the Roman Reigns element (he'd still want all of that), he'd probably like a mix of the above. The aforementioned Austin barb implied he yearned for the days of the combative element behind the scenes, but those were good and bad old days.
The industry at large seems broadly...cleaner than it used to be, and that surely has to result in a few less sleepless nights for McMahon and his inner circle. And while wrestling's sure to always have it's uglier personalities, but the lack of a need to "protect the business" as was once the case will hopefully have done away with many of the traits the worst offenders once espoused.
And anyway, why even bother politicking your way up the ladder, when the guy at the top is still the one that's been kicking it away for decades...
10. Triple H
Triple H was such a proficient proponent of backstage politics that he became the greatest of all time to play the game. Honestly, it's a wonder he hasn't added it to his list of accomplishments to prop up his ever-fragile ego.
A story an ex-WWE writer told about Hunter asking him only one question two times when presented with a Raw script - "Am I going over? Am I f*cking going over?" - came when he was the biggest heel in the industry either side of the camera, but he's flipped so much in recent years that it's been too tricky to parse what he's even portraying as plays his cards right behind the curtain.
Hunter's most recent flagrant indiscretion is the easiest to poke holes in. Cast as the saviour of Team Raw ahead of the 2017 Survivor Series, Hunter was effectively positioned as a clean-up guy fixing Kurt Angle's mess. He Pedigreed 'son' Jason Jordan out the match completely, then turned up on the night in his own-brand gear to assert his literal authority on the situation.
Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Shane McMahon, Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman were all lined up as potential WrestleMania opponents before he decided to take the Ronda Rousey contest instead.
The entire company will literally one day be his, but it's still all about 'The Game'.