10 Most Infuriating Stephanie McMahon Moments

Rounded characters with ambiguous motivations are few and far between in the good vs. evil, black and white world of pro wrestling.

This can sometimes be stifling. Rusev, for example, despite the odd comedy segment, is motivated entirely by his hatred of America. As such, there are only so many storylines WWE can build around him. And if going from a conflict with John Cena to Titus O'Neill isn't the dictionary definition of a diminished return, I don't know what is.

There's scope, sometimes, to flesh out an act - the Shield being a perfect example. Their pursuit of justice was warped, and malleable enough to instigate satisfying dramatic tension with any manner of WWE star.

Stephanie McMahon is another exception, but that's not to say she's written particularly well. In fact, her motivations seem to change on a whim, from one week to the next, with no clearly defined arc or catharsis for the audience. She seems to take pleasure solely in being awful to absolutely everybody around her, to the benefit of her real-life ego alone.

In kayfabe, she's meant to be promoting her talent, but as we'll discover, she doesn't seem to have grasped that...at all...

...with no repercussions.

Obviously, Reigns wasn't about to prop up a table and spear Stephanie through it. This isn't the Attitude Era. He couldn't respond to the physical attack in kind. Which begs the question: why have Stephanie slap the hell out of him in the first place?

Lord knows we've been conditioned to accept that Reigns is tough - he's been shoved down our throats to such an extent that it's a wonder the price of foie gras hasn't fallen due to a complete surplus. Having him smile and brush off those vicious slaps didn't add to his aura - it just made him resemble a scolded Victorian era schoolboy.

It matters little that this is probably the only scenario which might have excused her rampant ego. While he'd just insulted her entire family and battered her husband into a coma the previous night, these actions if anything should have rendered her a quivering, fear-stricken wreck at the mere sight of him.

Wrestling feuds need a payoff - the entire industry is predicated on it. That Steph receives no comeuppance for her heinous actions is among the most infuriating aspects of WWE in 2016 - and it's been going on for nearly three years at this point.