Stephanie McMahon has been terrific as a heel authority figure. While I've been very vocal about how WWE relies too much on heels in power, it's not due to the performance of Stephanie. It's simply because this story has been done far too many times over the last 16 years when Vince McMahon was making life difficult for Steve Austin. What was great about the segment on Payback was that Stephanie walked out to the ring with a big smile as she was set to either strip Daniel Bryan of his job or fire Brie Bella. Instead, she was the victim of a retort from Daniel and Brie as she called Stephanie a bitch. Then Brie said that Stephanie couldn't fire her because she quit. Stephanie looked happy again, but then Brie slapped her in the face and Stephanie was humiliated. The reason it was such a successful part of the show is because it's important for the heel to get what's coming to them once in a while. Nobody has done anything to make Stephanie look weak for so long that when Brie hit her the fans popped huge because they know that it mattered a lot to see that. A highlight of the show was when the crowd chanted "CM Punk" during the segment, which led to Bryan laughing and Stephanie reacted to it by saying "the fans want you to quit just like CM Punk did." Huge heat. It added to the segment. Great thinking by Stephanie in a difficult spot. The only weird aspect of the segment was that Brie seemed happy even though she "quit" her job, but that's probably because she was happy to stand by her man. The story is about Bryan more than it is about her job.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
