10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2002

Those who detested Steph’s onscreen character will hate this, but she was actually really good as SmackDown General Manager. Her father Vince announced her as the new authority figure on team blue on 18 July 2002, and Stephanie lasted as GM until October 2003. She presided over a golden era for the show, and actually lasted longer than successors Paul Heyman and Kurt Angle in the role.

Here's something that may surprise some: McMahon grew in confidence, turned babyface, ditched the shrill heel voice for promos, and came across really well overall when binge watching old episodes of SmackDown from 2002. She was a nice change of pace from Eric Bischoff's more standard heel General Manager over on Raw (Bisch wasn't bad, but he'd been there done that in WCW and wasn't remarkably different from Vince in the same role), and was visibly coming into her own.

Steph spoke with a more commanding tone whether she was backstage or out in front of fans with a microphone. That was one of the first truly noticeable changes about the way she carried herself. Second, it was more palatable for fans that she was running SmackDown than it had been when she was Paul Heyman's replacement as "owner of ECW" in 2001.

That was crap. This wasn't.

McMahon probably doesn't get enough praise for her onscreen work. That's partly due to her surname and partly down to how irritating The Authority proved to be years later. Between 2002-2003 though? Yeah, she was an asset to SmackDown and worked well in the GM position.