8. As The Steph Turns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNFI9PNcvNU For those keeping score, Stephanie McMahon ostensibly played a face tonight, despite being labeled a heel boss for the past two-plus years. It was yet another occasion for Stephanie to soak in cheers while emasculating the heels for a change. Stephanie started out by putting Seth Rollins in his place, mocking his plight as he was left without a tag team partner when Brock Lesnar beat up Big Show. She then came out and sucked up to the Boston crowd by saying the New England Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl (shes supposedly big Pats fan). Then Steph put New Day down (the team she and Triple H were dancing with in the ring just a couple weeks ago). Villains dont have to be pure evil 24/7. We all know that. But when a person who so clearly is supposed to be the chief bad guy starts playing to the crowd and belittling her own charges, then shes crossed a line. Vince McMahon never wouldve pulled that stunt in the Attitude Era. Or at least if he did play to the crowd, it would be so obviously disingenuous that he would be booed even more.
Scott Carlson
Contributor
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
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