7 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 1)
5. Heels Can Give A Little
Stephanie McMahon is probably one of the best and worst villains in WWE today. She plays her role fantastically at times, shrieking, goading and preening as a heel authority figure. However, she rarely gets any comeuppance. Since shes a woman, the male wrestlers arent going to physically push back against her, and oftentimes, they back down to her verbal antics. All of that makes for an uncomfortable dynamic where Stephanie gets to be the bad guy who never really gets beaten or in many cases, even gets stood up to. Thats what made her little exchange with Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose different and effective Monday night backstage. Instead of belittling either competitor, Stephanie sowed seeds of dissension, talking about how other close-knit groups such as the Rockers, Evolution and the Shield all exploded over the pursuit of championship gold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lry2fOsPKgk But rather than just taking the verbal abuse, Ambrose and Reigns sparred with her a little, not standing there impotently like so many other stars have done. Ambrose got off a good line when Stephanie ragged on him about being Romans sidekick, saying that Reigns usually is his sidekick. Its OK for a heel authority figure to be on equal footing once in a while, and this showed it.
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.
