8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Dec 17)

2. Is That A Hard Reset For Steph?

vince stephanie shane mcmahon
WWE.com

Ever since The Authority debuted on Raw way back in 2013, Stephanie McMahon has been an uber-heel.

Sure, she’s played to the fans here and there, and whenever there’s a major announcement about women’s wrestling, she suddenly morphs into a visionary leader, but when it comes to being an in-storyline, on-air character, Stephanie is a villainess.

But suddenly Monday, McMahon was standing there mocking her hand-picked former acting GM Baron Corbin, playing to the fans and encouraging them to boo him. She all but did a victory lap around the arena high-fiving fans.

So basically after five years and only getting her comeuppance 2-3 times (think Ronda Rousey and being put through a table at WrestleMania 33), is Stephanie suddenly a babyface? Or is she just going back to being a heel commissioner next week?

Either way, this gets a “down” for now, because there’s zero internal logic involved and felt more like a self-serving opportunity to soak in applause.

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Contributor
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.