As the daughter of Vince and Linda McMahon, Stephanie was born into the wrestling business and, thanks to the departure of her brother Shane, seems poised to take over World Wrestling Entertainment when Vince finally retires (if that ever happens). She has certainly come a long way from modeling t-shirts and hats for the WWF catalog when she was younger. Thanks for Vince Russo, Stephanie made her on-screen debut as a kidnapping victim of the Undertaker during his feud with Vince McMahon. Soon after, Stephanie became involved in an on-screen romance with Test (who was totally out of league). The two were set to be married but, since this is professional wrestling, the wedding was interrupted by Triple H who revealed that he had married a drugged Stephanie the night before in Las Vegas. A few weeks later, Stephanie revealed she was in cahoots with Hunter the entire time and turned heel. The McMahon-Helmsley Era ran roughshod over the WWF for almost a year, turning Hunter and Stephanie into the top heels in the company and replacing Vince as lead authority figure. Unfortunately, fans began to tire of her act and the final straw was her being revealed as the new "owner" of ECW during the awful Invasion angle. She was removed from WWF television in 2002 but soon returned as the new General Manager of the Smackdown brand. She served as the babyface GM of Smackdown for awhile before being removed from television due to her real-life marriage to Triple H (the worst kept secret in wrestling). She has continued to make appearances on WWE television, most recently as a member of the Authority with Triple H, however her real reason for being on this list is her executive work with WWE. Stephanie has been serving as the head of creative since around 2002. While opinion of her storylines has been split (and that's putting it nicely), it's certainly impressive that a woman could rise to such a position in a male-dominated sport like wrestling. Another promotion led Stephanie to being named Chief Brand Officer, leading marketing efforts towards key demographics and spreading the WWE brand into new partnerships.
