The Stephanie McMahon Problem

PWP Nation’s Eron Ramadanov believes WWE has a Stephanie McMahon problem when it comes to interacting with talent. 

In WWE today, it’s harder than ever before to create and maintain superstars. Not only is it hard to create new stars, but more so, create mega-stars. With WWE’s 50/50 booking and lack of attention to detail, it’s a really difficult task to get guys and gals “over,” let alone popularized and familiarized with the mainstream audience.

In my opinion, one of the biggest detractors from trying to get new talent to appear credible is when a past talent either shows them up or “buries them.”

And unfortunately, the “principle owner” and on-screen boss of WWE is a guilty party when it comes to this.

Stephanie McMahon is currently WWE’s Chief Brand Officer behind the scenes, and unlike what many may think, she has zero say in WWE creative. Obviously, she has some say in what her character says and does and it doesn’t hurt to have your father and husband as 1A and 1B on the creative team, but overall, Stephanie McMahon has very little to do with what we see on screen from a creative standpoint.

But oddly enough, from time-to-time, we’ll see Stephanie McMahon verbally disrobe a formidable talent on national television. Most times, without even laying a hand on said talent; other times said talent is met with a slap to the face.

The reason that I’m writing this piece is because of what happened on the May 30th edition of Monday Night Raw.

While walking backstage, WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte was “greeted” by the co-show runner of Monday Night Raw, Stephanie McMahon. As the two came face-to-face, Stephanie began to viciously dress-down Charlotte, to the point of making the champion look like a weak, little child, who couldn’t and wouldn’t stand up for herself. Keep in mind, the week prior, Charlotte had cut this ruthless promo on her manager and father, Ric Flair, kicking him to the curb.

In storyline, Charlotte was being presented as a despicable human being and a spoiled brat. For the first time in her heel run, in my opinion, Charlotte felt important. She finally gained some steam as a heel and coming into the Memorial Day edition of Raw, I expected the company to build off of that heat.

But no…

INSTEAD, Charlotte was made to look like a jabroni for no other reason than to remind everyone watching at home and in the arena that Stephanie McMahon is here and in charge. The purpose of this segment was non-existent. The reasoning for this backstage segment did nothing for Stephanie McMahon, Charlotte or me. I know what you could be thinking. “Eron, is this backstage segment really going to effect how Charlotte is viewed by fans? Does it REALLY matter that much?”

From where I sit, absolutely. It definitely matters. And if it didn’t, it should. Other than these two having a program down the line, I didn’t see one good reason to tape this segment (and believe me, this isn’t leading anywhere).

This might come across like I dislike Stephanie McMahon. I do like the person, Stephanie McMahon; I dislike the character heavily. Not because she’s a “heel” (or whatever she’s suppose to be), but because her character constantly and consistently buries and undermines new and young talent on national TV like it’s her freaking job. It’s almost like she lives for it.

One slight positive is that now at least she’s a babyface (I think) and she’s yelling at heels. But in all honesty, when Stephanie McMahon verbally lashes out at a talent that is trying to get over like Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, etc., it doesn’t do them any favors.

As I stated above, it’s already hard enough that these guys have to fight the horrible writing and booking, but then on top of that, they have to have Stephanie McMahon cut a promo on them, and for what reason? To make herself look strong. For what? Is Stephanie McMahon competing in the ring? Is she on house show dates trying to draw arenas? No, she’s not.

The one thing I can’t seem to figure out is the root of the problem. Where is it coming from? Who’s fault is it? Is it Vince McMahon writing this crap? Is it the writing team? Is it Stephanie having too much say in what her character does or says? I really don’t know what it is. But, I’ll tell you this much. One thing I really hope it’s not is that they just don’t see a problem with it, so they just keep doing it.

Think about that for a minute.

Stephanie McMahon, as stated above, doesn’t wrestle or work house show dates and is being booked as a strong, dominate authority figure at the expense of competitors like Charlotte, who need it more and who are actually wrestling night in and night out. For what reason does Stephanie McMahon need to go around yelling at people and slapping them? No other reason but to feed her own ego and present Stephanie McMahon as some big, strong character.

Another key element to this puzzle is that fact that Stephanie McMahon is a woman, and in today’s PG era, there is only a limited amount of things you can do to her to get the heat off of her. Yes, in fairness to Stephanie, she has taken some bumps, most notably at WrestleMania 32. But, for how often she runs down a character on TV, whether it’s Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Chris Jericho, Batista, Big Show, John Cena, Roman Reigns, etc., she doesn’t nearly get what she has coming to her.

On the surface though, that’s a cop out. There are plenty of creative and innovative ways for babyfaces to “get” Stephanie McMahon. One of the things I really enjoyed about Chris Jericho’s banter with Stephanie is that it always seemed like Chris would get the last laugh. And the word “laugh” is the key in that sentence. Jericho wouldn’t need to put his hands on her or even come close. All he would have to do is hit her with a few verbal jabs and his character wouldn’t suffer at the hands of Stephanie McMahon. But even the mighty Chris Jericho felt her wrath on two separate occasions as a heel and babyface.

Now, some of you are probably wondering why I’m even writing about this. You might be thinking in the grand scheme of things, this small little thing doesn’t really matter, with all the other problems surrounding WWE.

I tend to disagree.

This Stephanie McMahon problem is a smaller part of a larger issue.

WWE creative, and most importantly Vince McMahon, needs to realize that it’s time to protect the “new era.” Instead of having someone who’s already established like Stephanie McMahon run down another talent who isn’t established, flip the script or, and here’s a really novel concept, DON’T DO IT AT ALL.

Every single interaction like the one with Charlotte and Stephanie was unnecessary and didn’t serve a purpose. Her interaction with AJ Lee years ago, or her beatdown of Tom Phillips backstage to close an episode of Monday Night Raw, both not needed.

In my opinion, I believe WWE has a Stephanie McMahon problem that needs to be fixed. Whether it’s Vince McMahon or Stephanie herself, someone or something has to stop the verbal beatdowns from occurring when they don’t need too.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

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