5 SmackDown GMs and why WWE had to let them go

#1 Stephanie McMahon

In a rare face run, Stephanie presided over SmackDown during the first brand split.

Since the second WWE brand split, Stephanie McMahon has been synonymous with Monday Night Raw, standing alongside Mick Foley and then standing alone as the chief figure for the red brand. From 2002 to 2003, however, in the early days of the first brand split, Stephanie was the on-air leader for SmackDown.

Interestingly, this era marked Stephanie’s lone sustained period as the face authority figure as she represented women’s empowerment and was generally successful in standing up to heels, including her own father.

In the end, Vince would get the upper hand on his daughter, defeating her in an I Quit Match to cost her the GM job as per the storyline. In reality, Stephanie was due for a little time off. She’d wrestle that match with her father mere days before marrying Triple H in real life. Family matriarch Linda had also claimed in interviews to have been upset with her husband for putting their daughter at risk so shortly before such a big day.