Top 5 Stephanie McMahon moments in WWE

Stephanie McMahon has emerged as an icon of the wrestling business. While she got her start because she is the daughter of Vince McMahon, the most influential figure in modern wrestling history (if not ever), she has come into her own both as an important business figure behind the scenes, and as an on screen character.

While few of us are truly privy to how McMahon conducts herself and what she has accomplished behind the scenes, wrestling fans have seen a great deal of her on our TV screens across the last two decades.

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From an innocent victim to vile wrestlers’ machinations, to a power hungry heel character in her own right, to a righteous face, to an in ring performer herself, she has run the gamut, and given us plenty to mull over. This article takes a look at five of her most memorable moments as a wrestling character.

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#5 The dark wedding

The Dark Wedding saw Stephanie McMahon play the victim perfectly.

One of Stephanie McMahon’s earliest appearances on WWE television saw her fall victim to a scheme on the part of The Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness. She was abducted and looked to be subjected to some sort of ritual sacrifice in the ring, live on Raw. Steve Austin wound up crashing the party, as Jim Ross made explicit, not out of any allegiance to the McMahons but because it was the right thing to do.

While this storyline would ultimately get pretty convoluted with the reveal that Vince McMahon had masterminded the whole thing, one constant was the portrayal of Stephanie as an innocent victim amidst the sinister machinations that the men around her were wrapped up in. This was a particularly fine demonstration of WWE’s patience, as painting her in this light was a fine way to introduce her character and get fans invested before the shock of her ultimately turning heel down the road.

#4 The original heel turn

Stephanie McMahon's first heel turn was particularly well orchestrated.

Stephanie McMahon turned heel under the most unlikely circumstances—betraying her own father at the climax of his match with Triple H at Armageddon 1999. From the vantage point of 2018, the idea of Stephanie siding with her husband over her father might not seem altogether out of left field, but we have to remember the context of the moment.

Triple H and Stephanie weren’t (at least publicly) a couple yet in real life. Meanwhile, as a backdrop to Helmsley’s kayfabe feud with Vince, he had interrupted Stephanie’s wedding with test to reveal a video that he had drugged and kidnapped Stephanie and married her in Las Vegas before sexually assaulting her.

The reveal that Stephanie was in cahoots with 'The Game' was not only a shocker in its moment, but also made good use of its own style of logic. After all, Stephanie’s own father had subjected her to abduction by The Undertaker. What better revenge than to hook up with his sworn enemy, and cost him a fight against him?

#3 Refusing to submit to her father

Stephanie McMahon vs. her father was certainly a unique spectacle.

Years removed from the Attitude Era, Stephanie McMahon took on a different role when she played the general manager of SmackDown as a straightforward face figure. Besides her last name, she came across as a relatively level headed adult, specifically for the WWE Universe, which made her a figure instantly worthy of respect.

Her father disagreed.

In a story about a woman standing up for herself against her boorish, bullying father, Stephanie found herself ultimately cast against her father in an I Quit Match with her job at stake. As discussed in WWE’s McMahon documentary, there was the added subtext that the match happened mere days before Stephanie’s real life wedding.

The match itself was as limited as the performers involved would suggest. Nonetheless, it was fine farewell to this particular iteration of Stephanie’s character as she got choked out but refused to submit, thus both functioning with a degree of realism for Vince winning, while also protecting her never say die character nicely. Stephanie would leave TV for the wedding, honeymoon, and beginnings of her own family for the years to follow before returning at full force.

#2 Getting her comeuppance from Vickie Guerrero

Vickie Guerrero gave Stephanie McMahon what her character deserved.

One of the reasons Vince McMahon typically gets praised as an on screen performer is for not only playing an effective villain, but for being willing to take his comeuppance like a champ, whether that means Stone Cold wailing on him with a bed pan, or having DX shove his face up The Big Show’s rear end. The general consensus is that Stephanie is cut from the same cloth as her old man, and one of the finest instances of her demonstrating this point came in a confrontation with Vickie Guerrero on Guerrero’s last night as a full timer with WWE.

In kayfabe, Stephanie stacked the deck against Guerrero to set her up to be fired from her authority figure role. Guerrero did leave, but on her way, threw Stephanie into a pool of brown liquid to offer a moment of revenge, and serve up Stephanie’s character a well deserved moment of humiliation.

#1 Tapping out to Ronda Rousey

Stephanie McMahon put over Ronda Rousey beautifully.

Ronda Rousey entered WWE as one of the most credible fighters to have ever signed with the company. Pro wrestling was a new enterprise for her, though, and to get the most mileage out of her celebrity and skill, it made sense for WWE to start her out opposite the biggest stars it could muster.

Charlotte Flair was largely perceived as the face of the women’s division, Alexa Bliss had been pushed as a champion for most of the preceding year, and Nia Jax may have been the most realistically able to hold her own in a real fight with Rousey because her size advantage. In the end, however, WWE went in a very different direction in booking the Baddest Woman on the Planet opposite Stephanie McMahon.

The mixed tag team match at WrestleMania 34 was well constructed to pack in star power and protect the different talents involved for varying reasons with big names, ring generals, and plenty of bells and whistles. In the end, though, it was McMahon playing the formidable, but ultimately cowardly heel that most got Rousey over, ultimately enduring a barrage from the former MMA star en route to tapping to an arm bar.