Stephanie McMahon Was Never The Same After This WWE Run
Not unlike the rest of her family, Stephanie McMahon has always been a polarizing figure within a WWE ring, but there was a point in WWE history when fans applauded and cheered for "The Billion Dollar Princess." Born with wrestling in her veins, McMahon initially started with the company at a very young age as a model for merchandise in catalogs, but made her on-screen debut in a storyline with The Undertaker and her own father, Vince McMahon, in 1999 at just 23 years old — a story that involved kidnapping and an "Unholy Matrimony" ceremony. Following her debut, Stephanie would continue to be an on-screen character, leading the McMahon-Helmsley Era through the infamous Invasion angle as the kayfabe owner of ECW.
McMahon was written off TV in March 2002 after losing a triple threat match against Chris Jericho and soon-to-be real-life husband Triple H for the Undisputed Championship in what was then known as the World Wrestling Federation. McMahon came within one count of becoming the first woman to hold the championship, but was ultimately pinned by Triple H and forced to "leave" the company. McMahon didn't stay off TV for long, however, returning after a six-month hiatus to become general manager of "SmackDown" in the newly-rebranded WWE on July 18, 2002.
McMahon left the company as a heel following her championship loss, but returned as a babyface executive, and surprisingly, she was almost immediately accepted by the fans. McMahon's "SmackDown" GM character helped shape her career; now 26 years old with television experience, she had found the role and the character that would solidify her as an important part in WWE history outside the boardroom in Stanford, Connecticut.
BABYFACE FAN FAVORITE
In 2002, with WWE's recent brand split, the newly-formed blue brand now needed an on-screen general manager, as "Raw" was led by former WCW executive Eric Bischoff. On July 18, McMahon returned to WWE following her exile and was announced as "SmackDown's" general manager — to the initial horror of fans and babyfaces alike, who had previously known "The Billion Dollar Princess" as a vicious, privileged heel who talked down to everyone not involved with her own family or factions. McMahon debuted on the go-home show for WWE's Vengeance pay-per-view, guaranteeing there were eyes on the show that particular night. Over the following months, McMahon shocked the world by playing her new character as a blue-eyed babyface.
McMahon earned the fans' trust by favoring some of the most popular wrestlers at the time; she booked Edge in a match against Jamie Noble in her first decision as a babyface, then turned her attention to Zach Gowen, a wrestler known for competing on just one leg (having lost his left limb due to amputation at a young age). McMahon helped Gowen earn a WWE contract, teaming with him in a match against the Big Show (with help from Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar) for a win that allowed Gowen to put pen to paper rather than join Vince's "Kiss My A** Club."
McMahon went on to sign Hulk Hogan back to "SmackDown" (much to the fans' delight) despite Hogan's signing causing storyline friction between McMahon and her father. She's also credited with the return of the WWE United States Championship, which had been gone from the company since it was unified with the WWF Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series 2000, during the Invasion storyline. McMahon revived the belt for "SmackDown" following the brand split, complete with a new belt design, after the Intercontinental title was made exclusive to "Raw." The creation of a second set of tag titles, the WWE Tag Team Championships, was also seen as a point in McMahon's favor during her time as "SmackDown" general manager. In essence, while McMahon wasn't making all these decisions behind the scenes, her character was able to earn popular goodwill by being the face of the new changes that made "SmackDown" the theoretical equal of "Raw," which had received a large portion of the established stars and championships.
BRAND WARFARE
One of the most important things to come out of McMahon's babyface tenure as general manager was the start of "brand warfare" between "SmackDown" and "Raw" that has been seen throughout the years in WWE, especially before specific Survivor Series pay-per-views or premium live events. Throughout her time as GM, McMahon feuded with "Raw" general manager Eric Bischoff, who once was a high-level executive and on-screen talent for WCW. The pair battled for brand supremacy and over which stars would be signed to their respective brands.
One of the most memorable instances of McMahon's babyface run against Bischoff was a Halloween party episode of "SmackDown" in 2002, shortly after she had taken the role. Bischoff made an appearance on McMahon's show, wearing a Vince McMahon mask. When he pulled off the mask and revealed who he was to Stephanie, she attempted to slap him, but Bischoff intercepted her hand and began kissing her on the lips. Outside kayfabe, Stephanie wasn't keen on the storyline, which was something scripted on the day of the show and which Bischoff called "awkward" due to Vince himself directing the scene.
The "romance" angle involving Bischoff and McMahon was quickly dropped and never spoken of on television again, but brand warfare, started by the two general managers, lived on in the company for much, much longer, and has seen "Raw" take on "SmackDown" throughout various Survivor Series events, most recently in 2018, when "SmackDown" invaded the red brand prior to the PLE.
FATHER-DAUGHTER FEUD
McMahon's babyface run as "SmackDown" general manager ended in shocking fashion at the company's No Mercy pay-per-view in the summer of 2003, when McMahon stepped inside the ring to face off against her father in an "I Quit" match. It was an uncomfortable feud for fans due to its storyline and violent end, which saw Stephanie lose in a vicious beatdown at the hands of Vince.
The storyline involved Vince resenting his daughter's attempts to stop him from having an affair with Sable while he was still married to Linda McMahon, with a then-rising star known as John Cena telling Stephanie to rip off Sable's top after asking to slap Stephanie's backside in front of the "SmackDown" audience in the middle of the ring. Stephanie went backstage, and ripped off Sable's top, briefly exposing the Playboy cover girl's bare breasts on air.
Eventually, Vince had enough with his daughter meddling in his affair, and the feud culminated in the first and only father-daughter "I Quit" match, with no disqualifications and plenty of weapons underneath the ring. Stephanie brought her mother down to the ring with her, and Sable accompanied Vince; Stephanie lost the match when Linda threw in the towel after Vince wouldn't release a lead pipe-assisted chokehold on his daughter.
Linda ending the match on her daughter's behalf led to Stephanie being forced to step down as "SmackDown" general manager after being on the job for a little over a year. What fans didn't know, however, was Stephanie was written off TV for personal reasons. She wouldn't return to WWE TV until October 3, 2005, and when she did so, she was once again playing the villain.
WRITTEN OFF FOR WEDDING
The end of McMahon's time as "SmackDown" general manager actually had real-life implications. "The Billion Dollar Princess" needed time off from TV to marry Paul "Triple H" Levesque, so WWE wrote her off in the most dramatic way possible; the "I Quit" match happened the same week as the wedding. The two had not been involved together on TV following McMahon's loss to Triple H and Chris Jericho at the beginning of 2002.
McMahon and Triple H began dating well in advance of McMahon taking on the "SmackDown" role, and had been involved in their own storyline together when McMahon was initially a heel character. McMahon was set to marry her then-fiancé (in storyline), Test, but Triple H crashed their in-ring wedding with video evidence that he legally married an obviously drugged McMahon in a drive-thru ceremony in Las Vegas. The two actually began dating in real life, to the confusion of some fans, as Triple H had been seeing fellow D-Generation X member Chyna off-screen. McMahon and Triple H's storyline romance continued through the Alliance angle, but ended in divorce when McMahon faked a pregnancy (again, in kayfabe).
A MORE EFFECTIVE HEEL
McMahon only made sporadic appearances on WWE television in 2005 through 2007, but she never returned as a babyface. Though fans loved her in the "good guy" role as "SmackDown" general manager, everyone, including the WWE writers, could see she was more effective as a heel — the privileged daughter of a billionaire. McMahon officially made her full-time return to TV in June 2008, once again as a general manager, this time for "WWE Raw" following storyline injuries sustained by her father. In the following months, McMahon jumped fully back into her villain character, feuding with the likes of Chris Jericho and Randy Orton alongside the rest of her family. She once again took a hiatus between 2010 and 2013.
In 2013, McMahon fully embraced being a heel once again when she signed a three-year performer contract with the company and teamed with her husband to create the WWE "power couple" known as The Authority. The duo punished anyone that went against their "best for business" values, including Daniel Bryan and his wife, Brie Bella. The Authority was one of the most hated stables at the time, and fans consistently booed McMahon and Triple H. McMahon's babyface role was popular back when it began in 2002, but the juxtaposition between that role and her heel role in The Authority showed fans she was much more effective at getting a crowd reaction as a bad guy, belittling fan favorites rather than siding with them.
GENERAL MANAGER EXPERIENCE
In addition to her previous character proving she's more effective at playing a heel, McMahon took the experience she learned as "SmackDown" general manager with her in her storyline roles throughout the rest of her career as a performer. From an interim general manager on "Raw" to the female half of The Authority power couple, McMahon used the skills she learned as a good guy on "SmackDown" to help her charge forward in other roles, albeit as the villain once again.
In July 2016, Vince McMahon announced his daughter would be the commissioner of "Raw" while her brother, Shane, would lead "SmackDown." Here, McMahon was able to use her general manager skills, specifically the ones involving brand warfare she learned when pitted against Bischoff, to take on her brother and his "SmackDown" stars in a traditional Survivor Series match that year, though her team lost and she was written out of the storyline at WrestleMania 33.
McMahon also used her skills when it came to big announcements when she returned to TV. In 2015, McMahon threw fuel on the burgeoning "Women's Revolution" fire by being the person to bring up Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and then-NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks to the main roster to disrupt the WWE "Divas" division. Three years later, she announced the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match for the 2018 premium live event.
RECOGNIZED FOR GOOD
McMahon's initial run as a babyface helped cement her as a household name outside of just the McMahon family name itself. Even though she's most recognizable as a heel character when it comes to WWE programming, McMahon is also recognizable as a decent human being when it comes to the company's charity work. She's most heavily been involved as a real-life babyface advocating for WWE's "Be A Star" anti-bullying campaign, and has been even more involved with the Connor's Cure Foundation, which was created by McMahon and Levesque and established at UPMC Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2014. It honors an 8 year old avid WWE fan named Connor Michalek who died of a rare tumor that affected his brain and spinal cord. The foundation McMahon helped found raised nearly $1 million by 2016, and expanded their partnership to ally with The V Foundation for Cancer Research.
According to the V Foundation, Connor's Cure has raised nearly $4.5 million to fund critical pediatric cancer research and provide assistance to families with children battling cancer as of this writing in 2024. It can be argued that McMahon's coming into true stardom as a babyface back in 2002 helped elevate her popularity and use her fame, wealth, and business knowledge for good.
HOUSEHOLD NAME
While McMahon has become a household name in her own right due in part to her first initial babyface run that elevated her to stardom, it's still the McMahon family name that haunts her. Over the past few years, more and more controversies about Vince McMahon have come to light, from hush money payments paid to former female employees, which has since resulted in a federal investigation, a lawsuit from former employee Janel Grant accusing Vince of sex trafficking and abuse, and Vince retiring and then returning to the company, only to be ousted again following WWE's merger with UFC to create TKO Group Holdings.
Stephanie McMahon has not gotten out of the controversies herself without mention, as there are reports she is listed in Grant's sex trafficking lawsuit against her father as "Corporate Officer #3." Within the lawsuit, "Corporate Officer #3" is mentioned only once, and in ambiguous context; the lawsuit alleges Stephanie McMahon "motioned for Grant to sit near her" in meetings which appeared to be above Grant's paygrade. The suit also alleged McMahon knew of "other instances of [Vince] McMahon engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct."
McMahon didn't just disappear from WWE TV in recent years following her initial babyface general manager run in 2002 and subsequent runs as a well-learned heel, but disappeared from the corporate world within WWE as well. In May 2022, two decades after initially appearing as a babyface on TV, McMahon announced she would be taking a leave of absence from her corporate duties to focus on her family. She then returned after her father stepped away due to the hush money allegations and was named interim chairwoman and co-CEO alongside Nick Khan. When her father returned, McMahon resigned from her position as co-CEO. She has since appeared back on WWE TV, playing the babyface once again, opening the second night of WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, welcoming fans to the event.