411’s WWE Evil Episode Six Report: Stephanie McMahon

-Almost to the end of this series and I guess it’s about time to talk about a McMahon. Vince probably is the best choice, but my guess is if they asked he said no, so we get Stephanie instead. Let’s get to it!

-Run Time: 45:54

-As a reminder, John Cena is the narrator for this series.

-Steph tells us her character is the spoiled, rotten rich girl and Prichard says she uses her wealth and power for bad. Steph: “I always feel the need to put everyone down.” This episode is going to make me think of Larry a bunch and his photos that he put in his reports when Steph would chop someone’s balls off. Miss you Larry! Nikki Bella calls Stephanie the ultimate villain and Steph says being a villain is a lot more fun.

-Show opening!

-Steph was born into a nefarious empire and learned from the best how to be the worst. So this is a shoot then! Steph talks about being 4 years old and at The Philadelphia Spectrum. That was the first time she was at a show and she wandered off down the hall. A bunch of kids were running down the hall screaming as they were being chased by George “The Animal” Steele. He turned his attention to Steph and chased her around which terrified her and she ran back to Vince and grabbed his leg. Vince laughed and then introduced her to the man that played the character of George Steele. Steph talks about loving the business and following in their footsteps. We get a montage of Steph’s pics as a kid and teenager and that’s kind of cool to see.

-Vince McMahon: Prichard calls Vince a natural heel and great at playing an evil, evil man (roll credits). Steph talks about her dad and his ego and how he thinks he knows everything. They discuss being a child of Vince and being around and raised by that ruthless and evil person. Steph talks about college and shadowing her father at a meeting with the writers and the idea was pitched to use Steph on TV. She was shocked and we get to her on-screen debut as Taker becomes obsessed with her. “WHERE TO STEPHANIE?” AWESOME! They just went over the top with it all and it’s great in a cheesy way. Steph gets kidnapped and tied to a cro…err symbol so she can be married to Taker. Austin, with massive pop, makes the save and looks at the crowd! Austin keeping his hands off Steph when she hugs him is a great touch.

-THE HIGHER POWERS: “IT’S ME AUSTIN. IT’S ME AUSTIN. IT WAS ME ALL ALONG AUSTIN.” JR’s “aww, son of a bitch,” is still fantastic. They discuss how Vince was so evil that he made his daughter believe she was being kidnapped by a demon zombie just to get at Austin. The whole purpose of rehashing this is to explain this is the moment that brought all the evil (roll credits) out of Steph. I mean, sure makes sense when she eventually turned on him. Vince tries to explain to Steph that he still loves her and it was just business. I mean, that pretty sums up real life in that family.

-Test and Steph: This seemed like it was making Test into the biggest star they had, but instead it was HHH that it was going to make into a giant star. THE WEDDING! HHH crashes the wedding of Test and Steph and a star is finally born as he shows footage of him marrying a drugged Steph at a drive-thru chapel in Vegas. Oh, this was so great and so campy and over the top and again, I say, wrestling weddings are the best. Evan T Mack of the Ringer goes over everything rather well and I still laugh when HHH calls Vince, “dad” for the first time. It sets up a match between Vince and HHH with the stakes being a Vince win ends the marriage and HHH win gets him a WWF Title Match. The match was way too long (I know you are shocked a HHH match went long) but the pay-off was nailed as Steph turned on her father to really make HHH into the star they always wanted. “I raised that sledgehammer up like I was going to rock HHH’s world.” What they do in their bedroom, is their business!

-They discuss how great it was and how evil Steph was to make Vince a sympathetic character. Lita talks about WWE being a family business and how her turning on Vince was the most unspeakable thing that could happen. Steph says she was writing her own story and hitching her wagon to the most evil villain of all time, HHH.

-Steph was now heel and you can tell in the early days as her hair wasn’t straight anymore. For whatever reason, that seemed like a tell. The next night she explains her actions and really, Vince had it coming. It’s a story as old as time, daddy’s little girl marries the bad boy he hates. Nikki talks about the confidence and power Stephanie found with this character. Lita brings up that Steph was also sinking her claws into things behind the camera as well as she tried to learn everything she could.

-They talk about how she got legitimacy being with HHH and I don’t mean, I think HHH got more out of that relationship both on and off-screen. Steph says her character was special because she didn’t get in the ring every week as she wasn’t a wrestler, but the boss’ daughter. They knew it had to happen and she says she wasn’t an athlete. She took her first flat-back and felt like she had been in a train wreck. She admits she sucked at it, but she’s a McMahon.

-Steph vs. Jacqueline for the Woman’s Title: Steph steals the win and title without having to do anything as X-Pac and Tori get involved. Lita seems annoyed as she mentions Steph decided she wanted to be champion and did it without hitting one wrestling move. Lita: “As Steph, if I point at something I get it.”

-We bypass when she finally lost the title and jump to Steph being named the GM of SmackDown to go against Eric Bischoff who is the GM of RAW. Lita thinks the Vince/Steph relationship puts Succession to shame. When you think you understand their dynamic, you realize you don’t. Nikki says when Steph became a strong, powerful businesswoman she had pieces of Vince in her. Shane McMahon says she is a lot like her dad and even called her “Vincess” to annoy her. Nice!

-Steph talks about being a woman in this business and how she was always comfortable around guys. She feels being a woman is an advantage in a room full of men and talks about the confidence you need. Paul Heyman says there is a legit competition when you are in the ring with Steph and there is a danger working with her. Nikki says it degrades you as a human to be slapped as you aren’t even worth being punched. Insert your own Will Smith/Chris Rock meme or joke here and too bad this show was in the can before The Oscars, though I guess that is ABC/Disney footage. We see Steph slap Heyman, Brie, Big Show, Rock, Flair, and Bryan. Shocked they didn’t keep going.

-HHH/Steph Romance: Lita says there was a reason their chemistry was so great on camera. We see footage from their real wedding as Steph tells us she wasn’t allowed to date wrestlers, but things happen. Lita says the marriage threw a wrench in the McMahon family dynamic and it became those two vs. Shane.

-The Authority: Steph says she took a step back from wrestling, but Vince went off camera and they needed an authority figure, so HHH and Steph took that spot. Shane says they were bullies who threw their weight around. They discuss how everyone figured Shane would take over one day, but instead it’s HHH and Steph, and Shane was gone from the company.

-Steph and HHH were side by side every week pissing people off for no reason and it blurred real life and what we saw on TV. Nikki says Steph has more power than any villain and Heyman says you have to play on her terms at all times or you are finished. “I love that.” Dr. Phil talks about how people embrace being evil. Montage of Steph cutting off people’s balls and firing them without ever getting her comeuppance because nobody can touch her. I mean, it did get exhausting and went beyond just heat on a wrestling show. Vince at least knew when to take what was coming to him.

-McMahon Family Drama: It’s a never-ending struggle for power between the family. Dr. Phil says there is always a pecking order and you get siblings fighting and then the kids battling their parents. We get Succession and Game of Thrones footage to explain how this is an exaggeration of a family hierarchy. That leads to Steph getting a made-up award, so Shane can make his triumphant return and blow the roof off the building. Just an amazing pop! You can see the pride in Vince’s face even as he tried his best to hide it and stay in character. Lita exaggerates a bit here as she says Shane couldn’t say a word for 10 minutes due to the crowd. I mean, it was great, but not Hogan in Montreal great. Sadly, this was blown and turned into Shane losing a Hell in a Cell match to The Undertaker for reasons.

-Shane says the great thing about the family is nobody knows what happens at Thanksgiving or Christmas and they have done a good job at keeping people guessing. Steph mentions her brother is the good guy, yet all he does is pander to the fans while she is the one working 24/7 to keep WWE moving. “How is that even possible?”

-The idea of The King not living forever and there only being one throne for the two kids is discussed. It’s the oldest story and they edit things to make it look like Vince handed Steph RAW and leave out that Shane was named GM of SmackDown. That’s kind of weird and fudging their own history.

-Michelle Beadle talks about how you think of HHH and Steph even though Shane does things with the company. Smith talks about Steph taking over for Vince and you have her with HHH. Natalya says nobody plays the role of the bad girl as well as Stephanie McMahon. She knows it is her family’s legacy on the line. Lita says Steph has no intention of leaving the family business. Steph says she would love for her daughters to run the WWE, but they have to earn it and even more than she had to earn it. I don’t if we are going down that path considering HHH’s health issues and the power of Khan now.

-We finish with some more of Steph cutting off balls and lady parts pending who she is in the ring with. They throw in her talking down AJ Lee for fun. Nattie says Steph being a villain is timeless and the audience is looking for shit to hit the fan when Steph is on screen. Steph thinks her character is more vicious than her father because she had to fend for herself and fight herself while doing it with a smile on her face. Cena: “Does that make her evil (roll credits)? Well, she is a McMahon.”

-This was well done as all of these have been, but not my favorite episode of the series. I am sure much will be discussed on Steph having an episode devoted to herself, but she is a McMahon, and the show is titled Evil. It was a good watch and covered the high points, but skipped a bunch. This one seemed to find a hard time balancing Steph the person and Steph the character at times, which may have been hard to do anyway. I still enjoyed this one more than The Brothers of Destruction, so with two episodes to go: 1) Hogan 2) Orton 3) Banks 4) Miz 5) Steph 6) BOD. Thanks for reading!