WWE 5 Biggest Storylines This Week: Releases, Returns and Survivor Series
Credit: WWE.com
4. Stephanie McMahon returns to Raw
Monday night saw the highly anticipated (or maybe not) return of Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon. Embarrassed by SmackDown placing the show “under siege”, she told Kurt Angle he must produce results at Survivor Series or else he could soon be out of a job.
All of a sudden it felt like we’d rewound back to March, just Mick Foley has been replaced with Angle. If you think the “GM on the hot seat” story has played out before, it’s because it has. Again and again and again.
The problem with Stephanie isn't that she's a bad heel. She's quite great at it. The problem is that it's tiring.
— Daily DDT (@FanSidedDDT) October 31, 2017
As the above tweet points out, it’s not that Stephanie isn’t a great heel. She is. Few draw heat quite like the commissioner. But it just feels like a broken record. SmackDown has been better off without The Authority running the ship. Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan have been perfect for the roles of commissioner and general manager. They are there to ensure fairness when heels bend the rules.
That’s not to say people in charge can’t be heels. It can work. But it feels like we’re headed for yet another power struggle on Raw, and this narrative grew stale long ago.
It would have been more believable had Stephanie noted that despite being unimpressed by the SmackDown invasion the week prior, she was more determined than ever to get revenge. Showing support for Angle initially but losing trust over time could have worked.
Instead it feels like Stephanie has simply picked up where she left off when Foley was in charge. That’s not best for business.