Vince McMahon's Possible Alliance with Big Show Would Be a Good Move

Last night, WWE started to hint a lot more overtly at what had seemed to be the direction for a while.  Since Big Show was "fired" two weeks ago, he had mysteriously high-level access to WWE events:

• The night he was fired, he returned on the regular entrance ramp with a regular ring entrance as his theme song played so he could knock out Triple H.
• Last week, while he did enter through the crowd with a ticket, no security guards pounced on him when he hopped the barricade and attacked The Shield.
• Last night on Raw, he suddenly appeared "via satellite" on the TitanTron to interrupt Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, but they were able to have his feed turned off.
• Later that night at the end of the show, he drove a semi truck from the street all the way into the arena floor for no apparent reason as a distraction.

Since Linda McMahon is likely never returning to WWE programming, there's only one person with the storyline with the power to allow these shenanigans: Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Last night on the subscribers-only Wrestling Observer Radio podcast at F4WOnline.com, Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer confirmed this was the direction (h/t WrestlingInc.com).

This will be the first time Vince has been the one true babyface McMahon...well, ever. Obviously he's been a heel for most of his run as a non-announcer on-screen performer because he's so good at it. His previous babyface runs were either as a secondary participant in a larger feud (like Randy Orton vs. Triple H in 2009) or a swerve en route to him turning back heel (feud with The Ministry of Darkness/alliance with Steve Austin) in 1999, plus his alliance with The Rock in 2000.

While Vince is better as a heel, it's not like he's a bad or ineffective babyface. If you give fans a reason to cheer for him, he pulls it off. Look at the angle where the WWE Board of Directors ordered him off TV in 2011: He had been a heel afraid of CM Punk leaving with the WWE Championship for weeks and was about to fire John Cena, but as soon as he got the waterworks going, the fans loved him and started a loud "thank you, Vince!" chant.

(Yes, he was even good enough to overcome Triple H over-dramatically declaring "I love you, pops!")

On top of that, Vince is at the point where he's not going to be as effective as a heel as he once was.  He's 68 years old and was told by doctors to stop getting physically involved in matches and angles a few weeks ago. That's why John Laurinaitis was introduced as an on-screen character at Money in the Bank 2011: Since John Cena couldn't punch out Vince right before the finish, Laurinaitis was used as a proxy.

If you can't get revenge on him, the evil Mr. McMahon character is not what he used to be. Sure, babyfaces could try to embarrass him instead, but the more family friendly direction of WWE nowadays limits the options there, too (like no more "Kiss My Ass Club"-related stuff).

With his daughter and her husband drunk on power, there's nothing better to build to than the moment "No Chance in Hell" hits and he returns. He can still be wacky larger than life Mr. McMahon, but using his powers for good instead of evil, he can help elevate Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, and others even more as this storyline continues, presumably building to Bryan vs Triple H at WrestleMania.

If that's the end game, then Big Show being Triple H's most likely next opponent is a great idea, because they need to take the latter's focus off Bryan for a couple months. While Triple H is preoccupied, Bryan can defend the WWE Championship, and it can all lead to a bunch of big angles at the Royal Rumble.

What does everyone else think? Are you looking forward to Vince as a babyface or do you think he should only be an evil Mr. Burns type of character? Let us know in the comments.

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com.

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