Stephanie McMahon's Killer WWE Raw Promo Highlights Issue with Her Character

On this week's broadcast of Monday Night Raw, Stephanie McMahon let loose in a lengthy acceptance speech for the Vincent J. McMahon Legacy of Excellence Award.

Her fiery monologue was met with a chorus of jeers from the crowd, eliciting the sort of response that many active wrestlers would love to be able to conjure up.

Stephanie took the crowd to task for supporting her brother Shane over her and her father. She criticized her own sibling for walking out on his family, the company and the fans. She even made some jabs at the broader societal inequalities that she's experienced as a woman.

The promo was well-paced, eloquent and delivered with gusto. Outside of Paul Heyman, there aren't many people on the WWE roster who could make a solo in-ring address quite so compelling.

Unfortunately, the segment was also almost completely pointless.

Stephanie is not currently scheduled to compete at WrestleMania. She's not embroiled in a feud, outside of her proximity to the bouts between Shane McMahon and Undertaker, and Triple H and Roman Reigns. In truth, she could probably skip television until April 4.

It's great to see a villain capable of garnering the desired response from a crowd—but what's the point if it's not building to anything tangible?

Looking back at great promos in wrestling history—from Dusty Rhodes' "son of a plumber" speech to CM Punk's "pipe bomb"—all of them are linked by one simply tenet: They were helping to build anticipation for a match.

Stephanie's speech had all the superficial elements of a great promo, but without the necessary intent. It reaffirmed that she's one of the top villains on the show, but her character is adrift among largely unrelated storylines.

It was a segment that could have set up an Intercontinental Championship match for WrestleMania or allowed two talented wrestlers to showcase themselves in a competitive match. Instead, we got a self-serving sermon from a McMahon.

This particular incident is indicative of a larger issue with Stephanie's characterization; she's fantastic at encouraging audiences to hate her, but that passionate response comes to nothing all too often.

Credit: WWE.com

When Triple H delivered a beating to Roman Reigns last week, fans were engaged because we know Reigns is going to get his revenge. Conversely, Stephanie rarely seems to get any real comeuppance, outside of the defeats The Authority takes as a faction.

The McMahon family has certainly produced some terrific orators. However, while Shane and Vince have had many memorable moments of physicality, Stephanie rarely engages in that kind of follow-up—and it's limiting the effect that her great work on the mic can offer up.

Now, with a better crop of female competitors than any point in recent memory, there's no reason for Stephanie to be untouchable. At present, she's simply not reaching her full potential—and, like many on the roster, it can be blamed on long-term plotting rather than individual performances.