WWE Payback - Vince, Stephanie & Shane

[Jack-Hammer]

It was announced during last night's Raw that Vince McMahon will make a decision this Sunday on who will be "running" Raw: Stephanie or Shane.

I have a feeling that Vince's decision will be that both of them run Raw with the story, on the surface, being a competition between the two siblings as to who puts together more entertaining parts of the show while, beneath the surface, it builds up to a potential match with Triple H at SummerSlam in which the future of Raw is on the line: If Trips wins, then Shane disappears with Stephanie, or the Authority, once again being back in power while, if Shane wins, the Authority comes to an end with Stephanie and Triple H disappearing as on-screen characters for a long while.

I just hope this segment doesn't unnecessarily drag on and on for 20+ minutes as such segments can suck the energy out of a ppv. Most of WWE's promo segments for the past month have been around 10 to 12 minutes with everyone getting their point across and telling their message so I'm hoping that this will be no different. However, I'm not holding my breath because I just have this feeling it'll go a lot longer than it needs to because Vince is out there and he'll be deciding "the future" of Raw.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Is Vince going to do a Brand Split again? I don't think so, not yet, this has to be built up slowly.

Vince in kayfabe, knows that Shane has been doing a better work than Stephanie, so yeah, like you said, a competition between the two for the next month is very likely.

Imagine if Vince says that each of them will run 2 RAWs up until the next PPV. The RAWs with the better ratings or overall approval, will determine the winner. It would be great if fans were to buy into this storyline and tune in on RAW to watch Shane, thus giving him better ratings, but tune out when Stephanie is in charge.

 

[enviousdominous]

For my money, any Authority angle automatically depletes my excitement the second I see them. Everyone loves to watch villains get their come-uppance, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed not like about the Authority besides the fact that they're bland as all Hell. They push Roman Reigns around sometimes, well big frappin' hoo haw. If they want real heat they should go after an IWC darling like AJ Styles.

I really don't see how Vince making a "decision" is supposed to sell a PPV. Shane is apparently making people happy, but I don't think anyone is going to lose sleep over the idea that Steph might run Raw.

 

[johnnysherman55]

I think the brand split would be cool and I think that's the route they need to take. The Authority gets Raw because Shane lost at WM. Shane gets SmackDown. Raw Roster: Reigns, Cena, Orton, Wyatts, Owens, Zayn, Rollins, Ambrose, Cestro, and New Day. SmackDown: Balor Club, Styles, Samoa Joe, Nakamura, Crews, Aries, Roode, Ibushi. Raw titles are WWE title, I.C. Title, World Tag Team Titles, women's title, and bring back the hardcore title. SmackDown titles are World Heavyweight title, U.S. Title, WWE Tag team titles, bring back the cruiser weight title, and why not have a World Cup kinda like Njpw G1 and have before Summerslam and save money in the bank for the end of the year. Change the set for each show make them unique and have brand exclusive ppvs to make raw or smackdown titles changes mean more. This amazing to see I wish it would happen!

 

[sMark]

I feel like Vince will announce "family united" will run RAW, and we already know where this is going, but if they want to get a real shocker, they have Heyman and Bischoff for that.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

Personally I would like to see the return of the brand split, With Vince accepting the fact that Shane is the better choice to Run Raw on a weekly basis. Obviously Steph won't be to happy about that, so to keep her and HHH happy, Vince will give them control of the rest of the company.

 

[dsotm5150]

I'm over the whole general manager Authority storylines. They were fun for a little while but WWE has a habit of making the person in charge the focus of the show, and it gets old really quick. Id be OK watching Shane and Stephanie have to try and cohabitate to RAW for awhile, it was pretty funny back in the day when Flair was brought in as co-owner watching him and Vince trying to one up each other. That's probably the route they're going to go have Shane and Stephanie run it together, leading up to a winner takes all later on down the line.

 

[Gallops77]

I think it's going to turn into Vince saying Shane and Stephanie will both run Raw. He'll say Shane has done a good job and has gotten some great reaction to his shows, where he'll say Stephanie is just Stephanie.

They'll go back and forth over how the show will be run over the course of the next few weeks, and eventually it'll lead to Triple H vs Shane at Summerslam where if Trips wins, him and Steph control Raw, if Shane wins, he controls Raw. Or Shane will pick someone to take his place. Enter: Returning Seth Rollins.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Pre-show bullshit as far as I'm concerned. Vince could tell us this in a Tweet, and not what will prove to be a 25 minute promo.

Bold prediction: It'll be as long winded as every Authority segment.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

This smells like a shitty brand split in the making. It will be fun and exciting at first, but eventually fail and stretch thin like last time.

 

[Kizzani]

Shane is doing a better job if you HATE the WWE and love NXT and NJPW......Only push is going to those talents. No one over 5 year tenure on the main roster is getting pushed.

 

[L@RISANO]

This smells like a shitty brand split in the making. It will be fun and exciting at first, but eventually fail and stretch thin like last time.

Indeed. The lack of star power without the OVW trio and AE Part-Timers is alarming. A brand split would only make that more apparent and I foresee a continued drop ratings until a few of the newer guys can be truly established as Equals to the likes of Cena and Lesnar.


Reigns and Rollins are the 2 guys who are the most established of the new crop, but here's the thing, neither has beaten Cena or Lesnar, nor have they been made to look equal to them, lMO.
Yes, Reigns beat HHH, but whilst that has helped his establishment somewhat, the 2 above are the real Main guys at present(other than Taker at Mania). As long as Roman/Rollins or any other guy doesn't get portrayed as at least close to such levels, WWE will find it hard to sell feuds as truly 'must-see',lMO.

 

[RabidWolverine]

It will be after main event and it will have CM Punk...I mean Colt Cabana returning to end the show.

 

[Navi]

I would love to see Shane stay in charge, two years of HHH and Stephanie have just done me in. Besides it would free up HHH to really take care of NXT, and maybe that won't be such a bad thing, because he's done a cracking job of it while running RAW as well. So taking care of it full time would be a bonus.

If a brand split is announced, just hope they do it fairly, and as SD is seen as shit, they would have to do it in a way to really make people want to watch again. No use putting all the big names on RAW, that just keeps the status quo alive.

And God help us if we have another year like we did last year injury wise. Can you imagine if more go down. They barely had enough big names to run RAW much less two shows.

So heaven only knows what Vince is going to do, he probably doesn't even know himself, the senile old bastard.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

A brand split would make sense - especially with the large number of superstars on the roster - but I'd prefer if they went back to the original model of the brand split, with one world title, one women's title and one tag title, defended on alternating ppvs (I'd either sub Survivor Series with Money in the Bank, or I'd reluctantly make a year have 13 ppvs again, with the big 4 + MITB as 'duel' ppvs and the other 8 split four for each brand. Maybe at the draft time, each show could draft a set number of NXT 'rookies' as well

Though I don't think that is where they are going here. I actually think that Vince can't decide between his kids, so chooses... Someone completely different. Maybe Sting or even John Cena. I think that, since this is on ppv, we will get a massive swerve. If it was to be announced on a Raw or even on Twitter, then yes perhaps a joint premiership or a brand extension, but since it's on ppv, something bigger will occur

 

[kadroan]

I think it's going to turn into Vince saying Shane and Stephanie will both run Raw. He'll say Shane has done a good job and has gotten some great reaction to his shows, where he'll say Stephanie is just Stephanie.

They'll go back and forth over how the show will be run over the course of the next few weeks, and eventually it'll lead to Triple H vs Shane at Summerslam where if Trips wins, him and Steph control Raw, if Shane wins, he controls Raw. Or Shane will pick someone to take his place. Enter: Returning Seth Rollins.

Makes sense. I could see that being the reason Shane vs. HHH takes place at Summerslam.

 

[ShinChan]

I have been enjoying face Authority in the form of Shane O Mac. I was tired of seeing the heel Authority since 2 years and Shane's involvement is refreshing. The YES! Movement has ended long ago and we still were fed with heel Authority while trying to get Roman Reigns over.

Payback card has me excited so I wouldn't want 20 minutes of McMahon family drama here to ruin it.

I am excited for the outcome of this family drama though.

 

[Sean Valjean]

I'm dreading this segment. I dread the return of the Authority in any form; 2+ years of them was more than enough. But as we saw after Survivor Series 2014, WWE seemingly can't stand keep heel authority figures off TV for more than a month. I dread a possible brand split return.

I'm really hoping this segment is just to make Shane's authority official and cease the tedious BSing of "due to even MORE support on social media, Shane McMahon is in charge of Raw for his 27th consecutive week!". Sadly, this feels like the beginning of some kind of power struggle, which couldn't be less appealing after enjoying the wrestler-focused shows in the last few weeks.

Vince just needs to tell Stephanie that her and HHH failed and that Shane is the bees knees. He then hands Shane-O the invisible R-shaped key to the kingdom, rambles about legacies and grapefruits before strutting his old behind up the ramp to a chorus of cheers.

Also, this really needs to be on the pre-show, but will probably eat up at least 20 minutes in the middle of the card.

 

[LBGetBack]

I'm in the minority here......Stephanie is GOLD and needs to be there.

The Daniel Bryan angle was one of the best and hottest angles of all time......and she was an amazing heel foil for Bryan throughout the angle.

The problem recently is the Authority has not been evil enough.

 

[ShinChan]

As expected, McMahon family drama took 20 minutes of the Payback PPV to ruin the flow of the matches.

They just talked and talked and then Vince announces that both Shane & Stephanie will equally run Monday Night Raw.

Even WWE itself is ignoring the existence of Smackdown, nonetheless the audience is also ignorant about Smackdown. I myself check the smackdown spoilers just to know whether it is worth watching or not.

The whole talking looked pointless.