Victors, Spoiled

The only thing better than Stephanie McMahon’s dress game last night was her incredible character work. She’s played the role of Lady MacBeth with such aplomb that it makes me sad that she’ll be off television for at least a week or two while they spin out this “Who will be in charge of Raw now that the Authority’s gone?” yarn. Her crying about Thanksgiving before trailing off is just the latest in what’s been a Mr. McMahon-level run of heelish wonderfulness.

*** SMALLER WARNING THAN USUAL! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING AN AARON SORKIN/FILM NERD DISCUSSION ZONE, PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYES IN THE UPRIGHT AND LOCKED POSITION DURING THIS DIGRESSION *** But, while you’d figure,  — given that I love Hunter Hearst Helmsley almost as much as I love The West Wing/Sports Night/The American President/Social Network (which I love nearly as much as a m’lady) — I would have enjoyed HHH so blatantly referencing the courtroom scene from A Few Good Men. But, here’s the thing: if you are going to something like that, you better nail it. Or, at the very least, don’t bother using the lesser bits of one of the most iconic speeches in the history of movies.

Especially considering that the most important aspect of that speech is that what Jack Nicholson says isn’t a speech at all, but rather the meaty part of a dialogue between his character (Colonel Jessup) and Tom Cruise (Lt. Caffey), where the former is forced to sit through the disrespectful subordination being given to him by the latter; which is in and of itself a function of an earlier scene.

Which begs the larger question: why not just have Daniel Bryan come out before HHH starts his speech, allowing them to play off each other in a way that both pays homage to the scene they were cribbing and actually uses the dynamic which made the original as effective as it was?*** SMALLER WARNING THAN USUAL! YOU ARE NOW EXITING AN AARON SORKIN/FILM NERD DISCUSSION ZONE, THANK YOU FOR FLYING JUICE MAKE SUGAR RECAPS ***

Join the Kayfabemetrics Institute on Patreon!