Former WWE Writer Explains Why There Was No Mug Shot Of Stephanie McMahon When She Was Arrested

The arrest of Vince McMahon's character on Raw last week for laying his hands on a detective from the New York City Police Department brought back memories of the time Stephanie McMahon was arrested on WWE's flagship show.

In spring 2014, Stephanie threatened to fire Brie Bella if her injured husband, Daniel Bryan, did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the Payback pay-per-view. This led Brie to quit WWE at the event before slapping Stephanie in the face. Stephanie got her revenge by putting Brie's sister Nikki in several handicap matches in the ensuing weeks. Brie returned to WWE television the following month, appearing in the crowd on the July 21, 2014 episode of Raw to show her support for Nikki. She argued her way into a physical confrontation with Stephanie that saw her slapped and banned from ringside. Later in the show, plain-clothes detectives arrested Stephanie for aggravated battery at the urging of Brie.

While the arrest angles are quite similar, there is one major difference. WWE released a mug shot of Vince (through social media, and it was shown during Raw), but not of Stephanie. Kevin Eck, who was on WWE's creative team at the time, explains in his latest column why there was no mug shot of her.

While tossing around ideas for the angle in a creative meeting, Eck suggested that a mug shot-style photo be taken of Stephanie and shown on television. Triple H, however, hated the idea.

Eck wrote, "Vince loved it. In fact, I think I may have gotten one of his "that's good thinking" figurative pats on the back. However, when the creative team ran the angle by Triple H, he didn't care for any of it, and he especially hated the mug shot idea."

"His reasoning was that the faux mug shot of his wife would exist forever in cyberspace, and therefore if someone did a Google search on Stephanie and the photo popped up, people might think she had actually been arrested, which could be detrimental to her career as WWE's Chief Brand Officer."

Eck noted that Triple H stated his case to Vince, who nixed the proposal.