There are a lot of factors that go into a professional wrestler’s success. His objective skill matters, but so does his charisma and ability to get over with a crowd. Sometimes the crowd latching onto a talent, more so than anything the talent is actually, forces someone up the card and into high profile matches. There are also matters such as a wrestler’s work ethic, as well as luck when it comes getting injured or getting an opportunity when someone else goes on the shelf.

When it comes to WWE, though, there is one factor that trumps any other. That’s Vince McMahon’s opinion.

McMahon runs WWE and was the driving force behind making it a national, and then international juggernaut. As such, he has the credibility to more often than not be trusted in his judgment, in addition to having earned himself the political clout to stand and head shoulders above anyone else in the wrestling business.

Nowadays, McMahon’s opinion is one of the greatest subjects of rumor for the wrestling community. Whom is he mad at and why? Whom is he getting behind? There are times when it’s easy enough to follow Vince’s line of thought, and others when we’re left to speculate based on the latest from the rumor mill and how we track performers’ progress from week to week on WWE television. There are some cases when a suspension or trouble with the law offer a clear reason why someone would be in the doghouse with Vince, and other times when the Chairman’s view are more subjective and personalized.

This article seeks to dig out eight wrestlers in WWE whom Vince is upset with as of this time, and eight whom seem to be on his good side.

16 Upset With: Brock Lesnar

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As is not entirely unusual for top stars in WWE, Brock Lesnar has a tumultuous relationship with Vince McMahon. The Beast Incarnate is a unique attraction and a top draw for sure. He is also, however, someone who has demanded concessions in terms of travel, dates worked, and his compensation particularly over this last year. To make matters worse, Lesnar is reportedly in talks with UFC about a return to the Octagon.

Things really came to a head when the Universal Champion opted not to show up for an advertised appearance on Raw, because he had already worked enough contracted dates and wasn’t obligated to be there.

WWE turned lemons to lemonade in launching a worked shoot angle of his WrestleMania opponent, Roman Reigns, complaining about Lesnar’s special treatment. Still, word is that this may make WWE less inclined to offer Lesnar a special deal for his next contract, more prone to let him go altogether, and at the least, may encourage the company to shuffle the deck at WrestleMania to not have him main event, and thus lessen his stock for the biggest show of the year.

15 Vince’s Good Side: Matt Hardy

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At WrestleMania 33, there’s little question that Matt and Jeff Hardy got the biggest reaction of the night with their surprise return to enter to the Raw Tag Team Championship Ladder Match. Despite that hot start and some very good matches in the immediate months to follow, the Hardys threatened to get lost in the shuffle thereafter, and particularly after Jeff got injured.

Matt got a break when he obtained the legal rights to the Broken character that had previously gotten over so uniquely in Impact Wrestling.

Word is that while Vince didn’t really get the Broken or Woken gimmick, he was willing to trust Matt on test driving it in WWE. Reports further suggest that Vince thought the Ultimate Deletion “match” between Matt and Bray Wyatt would absolutely tank, to the extent he preemptively cut the match from the Hulu version of that week’s Raw.

Ultimate Deletion was reportedly a ratings and social media winner, and so it would appear Matt has proven himself and his creative vision. While Vince may not personally be enamored with the Woken Universe, he’s generally been good about following the money and the crowd response, so it look like Matt just beat the odds to shore up a spot in Vince’s good graces.

14 Upset With: Jinder Mahal

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WWE took a huge gamble on Jinder Mahal in 2017, strapping a rocket to the career mid-carder to suddenly thrust him into the role of not just challenger to the WWE Championship, but actual champion for half of the year. It’s widely believed that WWE’s business interests in India were a major driving factor, as the company sought to increase revenue in that market, and set up a pair of major live events anchored around Mahal.

Mahal’s main event placement didn’t move the needle for business in India, and WWE even had to cancel one of its two India shows for low ticket sales. Meanwhile, SmackDown Live’s business didn’t thrive domestically under Mahal’s lead either. It’s not as though Mahal noticeably grew in the ring or on the mic during this time either, and thus his work as champion has to be considered an all around failed experiment. Vince took a chance on Mahal, and Mahal couldn’t deliver.

13 Vince’s Good Side: Alexa Bliss

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In NXT, Alexa Bliss couldn’t catch much of a break, stuck firmly behind the Four Horsewomen, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Bayley, and as such never even earning a match on an NXT TakeOver special. One could only assume she’d remain in the shadows on the main roster. However, after the brand split, Bliss found herself positioned as the top heel and top challenger to Lynch’s SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Her promo work in particular got her over enough to earn an opportunity with the title.

Bliss has never looked back, and 2017 saw her transition to Raw where she got the nod over Banks, Bayley, and a variety of other talents to reign as champion for most of the year and into 2018. This year she won the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber Match, and will walk into WrestleMania for the second year straight as her brand’s champion. Bliss is a prime example of a talent who got herself noticed, earned a chance at the spotlight, and has been thriving ever since.

12 Upset With: Booker T

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Since Booker T finished up his full time wrestling career with WWE, he has been used in a number of different broadcast roles. The general consensus was that Booker was not a very good color commentator, prone to losing his train of thought, forgetting wrestlers’ names, or otherwise going on wild tangents no one could follow. He seems more at home having returned to a pre-show panelist spot, where his wrestling credential make him credible, and he’s only responsible for delivering brief sound bites.

Booker T didn’t take his recent shift from the announce team—being replaced by a returning Jonathan Coachman—lying down, though. Instead, he took to his radio show to insinuate that Corey Graves had cost him his job and that he’d fight him the next time they crossed paths.

Between his lackluster color commentary work and going into business for himself in the pointless angle with Graves (which he cleared up shortly thereafter was all a work), Booker T isn’t exactly lining himself up for employee of the month honors.

11 Vince’s Good Side: Elias

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In Elias’s visit to Edge and Christian’s podcast, he suggested that Triple H had his back, and had told him back in developmental that his gimmick wasn’t every NXT friendly, but would do well on the main roster. It would seem The Game was right. While Elias was never much featured in NXT, he has gotten over nicely on Monday Night Raw, including feuding with John Cena and Braun Strowman.

Most of all, word is that Vince McMahon is pleased with Elias’s gifts for gab and invention.

In an era when most talents are given scripts to follow for their promos, word is that Elias has a great deal more creative freedom than most talents, especially for his experience level. Vince trusts him to write his own musical promos regarding his opponents and the city he’s wrestling in, and it has all gone nicely for The Drifter thus far.

10 Upset With: Cesaro

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For years now, wrestling fans on the Internet have championed Cesaro as a guy who should get main event consideration in WWE. There have been brief periods when WWE looked primed to take him seriously—most notably winning the first Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal—but he has time and again found himself back in the mid-card. He may be enjoying his objective best stint in WWE now, teamed with Sheamus as The Bar.

Word is that Vince doesn’t think Cesaro can connect with WWE’s audience, and isn’t thrilled with his antics like chasing down a beach ball in the crowd that was distracting from his match. Maybe it’s Cesaro’s accent, his look, or simply the fact that he’s only known as a mid card commodity, but Vince doesn’t seem happy with him as a prospect to do anything greater than what he’s currently up to in WWE.

9 Vince’s Good Side: Charlotte Flair

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Vince McMahon has rarely been one to meaningfully promote women’s wrestling. He has generally viewed it as a side attraction, and historically gravitating toward playing up female talents’ sexuality over their athleticism or toughness. Charlotte Flair, however, seems to represent a very different case.

Whether it’s her physical size, her looks, her Flair family lineage, or the quality of her matches, her arrival on the main roster was key to Vince embracing the Women’s Revolution. Moreover, when last year’s Survivor Series featured inter-brand matchups, Vince was sure to position Charlotte as SmackDown Live’s Women’s Champion so she could be in the women’s match. She’d go on to make Alexa Bliss tap, and shore up her spot as the top female star in the company.

8 Upset With: Jason Jordan

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Vince McMahon gave Jason Jordan the opportunity of a lifetime when he removed him from the American Alpha tag team and established him as Kurt Angle’s kayfabe son. It was a sink or swim spot with Jordan with all sorts of ready made pathways to head straight to the main event. It was also a spot under a microscope, though, with critical fans watching like hawks.

Jordan floundered in the spot he was recently given. To be fair, the booking didn’t necessarily do him any favors, but neither did he do much to rise above the circumstances.

Jordan looked to turn the corner with hints of a heel turn, only for him to wind up injured and out of action for the months to follow. While that last part isn’t Jordan’s fault, it may nonetheless feed into Vince’s perception that he can’t count on the young star to deliver.

7 Vince’s Good Side: Kane

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Kane has conceded in several interviews that the Kane gimmick wasn’t necessarily intended to run for years. He was brought in to feud with The Undertaker as his long lost brother, with the general intention that the character would be done within a year’s time. The man beneath the costume, Glenn Jacobs had already played evil dentist Isaac Yankem and The Fake Diesel, and there was little reason to believe the Kane character would have a longer shelf life.

In not only making Kane work, but evolving with the character to stretch the run across two decades, he overachieved to say the least. Moreover, Kane has been a dependable company man, even coming back to work an upper card spot these past six years, despite simultaneously waging a campaign for mayor of Knox County. That’s a level of commitment Vince can’t help but respect and admire.

6 Upset With: Tyler Bate

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It’s clear that WWE saw big things in Tyler Bate when the company booked him to win the UK Championship tournament. The young star would drop the title to Pete Dunne before long, though. Since that time, he’s been used sporadically, and more often than not lost mid-card matches on NXT and 205 Live.

Word is that WWE had designs on booking Bate and the new UK Championship for a series of main roster live events. However, Bate had made other plans for those dates, and thus wouldn’t work the WWE dates.

To be fair, WWE has shown appreciation for those wrestlers who want to honor other work commitments in the past, but in this case the move seems to have rubbed Vince the wrong way, causing him to marginalize and test Bate rather than feature him as he originally might have.

5 Vince’s Good Side: The Miz

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The Miz was a niche hire for WWE in the early going—a reality TV star who’d made clear his love of professional wrestling, and so WWE let him on Tough Enough en route to being hired full time as a wrestler. Miz would grow up in WWE, eventually earning his spot as a world champion and WrestleMania main eventer. While that particular run didn’t catch on as well as Vince would have liked, it established the foundation for Miz to star for years to follow, leading to arguably the best work of his career these past two years.

Now, Miz is a dependable performer, a reliable go to guy to work media appearances, and was most recently cast as a reality TV star for his new show Miz and Mrs. Through all of this, he’s emerged as one of Vince’s most trusted long term talents.

4 Upset With: Paige

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Paige has been given some truly unique opportunities in WWE. She was signed as a teenager and crowned the very first NXT Women’s Champion. From there, she’d become the youngest person to ever win a main roster title when she debuted the night after WrestleMania 30 and pinned reigning Divas Champion AJ Lee. On top of all of that, WWE worked with no lesser producer than The Rock on a biopic devoted to telling Paige’s story.

Paige has also been gifted her share of forgiveness. WWE mostly turned a blind eye to her leaked tape scandal. The company welcomed her back in a featured spot heading up Absolution after Wellness Policy suspensions, a tumultuous relationship with Alberto Del Rio during which he was vocally critical of WWE management.

In her time away, Paige underwent a serious neck surgery, and rumors swirled that there was dissent between the two sides as WWE personnel felt the surgery was the wrong move.

It’s unclear who was right or wrong on that particular disagreement, but there’s no doubt Vince is frustrated that after just a month back in action, she injured her neck again. It’s rumored that the latest injury will end her wrestling career, marking an unceremonious close to a WWE career that could have been so much more.

3 Vince's Good Side: Chris Jericho

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For most major WWE stars, if they were make a surprise appearance for New Japan Wrestling—the closest thing WWE has to a global rival—and work a high profile match at their biggest show of the year, it would mean a huge problem. Maybe that star would get blackballed. At the least, he’d probably be the in the doghouse for a year or two. Chris Jericho? He was back to making a special appearance on Raw the same month.

From comments on his podcast, it’s clear Chris Jericho considers himself more than Vince McMahon’s employee, but his friend. It’s easy to see why the two would get along in a relationship built on longevity, loyalty, proven talent, and mutual trust. Jericho clearly thinks the world of McMahon, and McMahon seems to genuinely admire Jericho’s creativity and work ethic. Jericho even told a story on a recent podcast of the two getting drunk together, before McMahon invited him to a late-night work out. When Jericho passed, Vince wasn’t to be denied, and texted his buddy about how much he was lifting while Y2J slept.

2 Upset With: The Revival

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There are those acts that explode onto the scene in NXT, and it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before they make a big impact on the main roster. That’s true of talents like like Shinsuke Nakamura, Charlotte Flair, and Finn Balor. Meanwhile, there are also cases like The Revival. The Revival proved itself through a long NXT run as the anchors of the tag division, capable of delivering genuinely great matches opposite an array of other teams.

The Revival has to be one of the acts that has proven most disappointing to Vince McMahon since their call up.

To be fair, a lot of that has to do with injuries as the duo suffered plenty of bad luck and was out of action for more than half of their freshman year on the main roster. The team has also struggled to make the adjustment to the main roster, working bigger talents, crafting matches within tighter time constraints, and finding their place on crowded roster. It will be interesting to see if The Revival can win their way back into Vince’s good graces in 2018.

1 Vince’s Good Side: AJ Styles

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Vince McMahon was purportedly skeptical of AJ Styles for quite some time—reluctant to sign the undersized, indie-bred performer, and unsure of how he might use him. A perfect storm of WWE becoming more indie-friendly and needing someone to fill the Daniel Bryan-CM Punk void afforded Styles a big opportunity in 2016. He signed and debuted at the Royal Rumble, earning a pop that reportedly pleasantly surprised the Chairman. In the months to follow, Styles would prove himself in feuds with Chris Jericho and Roman Reigns, earning himself not only a feud with John Cena, but the opportunity to beat Cena clean en route to winning his first WWE Championship.

Styles didn’t get to carry that first title into WrestleMania season, but further proved himself in the year to follow with consistently great performances, and a terrific work ethic. His commitment famously included working through illness internationally, only to fly back to the States to work a last minute PPV match with Finn Balor the TLC PPV. As if that weren’t impressive enough, he proceeded to work both the Raw and SmackDown tapings.

Styles will probably never be the guy in WWE with any longevity, but his work over his first two years under WWE contract has earned him Vince’s respect for sure.