10 Major WWE Problems With The Authority
Best for Business? Not even close…
Since SummerSlam 2013, the Authority has been the most important group in WWE. As the evil overlords, they have sought to create a new WWE in their vision, pushing their favorites instead of the fan favorites. Initially, the Authority was an excellent stable, and their involvement in Bryan’s main event ascent led to one of the best storylines in recent memory.
However, over the past year, the Authority has struggled to bring anything positive to WWE programming. In fact, they’ve actually caused a lot of problems. From recycled storylines, to repetitive promos, to confusing presentation, to an overemphasis on their own characters on RAW, the Authority has actually done more harm than good.
This article will present ten reasons why the Authority has become highly problematic for WWE, both from a storyline perspective and from a practical understanding. If the Authority had been presented properly, then they would be getting the right kind of reaction from the crowd, i.e. ‘we boo you because we hate your characters’. Instead, the general consensus regarding the Authority is, ‘we boo you because you’re boring and repetitive’.
This is the wrong kind of reaction that the Authority is getting, and how the characters are presented on WWE programming is actually more destructive than it is constructive. So why have they actually been so bad for business? Because…
10. It's An Outdated Concept
For some reason, WWE’s management still think that the concept of an omnipotent authority figure holding dominion over the entire company is still something new and exciting. In reality, that is a very archaic concept. It’s 2015, and no one really cares about on-screen authority figures. The overwhelming majority of fans know that it’s Vince who still runs the company, and that all of the on-screen characters are simply extensions of his desires. Because of that, the Authority is kind of redundant.
On a storyline level, the Authority just screams ‘Mr. McMahon 2.0’, with many of the storyline elements, characters, and booking philosophies eerily reminiscent of the Austin/McMahon saga of the late 1990s. Because of that, the Authority doesn’t really bring anything novel to the table, with the sole exception of being shameless marketing shills for WWE’s products.
So while it may be true that the Authority are good for garnering a reaction from the audience (because people like to hate the power-abusing overlords), the truth is the Authority is incredibly out of place in today’s WWE.
They’ve recycled so many storylines, (from suspension to arrests, to firings, to the dreaded handicap matches) that fans know that nothing they do will be truly novel. For example, Dean Ambrose was ‘arrested’ this past week on RAW, yet it was painfully obvious that he would return by the night’s end.
The truth is, RAW would be much better if, either the Authority’s prominence was reduced significantly, or if they disappeared from RAW altogether. They don’t really contribute anything new to the show, anyway.