10 Major WWE Problems With The Authority

2. The Authority's Prominence Has Created A Vicious Circle

Triple H Stephanie McMahon
WWE.com

When WWE signed their newest TV deal with various carriers, NBC among them, the general consensus among those carriers was that the Authority was the group of characters that they liked the most. As such, NBC has actively encouraged WWE to promote the Authority as much as possible, regardless of consequences.

This creates a vicious circle where the Authority is featured a lot because NBC likes them, and NBC likes the Authority because they are the most popular characters on the show and bring in most of the ratings, which happens because they’re featured a lot and so…you get the picture.

Because of this, the Authority have to be the central characters on a show that’s extremely tight on time (even for a 3-hour show), which limits who and what can be seen. WWE can’t spend time building new stars on RAW because the Authority has to be featured as much as possible, and the rest of the show has to feature the biggest-drawing stars.

Furthermore, NBC favoring the Authority and their segments (which, for the most part, have little-to-nothing to do with actual wrestling) means that TV carriers care more about the senseless drama that takes place on RAW than they do about wrestling. Essentially, NBC and other TV channels are saying to WWE that their wrestling isn’t important, but their non-wrestling segments are.

It’s theoretically possible for there to be a proper balance between the Authority and the rest of the show, but unfortunately the Authority have taken this message to mean that they are the biggest draws BY FAR (which isn’t always the case), which leads to…

Contributor

Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.