10 Ways WWE Can Be Cool Again

6. Get Rid Of The Authority (And All Authority Figures)

In late 1997, Vince McMahon became the most hated man in wrestling when he screwed Bret Hart out of the WWE Championship. A couple of months later, McMahon parlayed that fan animosity into a new character - Mr. McMahon, WWE's megalomaniacal owner and the top heel in the company. McMahon's boss-versus-employee feud with Steve Austin helped propel WWE into a new stratosphere of popularity. Eighteen years later, WWE is still picking the bones from the original Austin-McMahon program. Today, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon serve as The Authority, and they're currently embroiled in a feud with top babyface Roman Reigns. In the interim, the company has presented dozens of permutations of the heel authority versus face champion feud, and today, it's no longer a novel idea - it's about the most hackneyed trope in all of wrestling. The Authority - and the idea behind it - needs to be put out to pasture once and for all. A WWE where wrestlers challenged each other to bouts, and where matches were sanctioned by a never-seen and rarely-mentioned "championship committee" or "board of directors" would put more focus on the competitors and on the company's in-ring action. Plus, it would get Triple H and the McMahon family off TV, and they've all overstayed their welcome.