12 Times WWE Buried Itself
4. The Constant Burial Of Top Babyfaces By Heel Authority Figures
When WCW closed out a phenomenally successful 1996 with the reveal of Senior Vice President and lead announcer Eric Bischoff as the newest member of the New World Order, the promotion inadvertently created the template for its own demise.
Heel boss nakedly abusing power was a fresh take on authority figures in wrestling - a bending of the rules that gave babyfaces even higher walls to climb narratively. Key to Bischoff's early success in was logical motivation - Bischoff wanted the respect his power was supposed to bring him, and was now using force and numbers to get it. Likewise, when Vince McMahon took on his Mr McMahon persona by the end of 1997, he was a man so determined to not have a Bret Hart-scale fallout again that he'd do anything to suppress the growth of a Stone Cold Steve Austin character that stood to give him just as many headaches.
Iconic, era-defining and industry-altering storylines. Followed, sadly, by bad photocopies of bad photocopies that didn't mercifully cease until the mid-2020s. Vince McMahon, at one point or another, hated and feuded with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Roman Reigns. As a TV character, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff had a massive problem with John Cena. The two men best at playing the roles a generation earlier had very literally lost the plot. Why were they against these money-makers exactly? Not least when, by now, we knew McMahon in particular was responsible for every push. Either they themselves were total idiots, or the wrestlers sucked. It could only be one or the other, both options were terrible for business, so the question simply went unanswered.
It trickled down to a pathetic extent too. Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox (amongst others) browbeaten in their middle-management positions on TV, almost always hated the goodies and almost always never really bothered to explore why that might be. As it turned out, they formed part of another self-own...