6 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Raw Superstar Shakeup

7. No More Authority Figures?

Let’s harken back to December, ancient history in WWE’s world: All four members of the McMahon family stood in the ring to address the plummeting ratings.

They told us that they heard the fans, that they understood we wanted to see more wrestling, new faces, new matchups, and less of authority figures running around sucking up time and chewing scenery.

So naturally, Raw opened with Stephanie and Shane McMahon in the ring in full heel mode, playing it up to rile the fans, even insulting the dialect spoken in Montreal. Yup, we got two authority figures yapping and putting down other wrestlers (Kurt Angle and The Miz, in this case), because God knows we needed heels running Raw and SmackDown running roughshod.

This is just a reminder to everyone who thought that the December in-ring promo from all four McMahon family members actually meant there would be some kind of meaningful change: When in doubt, WWE will always default to the McMahons as central characters, usually villains.