The WORST Wrestling Story Every Year (1989-2025)
2013 - The Authority
Premised on the very real idea that WWE liked to push their own idea of a star, in defiance of a vocal, jaded audience, it might have worked.
The problem is that WWE did not want it to work.
Daniel Bryan was an in-ring genius who dazzled the casuals with his firebrand charisma and inspired crowd interaction. The Authority, in storylines, didn’t want a small, scruffy guy as the face of their company. They wanted Randy Orton - presented as the avatar of the idealised WWE Superstar.
The concept was Austin Vs. McMahon for workrate-loving “smarks”, but WWE hated them, and let them know it. Virtually every single week, the fans were told, via droning, smug, overbearing promos, that Bryan was a “B+ player”. His fall rivalry with Orton on pay-per-view failed to adapt their early summer TV magic, and every result was uninspired non-finish dreck. Austin Vs. McMahon worked, to incredible effect, because Vince was savvy enough to grasp that the fans loved to watch his weekly humiliation ritual.
Triple H, conversely, was the least qualified person alive to play this role. He was too insecure, hateful and arrogant to pull it off. Bryan was soon cooled off. They even tried to hand his “Yes!” chant over to the Big Show.
WWE told a story presenting itself as the heel, and, within weeks, decided they were right, actually. Were it not for CM Punk leaving the company in January 2014, Bryan would have wrestled Sheamus at WrestleMania 30. A nice little back-and-forth midcard match for - yes - a B+ player.
Why this was even entertained in the first instance is a mystery.