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So I was watching Monday Night RAW this evening... It was making me seriously wonder if the WWE Creative Team just took the night off because they knew Brock Lesnar was going to show up anyway. Aside from an enjoyable Cesaro vs. Dean Ambrose match, which I'm praying scores a strong Quarter Hour rating, that was a SHIT RAW. Then, of course, Paul Heyman gets on the mic with Brock Lesnar and cuts a promo to seriously save the show. Let's just eyeball what was specifically wrong with RAW tonight... Aside from my usual nitpicks of NON-TITLE matches, as Dolph Ziggler beat the Miz cleanly tonight. Ugh... Miz won that ****ing title last night and he immediately jobs the following night. How is that for your new Intercontinental Champion? I honestly don't think too much of the Miz, never have, but the booking has been very unfavorable since Wrestlemania 27 for that guy. But again, you've heard my non-title rants before and by replacing former wrestling veterans with failed Hollywood writers, disrespecting titles and their champions is what you'll get! My issue, in a nutshell, boils down to this: (a) Triple H, the authority figure, gets to "fairly" pick the next WWE Title contender. Obviously, he picks his chosen one once again, Randy Orton. (b) Cesaro vs. Dean Ambrose gets randomly booked without any hype, but obviously to keep the Ambrose vs. Rollins/Authority storyline going. (c) Stephanie McMahon slaps Brie Bella (d) Handicap Match #1: Kane/Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns (e) Handicap Match #2: Nikki Bella (nipple slip!) vs. 4 Divas With everything being clearly outlined for you, do you see what's wrong with the WWE here in 2014? It's pretty obvious... What's broken with Pro Wrestling is this need to have Authority Figures as the center piece of the show. In the past, the "President" or "Commissioner" was only brought in as needed. For example, before Wrestlemanias 4 and Royal Rumble 1992, President Jack Tunney stepped in to address the controversial WWE Title situations. But aside from that, you rarely heard from the guy unless something really controversial happened. He let the pro wrestling do the talking. Then, and possibly thanks to Survivor Series 1997 bringing the Vince McMahon character to life, the HEEL BOSS was enhanced. Now, the lead authority figure would openly run the show, make the matches, and of course if he/she was a heel, they'd screw with the babyface wrestlers. Mind you, Vince McMahon developed that character during late 1997 and fine tuned it to perfection during 1998. 15 YEARS AGO! And even Vince McMahon was losing steam as the lead authority figure during 1999, just 1 year after perfecting the character in his fight against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Remember the stupidity known as the Higher Power, anyone? Corporate Ministry, yuck! Vince McMahon kept going to the well, over and over again until sort of retiring from his television role sometime during 2011 (I think). Just 16 years ago after he perfected it during 1998... Then, you have Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Now, I'll hold back from ripping them to shreds like a typical IWC or Mr. Tito column. Been there, done that... My point about Stephanie/HHH being authority figures is both were authority figures during 2000, the first time they did it. That's right, the McMahon-Helmsley Era. Same games of picking and choosing their heels to remain top and screwing the babyfaces. That was 2000 and it was just, oh, 14 years ago. The very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again! Aside from Vince McMahon and Stephanie/Triple H, we've had a revolving door of RAW and Smackdown General Managers. Seriously, how many idiots have they tried at that job? They even made AJ Lee as RAW GM at one point! And how many times did they make poor Teddy Long and Vickie Guerrero as General Managers? Worse yet, those GMs were repeatedly undercut by a higher authority with the McMahons. In each case, the babyfaces bosses would attempt to mess with the heels and the heel bosses would mess with the babyfaces. Over and over and over again! 16 years of it! The beauty of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman tonight is that they didn't need any authority figure to be great. Sure, Triple H, the authority figure, gave Brock Lesnar his official shot at the WWE Title for SummerSlam, but Brock was trending towards that spot because he was over, a credible wrestler, and gives the WWE its absolute best match-up against John Cena that doesn't require an authority figure to tell you it's great. Actions speak louder than words for Lesnar. Triple H knows that, as does Cena during 2012, CM Punk,and now the Undertaker... Brock Lesnar is great because he's talented, credible from his UFC days and past WWE career, and he has a great talker in Paul Heyman to hype him. No authority figure in the world can manufacture that! The problem that the WWE doesn't realize is that it imitates a legitimate athletic competition. If you go watch NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, UFC, MLB, MLS, and College Sports, you don't see the commissioners or those in charge screwing with the individual players. Sure, some of you will argue "conspiracy theories" about referees and whatnot, but you don't see Dana White handpicking UFC fighters while openly screwing others. No... In all legitimate athletic competitions, you create the conditions that allow for the 2 very best individuals or teams to compete over the highest honor. There's no bullshit of an authority figure actually impeding progress of one of the competitors to favor another. Even better, the athletes in the other sports are actually aware that cameras are around and would get arrested for assault for jumping others in a locker room. WWE either has to make Authority Figures minimal or remove them! The current Stephanie/Triple H administration is getting in the way of actual progress of the WWE product. As you can see above with my bullet points, they dominated the entire show and made terrible decisions on-screen without any checks or balances. Mind you, this is the same authority figure storyline who tried hard to destroy Daniel Bryan while favoring, even tonight, an undrawing stiff like Randy Orton or even trying to double down on a 47 year old Kane. Don't forget that Batista push... And yeah, Evolution reformed. How about that one? Granted, the Shield did beat them twice at Pay Per View... But what happened after that 2nd win? Seth Rollins turned heel to strengthen, yet again, "the Authority". How did the New World Order begin to die? Oh yeah... The main WCW authority figure, Eric Bischoff, got in too deep with his NWO leadership that we had ridiculous things like "NWO Nitro", NWO Pay Per Views, and who could forget the expensive Tonight Show like set that cost an arm and a leg during 1998. Many authority figures existed after the NWO died out and Vince Russo himself, the so-called "author of the Attitude Era", tried to become the authority figure repeatedly during 1999-2000. How are those nails in the coffin? How is TNA Wrestling failing? Lots of authority figures... Dixie Carter is trying so hard to get over as "the boss". Fail, fail, fail... And of course, the many attempts by the McMahons to run the shows as on-screen authority figures and the many, many General Managers. They finally got rid of Vickie Guerrero and Teddy Long after years of them being managers of the brands. To see the WWE doubling down on "The Authority" is just sad. To quote my good friend on LoP, Chrissssssss (did I forget an "s"?), having authority figures is LAZY BOOKING and it's the same damn playbook recycled from 1998. 16 years ago! Many current WWE fans weren't even sperm yet! Since the peak of having Authority Figures around, 1999-2000, ratings and buyrates have gone DOWN here in the United States. Meanwhile, population and households with television have gone up. Must be something with the WWE programming that just isn't catching on. Yeah, recycled bullshit. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2014
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