Any appeal left in authority figure storylines?
 

I Must confess i don't watch Raw much anymore..when i do its 20 minutes of Stephanie whining about some babyface. I feel that heel authority figures ran its course with austin/vince.

Perhaps what we need is a face authority with a stable of renegade heels fucking everything up..trying to tear down the company...perhaps a stable of wrestlers who were let go and have returned united for the sole purpose of destruction.

They could try to cuss on TV, run in and steal titles -cause general mayhem.

I think they're done for now. They haven't really delivered a pay-off in some time. It's really frustrating from a redundancy point of view as to why there are two on each show too. They don't come with the same pay-off as McMahon had for Austin. No one ever really gets one over on Steph, and I imagine that Foley might be there just to get fired in a few weeks (or sooner) and put more heat on these largely non-wrestling characters.

The cliche of the matches being made on the night of the show is also starting to really get me. I know people are going to say that it's nit-picky, but it really bothers me when the card is made up in front of the live crowd on the night. What were they originally going to put on?

Oh, and the way they aren't really heels gets me too. Well, they are, but then they'll show videos of them at charity events and things, and you're taken out of watching the show. I know what they are trying to achieve with these things as a corporation, but you could very easily show your babyfaces doing that sort of stuff. The New Day making a kid laugh will get the message across just as much as Stephanie McMahon with a twinkle in her eye.

Stephanie is the worst character and has not made one storyline better with her involvement ever.

She has been largely redundant beyond her match with Brie Bella and the vehicle with which to turn Nikki Bella heel, but then they just put The Bellas back together anyway.

Yeah and that whole storyline was awful. Also with the way she Manhandled Brie who was a top 'diva' at the time why did she just not go for the womens championship?

No wait they booked that storyline perfectly, in fact if we could go back in time they should have booked 'St Valentines day massacre' the same way.

Vince should have dominated Austin the whole match and picked up the win.

I thought the pay-off was going to be one of the other girls beating her at a Mania or something, but we haven't seen her in the ring since.

NO.

It's been played out for at least a decade now.

I like how NXT handles authority figures...rarely see them unless it is to announce a special match or w/e

I like Raws heel authority figures more than I do Smackdown face ones. Like slik said though NXT does the best with authority figures.

I really just want the McMahons to fuck off at this point. Steph emasculates every man on the roster in an era where you know nobody can do anything to her unless it's portrayed as accident (see: Roman Reigns spear at WrestleMania). And Shane just seems checked out, probably more worried about his other business ventures and just sticking around for SmackDown because it makes for an easy payday.

I actually like what they're doing with steph right now, with her trying to be on the straight and narrow, but with no one trusting her.

I echo what others have said in that it is so played out, I actually have forgotten what wrestling was like prior to authority figures. With nobody ever paying Steph back she is basically the ultimate ruler, at least Vince would get beat up. Shane is just completely useless as he is only around to stroke his ego and get big pops. Maybe a commissioner who is kind of the organzer of the show but not a central point of a feud.

I would like them to go back to the time of managers calling the shots.

I actually thought (naively) that Steph and Shane being "Commissioners" and having to appoint their own GMs meant they would only sparingly be used on screen and that the GMs would shoulder the load of the on-air Authority figure stuff solo. Silly me. Gotta have the McMahons and McDrama.

It's a different take with her but it's gonna look stupid if she eventually "wins over everybody's trust" only to SWERVE still side with her husband and fire Mick Foley.

No for the main shows but NXT handles it pretty well with Regal only showing up for big announcements or when stuff really starts to get out of hand.

Smackdown going with good guys being in charge was a nice change of direction for authority people but even they are starting to fall into the same problem of eating up too much screen time or being involved in too much stuff at once.

I echo this. I wonder how much of having these characters around is actually somewhat this sort of conditioning even within the company. "Well, we've got to have an on-air General Manager..." No, you really don't.

For as much flack as he got for always making tag matches I thought Theodore Long was the perfect type of authority figure. Pretty much just showed up, got to the point, made matches, and that was what you would see from him. I don't need to see Mick Foley in every segment on Raw. Or Steph saying the same thing every Raw. I'm bored with it.

I prefer authority figures to be anonymous

Remember when the celebrity guests were in charge? Fun times.

That was a Donald Trump idea. #NeverForget #Hillary2016

Someone alluded to this, but Stephanie is way too well protected. Vince at his height was constantly made an ass out of, and was often times a victim of cruel and unusual payback.

I would never speak ill of Stephanie again if she gets an enema shoved up her ass.

Regal is the new Jack Tunney.

#assplay #onlychicksthough

No

Regal is pretty much the perfect authority figure in NXT. I'd like to see him get to play that role on the main roster and just have the other characters retired. Well, Daniel Bryan can be Mauro's commentary buddy.

What I want to know is why William Regal hasn't called in Lance Storm, Tajiri and Finlay as his chosen veteran squad to stretch out the rookies/kick the piss out of them in order to get them to the level they need to be at. Come on, Regal.

Lance Storm having a one off match at Takeover Toronto wouldn't be bad. Maybe a match with Tye Dillanger or Cien Almas. They don't need guys like Finlay and Tajiri coming in when they already have veterans like Aries, Roode, and Joe. I could see Tajiri maybe having a few matches after his run in the CWC though.

Roode and Joe should be main roster. Roode should be RAW World Champion and Joe should be tearing up the SmackDown roster en route to a match with John Cena at WrestleMania, if you ask me. No one did, but that's the correct opinion.

Aries would also be a great heel somewhere. He'd be an awesome lackey for Bobby Roode, who could really pull-off having his own Horsemen-style stable. Roode, Aries, Storm...Roderick Strong?

I think there are different angles available that just haven't been explored yet. Like, mastermind characters who aren't wrestlers, but use "backstage politics" and manipulation to gain power and influence. But hook it to the wrestling somehow. Like manager/authority figure hybrid. I dunno, just spitballing.

Is Strong coming to NXT? Was rumors of him and Moose but Moose is in TNA. Haven't heard anything since he left ROH. Could be holding him off for when the next round of call ups happen though.

I always wanted a wrestler who had a direct line to the Board of Directors somehow and thus always got preferential treatment. It's not a very deep angle, but meh.

I've heard he's meant to start in NXT very soon. I haven't really been following it though.

I have a feeling that WWE/Moose discussions may have fallen through once a quick Wikipedia search of Moose reveals that he was charged with domestic violence.

Sounds awful...

See: Eva Marie in NXT. Especially the one title match she got.

You're awful, mike adamle. You're awful.

Yeah, that was really good. Eva Marie was a heat machine. And that match with Bayley was actually put together really well. It's a shame that she and Nikki Bella can't be one person though, because that's the sort of gimmick I want for Nikki.

When Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero were bullying Kelly Kelly, I wanted Drew McIntyre to come out and stand up for them, with the idea being that he's the company's Chosen One, and he's got all this backed up power, but he rarely uses it, however he does to stand up for her.

Drew was actually interacting with Kelly Kelly in backstage skits and what have you, but they went with Kelly teaming up with Edge. I thought this would have been a good way to turn McIntyre babyface and start a feud with Ziggler. This was heading into the WrestleMania where Ziggler teamed with LayCool to face John Morrison, Trish Stratus & Snooki.