10 Ups And Downs For WWE In 2014 10

10. Authority Figures

One thing WWE seems to insist on with its programming that it rarely gets right is having some authority figure to make matches and provide a foil for babyfaces. This year was no different, as there were varying levels of authority figures to even further confuse fans.

At the top of the food chain, there’s always Vince McMahon, the original evil authority figure. Whether he’s on screen or not, Vince is the undisputed head honcho. Beneath him were Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, collectively known as the Authority. They acted exactly as evil owners would, threatening everyone around them in an effort to maintain control of WWE and the world title. Further down the line were general managers for Raw and Smackdown, Brad Maddox and Vickie Guerrero, respectively.

That’s where things got confusing: Why have GMs if Triple H and Stephanie are going to boss them around and threaten their jobs constantly? WWE answered that question itself by axing both characters midyear. Then Vince returned this fall and made a match that cost the Authority its power.

Now WWE is ostensibly run by a rotating cast of general managers. While it’s good that they’ve been using mostly current and former WWE performers (Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, Edge & Christian), this just shows how ridiculous the authority figure concept has become in 2014.