WWE's failure to evolve highlighted in the last 30 minutes of Raw.
When Daniel Bryan announced that he would be taking part in the 2015 Royal Rumble, wrestling became fun again. When The Authority returned 30 minutes later, wrestling sucked again.
Daniel Bryan provided us with the best moment of the year when he defeated Triple H in a singles match and then Randy Orton, and Batista in a triple threat match at Wrestlemania 30 to win the WWE World Heavyweight Title. He was then booked into a terrible feud with Kane before suffering a very serious neck injury, which forced him to drop the title and be out of action since May. Thanks to a ton of conflicting reports, no one knew when Bryan would return, but when he announced that he would be back at the Royal Rumble, it was a feel good moment and a fitting end to 2014 for Bryan and hope for a good start to 2015.
30 minutes after Bryan’s announcement, Triple H and Stephanie returned after Seth Rollins threatened to cripple Edge if John Cena didn’t bring back The Authority. I guess The Authority knew that Cena would bring them back because they were just waiting backstage ready to appear the moment Cena gave in and brought them back.
It was the good and bad of wrestling in one half hour block. It was that moment that gave you hope that things would turn around and be better just before all hope was lost and you realized that nothing had changed.
Survivor Series 2014 was sold on the premise that the WWE Universe would change forever if Team Cena won and rid the WWE of The Authority. Well, Team Cena won thanks to a brilliant performance by Dolph Ziggler and some help from Sting. Finally, The Authority were out of power and the WWE would, for better or worse, never be the same.
Things kind of changed for six weeks.
During that six week run we had a Guest GM every week doing things that we’ve seen every other Guest GM in Raw history do. They cut a long promo, book a couple of matches, and possibly get involved in an angle. It’s a tired formula, but something WWE felt that they needed to do with no Authority around.
And on the sixth week, The Authority returned.
Six weeks after the biggest match in Survivor Series history with the highest stakes, things just returned to how they were prior to the event. In six weeks WWE completely dropped what was supposed to be the biggest angle of the fall. It’s not the first time they’ve done this, and I highly doubt it’ll be the last, but it once again reminded fans that we shouldn’t bother taking these stipulations serious because chances are they’ll be forgotten about, ignored, or worked around within a month or two.
WWE has this troubling habit of booking themselves into a corner and they did that once again at Survivor Series when they decided to get rid of The Authority.
The problem with getting rid of Triple H and Stephanie was that WWE has no clue how to book a show without the evil authority figure running things. They struck gold in the mid to late 90’s with Vince McMahon being the ultimate heel boss and Steve Austin being the ultimate rebel and they’ve tried to continue to mine for that gold ever since. Whether it was Vince, Eric Bischoff, Triple H, or the Anonymous GM, WWE has constantly tried to recreate that Austin/McMahon dynamic that just doesn’t work anymore.
Now Triple H and Stephanie are back because WWE ran out of Guest General Managers and they needed a heel authority figure that the babyfaces could rebel again. John Cena will be the top rebel and I’m sure Roman Reigns, Dolph Ziggler, and Daniel Bryan will tagging along until Sting eventually returns to set-up his match with Triple H.
We all know what we’re going to get with The Authority. They’ll open the show with a 20-minute promo to set the tone for the night. They’ll throw a ton of obstacles at the faces and at the end of the night either the face will overcome the odds and stand tall while The Authority puts on an angry face or The Authority will wreck the faces and stand tall while smiling.
It’s not original and it’s not inspired.
I know that Triple H had to return in order to set-up his match with Sting and the constant mentioning to “John Cena is the only man who can bring back The Authority” made is pretty obvious that he would be the guy to make that call. But six weeks? Not only six weeks, but six weeks and everything is just back to normal.
Couldn’t Sting have come out following the Royal Rumble, explained his actions at Survivor Series, and then challenged Triple H to a match? Team Cena’s victory at Survivor Series put The Authority out of power. That doesn’t mean that Triple H can’t come back and wrestle if challenged. He could even say that he won’t take the match unless he can regain power with a victory, which is when Cena makes the call that The Authority can regain power if Triple H defeats Sting.
Daniel Bryan’s return will make things interesting again, but for how long? As great as his Wrestlemania 30 moment was, it’s tough to shake all the frustration leading up to and after Wrestlemania. And you can say that all the frustration leading up to Bryan’s Mania Moment made the victory even sweeter, but that’s forgetting that, had CM Punk not walked out, Bryan most likely would’ve been stuck in a match with Sheamus. It’s also forgetting that, while Bryan’s Mania Moment was extremely sweet, the follow-up absolutely sucked. So maybe Bryan will get another special moment in 2015, but at what cost?
The start of 2015 in WWE feels a lot like the start of 2014. Vince McMahon spoke about the company and business evolving in his interview with Steve Austin while Triple H constantly spoke about “adapt or perish” in his feud against The Shield. In a year that saw the launch of the WWE Network and The Streak End, WWE is still the same as they were 365 days ago.
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