The Authority | Wrestling With Wregret 

"Stop chanting for Daniel Bryan and just tell us what you want!"

During the Authority angle: “you are in control” WWE: hahahaha you wish...

The simple fact that Dusty Rhodes got heat for showing his hand to Stephanie shows big issue with the McMahon's and WWE. When it comes to storytelling and reading crowds, Dusty Rhodes is in the top 1%. That was a great moment, Stephanie's face didn't need to be in the middle of Rhode's and Triple H's staredown, it was a distraction. But Rhode's read what was going on and turned the distraction into a pretty cool moment. If you're going to have a guy like Dusty Rhode's in the middle of a major segment, you have to let him do his thing and you can't get pissy.

Dusty giving Steph the hand is one of the best moments in modern WWE.

Shout out for using Tony Schiavone's "IT'S STINGGGGGGG!!" instead of Michael Cole's

Hard to believe this storyline started 7 years ago, makes me feel old af

Idk why but the “heck in a seck” line had my rolling lol

A good villain should make you say "fuck you!" A bad villain makes you say "fuck off..." These were bad villains.

As Zane mentioned, the biggest problem with The Authority was the utter lack of consistent comeuppance for HHH & Stephanie, not to mention the duo's refusal to really act like it bothered them whenever they did take a loss. Whenever Vince got made a fool, he also reacted to the situation like an absolute baby, which made it all the more cathartic. In comparison, whenever Triple H suffered some loss during this time, it was a guarantee that he'd just laugh it off & act like it didn't mean a thing to him, instantly removing any & all effectiveness the comeuppance was meant to have. Sure, that was Triple H's general M.O. while he was a wrestler & crap happened to him, but it doesn't work for an authority figure at all.

Yup, solid in depth look at The Authority. You mentioned that during the Austin-McMahon feud that Vince would make the biggest fool of himself to make Austin look good. That right there is THE reason why fans hated the Authority (in my opinion at least). They seemed to never get their comeuppance, or if they did, it just wasn't that satisfying compared to the evil things they did to deserve said comeuppance.

You have to admit though, that we own you promo was the most honest Stephanie has ever been.

18:18 the look of utter confusion on Rock's face is classic. You can tell he's thinking, "Wait... I thought Joe was a face..."

The weird thing about The Authority is that the big moments that The Authority did were really good (Mania 30, 31, Occupy Raw, Rhodes Brothers v. Shield, breakup of the Shield, Sting debut, etc.) But the week to week storytelling was pretty shite.

Dolph was SO over at that time when Sting showed up. Poor Dolph. He was so fn over. But wwe...

I want to see Brian cover every single one of Big Show's turns in one video.

“Please Lord don’t blow it when they eventually wrestle each other..” oh this has aged well

I'd like to see Brian review "The Big Show Show."

Personally, The Authority should’ve ended after WrestleMania 30. They were Daniel Bryan’s biggest opposition during the build up. Once Daniel beat Triple H and won the title at the main event, what was the point of keeping them around? Also, shout out to Daniel Bryan’s hype package for WrestleMania 30 with Imagine Dragon’s “Monster” being the song for it.

There is a plot hole in the Big Show being broke arc of the storyline when just the year before, during the John Cena feud he said he had an "Iron-Clad Contract" which meant he could do what he wanted.

Arguably, the popularity of the company hasn't recovered from the damage done by The Authority.

I remembered years ago when this storyline was going on, I was thinking “boy, I can’t wait till Brian covers this storyline.” And now here we are.

Brian Zan january 4th 2018:i'm really looking forward to reviewing the authorithy in the future It only took 1,084 days

*To this day I still find it baffling that The Authority lasted for over THREE pissin years. The only time they were ever interesting was during the Daniel Bryan feud. As time went on, they just became extremely boring with their 20 minute promos/monologues and just repeating the same thing over, over and over again. They should’ve ended after WrestleMania 30.*

The Sting booking still rustles me to no end. Biggest bed shitting of the last 10 years (and that's really saying something).

One of my biggest complaints about the Authority storyline was Orton being chosen as the Crown Jewel. He was already a well established, highly decorated superstar. He didn't need this storyline. Cody Rhodes would have been a better choice to be the Authority's chosen one. The story behind it would have been great: the son of Dusty Rhodes, the son of the son of a plumber, the son of a blue collar hero, becoming a corporate sellout turning his back on his father teachings of earning your success from hard work as well as his brother, Goldust. Not only do you have a good back story to work with from the heel, but you have a face with immense talent and contrasts Cody with their backgrounds. One of the things that made the Austin vs Corporation great was that you had two rising stars facing off with Austin and Rock. Orton didn't need to be elevated and Cody was a rising star like Bryan and could have benefited from this storyline more.

The thing i hated about Big Show's feud with the Authority was that they had him do the yes chants because WWE thought it was the chant itself that was over not Bryan. In their minds anyone could chant yes and be liked and cheered. They were proven wrong because they chanted it because they liked Bryan not for the sake of it.

I remember a month where EVERY RAW started with Stephanie doing a promo and being interrupted by Reigns

Three thoughts: Somehow, Zane made sense out of the Authority and the way he smoothly explained the happenings through the first year and a half actually made the Authority storyline sound entertaining! It's mainly because of the Authority did I tap-out on wrestling. I haven't seen Raw, Smackdown, NXT or any PPVs other than quick highlight shows and shows like Zane's. I haven't even watched AEW other than highlights. I just got burned out on wrestling. I don't even know who half or almost most of the roster is anymore! I ALWAYS LMAO whenever Triple H pedigreed Bryan at Summer Slam only because JBL's voice cracks when he says 'What did Triple H just dOOOoo?'

Stephanie was one of the worst things about the Authority storyline. She was a combination of HHH's golden shovel and a fanfic OC Mary Sue. You have all these larger than life superstars getting snuffed out by some Karen. Also, how can you have the company's chief brand officer, whose duty is to interact with the fans be a mega heel?

I didn't even know Shawn Michaels was even in this story line.

Mugshot of Vince McMahon was surprisingly hilarious 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Basically The Authority angle is the Stable version of The Reign of Terror. They might lose today but they'll win a bunch tommorow.

I'm not going to lie, I loved Kane's "Patrick Warburton" Persona during his feud with Rollins. And him coming out of the ambulance was great in my opinion.

I hated The Authority’s run. Every minute of it. You could argue that they were good at generating heat, but it was the wrong kind of heat. The only good things coming out the Authority storyline is Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins’ rises to the top in 2014 and 2015.

The fact that the Authority angle had no real motive or overarching goal they wanted to achieve is probably the biggest indication of WWE's complete and utter failure to actual long term booking that the fans will get behind. This isn't wrestling storytelling, it's poorly acted community theatre written by a continuously transient group of writers at the whim of the most insane billionaire to ever live. I've read a number of people's opinions that the Austin/McMahon feud was great in the short term in 1998-99, but it absolutely wrecked them longterm because it made THE COMPANY ITSELF the heel. For decades, promoters and other kayfabe authority figures were always kept face. Wrestling fans are more in the know these days than ever before, and when the company is portrayed week in and week out as the heels, and people also become aware of the shady business tactics WWE is doing to various parties away from the cameras, it all just leads to people turning off the product. Bravo, Vinny Mac.

Say what you want about the Triple H’s Reign of Terror, but it was far more watchable than the Authority. At least Triple H had moments where he got beat up and humiliated during the Reign of the Terror and actually has good to great matches. Not saying a whole lot but I feel the Reign of Terror was more tame than the Authority. The authority both dragged on and rarely got any comeuppance.

Another thing that they got wrong about the Batista part is that when he returned on the Raw and gave a hug to both Triple H and Randy. This also gave fans a bad taste in their mouth as it made it seem like Batista was there to be the Authority's chosen challanger. It would have been better if he attacked Randy with a spinebuster.

My biggest takeaway from this video: I either forgot or didn't know that See No Evil 2 was a thing. I'm kind of surprised none of the WWE movies are on the Network.

The only good thing about The Authority was getting Orton and Triple H to turn heel, and giving Seth Rollins a vehicle to rise up as a star.

Remember when we thought Survivor Series was going to be the launchpad for a huge and long overdue top babyface push for Dolph Ziggler? **laughing Mike Tyson**

The Authority angle literally stopped me from watching WWE ever again... the angle was painful and they were booked way to strong and lasted longer than it should have

When even triple h dosen’t know what the point of the authority was, maybe wwe should have spent a little more time trying to come up with an ultimate endgame for them :|

The Authority angle is largely what killed my interest in wrestling and my interest in WWE has not been the same since. For as bad as WWE is in 2020, it's not insulting like the Authority was years back, it's just unwatchable shit television. Like, during the Authority, it was Vince saying "Fuck you" to the fans, while in 2020 Vince is 75 and is telling the fans, "I don't care anymore." You can trace the start of Raw's decline when it moved to 3 hours in 2012 and The Authority angle a year later. They needed an extra hour of content each week and the Authority was the answer, a heel stable that rarely ever was made to look weak and dragged on for years much to the audience's displeasure.

18:22 yikes

Finally the authority video we all needed. What a great holiday gift. All we need is the Reign of Terror John Cena video now!!!

This storyline in my opinion was the beginning of WWE's decline

The Authority is the perfect example of the authority figure gimmick done in the worst way possible.

Stephanie: ....we own you... Me: Is that so? I turn the tv to something that doesn't suck.

The authority a poor man's version of Vince McMahon's Corporation during the Austin McMahon Feud.

Man, I remember watching the Authority in every opening segment of Raw when I was in high school.

the only time i saw anyone get over on steph was vickie but she was leaving then. and wasnt even a wrestler lol. i dont care what anybody says, they tried to bury daniel bryan on purpose because they didnt want him to get over enough for a wrestlemania main event. he was getting pummeled every week by them it was ridiculous. the best storylines to get a wrestler over is balance with the face and heel, with one or the other prevailing, preferably the newer one.

Triple h is never shy of bringing the golden shovel

It's time ive been waiting for this one for a long long time.

Been waiting for this video ever since Brian said "I can't wait to review The Authority" in I believe his Sting In WWE video.

"Rollins was rollin'." I see what you did there... Good form Zane!

18:20 ooof....if only he knew what crazy shit would happen eventually.

The only part of the Authority storyline I thought was decent was the early iteration. HHH, Steph, Orton, and the Shield. Made interesting to me solely by the inclusion of what was then something new and interesting in the Shield. I stopped watching WWE regularly once the storyline got really dumb and repetitive. As in starting the show with a 20 minute H/Steph promo. Hard times... Awesome look back though, had no memory of a few of the things you covered.

Heck in a Sec. I hope people realize how funny that phrase is.

That mugshot of Vince is one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen.

18:08 They blew it.

13:26 Triple H seriously thought that Stephanie being fake jailed as part of a wrestling storyline and getting a mugshot would make people think she really had been jailed? That's as bad as him not wanting pictures of his virtual self in WWE games showing him knocked down or being pinned to be in game magazines. For a guy who called people who didn't like WWE marks in a promo he's a mark for himself. The only thing bigger than the guy's nose is his ego.

It's weird watching a video on the storyline that made me a wrestling fan. I pirated a copy of WrestleMania 30 when I was in high school just to see what all the fuss was about this undertaker and Brock Lesnar match, and fell in love with wrestling. I think I have more fun this for the storyline because I joined when it was at its peak and didn't have to go through all the frustrating parts of the beginning, but even I recognize that when they were banished by Ziggler they should have stayed banished

A part of me was entertained for a little bit by The Authority but when you compare it to Austin vs McMahon or Teddy Long and John Laurinitis as GM it got boring fast when nobody seemed to get the better of them but maybe 3 times. NXT is doing it right, Regal only comes out when action needs to be taken to rectify something, not every show, every other segment, he reminds me of Jack Tunney

I’d like to see you cover the angle of Dixie Carter as a heel soon. Ironic that it started around the time the Authority took form.

I went to the 2015 Royal Rumble. That crowd was so into the match until Bryan got eliminated. Even Tyson Kidd got a huge pop! Then they got back into the match towards the end when guys like Ambrose, Ziggler, and Barrett entered. And then Big Show and Kane slowly eliminated all of them, and the crowd got pissy

13:37 Vince's "Yes officer I did commit the murder and I loved every minute of it" face.

The authority era: Aka the most frustrating time to be a fan

god bless big show for his natural ability to really juice his emotions by will on every show he had to.

Another issue with The Authority is that they made Triple H and Stephanie's affection toward one another heelish. They made you boo them for kissing and hugging. In any other context love is a good thing so why should it be booed with the McMahon-Helmsleys? It's like what they did to the Kannelises.

I always thought that The Authority video would be the Wrestling With Wregret series finale tbh. Just such an iconic shitshow, that you can't top it

Of all the times for Dustin to be himself in WWE instead of Golddust, the Rhodes vs Authority angle was it. And wow did Dusty have some serious scar tissue from all those years of blading. I never noticed it during his WCW announcer days.

I was really hoping to hear triple h’s sound bite at summer slam “ring the bell.. RING EEEEEET.”

Probably the biggest issue with the authority is that after Bryan there wasn’t really a main enemy or goal like with the Austin McMahon feud

6:58 I've always thought it would have been better if Kane joining the Authority had turned out to be because he'd been brainwashed by Bray into being the Wyatt Family's inside man in the group trying to bring Triple H and Stephanie down so the Wyatts could kayfabe take over the company and use WWE's influence to recruit more members to their cult. Instead they acted like the Bray vs Kane feud never happened and Kane just joined the Authority for...reasons.

Back in the day I thought the WWE roster around 2014 was pretty poor, having witnessed the Attitude and Ruthless Agression Eras ... But from today's standpoint it was STACKED!

18:22 lol

I remember how frustrating it was for Daniel Bryan to get tossed aside in this storyline then to have cena come out of nowhere and do what the fans clearly wanted Daniel Bryan to do. Not to mention that Cena, Orton, and big show had already been big stars for the last decade

This angle just went on way too long, with so many false finishes it made Return of the King look restrained (the book, more than the movie). The fact Trips still remained night-invincible throughout really didn't help either. And of course, Sting's injuries made the burial at Wrestlemania so much worse--he really could have made a huge difference as someone involved in the feud if they hadn't kept spinning it out more and more and more without a clear end in sight. Instead, he had to retire or risk paralysis. A better way of using him would have been to do what TNA did, and have him pulling strings of his own behind the scenes, and then put over a babyface (even if it was Cena again) one final time to seal the Authority for good.

The Corporation by itself didn’t feel overused. It didn’t even last a whole year and back then it was only two hours of Raw and 1 hour of Heat.

2014 was an underrated year and can’t believe that was 6 years ago

just gonna remember this false quote for the rest of my life "You are the Authority" - 17 December 2018

When you announce Sting in the segment on Survivor Series I was hoping you would sing in the way you did for Meng. Love the vid...

Remember that time when Stephanie McMahon forced Daniel Bryan's wife into unemployment and then forced him to relinquish the title? Then at Summerslam she BEAT BRIE and within 2 months Brie had turned heel to join her now-heel sister and Stephanie just never got any sort of comeuppance? I hate the way the McMahons have been portrayed ever since Vince stopped being the guy. WWF would not have gotten over if Austin was constantly losing his feud with Vince.

Surprised he was able to condense it to under a half hour considering how long this storyline lasted

What a way to cap off the year, Z-Man. Thank you for your service, no one should've gone back to the Authority era WWE for the sale of our entertainment

The Authority sounded like a cool idea until after WM 30 when Daniel won the belt. After that, they dragged out the angle for way too long and it would have been better to have ended it at Survivor Series.

This angle KILLED authority figures for me and honestly Stephanie was the worst one of this entire thing because she never got what was coming to her, the guys can't hit her (excusing the attitude era) and she always got one over the women

The master craftsman of high quality wrestling content: Brian Zane

Zane and his Triple H impression are gold. Ryan Lame-ah 😂😂😂

The Authority is a disaster in a major way

Hot take: I liked it, I came back to wrestling in mid 2014 and it kept me watching, the middle third of the story is genuinely great.

I actually like the Authority, but maybe more so in theory than in execution. And it was *something* happening rather than the two years of boring shit on screen outside of CM Punk. Seriously, CM Punk was the only interesting thing going on when he was champ. Everything else was boring. The authority had something entertaining going on like the Rhodes brothers joining forces or anything involving the Shield. Hell, I actually really liked Corporate Kane.

And there's not even anything like IT'S ME AUSTIN to make this storyline infinitely memorable

"Dig that McMahon shuffle" LMAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Seeing cena put over brian with a cheeky smile is the best thing ever

I can't decide if I enjoy your Triple H, Vince Russo, or Capn Lou Albano "billy billy billy" the most 😆😆😆 I can't believe The Big Show turned heel!!!

Fun fact: one of my best friends from high school was named Ryan Lane.. I just started this video.. carry on.

Thats gotta be the worst impression of Trips ever, I LOVE IT

Oh god, I had forgotten about Roman's blue contacts

I'm so happy that Roman found a gimmick that works in the Tribal Chief. I always liked the guy, but hated how WWE presented him. I knew it he changed his look and character, he could get over as a performer, cuz the dude does have talent.