Authority Figures in Wrestling: Has The Concept Run Its Course?

   For as long as I can remember, there have always been authority figures in wrestling.  Eric Bischoff can be credited with being the innovator of the heel wrestling authority figure when it was revealed he was backing the nWo in WCW.  As we all know, Vince McMahon perfected the concept and ever since, there has almost always been either an extreme heel wrestling authority figure or an extreme babyface wrestling authority figure, with pretty much no middle ground.  As we enter the Summer of 2018, is it time to reevaluate the nature of authority figures in wrestling?

   I don't think the concept itself has necessarily run its course, but I do think having one sided authority figures in wrestling has.  I'll use the history of WWE as an example, starting from when Vince McMahon started playing the evil boss role that we've all come to know.  Just before McMahon was finally officially revealed as the man who ran WWE, even though everyone by 1997 knew this, Sgt. Slaughter played the role of the WWE Commissioner.  At first, he was a babyface character, getting angered at the antics of Degeneration X.  When McMahon came to the forefront, Slaughter turned heel as the Commissioner, ultimately under the orders of Vince McMahon.  In November of 1998, Shawn Michaels became the new heel Commissioner.  He turned babyface in the midst of his role.  

   In June of 2000, after the first of several retirements from wrestling, Mick Foley became the new clear cut babyface Commissioner.  Of course, McMahon himself was still the ultimate authority figure and he flip flopped his bias several times as well.  Foley brought in Debra as his Lieutenant Commissioner and later William Regal took over the role in heel form.  After the Alliance ended at the 2001 Survivor Series, Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon apparently sold their stock in WWE to Ric Flair, who became co-owner of WWE with Vince McMahon.  After many arguments and a brutal match between the two, it was decided that WWE would start the Brand Extension, or roster split, in layman's terms.  Flair would run Raw and Vince would run Smackdown.  Ultimately, McMahon won his company back completely.  From there, he decided to appoint General Managers for each brand.  Stephanie became the GM of Smackdown while the role of Raw GM went to none other than Eric Bischoff.

   Raw and Smackdown saw many different GM's over the years.  We've seen the Coach, William Regal, Mike Adamle, the McMahons, and Vickie Guerrero in the role on Raw.  Heck, even our current President was once briefly the owner of WWE for a week.  On Smackdown after Stephanie McMahon, the role went to people such as Paul Heyman, Kurt Angle, and Teddy Long.  When ECW was a brand in the company after Paul Heyman left, it was run by people like Armando Estrada and Tiffany.  The authority figure role in the company is still here today.  Triple H, John Laurenitas, Bret Hart, Hornswoggle, AJ Lee, Brad Maddox, Kane, and various guest hosts and interim General Managers have all had authority roles in the company.

  In 2016, the second Brand Extension took place.  This time, Commissions were appointed to Raw and Smackdown with General Managers working under them.  On Raw, the Commissioner was Stephanie McMahon and she's had both Mick Foley and Kurt Angle as her GM.  On the Smackdown side of things, Shane McMahon became Commissioner, with Daniel Bryan and now Paige being his GM.  There are many others I could name in the list of authority figures just in WWE.  I didn't even talk about WCW, ECW, Impact, New Japan, Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground or any of the Independent leagues.  Based on these examples, it might be safe to say that there's been an abundance of authority figures in wrestling, maybe even too many over the years.

   In 1995, Gorilla Monsoon became the President of WWE and while he tried to be impartial as much as he could, there were often times where he sided with the babyface wrestlers, especially when vicious heels like Vader would attack him.  That's kind of where I'm going with this!  I think if we're going to continue having authority figures in wrestling, they need to bring back the impartial authority figure.  The best example of this would be Jack Tunney.  From 1984 to 1995, he was the WWE President and only showed up during the most pressing of manners.  Many times, matches were simply just made and signings would only take place when it was a big time match, such as Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III.

   Tunney was impartial as it gets and the fans neither liked him nor hated him.  They just knew something serious was about to go down when Tunney showed up.  Not to mention, he was very stoic and lacking emotion most of the time, which actually helped show his impartial nature.  After Andre the Giant defeated Hogan for the WWE Title, he tried to sell it to the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.  Tunney came out and said that the Title could not be sold.  He acknowledged Andre's reign but ultimately declared the Championship vacant.  This led to a tournament deciding a new Champion at WrestleMania IV, which was won by "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

   Any time there was any controversy in the company, Tunney was there to make an announcement.  He was also present to declare the Title vacant after the exchanges between Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker.  He held a press conference stating that the new Champion would be decided by the winner of the 1992 Royal Rumble.  After Ric Flair won the Rumble and Championship, Tunney held another press conference to determine who would challenge Flair for the Title at WrestleMania that year.  The fans would sometimes boo his decision and would sometimes cheer his decisions but he was as impartial as it gets.  I would love to see this kind of authority figure again, someone who is impartial and is not a heel or a babyface character.  Currently, I feel having Commissioners with GM's working for them, with the occasional ultimate ruling by Vince McMahon, is overkill and a little redundant.  

   I feel that unless it's completely necessary for an authority figure to intervene, matches can go back to being made by simple challenges and feuds.  In my opinion, we don't need to see all of these authority figures in wrestling.  It's just too much!  At the very least, I believe having biased authority figures and/or too many of them, is an idea that has run its course.  If we have to see an authority figure, I feel it should be someone completely impartial and emotionless like Jack Tunney.  However, beyond the occasional appearance after something major, we simply don't need to have authority figures that much in wrestling, if at all anymore.

 If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments.  Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans.  Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.  For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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