To truly enjoy professional wrestling, you have to immerse yourself in the product, in the story, and the bare basics of any good storytelling involves a concrete hero and villain. Whether it’s your favorite novel, movie, or whatever form of media you appreciate for your storytelling, this is a basic psychological fact of a good story. For well into recent memory, the WWE has had a central villainous figure. With Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and an assortment of flunkies to do their dirty work, The Authority have been the thorn in the side of a vast number of heroes within the WWE. Kane, Seth Rollins, Evolution, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, Big Show, Mark Henry, Luke Harper and more have been amongst the who’s who of Authority members. Survivor Series came around. Team Cena succeeded in removing The Authority from power. HURRAY the tower of evil has collapsed…………what now?
No. Really. What now?
No other villains have been promoted. No hint or whiff of another faction piecing together. We’re on the way to the Royal Rumble without any major story arcs. Yay, DB is coming back. Yay, for whatever surprise entrants we have in the Rumble. Yay, for…….what else?
We’ve seen multitudes of factions come and go in the world of pro wrestling. Some needed to be shelved for good. Others didn’t get the run they deserved. The Four Horsemen were constantly brushed off and re-ran in WCW. Few incarnations were truly memorable. When we think of the Horsemen, we typically remember their villainy. Breaking bones. Destroying champions. Leaving a path behind them echoing Biblical standards of destruction. A number of times the Horsemen faded from the spotlight, only to be reincarnated in some form. Members came and went. When it was done properly, time and story wise, no body created a stir for the NWA/WCW like the Four Horsemen.
Am I putting the Authority on the same platform as the Horsemen? May the wrestling deities forsake me should I make that assumption. The parallel being drawn here is that the WWE needed the head honcho bad guys to return. There was a gaping hole without the figures of authority stirring the pot.
“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
We can assume that Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t referring to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon’s disappearance from WWE programming when he spoke these words, but they are amazingly fitting. Was it too soon for The Authority to come back? Absolutely not! Their absence for a period of time, however brief, was a fairly well balanced amount of time. Possibly save it for the Rumble? For the sake of ticket sales, it couldn’t have waited that long. Now we have interest. We have questions. “What can we expect from the WWE Title Triple Threat match” held a higher amount of intrigue. “What is the Authority going to pull in the Rumble itself?” “Are Sting and Trips going to interact?” While the Authority was gone for just a short time, it allowed us a glimpse into what this faction actually does for the product.
We all know the reality of what Jean-Paul “HHH” Levesque and Stephanie McMahon truly do for the business of World Wrestling Entertainment. They are a publicly traded company and certain information becomes public information. It’s not hard to look up these facts. Keeping this in mind, we also need to acknowledge that wrestling to a number of people is, “still real to me, dammit!” If you follow any Independent feds in your area, you become familiar with the people involved such as ring crew, security, concessions workers, sponsors, etc. Even the workers. Many times you find yourself familiar with the promoters themselves. Recognizing their place of authority within said company, it brings legitimacy to their character, should they have one. Also, should the authority figure be a worker, his actions as an authority figure will have an even greater impact, depending on how “over” they are with the fans.
Ray “Death” Rowe is a member of the ROH roster. He also has been a mainstay at Branded Outlaw Wrestling in San Antonio, TX, Inspire Pro Wrestling in Austin, TX, and Lone Star Championship Wrestling in Houston, TX. From having been in the ring with Ray, take my word for it that you shouldn’t ever doubt his legitimacy. Last year, he suffered a motorcycle accident that could’ve easily left his friends and family mourning him. Gratefully we still have him, and as he’s recovered, we’ve been able to see him in an authoritative capacity through his role as Lone Star Championship Wrestling’s General Manager. Now that “Death” Rowe has sped through recovery………like a boss…… he’s able to have a physical effect. Something as simple as a T-bone suplex now generates a “pop” that is tough to match.
All that said to say this, how important Ray Rowe has been viewed as an authority figure because of the reality of his gifts in and out the ring, that much more important is the Authority to the WWE Universe. The WWE has very little product without them, and with the short period of time they weren’t around, we should’ve all realized that the WWE needs the Authority.