The "evil owner" / on-air authority figure

[Guest Redhawk]

As far as I know (and keeping in mind that I didn't watch wrestling from about 1993-1998), Vince McMahon started the "evil owner" thing in 1998. However, the on-air authority figure was around from when I started watching in the 1980s.

 

Of course, today it has evolved to the point where no promotion knows how to write storylines without an on-air authoruty figure, and usually an evil one. Sometimes it's an owner, a commissioner, a GM, a Chief of Staff, or a booker/writer (Russo). And even worse, those authority figures are always in the main event, which seriously hurts the product.

 

Where did all this come from? When will it stop? Will it ever stop? Even indy promotions can't seem to get by without some type of "Mr. McMahon"-type character (read JHawk's latest MCW report). It seems like the only thing they're good for is the cover up plot holes, but WWF seemed to cover up holes just fine when all they had was Jack Tunney coming out every now and then. Today, Tunney would be facing Million Dollar Man in a strap match on PPV. Does this annoy anyone else?

[Guest DawnBTVS]

I miss the days of Jack Tunney and Gorilla Monsoon(RIP) acting as the authority figures while being *GASP* impartial or at least faceish in their actions.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

The WWE can't grasp the concept of the sporting element of professional wrestling and therefore are clueless as to schedule a card - so they have to have the person in-charge make matches.

[Guest Will Scarlet]

I doubt it will ever truly die. It can give a few outs to the booking, and, when used right, it can give a big feel to a match. Of course, much like a lot of things in wrestling nowadays, it is entirely overused.

 

I can see why indies would use it. It is probably an easy way to get heat, as, in theory, most wrestling fans probably hate their boss or whatever. Of course, I prefer how the indy here does it, with a nameless boards of directors whose decisions are mentioned by a backstage interviewer or a referee acting as messenger. Simple, yet effective.

[Guest Downhome]

I much prefered the days of a Jack Tunney or Gorilla Monsoon (or hell, even JJ Dillon in WCW), in that we HAD this symbolic "authoirty figure", but they only showed up when need be and almost never got dirrectly involved in angles.

 

I wish that would return, it would be great.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

It will never end. Particularly when Austin is around. So just try to ignore it. Steph is starting to stay a bit more in the background on Smackdown, if that helps anything.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

What makes it even more annoying is that the WWF has one in Linda McMahon. She is exactly like the old Presidents and when she comes out the fans are trained to expect a big announcement.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

We have Morely > Bischoff > Vince > Linda... The chain of command is retarded.

[Guest Downhome]

What makes it even more annoying is that the WWF has one in Linda McMahon. She is exactly like the old Presidents and when she comes out the fans are trained to expect a big announcement.

This is true, I wish it would be ONLY her though. If they must have someone else on the shows, then have Bishoff be a manager or something, same with Steph. I just don't like the idea of someone that is partial being over the shows. I hate it even more when it's a face that is over the shows dirrectly though.

[Guest Redhawk]

There are two main problems I have with this trend:

 

1) If the authority figure is a heel, it's like NO wrestler can ever fully be a heel unless the GM/owner/commish is aligned with him. Same thing with babyfaces and babyface authority figures. Of course, the worst example of this was the main event of Wrestlemania 2000.

 

2) The on-air authority figure always ends up wrestling, and that match is always a main event. Plus, as if one non-wrestler in the ring isn't bad enough, it leads to the authority figure feuding with other non-wrestlers and leading to even worse matches, i.e. Bischoff vs. Jim Ross/Jerry Lawler. That's why Chief Morley, Commish Regal and President HHH were the only ones I didn't have a huge problem with, because they were at least wrestlers first.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

As long as the working folk pay to see the boss get beat up, which will always be a fantasy everyone wants to see, it won't ever die.

 

Unfortunately, there haven't been any good bosses or any good babyfaces to beat them up for a year or so now.

[Guest JDMattitudeV1]

Of course it will never stop. God forbid the McMahon's have to give up their 30+ minutes of TV time per week.

[Guest Space_Cowboy]

The WWE is incapable of letting things go, once they find something that worked they do it over and over and over and over, and then act shocked that it's not working the millionth time they do it.

 

Besides, getting rid of evil owner angles would require the WWE to come up with new ideas and angles, heaven forbid they do that for a change.

[Guest edotherocket]

Lets not rock the boat. That's asking for trouble.

[Gert T]

You all posting earlier are right it will never stop because Austin vs. McMahon worked so, as long as wrestling feds can recreate it to a success a fraction of Austin/McMahon it will always happen from now on.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Lets not rock the boat. That's asking for trouble.

Post of the thread right here.

[Bored]

The original Austin/McMahon storyline worked and drew huge money and thus it must be beat into the ground. Hmmm what other comany had a huge money making storyline that they kept rehashing until it was completely driven in the ground? Gee its right on the tip of my tougne.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

The original Austin/McMahon storyline worked and drew huge money and thus it must be beat into the ground. Hmmm what other comany had a huge money making storyline that they kept rehashing until it was completely driven in the ground? Gee its right on the tip of my tougne.

Vince did it before as well with Luger and the big fat heel, and Diesel and the big fat heel, and HBK and the big fat heel. Each feud did worse business than the last (even though HBK/Vader was much better quality than Diesel/Mabel).

 

Coincidently, all those matches were at Summerslam.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I should add that when Vince was out because of the steroid trial in 1994 we got Owen/Bret.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Bret as champion was a direct result from the steroid controversy - it was an active decision by Vince to have his top star be 'natural'. Of course, this theory crumbles when you hear things like "Lex Luger was supposed to go over at WM X until..."

[Guest snuffbox]

The evil-owner gimmick will never ever die Im afraid.