The Authority figure itch that WWE just won't stop scratching
Look, we get it. Vince always had a weird obsession with the guy in the suit stepping through the ropes. Now, as PWTorch recently documented, WWE is pushing a highlights package about General Managers getting physical. It is a desperate reach for nostalgia that ignores why that booking choice usually fails.
Nick Aldis is currently tangled up with Gunther, a feud that Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett claims has breathed new life into the Ring General’s character. As Jeff Jarrett noted, there is definitely a perceived upside to this friction during the SummerSlam buildup. But let’s be real for a second: Gunther is one of the most credible workers of this generation. Does he really need to be playing teacher to a GM?
The law of diminishing returns on authority figures
When you put a suit in the ring, you aren't elevating the GM; you are usually stalling the momentum of your actual full-time roster. We have seen this movie fifty times before. Eric Bischoff, Teddy Long, William Regal—some made it work, but most of the time it just feels like the promotion ran out of fresh ideas for the actual active competitors.
If Gunther needs Nick Aldis to feel "reinvigorated," the creative team has bigger problems than just a feud choice. The Ring General operates at a level where he should be tearing through established stars, not trading shoves with a guy whose primary job description involves holding a clipboard and signing contracts.
Mid-card chaos and the ghost of 2005
Speaking of weird professional choices, Samoa Joe recently opened up about his gritty 2005 match against Necro Butcher. As revealed in his recent comments, the motivation for some of that legendary violence was essentially just trying to get some action after the show. It is the most honest thing a wrestler has said all year.
Maybe the current creative team needs to take a note from that. Wrestling is at its best when the stakes feel personal or violent, not when they feel like an administrative dispute. Seeing a GM book themselves into a match is the anti-thesis of that raw, 2005-era intensity.
The state of creative
We are currently sitting in a period of the year where the product should be firing on all cylinders. Instead, we have segments focused on video retrospectives of past GMs, while independent promotions like Gotham Wrestling are off the wall doing things like the first ever skyscraper match on TV. If the smaller guys are showing more creative juice than the titan, the titan needs a course correction.
Stop putting the authority figures in the spotlight. Let the guys who actually take the bumps carry the show. Gunther is a workhorse who doesn't need external validation from his boss to be the most terrifying guy in the building. Let's see some fresh booking instead of the same old suit-on-suit violence we have endured for decades.
