Business Decisions

Once again, a little bit of blood went a long way for this end of show segment with the dissolution of the Authority As We Knew It. Pretty much everything involving Steph and HHH worked to perfection all night, but this segment specifically showed why they work so well together: she and he are the team above all else. From Rollins, Kane, Randy Orton, Batista, Ric Flair to even Shawn Michaels, the relationship between those two seems like it could stand up to anything.

Along these same lines, this felt like the end of an era of sorts. This felt like the beginning of the end of the Authority, but more importantly of HHH’s attachment to the previous generation of workers. Metaphorically — or at least storyline-wise — it feels as though HHH has finally decided that he’s placing his bets on the future, while in the real world, it’s become increasingly clear that the WWE is finally looking to develop not just a new main eventer, but an entire group of main eventers who can carry the Network era going forward.

It’s hard to explain how much better this entire segment was because of Randy Orton’s willingness to make Rollins’ look good. Beyond annihilating himself on the Curb Stomp, Orton consistently put himself in the best position for Seth — and everyone else involved — to do damage without having it feel forced. More often than not, these beatings have a tendency to drag on too long as they try to build up heat on the heels in the hope that either the initial heat or some sort of magic fire spell will get the crowd back into something just by virtue of shoving it down fans throats just how much someone is getting their ass kicked. But, with this, it was clear that they had it timed and paced out nearly perfectly, providing enough cushion in between the big spots to allow for the type of highly structured improvisation that exciting segments are usually built off of without allowing any of the heat to escape in the mean time. And while his size certainly helps — as we try to mention as frequently as possible, Randy Orton is basically a gymnast in a giant’s body — his ability to understand how to make moving from one spot to the next natural is perhaps his greatest skill. That, and making Curb Stomps look like a billion dollars.

Join the Kayfabemetrics Institute on Patreon!