Hello one and all, Team SLTD is back together weighing in on what could be one of the biggest changes to the landscape of WWE programming in the last few years. At tomorrow’s Payback PPV Mr McMahon will decide who will run Raw going forward.
So who will it be, The Authority or Shana McMahon?
Team SLTD weigh in with their thoughts below
@ALFarrand (PPV Rewind)
Once again, WWE seem to have written themselves into a corner with this storyline, however, the past few Raw’s (with Shane at the helm) have been consistently better than those before Wrestlemania.
I think, at Payback, we will see Vince McMahon give Shane control of Raw. I’m happy with this as long as the aforementioned quality of the show remains. Whether it goes the brand split route again is another question but for me, it makes sense to continue on with Shane in power.
@mrnebarry (Old Skool View)
I find it interesting they’ve decided to do this on the PPV and the obvious thing we expect to see is Steph being put in charge of Raw. There’s a possibility that they could bring back the brand split and have Shane O’ in charge of Smackdown or vice versa, but in my mind there’s a wildcard possibility or two. It’s perfectly plausible that Shane will leave the company again soon and a certain Paul Heyman isn’t doing anything yet so he’s a possibility but there’s also a certain William Regal. I for one am hoping for the unexpected to go down at Payback.
@callumowen98 (Facebook Manager)
Who will Vince Mcmahon pick? Will it be his son Shane or his daughter Stephanie? Obviously whatever happens tomorrow night won’t be the last of this storyline, I believe tomorrow night will be the beginning of the brand split where Vince will announce Shane runs Raw and Stephanie runs Smackdown. Then at Summerslam we’ll see Triple H vs Shane and at Survivor Series we’ll see Team Shane vs Team Authority and whichever team wins gets full control over the WWE.
@AdamOB_UTS (Under The Spotlight)
Vincent Kennedy McMahon is a mercurial man to say the very least. One night he loves The Authority, the next night he’s against them. One night he wants Shane McMahon gone for good, the next night he lets the guy run Raw. There’s really no telling what decision he’s going to come to at Payback, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it won’t be clear cut.
Someone may walk out with the keys to the castle, or there could be a brand split with Shane running Raw and The Authority running SmackDown to see who does a better job, but it’s almost definitely going to culminate in a match down the line between Shane McMahon and Triple H.
That’s then and this is now, however, and if I was a betting man I’d put my money on WWE going completely wild and confirming the rumours that have been circulating all spring.
The brand split is back, baby.
@Dan_089 (Twitter Manager)
So at Payback Vinny Mac decides who runs RAW, I like the way they’ve used Shane on TV since he’s come back. The guy who’s bringing in the young guys making the new matches, so I feel to keep it positive make Shane in charge of Raw, The Authority gimmick has gone stale. Even though I love Triple H and Steph it’s the same week in week out with that gimmick! Keep them off TV then bring them back people will love that! Or we could see a brand split maybe? How interesting would that be?! I feel if all the injuries hadn’t of happened then that could of been a direction maybe?
I’ll say keep Shane there, you’ve got a good storyline with him versus The authority and he’s all about bringing the new blood up (Technically it’s not but let’s keep to storyline)
So I’m all for either Brand Split or Shane O Mac staying in charge
@Chica_SLTD (Wrestle Chica)
So this Sunday the answer is finally answered! Who will be running RAW! And who do I think will be running it come May 2nd? Am still unsure and change my mind every time I talk or think about it. First I thought they would be stupid not to go with Shane, he’s loved by everyone and it’s nice to have a good guy in charge for once but is it really working? Is having the top guy a bad guy not better overall. Personally, as much as they annoy me I do think the authority in charge works better.
I think the problem isn’t who is in charge but more the similarity they have with the matches and the outcomes (Charlotte winning because of her Dad a millions time is just one of them!). I think it works better when they are involved in rivalries and having the whole overcoming the bad guy outcome gets people excited. After all Who doesn’t like having someone in power to hate! Personally I don’t think we are going to see a brand split as the fans want it too much but we did want Shane in power and we got that so maybe Vince will shock us all and give us exactly what we want!
@TomRobinson5199 (Armbar Analysis)
For whatever reason, Shane McMahon is extremely over with the WWE fan base at the moment. I’ll admit that there’s been a newly-found surge of energy injected into WWE programming. There’s been a string of good episodes of RAW as of late and Shane McMahon being in charge is being credited for a lot of it. That’s all well and good. On the other hand, RAW has seen it’s viewership numbers drop for every RAW since WrestleMania. You can read into that however you want but the fact remains that interest in the product as a whole is declining. One of the major reasons for that, in my opinion, is the fact that the majority of the results for a number of WrestleMania 32 matches have been rendered pointless due to the direction of the storyline as of late.
Shane McMahon lost his big match against the Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 for control of RAW, but has somehow been in charge of RAW in the last four weeks. The storyline explanation is that Vince was waiting to see Shane fail while in charge but “social media outcry” forced Vince to put Shane in charge again and again. With Triple H recovering from his loss to Roman Reigns, the Authority were forced to watch from the sidelines as Shane took control. Now RAW’s fate is up to Vince (since SmackDown! is apparently irrelevant!).
The big thing I want to see come out of this is the return of the RAW/SmackDown! brand split. Despite the opinions of the critics, I’ve argued that it needs to be done in response to the sudden increase in the depth of the WWE talent pool. However, I do not believe Shane McMahon should be controlling RAW. If it were up to me and they did this brand split, Shane would be given SmackDown! while the Authority would be controlling RAW.
While I feel that the Authority controlling RAW would be detrimental to their ratings, I feel that the Authority angle ending at Payback (as popular as that would be) would make the last two and half years of WWE programming feel completely irrelevant if Vince turns around and says “Hunter, Steph, you’re out of here.” From a storyline perspective, Vince has no reason to remove Hunter and Steph from power. If they put Shane and Authority against each other and Shane defeats the Authority in programming and inter-promotional matches, Vince would have no choice but to say “Hunter, Steph, I gave you the chance to crush Shane but you’ve failed me. I’m taking over RAW and I will finally embarrass Shane myself.”
The only authority figure that has been somewhat proven to be a draw is Vince. We saw it when Roman Reigns won the WWE World Championship on RAW and we’d see it again. Then you have Vince giving RAW great numbers, you have SmackDown’s ratings increase due to it being given more importance in the storyline and everybody on both shows have more room to make a name for themselves.
If they really think about the long-term storyline, this Payback angle could be the start of something great. However, this is not a company that regularly thinks about long-term plans. Plans change everyday and I don’t have any faith in this angle having any long term substance. There is the possibility that Vince could just go with someone other than Shane or the Authority, but I don’t know who they’d go with. I think they’d give it back to the Authority but this is not the end of the road for either Shane or the power couple.
There is Team SLTD’s thoughts on Vince’s Decision, but what are your? What do you think Vince will do?
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