John Cena Needs to Move on from Authority Storyline to Keep Character Fresh

Recent WWE television has made one thing abundantly clear: If John Cena is going to thrive in WWE in the future, he absolutely has to move beyond the interminable storyline with The Authority.

Sighs could be heard from WWE fans across the country when Cena—acting in order to save Edge from some horrendous injury at the hands of Seth Rollins—announced that he would bring back Triple H and Stephanie McMahon last week.

Yes, after a whopping five weeks away, The Authority is back in power. You almost have to wonder why Vince McMahon even made the call to get rid of them in the first place. It was pretty obviously never going to last.

Credit: WWE.com

Unsurprisingly, The Authority began things on Monday’s edition of Raw by making life a misery for Cena—they added Rollins to the WWE title match at Royal Rumble and fired all of Cena’s friends.

Despite what WWE bookers must be desperately hoping, it’s genuinely difficult to get excited for this current storyline.

WWE has a history of going with the plucky employee vs. evil heel owner storylines when it is unable to think of anything else, of course. But Cena vs. The Authority doesn't have anything close to the amount of appeal and excitement McMahon vs. Austin did in the '90s.

Come on; has Cena vs. the McMahons offered good television on the level of the now-legendary segment in which Austin drowned McMahon and his evil acolytes in beer? Or Austin getting his boss arrested by the police? Of course not. It’s been OK television and decent enough time-filler, but nothing more.  

Honestly, even Cena vs. Vickie Guerrero in 2008 and 2009 was a more compelling angle.

Simply put, fans have seen too much of Triple H, Stephanie and Cena for them to be truly interesting anymore—at least in a “power struggle” angle. These three have already had plenty of airtime over the past decade, suddenly they need even more?

Most fans want to see newer and fresher stars emerge—something this current Authority storyline is almost certainly not suited for. Arguably, only Rollins has gained anything from this program…and he’s so talented he almost certainly would have been a main event star anyway.

Credit: WWE.com

It’s important for Cena, and his current character, to move on, too.

There are several fresh feuds on the horizon for him as he enters the next stage of his career. A battle with rising monster heel Rusev seems likely at some point. The dream match of Cena vs. Sting cannot be truly ruled out either.

There are many options for him right now, but reverting to this stale Authority program will do him no favours whatsoever...especially at a time when so many fans still struggle to truly accept him.

Credit: WWE.com

WWE should focus on building new things for its top star. It does him a grave disservice when it doesn't. Sure, the company may be fully behind this current version of The Authority vs. Cena, but, sad to say, no one else appears to be.