Professional wrestling authority figures


This list brings together authority figures—people who hold on-screen power—in professional wrestling promotions or brands within North America. The North American wrestling industry portrays authority figures as responsible for making matches, providing rules and generally keeping law and order both in and outside the ring. The role can vary according to disposition as a face authority figure tends to give what the fans want and does what is fair while heel authority figures tend to run their shows out of their own self-interest.

WWE authority figures

From its founding in 1963 to 1997, the WWE looked to a president as an authority figure. The president had booking power and controlled all wrestlers. However, in 1997 the commissioner replaced the president, with Sgt. Slaughter serving as the first WWE commissioner. During the Attitude Era, not only the commissioner, but also Vince McMahon had booking power. McMahon usually used his power in order to haze his kayfabe nemesis, Stone Cold Steve Austin. When Shawn Michaels served as commissioner, he could overrule McMahon, but he exercised his booking power only sporadically and was working with an ironclad contract where he could not be fired. When Mick Foley acquired the position, he took full reign until he was fired from the position.
Upon splitting WWE into two separate brands in the WWE brand extension of 2002, on-screen co-owners Vince McMahon and Ric Flair proceeded to draft WWE wrestlers into two separate rosters. Flair took ownership of Raw while McMahon controlled SmackDown. After McMahon regained control of the entire company, he removed Flair from control of Raw, relinquished his own position and appointed separate general managers to control the different brands.
On July 18, 2011, Triple H came to Raw and told Vince McMahon that the board of directors revoked his "day-to-day operation power" and named him to manage it instead. After that, Triple H became the WWE's chief operating officer, who had the booking power in WWE on both the Raw and SmackDown brands until the board of directors stripped him of his power and named John Laurinaitis the interim general manager of Raw.

Presidents and commissioners

From 1996 onwards, the corporate roles of Vince McMahon and his wife Linda were gradually acknowledged in WWF programmes and were subsequently included in storylines. The following list gives the development of corporate offices as portrayed in storylines and should not be confused with their counterparts in the actual structure in WWE LLC and its predecessors.

SmackDown authorities

NXT authority figures

Defunct brands

''Saturday Morning Slam'' authority figures

ECW brand authorities

All Elite Wrestling authority figures

After the All In wrestling event in 2018, Ring of Honor wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks partnered with Shahid Khan and Tony Khan, the owners of Fulham F.C. and Jacksonville Jaguars, to form All Elite Wrestling on January 1, 2019. AEW's storyline hierarchy is generally reflective of its real-life hierarchy, but exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Chairman (CEO)

The director of authority operated as the on-screen authority-figure for the company.
TNA Wrestling also maintained a championship committee, which was established in 2004 to help the director of authority to book matches and to keep contenders in proper order. The committee members also served as guest judges for Impact! when broadcast by Fox Sports Net as all matches had a time limit and if the match went to time, a judge had to make the call as to who had won. By June 2005, the committee was dropped and only Larry Zbyszko made appearances for the company. Despite the name, the National Wrestling Alliance had no direct relationship with the committee. During its existence, TNA controlled the booking of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and treated it as its foremost title.
The committee consisted of:
purchased Jim Crockett Promotions and launched World Championship Wrestling in 1988. The company went through a series of vice presidents and bookers, ranging from those with little wrestling experience to those entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion until Eric Bischoff took control in 1994. His tenure saw the creation of Nitro, the start of the Monday Night War and the formation of the New World Order. Declining ratings saw Bischoff ousted in 1999 and former WWF writer Vince Russo was hired in an attempt to salvage the company. WCW was purchased by the WWF in March 2001, but the company was featured prominently on WWF television as part of the Invasion storyline for the remainder of the year.

Owner

  • Ted Turner
  • *Terry McGuirk – President of Turner Sports
  • *Harvey Schiller – President of Turner Sports
  • *Mark Lazarus – President of Turner Sports
  • Shane McMahon
  • WWE

    Executive vice president

  • Jim Herd
  • Kip Allen Frey
  • Bob Dhue
  • Eric Bischoff
  • Nick Lambros
  • Bill Busch

    Vice President of Wrestling Operations

  • Bill Watts
  • Ole Anderson

    Senior Vice President

  • Eric Bischoff