How Vince McMahon Made WWE Survivor Series Matter Again

The owner of WWE, Vince McMahon, returned to television this week when he showed up at the start of Monday Night Raw with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. In a matter of a few minutes, he kicked off the best Raw in weeks and made Survivor Series, one of WWE's "Big Four" pay-per-views that has been languishing in mediocrity recently, matter again.

McMahon's presence usually carries with it an air of importance and gravitas these days because he appears so infrequently; if the boss is on TV, then it must be for something special. His appearance this Monday came out of nowhere and led the viewer to wonder why he chose now of all times to return.

That's when he dropped the bomb. If Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's team loses at Survivor Series in the Team Authority vs. Team John Cena match, then the Authority is out of power for good. We could quibble about why Vince chose to do this (they made a passing reference to "making the Authority stronger" by testing them), but it ultimately doesn't matter because he gave the match stakes that feel real.

Last week, Triple H confronted Cena and talked about how the future has arrived in Seth Rollins and other talent, and Cena would soon be left in the rear view mirror. He's been on top for 12 years and he's a 15-time champion, but even he will succumb to time eventually. It was the same story we've heard for a while. Cena's the top dog until otherwise noted.

But now, Vince has given the match an exponential amount of depth because now the match actually has weight. Triple H and Stephanie have been in power for more than a year. If their team loses, then it's all over for them. And of course, this is happening at the worst possible time because one of their stars, Randy Orton, is imploding thanks to Seth Rollins.

Orton, too, feels time creeping up on him. The Authority is grooming Rollins as their champion and Orton feels like an afterthought. So to fight that, he's trying to rip Rollins apart and show the Authority that he's still the main man. Unfortunately for him, this brought him into conflict with Triple H and Stephanie, who ordered their soldiers to finish off The Viper.

Again, this is all crucial because the story finally has real weight behind it. There are multiple threads here and they're all coming together to tell a cohesive story. Now, will The Authority fire back in some way to level the playing field? Could they force Cena to put his impending WWE World Heavyweight Championship opportunity on the line to give someone else a shot at Brock Lesnar? Other than that, Team Cena doesn't have much to lose.

Now, both sides need to finish filling out their five-man teams. So far, based on what we saw on Raw and from some spoilers for this week's Friday Night SmackDown, Team Authority could consist of Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry and Rusev, while Team Cena only has John Cena and Dolph Ziggler. It seems possible that Ryback could join Cena's team, as Kane tried to recruit him on SmackDown but Da Big Guy rebuffed him. Big Show also submitted his name to Cena. Cesaro wanted a spot on the Authority's team, but they rejected him after he lost a match to Ryback. Could he join Cena's team to start a face turn and help complete the roster?

We'll see how things shake out in the next few weeks, but kudos to Vince for getting this right both on screen and off screen. I'm actually looking forward to Survivor Series now all because of his work.

What were your thoughts on his appearance? Are you excited for Survivor Series? Whom do you think will be on the teams? Let us know in the comments section.