The Authority's 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Rivals

Composed of Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and a host of heels, sellouts, and stooges, The Authority was formed in the final minutes of SummerSlam 2013. There, Triple H helped Randy Orton undercut Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship victory via a dastardly timed Money in the Bank cash-in. But Bryan wasn’t the only wrestler The Authority feuded with -- as the bosses of WWE, The Authority were all-purpose heels and easily adapted to antagonize pretty much any babyface that needed getting over.

RELATED: Daniel Bryan's Rise To The Top In 2014, Explained

That said, not every Authority feud was a success. Let’s take a look at some rivals to Authority who were all-time greats, as well as some that were less-than-stellar.

10 Best: Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan was the first babyface to be targeted by The Authority and ultimately proved to be the most effective rival of the group. After all, The Authority was led by the people in charge of WWE, including multi-time champion star Triple H, and Bryan was a diminutive indie wrestler who “wasn’t meant” to reach the top of the company.

It made for a great story and one that would prove to result in one of the great triumphs in WWE history, as Bryan defeated several members of The Authority to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XXX.

9 Worst: Shane McMahon

The return of Shane McMahon in 2016 was a huge surprise to many fans, as he hadn’t been involved with WWE since 2009. While it was nice to see him again -- at least for a while -- he quickly got into a feud with The Authority, competing with Stephanie McMahon for leadership of Raw and convincing Vince McMahon to give him the responsibility by nearly killing himself in a WrestleMania match with The Undertaker.

The Authority worked best when they were feuding with WWE wrestlers, less so when they were a conduit for a revival of McMahon family drama.

8 Best: John Cena

John Cena isn’t always the best subject for a feud with an evil authority figure, since he’s the extremely corporate-friendly face of WWE and it wouldn’t make sense for, say, Vince McMahon to hate a squeaky clean babyface who makes his company tons of money.

RELATED: 5 Things John Cena Is Better At Than Roman Reigns (& 5 That Roman Is Superior At)

However, his feud with The Authority made sense, as they demanded compliance and he refused to align with them. Then came a great plot point that put Cena in a weird position: The Authority couldn’t fire him, but they COULD fire his friends, like his Survivor Series tag team partners.

7 Worst: Roman Reigns

In the fall of 2016, Roman Reigns captured the WWE Championship, only to have it taken away from him by a new Authority recruit, Sheamus, via Money in the Bank cash-in. Eventually, Sheamus and his League of Nations stable failed to defeat Reigns, who won back the WWE Championship, and Triple H decided to take matters into his own hands.

While Roman Reigns’ feud with Triple H had its moments -- Trips eliminating Reigns from the Royal Rumble and winning the WWE Championship himself was great -- the overall rivalry didn’t do any favors for Reigns when it came to fan reaction.

6 Best: The Shield

When they debuted in WWE in 2012, The Shield were basically mercenaries -- first for CM Punk and later for The Authority. By 2014, however, they were transitioning into a face turn and found themselves feuding with a newly reformed, Authority-aligned Evolution in a series of awesome six-man tag team matches.

Not only did their feud with The Authority further solidify The Shield’s face turn, but resulted in the shocking break-up of the group thanks to a treacherous Seth Rollins

5 Worst: Kane

One of the best members of The Authority was Kane, who proved to be much scarier than his stale fire monster act as “Corporate Kane,” a middle management hulk who wrestled in slacks.

Eventually, Kane’s classic persona started manifesting, and Kane found himself outside of The Authority’s good graces and wrestling to keep his job as Director of Operations. Ultimately, it was a very forgettable storyline.

4 Best: The Big Show

The Authority storyline offered an interesting dilemma for the veterans of the WWE. Do they agree to this harsh regime in order to keep their job, or risk being unemployed while keeping their integrity? Big Show, revealed in-storyline as broke, was essentially manipulated into being the muscle of The Authority.

RELATED: 5 Wrestlers The Authority Put Over (& 5 They Buried)

Because Big Show was still at heart a good guy, he followed The Authority’s orders with reluctance and guilt, like when he was forced to deliver a KO Punch to Dusty Rhodes.

3 Worst: Dean Ambrose

When Seth Rollins broke up The Shield and joined The Authority, Roman Reigns quickly moved on while Dean Ambrose proved unable to cope with the betrayal. He waged a one-man war on Seth Rollins and The Authority, attacking Rollins at every step.

The crazed, less-marketable member of The Shield taking on his former partner deemed new golden boy of WWE felt like a ridiculously violent remake of the Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty break-up, but too much cartoony hijinx ultimately made Ambrose a weak opponent for the group.

2 Best: The Rhodes Family

Out of all the rivalries The Authority had with babyface wrestlers, the group’s feud with the entire Rhodes Family was great enough to rival the Daniel Bryan storyline. Like the Bryan feud, there’s a strong basis in reality, as WWE was often accused of hiring Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes from rival promotion WCW strictly to embarrass them with demeaning gimmicks.

In the storyline, the Rhodes brothers -- Cody and Goldust -- were unceremoniously fired from WWE while Dusty was threatened with removal from his NXT position. When they came back and defeated The Shield for the Tag Team Titles, it was a great moment.

1 Worst: Sting

At Survivor Series 2014, the Authority-opposing Team Cena was rescued in the final moments of the main event elimination match by the shocking debut of Sting. While fans were stoked to see Sting, who had never wrestled for WWE before, his ensuing feud with The Authority wasn’t as great as it could have been.

The Sting/Triple H WrestleMania 31 bout was a blast, but ultimately another chance for WWE to remind fans that they won the war with WCW

NEXT: 5 Ways WWE Failed Sting (& 5 Reasons They Used Him Well)