Easy two word answer: Vince McMahon.
Seriously, we've already gotten word that he was furious during the WA Raw a few weeks ago because of the pro-Daniel Bryan crowd. He couldn't stand them doing that during the unification segment and if you know anything about the man you've got to know he's more than capable of pulling a stunt like this and killing a wrestler's buzz. That's not a stretch at all.
I found the thread dealing with that incident, and from what I gathered, you bought into it immediately just because it was Vince McMahon. No verification needed or sought.
The biggest complaints about Vince are that both his sense of competition will blind him to the maximum profit- see the Invasion angle of '01- and that if he didn't make the wrestler, he doesn't market him, period.
Here's the problem with that second part; it's not one-hundred percent true. Take CM Punk. You can make a perfect case for Punk being a classic example of being ignored from his start in ECW right up past December to Dismember when he was shoved aside for Bobby Lashley, and then did what most regard as a ton of jobbing once he left that brand and became a regular on the main shows. Then it changed around '09-ish when he was in the WHC picture with the likes of Jeff Hardy and the Undertaker, stayed for the most part relevent during '10, took over the Nexus by the beginning of '11, then got a surge up the proverbial ladder by the time his contract was set to expire, which you also know was the 'Pipebomb' and the Summer of Punk. The point is, Vince warmed up to the guy eventually.
Same with Daniel Bryan, who got in through NXT, was fired then brought back, then got into a Tag Team with Kane which if nothing else was surprisingly funny, then for a brief period of time feuded with Punk for the WWE title in the middle of '12. He's been in the title picture for one belt or the other pretty much for the past two or so years. He's warmed up to Vince to. Why else would HE be the guy selected to take Cena's place as the top babyface after Summerslam?
I'll go even further by digging back to the aftermath of the Invasion. Sure, you can look at the wrestlers from WCW and see where they were in WWE as opposed to WCW and think, 'they got pushed down some'. Here's the problem; Guys like Scott Steiner and Booker T and even Goldberg came in and became Main Event contenders (against Triple H, granted, but I'm not as sold on him being the burier that he's perceived to be as I used to) and while Goldberg and Steiner were gone, Booker eventually recovered and got notoriety once he turned English and became a Title contender, but he was really never more than Main Event Contender status, even when he was in the nearly worthless title picture back in WCW. Again, if you stick around long enough, Vince warms up to you.
I do think the Seattle incident was akward, but not for the reasons you think. Have you noticed that the Authority is doing things almost deliberately dull and uninspiring? It's the smark's perception of the people in charge when they endorse the wrong person or the wrong angle. It's done in total defiance of what the 'Fans' want, and done in that slow, methodical way that you associate in monster heels that can't draw heat from their personalities. And it's being done in the midst of this long-stetching storyline with Bryan, which they can't rush if they're aiming for the biggest possible payoff.
As for the lack of a pop, what does that tell you? Do you think it means that if Bryan ever takes the shackles off and shoots back up to the top that the crowd response will be muted, because of this one incident killing his 'pop'? I say no, because the crowd might SOUND dead, but I can imagine enough of them are seething.
That's the thing about Dead Air. Most treat it as the absolute worst thing you can get from the crowd, because it usually means they are not buying into what they are getting. But that's condensing the crowd into a singular action. It's an easy gauge. But Dead Air, that might mean boredom, or it might mean the most dangerous heat brewing underneath the surface.
Besides, there's still plenty of time until the Rumble, enough time for cracks to show in the compliance DB's showing to this new family. Enough time for drama to turn up from another direction. Meven time enough to slowly win you over to the plot.
After all, where's the drama in DB fighting the Wyatts to a stalemate on show after show after show?
