The Reality Era

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon (The Authority) had a heavy presence on television during The Reality Era.

Since the start of the PG Era, which began when WWE went to a TV-PG format in the summer of 2008,[7] along with the prolonged feature of wrestler John Cena as the poster boy of WWE, their product had often received intense criticism from fans and various media.[8][9] On the April 8, 2013 post WrestleMania 29 episode of WWE Raw, fans expressed intense and vocal displeasure with the current product. When possibilities of a third match between John Cena and The Rock (who already faced each other twice before) were suggested by the then General Manager of Raw Booker T, the fans audibly chanted "same ol' shit!", and had been vocally voicing their displeasure with Cena remaining the top star in the company for so long.[10][11] Meanwhile, the popularity of the star Daniel Bryan began to rise as the year went on,[12] and Cena would later drop the WWE Championship to Bryan at SummerSlam, immediately after which began The Authority storyline. After Bryan was stripped of the WWE Championship on the Raw following Night of Champions and later removed from his main event push, on several occasions, fans would begin hijacking segments in which Bryan was either not involved in, or involved only secondarily, with his "Yes!" chant. In the case of the "Championship Ascension Ceremony", the fan's continuing "Yes!" chants would force Cena to go off-script and acknowledge Bryan, since that segment was supposed to be about Cena and Randy Orton's impending championship unification match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.[13]

Daniel Bryan closed WrestleMania XXX by celebrating his win of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. His technically gifted wrestling skills and his famous feud with The Authority saw him emerge as the most popular superstar during The Reality Era.

After a long hiatus of four years, Batista made his return in January 2014 and won the 2014 Royal Rumble match[14] while fan favorite Daniel Bryan failed to make an appearance in the Rumble match at all. When it became apparent that Bryan's push had been halted by WWE and after the event, fan outrage over the misuse of his character began to result in an unplanned change for the WrestleMania XXX main event. In one of the most memorable segments in the shows history, Daniel Bryan would "Occupy Raw" until Triple H gave in to his requests. With fans now being more knowledgeable and vocal about the product more than ever before, as well as being influential to the changes in the product, on the March 24, 2014 episode of Raw, Triple H would dub this point in time as the beginnings of "The Reality Era". Bryan would eventually be inserted into the main event of WrestleMania by defeating Triple H at the opening match of the event to earn the spot. In the critically acclaimed main event, Bryan defeated Randy Orton and Batista in a triple threat match and captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the process.

Roman Reigns broke out as a huge star during this timeframe. (Above) He defeated Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania 32 to become a three-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

On the June 2, 2014 episode of Raw, Triple H announced his intention to continue Evolution's feud with The Shield, but Batista had quit WWE to focus on his acting career.[15] Later that night with The Shield in the ring, Triple H's "plan B" for destroying The Shield turned out to be Rollins suddenly attacking Ambrose and Reigns with a steel chair, signalling Rollins re-alignment with The Authority.[16] On the June 9 episode of Raw, Rollins described his betrayal as severing a business relationship and that he had destroyed "his own creation" to further his own interests, while Ambrose and Reigns (still labelled as The Shield)[17] addressed Rollins' betrayal with Ambrose describing Rollins as a "cancer" in The Shield, while Reigns claimed that Rollins "committed the most unforgivable sin".[18] Later that night, Ambrose and Reigns had their final match as The Shield, teaming up with John Cena to defeat The Wyatt Family. Ambrose would feud with both Seth Rollins and leader of the Wyatt Family: Bray Wyatt respectively throughout 2014 while Seth Rollins would go on to hold the WWE Money in the Bank briefcase for a near year long period between 2014 and 2015.

Initially in 2014, Roman Reigns was one of the most popular stars on the roster with fans. Not long after a return from injury in late 2014 however, amidst a heavy main event level push, Reigns' positive crowd reactions were diminishing. By the time Reigns reached the Royal Rumble 2015 event, he was receiving massive heat from fans.[19] The fans outrage reached a boiling point after Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan at the Fastlane (2015) event, despite Bryan endorsing Reigns's victory. While the often negative reaction to Reigns would continue strongly throughout this era, he would eventually win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at the 2015 Survivor Series event, defeating fellow Shield member Dean Ambrose in the finals of a tournament to crown a new champion. Reigns, like Bryan, would then begin feuding with The Authority. In his second WrestleMania main event at WrestleMania 32, he would defeat Triple H to capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Brock Lesnar broke The Undertaker's undefeated Wrestlemania streak

On February 24, 2014 WWE officially launched the WWE Network, with the first pay per view on the platform being WrestleMania XXX.

At WrestleMania XXX, The Undertaker was surprisingly defeated for the first time at the event by Brock Lesnar, following 21 consecutive victories dating back to 1991.[20][21] Lesnar would go on to defeat John Cena at SummerSlam to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, winning his first WWE title in a decade.

Former Shield member Seth Rollins would also find huge success during this era, going on to win and hold the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for most of 2015 after defeating Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns in a triple threat match at WrestleMania (Rollins earned the opportunity via cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase), before having to vacate the championship due to an injury.

WCW legend Sting, who had previously been dubbed the "greatest wrestler to never wrestle in WWE",[22] made his debut at the 2014 Survivor Series, helping Team Cena defeat Team Authority in a 5 on 5 Elimination Tag Team match and had his first-ever match in WWE at WrestleMania 31 against the leader of The Authority Triple H, a match he would lose. He would wrestle his final match against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions in 2015. The Undertaker returned after an entire year hiatus at WrestleMania 31 and defeated Bray Wyatt at the event.

The Triple Threat match at the 2015 Royal Rumble between Seth Rollins, John Cena and Brock Lesnar received critical acclaim, and was widely recognized as the match of the year.[23]

Daniel Bryan temporarily retired in February 2016 following a series of injuries.[24] Former TNA Impact mainstay AJ Styles made his debut in WWE at the 2016 Royal Rumble. Shane McMahon made his return to WWE television in February 2016, for the first time in seven years. Where he would be placed in a Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 where he lost.[25]

WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas (billed as Dallas) garnered the largest crowd to ever attend a WWE event, surpassing a disputed 100,000 attendees.[25]

The Authority officially disbanded on May 1, 2016.[26]

The Reality Era came to an end with Payback 2016 being officially announced as the start of the "New" Era.[27][28][29][30] Overall The Reality Era, especially the rise of Daniel Bryan received critical acclaim and has been compared to the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin back in The Attitude Era.[31] Similar to the "What?" Chants associated with Stone Cold, the "Yes!" chants among the fans of Daniel Bryan have become a cultural trend in the WWE — the chant even going as far as to being translated to “Oui! Oui! Oui” whenever WWE would hold televised events in Montreal in 2018 and 2019.[32] Roman Reigns, considered to be the break out stars of The Reality Era, would go on to dominate the following years.[33]

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