The Reality Era

The Reality Era was a period of professional wrestling within WWE which spanned from approximately 2014 to 2016. It coincided with the rise of social media and video-sharing sites, which allowed fans to share and discuss their knowledge of the inner workings of the promotion. During this time, WWE directly revealed some of its previously concealed secrets directly to viewers. WWE would receive some criticism for bringing elements of real-life events into its scripted programming.
Daniel Bryan storyline and initiation.
On the April 8, 2013 post-WrestleMania 29 episode of "Raw", fans expressed intense and vocal displeasure when possibilities of a third match between John Cena and The Rock (who already faced each other twice before) were suggested by the then-SmackDown General Manager Booker T. The increased prominence of Cena in major storylines has also been criticized by various media outlets. Conversely, fan support for Daniel Bryan began to rise as the year went on, with his perception compared to that of Stone Cold Steve Austin during The Attitude Era. Similar to the "What?" Chants associated with Austin, the "Yes!" chants among the fans of 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. Cena would later drop the WWE Championship to Bryan at SummerSlam, immediately after which began The Authority storyline. During the "Championship Ascension Ceremony" segment ahead of Cena and Randy Orton's impending championship unification match at , the fan's "Yes!" chants would force Cena to go off-script and acknowledge Bryan.
Batista made his return in January 2014 and won the 2014 Royal Rumble match. The negative reaction of the fans attending the event in Pittsburgh was so great that it was reported as one of the major news items coming out of the show, and described as the live audience engineering a "takeover" of the final two hours of the show. During the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between John Cena and Randy Orton, fans booed both men and chanted for Daniel Bryan, amongst other chants such as "this is awful". After the show went off the air, Batista (who had been presented on-air as a heroic babyface character) mocked Bryan and gestured his middle finger at the crowd.
On the March 10, 2014 episode of "Raw", Daniel Bryan would "Occupy Raw" until Triple H gave in to his requests. It would be on the March 24 episode the following week that Triple H would dub this point in time as the beginnings of "The Reality Era", with fans now being more knowledgeable and vocal about the product more than ever before, as well as being influential to its the changes. Bryan would go on to defeat Triple H, and later, Randy Orton and Batista in a triple threat match at WrestleMania XXX to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Breakup of The Shield and rise of Roman Reigns.
On the June 2, 2014 episode of Raw, Triple H announced his intention to continue the recently-reunited Evolution's feud with The Shield despite Batista quitting WWE to focus on his acting career. Later that night with The Shield in the ring, Triple H's "plan B" for destroying The Shield turned out to be Seth Rollins suddenly attacking stablemates Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns with a steel chair, signaling Rollins heel turn and re-alignment with The Authority. Much like what happened to John Cena, Roman Reigns would receive a heavy push to fan backlash. It was noted at the 2015 Royal Rumble that Reigns was receiving massive heat from the crowd. 
Other notable occurrences.
At WrestleMania XXX, The Undertaker's undefeated streak of 21 consecutive victories dating back to 1991, would be broken by Brock Lesnar. 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.
World Championship Wrestling star Sting, who had previously been dubbed the "greatest wrestler to never wrestle in WWE", made his debut at the 2014 Survivor Series, helping Team Cena defeat Team Authority in a 5 on 5 Elimination Tag Team match and went on to have his first-ever match in WWE at WrestleMania 31 against Triple H. He would wrestle his final match against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions in 2015.
End of the era.
The Reality Era came to an end in the lead up to Payback in 2016, an event which was being touted as the start of "a New Era". At Payback, The Authority would officially disband as WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that Stephanie and Shane McMahon would run Raw jointly.