From 2004-2012, John Laurinaitis was WWE's VIce President of Talent Relations, aka the person responsible for oversight and management of WWE's talent development. He took over the job from Jim Ross, who from 2002-2004 in the position hired, signed or elevated eventual WWE World Heavyweight Champions Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista, men who headlined nine Wrestlemanias, and in the case of all of them, expanded their talents outside of the traditional wrestling realm to become mainstream-known celebrities. Comparatively, John Lauritatis hired, signed or elevated The Miz, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, men who headlined two Wrestlemanias between them, of that five, three still remain employed with the company. Of Ross' four, all four were employed by the company and appeared at Wrestlemania 30 in key positions on the card (two in the main event, Lesnar defeated the Undertaker and Cena worked Bray Wyatt). If there's any one person at whom Triple H should be incredibly pissed, it's Laurinaitis It's all of Laurinaitis' signings who currently clog the midcard with talent that move neither up nor down the card, but instead remain in either one of four positions - fighting for the IC belt, fighting for the US title, wrestling in a makeshift tag-team, or lampooned in a fairly terrible comedy gimmick. Insofar as women's wrestling, the less said, the better. Opting for more fitness models and "hot chicks" than gifted grapplers, an entire generation of talented in-ring women developed largely in anger to the portrayal of women as less-than-adept technicians during Laurinaitis' employment. Getting pissed at "Big Johnny?" Of course. This whole entire WWE malaise may be all his fault.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
