John Laurinaitis Caused THIS Legend To Quit WWE
As per Konnan, this wrestling legend quit WWE after a run-in with Johnny Ace.
These days a producer in AEW, Dean Malenko seemingly quit WWE after John Laurinaitis encouraged him to think about exiting the company.
Speaking on the Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast, Konnan detailed how Johnny Ace was what ultimately led to Malenko quitting Vince McMaon's sports entertainment organisation. At the time of his WWE exit, it was reported that the former Cruiserweight Champion was let go as WWE looked to bring in younger agents and producers.
As K-Dogg - who has recently been working with AEW himself - explained to Sean Waltman:
"I was at the table [in AEW]. Arn Anderson was there. Dean Malenko was there. Mark Henry was there. They were just burying WWE. At the end, Malenko told me that John Laurinaitis told him, 'Hey man, I heard you wanted to quit. Why don't you think about it?' Malenko said, 'Yes, I've been thinking about it for 19 years. I quit.'"
Dean Malenko arrived in the then-WWF on the 31 January 2000 episode of Raw, debuting alongside Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Chris Benoit as part of the Radicalz. The Iceman would retire from in-ring action in December 2001, then remain with WWE as a producer until April 2019.
Barely a month after being handed his WWE release, Malenko was signed to AEW as a senior producer for Tony Khan's burgeoning promotion.