Is John Laurinaitis Really a Bad Guy?

John Laurinaitis (did you know that he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the interim RAW GM?) had his job review on RAW this week and was about to be fired when he was saved (inadvertently) by the arrival of the Undertaker. While Laurinaitis spoke to the crowd and apologised for his actions, he was booed mercilessly. This led me to wonder whether Laurinaitis deserves this vitriol.

A lot of people are comparing his feud with WWE Champion CM Punk to the feud between Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin but there are a lot of differences between the two. The only similarity between Laurinaitis and McMahon is that they don’t believe the current WWE Champion is the right face for the company. With McMahon, he  had to deal with a person who was a beer drinker and hell raiser who was the complete opposite of the WWE were during the late 80’s and early 90’s. With Laurinaitis, he is dealing with a person who left the company with the WWE Championship and I feel that Laurinaitis doesn’t understand why the fans are cheering a man who disrespected the company by his actions. Not only that, but Punk’s actions had extremely significant consequences involving the upper echelons of the company. In a way, it can be argued that Punk’s actions over that time were far worse than Austin ever did in his feud with McMahon. If you think about it, yes, Austin did continually embarrass Vince McMahon but did Austin ever leave the company with the WWE Championship? Did Austin ever deliver a promo in which he tore through the entire company breaking “the fourth wall”?

John Laurinaitis’ actions since becoming interim RAW General Manager haven’t really been that bad. Laurinaitis is not the head of the company. He may have a lot of power in that company but he is effectively middle management. Laurinaitis doesn’t have any beef with any of the wrestlers except for Punk and, for the reasons that I mentioned earlier, that’s understandable. Nor has Laurinaitis given any favouritism to any wrestlers recently. I know that Laurinaitis was supportive of Kevin Nash, R-Truth and The Miz last year, but that was to help him become interim RAW General Manager. Since then, especially with The Miz, he hasn’t been supporting them as they are no longer needed to help him. As for Dolph Ziggler, Laurinaitis has not shown any favouritism towards him either. Ziggler is effectively a pawn in Laurinaitis’ feud with Punk only because he doesn’t want Punk to be the WWE Champion. The only person that has legitimate beef with Laurinaitis is Triple H. It was obvious (not wrestling obvious where it’s all revealed as if we’re 5 year olds) that Laurinaitis was helping Miz and R-Truth distrupt things with Triple H, which resulted in Laurinaitis getting his current position.

Laurinaitis is not as bad as people think. I mainly think that the reason that the fans boo him is not only of his feud with arguably the number one person in the company, it’s because of his real life role as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations. It doesn’t help that he took over from the extremely popular Jim Ross. One of his responsibilities is releasing people and wishing them well in their future endeavours. He has released a lot of good talent  over the years (Mickie James and Gail Kim come to mind as they’re two of the best female wrestlers around at the minute) but that’s not entirely his fault. If the Creative Department don’t have anything for you, no matter how talented you are, there is a high chance that you will be released.

In summary, I say give Laurinaitis a chance. He has made mistakes and is a jerk but what boss isn’t? At least he is man enough to admit them and try to rectify them. Plus, he has given you some good moments and matches over the last few months. How is that a bad thing?

CM Punk vs John Cena: 2011 LDW Match of the Year

  

The match between John Cena and CM Punk for the WWE Championship was one of the most emotionally charged matches in recent memory. Punk was in his home town of Chicago and was planning to leave the company with the WWE Championship. John Cena, as the face of the company, was determined to stop him but he had the threat of losing his job over him, thanks to Vince McMahon. I can’t remember the last time that such a match outside Wrestlemania had so much anticipation. I found this to be an interesting feud between the two because in this match the roles were reversed. Cena was supposed to be the hero who is saving the WWE by defeating Punk, keeping the WWE Championship in the company. However, even though he was in Chicago, Punk was being cheered because he represented what fans wanted in the WWE: change.

There are many reasons why this match was the Match of the Year. First of all, the entrances. Punk name was being chanted all through the night and the reaction when his music (which at the time was “This Fire Burns” by Killswitch Engage) was unbelievable. Punk’s mane was being chanted loudly with signs about him all over the place. Jerry Lawler summed it perfectly when he said it was like the NFL team Chicago Bears were in the Superbowl, and it was taking place at their own stadium, Soldier Field. It was the complete opposite when Cena’s music hit as the boos were deafening. I liked the way that Cena didn’t do his salute as he was effectively in enemy territory and it showed how serious he was taking this match.

All during the match, you can see that no matter what Cena did, Punk would find some way to get out of it. He kicked out of 2 Attitude Adjustments, and managed to get out of the STF 3 times, including one time when Punk reversed it into his submission move, the Anaconda Vice. This match had you completely hooked in and it went on for a good 25-30 minutes.

The end was when the WWE made you feel that they would play it safe and screw Punk (and the crowd) over. Vince McMahon came out with John Laurinaitis (did you know that he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations?) and when Cena hit the STF yet again, McMahon send Laurinaitis to go and ring the bell, but he is stopped by Cena who doesn’t want the match to end that way. Cena’s decision comes back to haunt him when Punk hits Cena with the GTS to get the win, sending the crowd wild.

McMahon, obviously, wasn’t happy with that and goes to plan B, getting Alberto Del Rio (who had won the RAW MITB match earlier on) to come out. However, Punk, who had been expecting that, kicks Del Rio in the head, gives McMahon a goodbye kiss and runs off into the sunset, never to be seen in the WWE again (well, 8 days).

World renowned reporter Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave this match 5 stars. It was the first time that he had done that for a WWE match since the Hell in a Cell match between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels in 1997. That fact, to me, speaks for itself. From the promo video and the entrances, to the match and the ending, everything worked so well. I don’t think that I have seen such an emotionally charged match since Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24 and I don’t know the next time that I will see something like that again. 

The Summerslam Conspiracy

The ending of Summerslam with Kevin Nash attacking CM Punk and then Alberto Del Rio cashing in his MITB contract to become the WWE Champion was one of the most unpredictable endings to a Pay Per View in ages. The following RAW, despite Triple H’s denials, Kevin Nash said that he received a text message from Triple H asking him to “stick the winner for me”. It looks like there are conflicting stories going round and I can’t see this being solved for another couple of weeks. So, how are the suspects in asking Nash to attack CM Punk?

Triple H

It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it? Kevin Nash received the text message from his phone. He may have intentionally missed Cena’s foot on the rope to make sure that Punk won the match. However, while he can be angry at CM Punk for effectively holding the company to ransom; if it wasn’t for Punk, Triple H wouldn’t be the COO now. I don’t think it’s him and he’s being used as a scapegoat, but there are rumours going round of a Punk/HHH feud going into Survivor Series, so you never know.

Alberto Del Rio

Alberto Del Rio was the RAW MITB contract holder. However, each time he tried to cash it in, it didn’t go well. Del Rio probably needed to make sure that the next time he would try to cash it in, his opponent wouldn’t be in a position to recover. The best way to do that is to get a hired gun (Nash) to do that for him. It would be something different. Each time, except for Rob Van Dam, the MITB contract has been cashed in, it has been when the holder has taken advantage of an attack on the champion. Del Rio has the money to hire someone to take out the champion and then he can come in and pick up the pieces. However, I believed him when he said that he saw the opportunity and took it. It’s possible but unlikely.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley

Stephanie probably wanted revenge for what happened to her father and she has the ability to get access to Triple H’s phone (being married to him and all). It’s a long shot but more likely, it wasn’t her.

John Laurinatis

John doesn’t like either Punk or Cena. He could have gotten access to Triple H’s phone and it could be that he could use this situation to his own advantage to get more power. It’s possible but unlikely.

And the most likely suspect is...

...Vince McMahon

If you think about it, it’s perfect. Vince has beef with Punk, Cena and Triple H. Punk held the company to ransom, Cena got the match at MITB back on while Punk was suspended when he threatened to quit, leading Vince to employ desperate measures at the Money in the Bank PPV to ensure Punk didn’t win. First, he tried to get Laurinatis to ring the bell when Punk was in the STF, which was foiled by Cena. He then tried to get Del Rio to cash in his MITB contract, which Punk foiled before running off into the sunset. Vince’s actions meant that the board had to get him to step down from the day to day operations and let Triple H take over. If Vince let all of that slide, then I would be very surprised. Vince probably wasn’t there but he could have got Laurinatis or even Stephanie to send the text message to Nash on Triple H’s phone, creating a scapegoat.

So, there are the suspects. We will find out soon enough who the culprit is.