John Laurinatis replaces Jim Ross

[Guest glennsoe]

WWE.com announced today that John Laurinaitis has been promoted to Jim Ross' old position of Vice President of Talent Relations. Ross has been moved into the position of Executive Vice President, Business Strategies.

 

According to the website, Ross will be working closely with WWE owner Vince McMahon as "an advisor on WWE's core business, as well as new business endeavors."

 

Ross' on air responsibilites as the lead announcer on Raw will not change.

 

Laurinaitis, known in the ring as Johnny Ace, joined WWE in March 2001 when the promotion bought World Championship Wrestling. Laurinaitis had come to WCW in a management position after years of wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Laurinaitis had been groomed for the position for some time, partially due to Ross' desire to lessen his own responsibilities.

 

 

 

APO: Goddamnit, I'm not going to tell you again to stop posting thread titles in all caps.

[notJames 0]

...Laurinaitis had been groomed for the position for some time, partially due to Ross' desire to lessen his own responsibilities.

Replace that with "shirk the blame for hiring shitty wrestlers" and you've got something there.

[2GOLD 0]

After bringing such talent as Nathan Jones and Big John Heinderich, I'm not shocked that Ross is out of the position.

 

Has the WWE hired anyone good that they knew could excel lately? It just seemed Ross wanted every big slow dumb lumbering thing he could find.

 

But what can Ace bring to the table here?

[notJames 0]

His brother.

 

And maybe some Japanese castoffs.

 

And false finishes. Yeah. Lots of false finishes.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

1,2, JOHNNY ACE!

[SuperJerk 0]

I'm not familair with Ace.

 

What horrid things has he been directly responcible for that smarks hate him so much?

[Guest Bottled Black]

Hopefully this means less No-Talent Hoss'

[Guest BillyTheStud]

Holding back Matt Hardy for one.

[notJames 0]

I don't know that the IWC necessarily hates the man. It's more a knock on his proclivity for booking matches with tons of false finishes. If anything, he was one of the few gaijin wrestlers to make a name for himself in Japan after a lackluster career in the States as one of the Dynamic Dudes.

 

I too hope for an end to the Hoss era. That will only happen if/when the RAW announce team is put out to pasture.

[Guest Repo Man Reborn]

I hope he brings back his mullet.

 

Or maybe he can bring back Shane Douglas and they can form the Dynamics VP's of Talent Relations.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a BS position unless your last name is McMahon.

[AndrewTS 0]

Hopefully this means less No-Talent Hoss'

Actually, Ace loves hoss too.

 

I recall him being behind the Albert push that was originally supposed to be Hardy's.

[Guest Trivia247]

Now Animal will return with the Power Warrior and Reform the Hellraisers in Honor of Hawk....and perhaps Job to Sakoda and Akio

[Guest deadbeater]

Knowing what hosses can do and have done in Japan, he can make the hosses here to do move moves besides plodding.

 

I like false finishes, if it breaks up the monotony of matches we have seen lately.

[CanadianChick 0]

We'll see if this has any affect on anything, which I doubt it will.

 

If it does though, Hardy's screwed.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

We'll see if this has any affect on anything, which I doubt it will.

 

If it does though, Hardy's screwed.

Cause his push now has been SPECTACULAR.

[CanadianChick 0]

We'll see if this has any affect on anything, which I doubt it will.

 

If it does though, Hardy's screwed.

Cause his push now has been SPECTACULAR.

Hm, true. Can he get any worse than now?

[Zack Malibu 0]

Wasn't it Ace who tried to get Diamond, Swinger and Konnan in the company a while back? I don't think he's a strict hoss lover like good ol' JR, which is good. However, his track record for underutilized talent (re: Hardy, Matt) isn't so hot amongst the smark crowd.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Hopefully this means less No-Talent Hoss'

Actually, Ace loves hoss too.

 

I recall him being behind the Albert push that was originally supposed to be Hardy's.

I know alot of smarks were mad about the whole Hardy and I kinda was to but, really even if Hardy did get that push it would have really lead to anything cause you know the WWE would have pulled the plug on it. And as for what this means for Hardy. Well it's not like he's doing alot now.

[Zack Malibu 0]

The Hardy burial is also amusing to me because here was this kid who came up from jobber matches to one of the most famous tag teams in the company, and then got shit on. Usually the "Hardy push" as we'll call it is reserved for the guys who have come over from another company in order to humble them/get back at someone/whatever.

 

And if Lita is the one in the doghouse lately and that's why Hardy gets jobbed in and out, why the hell is she getting the title shot at the PPV? The lack of logic is astounding.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Remember one time they were having one of those backstage meetings were the main eventers and Vince, JR, etc were telling the talent it's there fault for the bad ratings, etc. But, Hardy decided to stand up to them and say that it's not the wrestlers maybe it the writers and their bad writing and management. So, of course, for standing up to them Hardy it's punished, depushed and jobbed out. And cept for his CW title run it's been all downhill from there. Like WWE has it out for him or something.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

We'll see if this has any affect on anything, which I doubt it will.

 

If it does though, Hardy's screwed.

Cause his push now has been SPECTACULAR.

Hm, true. Can he get any worse than now?

They can move him over and job him out to Orlando Jordan on Velocity every week, resign Jeff Hardy, and then fire him (Matt).

[AndrewTS 0]

Hopefully this means less No-Talent Hoss'

Actually, Ace loves hoss too.

 

I recall him being behind the Albert push that was originally supposed to be Hardy's.

I know alot of smarks were mad about the whole Hardy and I kinda was to but, really even if Hardy did get that push it would have really lead to anything cause you know the WWE would have pulled the plug on it. And as for what this means for Hardy. Well it's not like he's doing alot now.

It did nothing for A-Train either, since WWE pulled the plug on the program anyway, and Train's doing nothing right now.

 

Also, there have been various rumors as to why, but Hardy is on a number of people's shit lists allegedly, so he's not going to get a real push anytime soon.

[Guest Anglesault]

We'll see if this has any affect on anything, which I doubt it will.

 

If it does though, Hardy's screwed.

Cause his push now has been SPECTACULAR.

Hm, true. Can he get any worse than now?

Hayes and Ace out to get him?

 

He'll become a ballerina.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Hayes and Ace out to get him?

 

He'll become a ballerina.

Ok why is Hardy on Hayes shitlist? Does it have something to do with the brief time he was managing the Hardys?

[Guest Anglesault]

The Hardy Boyz Book.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Ok haven't read it. Why is Hayes pissed about it? What did Matt say about him?

[Placebo Effect 0]

I loved how Ace booked in WCW. Russo had him come on to simply provide interesting finishes, and every damn match ended, whether it be clean or from interference, in at least an interesting fashion.

[Steviekick 0]

I loved how Ace booked in WCW. Russo had him come on to simply provide interesting finishes, and every damn match ended, whether it be clean or from interference, in at least an interesting fashion.

Same here. The stuff he did at the end of WCW wasn't groundbreaking, but certainly refreshing from their stale product. And you can't get any stale-er than current WWE.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I go by what Ace did in WCW when he actually had power, and he did gave Lance Storm a HUGE push with 3 titles and Lance never looked better. There was a 3 week period where Ace was booking in WCW and the shows were SO MUCH better. I don't get the Ace-hate here. He played the WWE political system and it got him into one of the top positions in the company where he could actually do some good.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Ace had a pretty good run at the end of WCW. Mostly clean finishes was a huge part of why I liked his booking.

 

And good ole JR really needed to get the boot after the Nathan Jones debacle. Ultimo Dragon ended up being a waste as they didn't know what they were getting despite owning all his U.S. work on tape. Heindrich was a disaster as the only thing he did was hurt Stevie Richards every match. I don't think they quite knew what they were doing when they brought Jimmy Yang in either. Kenzo Suzuki will probably blow up in their face as well.

 

And that's only the last year.