WWE just fired one of its top executives. According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, John Laurinaitis has been released by WWE. This comes after he was placed on administrative leave for his involvement in former WWE CEO and chairman Vince McMahon allegedly paying $3 million for a former employee in order to keep an affair quiet. Sean Ross Sapp of Fighful confirmed the news but added that Laurinaitis still is on the mailing list.
Before being placed on administrative leave, Laurinaitis was WWE’s head of talent relations. Bruce Prichard took over for Laurinaitis but it was recently announced that Triple H is the new head of talent relationships once McMahon announced his retirement. Sapp said WWE doesn’t expect to bring back Laurinaitis, and one top WWE name called him “the biggest snake in the business” as the allegations were made public.
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Laurinaitis joined WWE WWE in March 2021 and worked in the talent relations department until 2012. He returned to WWE in March 2021 and was named head of talent relations. Before joining WWE for the first time, Laurinaitis was with WCW where he was the head booker. He is the brother of Joe Laurinaitis, who is known as Animal of the legendary tag team The Road Warriors.
Former WWE Superstar Jazz recently appeared on Rene Dupree’s Cafe de Rene podcast and talked about how Laurinaitis told her she had a “job for life” in WWE before she was released by the company. “It [WWE release] came out of the blue, like had no idea,” she said, per Inside the Ropes. “First of all, Johnny Ace [Laurinaitis] always told me, ‘Jazz, you have a job for life, you’re unbelievably talented, we’ve never had anyone like you. You have a job for life.’ So I kind of believed that, but yet still I wasn’t content and comfortable. I always kept working hard.”
Now that Triple H is head of talent relations, he wants everyone to be part of the process of growing WWE. “There are a massive pair of shoes to fill that I’m trying in some way to step into,” he said, per ComicBook.com. “But I do not dream for one second that I can fill those shoes by myself. It’s going to take a lot of us, it’s going to take a team, it’s going to take everybody here to fill those shoes and continue this in, but we will,” Levesque said in his opening comments.”
