Professional wrestling legend and two times WWE Hall of Famer Booker T who is a former five times WCW World Heavyweight champion and a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion recently talked about the departure of John Laurinaitis from WWE and expressed is disappointment about it.
John Laurinaitis had been the Head of Talent Relations of WWE before getting released from the promotion. He worked in WWE for over 2 decades mostly on backstage roles. He was also an on air personnel for the brief time period of 2011 and 2012. His storyline with John Cena is still remembered by the fans.
Booker T Expresses His Disappointment Of John Laurinaitis’ Departure From WWE
Laurinaitis had been a professional wrestler as well. He was a big name on the independent circuit during his time and he worked on the NWA as well. He won a lot of championships throughout the independent circuit. He joined WWE back in 2001 to perform backstage roles.
His job was intact as long as Vince McMahon was in charge. From 2012 to 2020 he worked as the Road Agent of WWE and in 2021 he was promoted as the Head of Talents and he was playing the role happily. But recently, Vince McMahon announced his retirement and his son in law Triple H became the Head of Creative of WWE. With this major change, Laurinaitis had to depart from the promotion as well.
Booker T who is a former five times WCW World Heavyweight champion recently spoke on his Hall Of Fame podcast where he talked about the departure of John Laurinaitis from WWE and expressed is disappointment about it. Booker T said;
“I give that dude a whole lot of credit for making me a much better performer. He came over from the New Japan Pro Wrestling back in the day, and in New Japan, for all the wrestlers over there, he was the finish guy.”
“Then he came to WCW, he wanted to work with me. I was a guy who had been in the business a decade plus by that time. I was like, ‘Man, how can this guy help me? He came to me one day. He said, ‘I want you to do this tonight.’ It was five pages, written out. I was like, ‘Bro, I don’t work like this, man. I can’t do this.’” Continued Booker T
“He’s like, ‘Just just keep an open mind and just try it out.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m sorry, but I don’t work like this.’ He goes, ‘I’ll tell you what. Just look it over. Whatever you like, keep it in there. Whatever you don’t like, throw it out.’ I was like, ‘Give it here.’ He gave it to me. It was five pages long, but it was only a finish.”
“I looked it over. I’m thinking his guy doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, but I’m gonna have a piece of it anyway, I’m going to flatter him. You know, make him feel good for a moment. I went out and I did it. It was so detailed.
“It was some of the smallest little bitty things, stuff that I just never really thought about. From that point on, every week, I would come to work and I would look for Johnny Ace, and I would say, “What you got for me?’ It was like that until WCW closed down.”
“When I came to WWE, he started writing stuff for me again. He was very instrumental in my career in making me challenge myself to think a whole lot more and to be better. So yeah, man, this is a sad day for me. I’m sad to see Laurinaitis step down if that’s the case.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription