Everyone Roots for the Underdog

By Scott Keith on June 17, 2012

Scott,
A while back, CM Punk cut a vicious promo on John Laurinaitis, and you
mentioned that he was coming off as sort of a jerk. Since then, Johnny
Ace has been involved in one "You're Fired!" story after another. In
other words, the kind of plot that got us all rooting for Steve Austin.
When Cena called Laurinaitis a "chain-smoking cripple," he came off as
a total douchebag, even for John Cena. I know WWE would like us to think
that between COOHHH and Vince McMahon, Laurinaitis is the lesser of
three evils. But he really hasn't DONE anything. Meanwhile, a lot of
internet fans (like me) think of Triple H as the *original* John Cena,
and a lot of casual viewers still consider of Vince McMahon Skeletor to
everyone's He-Man.
But Laurinaitis' only moment of memorable evil was suckerpunching Mick
Foley. He fired Big Show, yeah, but now they're so close, it had no
lasting impact. So why *are* we supposed to hate him? Because he talks
about "People Power" like some phony politician? Because he's disabled?
I don't get it. All I know is, if John Cena had pulled that whole BBQ
Sauce Rape scene on Laurinaitis, the crowd wouldn't have been NEARLY as
into it.
So what's the point? Why not just make Cole the Evil GM and finally do
something with all that heel beef they've been building for years?
– Zeus

I should point out that Big Johnny was legitimately removed from his position as Executive VP of Talent Relations and officially replaced by HHH, so he's getting "fired" in real life as well. He'll still be booking the house shows, though, and he probably makes better money as a performer anyway.

But yeah, for quite a while I actually really liked him as a goofy character, because he was something totally different than the polished talkers and workers they had. He was the simpering middle management who didn't know how to act around the circus atmosphere of WWE, kind of like Joseph Park but for real, and there was a real charm about it. He was neither good nor evil, he just aligned himself with whoever benefited him at that moment. Now he's just evil and that's dull, and as noted he really hasn't done anything BAD. Or at least not bad enough to justify the reactions that he's supposed to be getting. You get the feeling that he's one beating away from having all his heat blown off, like Otunga or Tensai.

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