John Laurinaitis became a regular part of WWE programming in 2011. The more hardcore fans already knew him as Johnny Ace, a professional wrestler who had wrestled in Japan. Decent overall but nothing to write about.
Prior to his WWE tenure, Laurinaitis worked for WCW but when the company was brought was Vince McMahon, Laurinaitis was brought into the Standford based promotion.
Initially retained as a road agent, Laurinaitis was later promoted to the Vice President of Talent Relations, a position held by the much-beloved wrestling announcer, Jim Ross. Fans were already not too fond of him but then, in 2011, Punk singled him out as one of the reasons why the company was on a downward spiral, and from that point on, Laurinaitis started appearing on television.
Laurinaitis Became The GM Of RAW
He tagged along with Vince McMahon and then Triple H, but eventually Laurinaitis seized power from Triple H, and he was appointed the general manager of RAW. From the start, Laurinaitis was obsessed with keeping the title off of CM Punk and the two went back and forth for the next several months.
The dynamic was interesting as Punk did not fit the mold of a WWE superstar, and he was a beloved internet darling. Laurinaitis was following the path of Vince McMahon and did not want Punk to represent the company. Jacked homegrown talent over an indie darling was what he wanted.
The angle continued into 2012, but during WrestleMania season Punk and Laurinaitis went their separate ways. Punk started a program with Chris Jericho and Laurinaitis assembled a team of villains to take on Teddy Long, the general manager of SmackDown, with the control of both brands on the line.
Laurinaitis Goes After John Cena
Johnny Ace’s team won at WrestleMania and Laurinaitis had control of both brands. Common sense dictated that Laurinaitis would restart his feud with Punk, but out of nowhere Laurinaitis started targeting John Cena.
In recent times, John Cena has taken his rightful place as a beloved icon, but back then Big Match John was vilified by a large majority of the audience. As mentioned before, Punk was a viable character to work against Laurinaitis given who he was and where he came from, but Cena was homegrown and precisely what the company wanted in a wrestler. Nevertheless, Laurinaitis became obsessed with ending the career of John Cena and an entire year's worth of build-up with Punk went straight to hell.
Laurinaitis first brought in Brock Lesnar to finish Cena off but the former UFC fighter lost the match at Extreme Rules 2012 and Johnny Ace enlisted the support of Lord Tensai. After an attack on Cena by Tensai, Laurinaitis announced that he would be facing Cena at the Over The Limit PPV.
The WWE Broad of Directors (The fictional ones, not the real guys) intervened and stated that if Laurinaitis lost to Cena, he would be terminated. The match served as the main event of the PPV, over CM Punk versus Daniel Bryan, and it was one horrendous affair, from start to finish.
You would think that good guy John would finish the match as soon as possible to end the tyrannical reign of Laurinaitis but nope. Cena bullied Laurinaitis for close to 20 minutes and lost in the end due to interference by the Big Show.
Yes, Big Show turned heel and aided Laurinaitis in defeating Cena. Apparently, Laurinaitis had presented Big Show with an iron-clad contract and the big man accepted, despite the fact that the boss had made him grovel and cry on live television just weeks before.
Johnny Ace now had the Big Show on his side, but out of nowhere, Vince McMahon showed up and aligned himself with John Cena. In kayfabe, McMahon had been relieved of his duties by the Broad of Directors, but now he was tasked with giving Laurinaitis a job review and held the decision on whether to retain him or fire him.
The John Laurinaitis Storyline Dragged On And On
Big Show and John Cena faced off in a steel cage match at No Way Out and Super Cena got his hand raised in the end. McMahon then fired Laurinaitis and Cena put him through the table as a parting gift. The saga of the evil boss came to an end and fans were left scratching their heads, as nothing about the storyline made sense. Why go from CM Punk to John Cena?
Laurinaitis had survived against CM Punk, Teddy Long and even Triple H, the COO of the company. Triple H was seconds away from firing the corrupt general manager, but the appearance of the Undertaker distracted the COO, and he pretty much forgot that Laurinaitis even existed.
In the end, super babyface John Cena was the one who put an end to Laurinaitis, but the storyline was well past its expiration point. As soon as Punk versus Laurinaitis came to an end, Johnny Ace was pretty much worthless as an on-screen character, but the company kept pushing and pushing, dragging out the angle over several more months just so Cena would finally get some cheers.