John Laurinaitis

[2.0] "A bad wrestler and an even more worse human being, Only thing I ever enjoyed was his feud with John Cena in 2011-2022. As a backstage executive, his reputation is even worse. One of the worst Head of Talent Relations, one of the worst producers, quite literally everything he did qualifies him as being one of the worst."

[0.0] "John Laurinaitis has left a stain on the industry both behind the scenes and now through serious allegations of misconduct that overshadow any contributions he may have made. As a performer, "Johnny Ace" was forgettable at best--his run in Japan is rarely mentioned with any real acclaim, and his brief onscreen role as an authority figure in WWE was widely criticized for being dull and forced. As a backstage executive, his reputation is even worse. His tenure in talent relations was marked by poor decisions, backstage politics, and a toxic environment that many former wrestlers have openly spoken out against. The recent allegations only reinforce the worst perceptions of him. He brought nothing meaningful to the business and, if anything, actively made it worse"

[2.0] "My review scale is "how watchable are they" not "are they human garbage? ", however very often the two intersect. Johnny Ace in a "bell to bell" regard was "there", meanwhile his real life/professional persona made a struggling McMahonland product WAY WORSE. As a Dynamic Dude he wasn't very dynamic, but I guess you can't argue he was a dude. When Ace took over talent relations, replacing a more than apt Jim Ross ~ WWE took a BLATANT NOSEDIVE and has never recovered (never will). In general, Ace was a DUD and a detriment to this once great sport. One point five points for being in tag matches against people like The Midnight Express."

[0.0] "I've listened/watched countless shoot interviews throughout the years, and not one person has had a good thing to say about Laurinaitis. Even when reading reports online, people have always shit over this guy. He's just a nasty POS who failed in the North American wrestling scene and saw an opportunity to be a gaijin in AJPW. I can count on one hand the amount of good matches he had in AJPW, and a lot of that was because of his tag partners (Kobashi, one of the all time greats and an incredible Dr. Death Steve Williams) and the other people in the match. He was simply not a great wrestler and became an ass-kisser in AJPW and WWE. Outside of the ring, yeah... speaks for itself. Not a great person, not a great wrestler."

[0.0] "A straight up piece of shit. A mediocre wrestler that had the luck to be surrounded by some of the greatest talents in history, and a horrid character, head of talent relations and executive after that. He consistently put ideas that were worthless and pushed them in WWE TV, being a main contributor to the decline in general quality the product suffered in the late 2000's and early 10's. Killed the women's division and pushed the "Divas", an insult to women's wrestling not because they were raunchy or clearly male gaze (Although i find it stupid to still have that sort of content while being "PG", but age ratings have consistenly been bullshit) but because he made a division that was very hard to get attached to and only pushed superstars by their looks, making many decisions that affected this division and brought down superstars like Gail Kim. For the brief time he was a TV authority figure, he was just an extra, an interchangeable piece that like others POS like Alberto del Rio or Vince, clinged on to great storylines to try to get fans to appreciate them (And unlike the other two, it did not work on John). Finally, the #1 reason why he gets this rating is because of the recent allegations, even if he didnt do the worst of these things he at the very least cheated on his wife(who even worse, had CANCER) and is a piece of garbage of the lowest tier. John Laryngitis, you wont read this, but if you ever do, i hope you burn in something worse than hell. Absolute zero"

[0.0] "I'm glad I really hated his work before we knew him as a rapist. His heel work in the early 2010's was so damn cringe and unlikable. His heel heat in general was really bad. His work in AJPW was honestly pretty good getting a couple 5-star matches (Just because of Kenta and Mitsuru), but a sharp decline was present. As an authority figure (and in real life) he was just Vince McMahon's stooge with no real personality except trying to upstage any popular WWE superstar at the time. Vince booking CM Punk being on the cover of WWE 13' was cool, except they booked John Laurinitus as dastardly for putting his face on the cover fist....what? Also again, he's a rapist. Alrighty then!"

[0.0] "While he was a pretty decent wrestler during his All Japan years, everything Laurinaitis has done since retiring and becoming a backstage guy and onscreen persona in WWE has completely sullied his legacy as a wrestler. His run as general manager was unwatchable and one of the worst storylines from probably the worst period of WWE's history. Also, the recent Grant lawsuit/allegations have exposed him as a truly soulless monster on top of his already numerous personal failings. I can't thing of a vaguely good thing this guy has done since leaving All Japan."

[0.0] "Let's be honest, from the modern perspective, nobody really gives a shit about his time in AJPW. While he wasn't bad during that time, he was always surrounded by quite literally the best in the entire business. The real criticism is the past 20 years backstage in WWE.One of the worst Head of Talent Relations, one of the worst producers, quite literally everything he did qualifies him as being one of the worst. But of course, since 2022, it has only gotten worse, especially in 2024. with his alleged actions according to the Janel Grant lawsuit. Genuine fucking scum."

[0.0] "Johnny Ace was fine in AJPW, although carried to his better performances by far better wrestlers (I know some may dispute this but I recommend you go watch his best bouts and tell me that anyone but Ace was the weak link. This isn't to say he was a bad worker, but he certainly wasn't a great one). However considering the allegations recently I cannot in good faith give Laurinaitis anything but a 0. He's a despicable person and if there was any justice in the world he'd be spending the rest of his life in a small cell. There's plenty more to criticise him for but none of that really matters in comparison, the wrestling world would truly be a better place if he'd never been involved."

[0.0] "I've only heard of this guy mainly because of being Road Warrior Animal's brother and the Jim Cornette rants on him. He had backstage role in WWE where he was close to Vince McMahon. Never cared about the guy as a wrestler or as an agent anyway. But with the allegations that came out recently in the Vince/Jenny Grant scandal, also involving Laurinaitis himself, he revealed to be a major asshole and backstabber. Add his personal life behaviour to the mix and you got a piece of human garbage without any kind of talent in Wrestling business whatsoever."

[6.0] "He was sooooooooo good in All Japan, but after he got Americanized in 2000. It was all downhill. He turned into a shitty human, promo, and even occasional wrestler. Just turned into a pest, a sex pest."

[4.0] "I absolutely hate that I gotta give this guy a full 4 points for being a really solid tag guy in All-Japan, because outside of that, both professionally and personally, this guy is the drizzling shits. A terrible human being who was awful both on-screen and backstage at WWE, just a couple really great matches too many to completely disregard. Definitely worth mostly disregarding though."

[6.0] "Yeah, I don't quite understand why Johnny's rating is so low here. Sure he was next to insufferable as Raw GM and genuinely had "go away" heat from me, but his work in All Japan was something to remember. Guy fit right in with the other gaijin in that company, especially in tag teams."

[8.0] "It was his tag work, and work in All Japan that solidified him. This idea that 'Johnny Ace was carried' is just hard to bare witness to. He may have not been a good backstage personality when he worked in the 90s, but he was a damn good wrestler, being surrounded by the four pillars can give anyone the excuse to say "He was carried by better workers", when in reality he had fantastic in ring psychology working tag match, was innovative with how he moved and executed, and had great timing / awareness. His character work as WWE GM was fantastic too, despite a few poor booking decisions done on him. Which really is why he's so poorly rated, his booking as a wrestler and personality in American television and the independents rubbed off wrong to the people. But for me, he was a great worker."

[9.0] "I think maybe the other comments for Johnny Ace are naive. I am a pro wrestler myself and I will tell you now, it is impossible to be carried to a truly great match. Sure, lower level guys could look decent being carried by a Flair or a Hart, but there is absolutely no way that Johnny Ace could he a mediocre wrestler and be a part of so man epic tag matches. By my ratings, Ace was in a 5 star match once. To put that into perspective, I would rate just 7 matches to be 5 stars. Johnny Ace brings innovation, tag team psychology, an impeccable sense of timing and drama, an incredible work ethic, and crazy cardio (wrestlers often joke that the only reason we're not all having 5 star matches is because of our cardio). Watch his team stuff with Steve Williams and honestly say he's not one of the best wrestlers of all time. He was leagues ahead of most of Japan and all of America outside of Michaels in the 90s. With the amount of hero worship that guys like Undertaker or AJ Styles get (both guys who I would say are great dance partners but not. the carrying type like Flair), I am sincerely shocked at Ace's ratings. To rate him as a 5 is disingenuous. I imagine people probably just detest him. because of his job as the axeman for WWE. Heck, he carried CM Punk through the best WWE storyline of the past 15 years with awesomely nuanced promos. Ace played a mostly straight laced and fair boss character who was still able to get heat as an "evil boss" (which is a role that hasn't been over since 1999 anyway). Definitely in my top 20 of all time."

[4.0] "These four points are exclusively due to the fact that Johnny Ace did extraordinarily well for himself, not for the fans nor for the companies he worked for. I have always been puzzled by how AJPW kept on calling him back year after after year when it was abundantly clear he was nowhere in the same league as, say, Terry Gordy and there was a queue of far more talented foreign workers waiting for a call from the AJPW head office. But Japanese promoters are always like that and Baba was no exception: while Johnny Ace was not catastrophically bad he stuck out like a sore thumb because he was not merely surrounded by better workers all around, but those same better workers often played second fiddle to him. Great overachiever but keep him away from my wrestling, thank you very much."

[5.0] "Was decent in Japan (and, honestly, that was really because he got carried HARD by the AJPW guys, by himself he's a pretty poor wrestler) and worked best in tag matches, where his flaws could be hidden behind far more talented guys, where he could come in for a few nice spots, hit a rest hold, etc. He was fine there and did nothing particularly special, but he could put on a good tag match if he was worked with correctly. As a promoter and agent, I don't think there's one person who thought he did a good job. He seems lazy and rather incompetent, and, again, has to be carried by others to actually get things done."

[6.0] "Admittedly, I am most familiar with American wrestling, so I did some recent digging into Ace's matches in Japan & I have to say that they were much better than I was expecting. Being that Johnny tended to be much bigger than the Japanese opponents he'd work against, Ace was able to work to his strengths, as he was never the most agile guy in the world. Particularly his match with Misawa is really great with an electric crowd. As a talent scout, Johnny is most known for hiring out of modeling catalogues, which really hurt the women's side of the business for many years. As a GM he was pretty terrible at a time when Raw was a notoriously bad show overall. His match against Cena was beyond atrocious."

[4.0] "Subpar wrestler. Never shined as a singles star and really only shined when he was being carried in tag team matches. Today he's one of the biggest corporate "yes men" you will find. People Power!"

[3.0] "Johnny Ace is just a example of someone who rode the coattails of others and cut the legs out from others to get top positions in the territories in which he worked. A typical "yes" man, he was only in the business because his brother was a star and had to be carried by those around him, but somehow always got the credit and glory he didn't deserve."

[7.0] "Gets a lot of flack now and days for his post-career work and for how he handles the talent backstage, which is somewhat unfair given the solid work he put in during the 90s in AJPW. He and Steve Williams formed probably the fourth or fifth best team in the companies history. That being said he did have Steve Williams to carry him (along with Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada and Akiyama among others). His charisma was always lacking though, and the less time he has on a mic the better."

[4.0] "There's an old saying in pro wrestling that says any wrestler who is truly great could carry a broomstick to a great match. In Johnny Ace's case he just happens to be one of the best and most fortunate broomsticks ever."

[8.0] "John Laurinaitis is actually a pretty solid in ring wrestler. I liked his matches in All Japan Pro Wrestling where he had some classic tag matches and a very good match against Kenta Kobashi . Also, without him their would be no RKO or any cutter variation. I wasnt so much a fan of his WWE run where he was GM though. Overall 8/10."

[9.0] "Such a low average rating for Johnny Ace is nothing short of criminal. This man was an exceptional worker, having great matches for All Japan in the 1990s. John Laurinaitis was also a great professional. I'm not going to comment on the man's corporate role; I like to separate myself from that."

[1.0] "Johnny Ace is the head of talent of relations and basically the head honcho of WWE's employees since 2004. I've never heard one wrestler's accountability speak anything positive regarding this guy. His feud with John Cena back in 2012 was terrible and that's all I feel like writing for this guy. For shame Johnny Ace."

[2.0] "This rating is not for Johnny Ace, the wrestler. I haven't seen many of Johnny's matches in Japan (supposedly where his best work was), and I"ve only seen him a few times on old NWA tapes as one half of the Dynamic Dudes. (I wasn't impressed, but he was serviceable in what I've seen. ) This rating is for John Laurinitis, road agent and executive vice president of talent relations. I've listened to a lot of interviews with a lot of wrestlers, managers, commentators, referees... not ONE of them has had a nice thing to say about this man. Everybody has a lousy story to tell about some crooked, asinine thing he's done to hold somebody down, step on somebody, or move hell and high water to kiss Vince McMahon's ass. He is a bad fit for his job, but apparently Vince doesn't seem to realize this. CM Punk's promo where he ripped this man a new one seems to be a fairly accurate assessment of how the wrestling world views John Laurinitis. He may have invented the Ace Crusher, but he is otherwise a loathsome, underhanded, despicable human being. But that's what the WWE seems to thrive on, so he's right at home, I guess."

[6.0] "Johnny Ace is hard to give a rating too. If you're talking about his wrestling career, there's his awful run in WCW, but then there's also his Japan work, including more than one Dave Meltzer five star match. If you're talking everything after, he's reportedly an awful stooge backstage and a terrible Head of Talent Relations, but he was also one of the most entertaining heel GM characters ever. I think the good slightly outweighs the bad with Johnny as a whole, but I'm still only comfortable giving him a 6."

[8.0] "Maybe he lost his career as GM, but c'mon, he is Johnny Ace. Wrestling in Japan, Ace Crusher, dudes."

[6.0] "He innovated the Ace Crusher and had excellent tag matches in AJPW (Although I heard that the likes of Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada & Taue carried him a bit). As a singles wrestler, he was good with the right opponent.... in Japan."