Let’s Say Nice Things About... John Laurinaitis

In an effort to bring some positivity to professional wrestling—and the world for that matter—Cageside Seats and its community will say nice things about people and things in wrestling every single day throughout 2017.

A reminder of the rules: only positivity allowed here. No back-handed compliments, and CERTAINLY NO NEGATIVITY. If you don’t have something nice to say, keep it to yourself, or take it elsewhere. Negative comments will be deleted and you may be subjected to a ban. Cool? Cool.

Today’s subject: former WWE talent relations director and one-time general manager John Laurinaitis.

I’ll start. Taking over for Jim Ross was a tough ask, and quite frankly a thankless job. Though a lot of his crop didn’t pan out, he should get at least some credit for bringing in CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, two of the five or ten most popular men in the WWF in the 21st century.

Elsewhere, he did stabilize WCW a bit in its final days in creative, so it wasn’t a complete dumpster fire on-screen. And he left a pretty sweet gig in All Japan Pro Wrestling to take a chance in WCW. Bet on yourself and so forth and so on.

But perhaps his biggest contribution to the business is the invention of a three-quarter turn neckbreaker that would be the basis of the Stone Cold Stunner, the Diamond Cutter, and the RKO. That’s pretty “aces” if I say so myself.

Ok, you do that now. Say something nice about “Mr. People Power”.

And if you have a suggestion for a future “Let’s Say Nice Things About...”, hit me up on Twitter @notoriouseddie. I promise I won’t bite.