Why John Laurinaitis Is Precisely the Heel WWE Needs Right Now

John Laurinaitis is not perfect—far from it, in fact. 

He’s bound to screw up at least two or three times per promo, he’s on TV more than any actual WWE superstar, he’s often incredibly monotone and he loves to make absolutely no facial expression whatsoever at the worst times ever. 

All that being said, though, Laurinaitis is still precisely the heel that the WWE needs right now. 

He’s certainly no Vince McMahon or even an Eric Bishchoff, but he’s improved drastically over the last year and has developed into one of the most intriguing characters on TV. 

Remember how bad he was when he first started appearing on TV regularly? Good God, he was awful. 

But Laurinaitis has slowly but surely gotten better, and he’s now in exactly the position that the WWE has desperately needed to fill. 

Ever since McMahon’s TV character “Mr. McMahon” became more of a part-timer character and, more specifically, since he largely stopped appearing on TV altogether, the WWE has desperately searched for that top heel authority figure. 

Now, Laurinaitis is not and will never be on McMahon’s level, but he’s already surpassed any of the recent heel authority figures that came before him: Mike Adamle (albeit an unintentional heel), the anonymous RAW GM, the heel guest stars, etc. 

All of those people I mentioned got “X-Pac” or “go away” heat, and while that remains true to an extent for Laurinaitis, he’s largely getting booed out of the building because he’s, to put it simply, a bad guy. 

Everything he does favors the heels, he screws over top stars like John Cena and CM Punk, and he puts babyfaces in unfair situations all the time. 

He’s the anti-Teddy Long, if you will. Yes, the same Teddy Long who we’ve complained and moaned about for years now. 

“Geez. All Teddy Long does is make tag-team matches.” 

“I’m so sick of Teddy Long. Please, get him off of my TV.” 

Yet, Teddy lost his job, and we’re now going to complain that Laurinaitis replaced him? 

Come on—we can’t have it both ways. 

We have to realize that there will never be a “next Vince McMahon,” just like there will never be a “next John Cena” or a “next Randy Orton.” 

Just like every WWE superstar carves his own path and makes his own mark, every heel authority figure does the same. And that’s precisely what Laurinaitis is doing. 

He is becoming the ultimate heel authority figure in an industry that is better off when heels run the show. 

Could you imagine if Laurinaitis was just an everyday, average Joe babyface that did nothing to stand out? How much more miserable would it be to sit through already bad RAW and SmackDown episodes every week? 

Thankfully, though, Laurinaitis does something that’s really hard to do in pro wrestling: He stands out. 

Laurinaitis stands out in a business that’s really hard to stand out in, and so what if he’s not perfect? No one is. 

He is able to take his weaknesses (the fact that he’s monotone being at the top of that list), turn them into strengths and use them as major parts of his character. 

What has resulted is a really good heel authority figure who’s done a lot more for the WWE than people realize. 

He’s gotten rid of the ever-so-dreadful Teddy Long, he’s helped Big Show turn heel when he desperately needed to, he’s slowly forming a stable of sorts (Eve, Big Show, David Otunga, etc.) when we’ve begged for years for the return of stables to the WWE, he’s given the WWE the evil boss it’s needed, he’s helped babyfaces like Cena get more sympathy from the fans, etc. 

Laurinaitis—and perhaps more specifically, the booking of his character—has not always been great, but we have to remember that no character is ever going to be perfect, Laurinaitis included. 

And even though the GM of both RAW and SmackDown is on TV a little too much for my liking, his TV character has led to plenty of great things for the WWE in such a relatively short span. 

Along with the good, you always get some bad, and I don’t know about you, but I think Laurinaitis is bringing a lot more good than bad. 

And that’s precisely why he’s the exact heel that the WWE needs, the heel that we asked for and the heel that we got.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.