WWE Raw: Why John Laurinaitis Is the Right Character to Run Monday Nights

The WWE has had countless authority figures run its flagship show, Monday Night Raw, with varying amounts of success. 

For all the good (Vince McMahon), we’ve gotten just as much of the bad (the guest stars or guest hosts or whatever you want to call them) and even more of the ugly (Mike Adamle and the anonymous Raw GM that was actually a laptop computer). 

The position of Raw General Manager has had little to no stability throughout the PG era, with too many guest hosts and no GM that has been able to fit the role well enough to fill it permanently. Then, like a blessing from heaven, Triple H came back this summer in his new position as WWE COO, seemingly there to save us from having to put up with any more incompetent Raw GMs. 

Well, that’s what some of us thought at least. 

Although we expected Triple H to have a lengthy run as WWE COO and the boss of Monday Night Raw, he found himself too involved in the show’s top storylines. Instead of working as the Raw GM first and a wrestler second, Triple H was feuding with Kevin Nash and CM Punk and competing on pay-per-views, while allowing Raw to spin completely out of control. 

He failed in his role as WWE COO, and thus, he was replaced by the man currently running Raw, John Laurinaitis. 

“The Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the interim General Manager of Monday Night Raw” as he likes to call himself garnered a lot of heat when he first took over the GM position from fans who criticized him for lacking any mic skills or charisma. 

Yet, here we are nearing 2012, and Laurinaitis has established himself as one of the better authority figures in recent WWE history. 

Why? Because he’s taken his major weakness (the fact that he’s boring) and turned it into a major asset. 

Laurinaitis may not be “Mr. Excitement” like he claims, but he’s been able to identify his limitations as a performer and use them to help improve his character rather than take away from it. He could have easily become the next Adamle, a monotone, middle-aged man who adds virtually nothing to the WWE product. 

Instead, Laurinaitis has separated himself from the recent line of horrible Raw bosses by both serving a purpose and keeping the main focus of Raw where it belongs: On the superstars in the ring. 

Someone like Triple H obviously played an important role on Raw during his time as WWE COO, but it was one that may have been too important. Rather than letting the active, full-time wrestlers be the ones involved in main event storylines, Triple H was the focal point of the “walkout storyline” and found himself competing in three high-profile matches throughout the fall. 

On the other hand, someone like Adamle found himself so out of touch with the WWE product that he was actually reading off a clipboard at one point in order to remember what he was supposed to say during his promos. 

Not to mention, you have the horrendous Raw guest hosts, 90 percent of which, like Adamle, had no interest or connection to the WWE product and turned Raw into a joke whenever they appeared on screen. As bad as they were, however, it was hard to hate them as much as the anonymous Raw GM. 

Despite being, you know, a freakin’ laptop computer, the anonymous Raw GM was involved in far too many storylines without ever giving us any sort of payoff whatsoever. 

All of these fruitless attempts by the WWE to have a GM that contributed to storylines (in a good way) wound up backfiring, even when a future Hall of Famer like Triple H was put into the role. 

If the WWE has learned anything by now, it should be that you have to find the right balance with whoever it is that is running Raw. He or she has to have knowledge of the product, he has to be someone who is no longer an active wrestler and he has to be able to contribute to the WWE in his own unique way. 

No one has fit that mold better than John Laurinaitis. 

As much as Punk has mocked his failures in the business, Laurinaitis has been around pro wrestling for much of his adult life, and given that his real-life job is to scout talent for the WWE, he brings some legitimacy to the GM position that very few others would be able to without wanting to get in the ring themselves. 

And, of course, Laurinaitis does it in that great quirky fashion of his. 

I almost can’t tell if Laurinaitis is really that bland or if he’s just playing up his actual personality a little more for the TV cameras. Regardless, he’s quickly become one of those unintentionally funny comedy figures who I want to see on Raw every week. 

Laurinaitis comes complete with that wonderful comedic relief, a personality that’s half heel and half baby face and a visible, yet limited role on WWE TV. 

I was one of the ones who criticized him at the beginning for how boring he was, but the more TV exposure he’s gotten, the more comfortable he seems to be as the interim general manager of Monday Night Raw—and if I had my way, the eventual permanent one. 

I’m not saying that Laurinaitis will be lauded as one of the greatest on-screen personalities in WWE history once his career is over, but he’s been a welcome change on Raw after sitting through years of utter crap from the show’s GM position. 

Keep doing what you’ve been doing, John. As long as you continue performing like you have been, there’s no doubt that you’ll remain the right person to run Monday Night Raw.