Jim Ross reflected on the 2003 transition of power within WWE’s Talent Relations department, specifically addressing the actions of John Laurinaitis. At the time, Laurinaitis was reportedly pushing hard to take over Ross’s position as the head of the department. Ross stated that despite their working relationship, Laurinaitis never explicitly informed him of his ambitions.
“John [Laurinaitis] got bold and didn’t try to hide his agenda. Through all that, those imaginations, never once did he come to me and say, you know, JR, I’d like to be in charge of talent relations, and here’s why, here’s I’m qualified, and so forth. But you know, at the same time, I’ve got to say, well, I helped build this department. All those guys are on that roster that you’re seeing on television. I signed, so I got a vested interest in this deal, so I’m not ready to step away. But I know he kept pushing Vince, and he was younger, and he looked good in a suit. He had pretty teeth, and look at me, I can’t even smile.”
Ross explained that he felt a vested interest in the department he helped build and was not ready to step away at that time. However, Vince McMahon eventually decided to side with Laurinaitis, who was younger and fit the corporate aesthetic McMahon preferred. Ross was subsequently moved to a new executive role, which he considered largely meaningless despite his pay remaining the same.
“So anyhow, you know, Vince sided with John and decided it was time, and he was very nice on the whole deal. He couldn’t thank me enough for my contributions. I think it made me the EVP of business strategies, or I had some title, I don’t know. It’s meaningless. Didn’t matter. My money didn’t change. My hours didn’t change. I worked less hours, actually, but the payroll said to be paid. The funny story about that is, I was still doing payroll. I got in a conversation about something, and I said, Well, I gotta, I gotta hop. I gotta finish payroll. He said, What do you mean you gotta finish payroll. That’s not your job anymore. I said, I understand that, Mr. McMahon, but your new guy doesn’t understand that. It was an arduous, mind-numbing responsibility every week; there’s no off time, you cannot pay a guy, cannot pay or screw their money, or make their checks, or checks are later, whatever it may be. So it was a messy deal, shouldn’t have happened.”
Ross concluded by expressing his dissatisfaction with how the situation was handled and accused Laurinaitis of being dishonest. He maintained that his track record in signing future millionaires and Hall of Famers spoke for itself, regardless of the internal politics.
“That is another great example, if we all communicate, no matter our differences of opinion, the situation has a way of bettering itself at some point along the way. And I was reluctant to play that game, but I did, and I guess I lost. But in any event, I was proud of our accomplishments in our department, and challenge anybody to come up with a roster and sign more stars, more now millionaires, more now Hall of Famers than had done been done previously. At the end of the day. I was okay with it. I didn’t like how it went down. I thought it was misleading. I thought it showed John was your true chicken shit, which we’ve established that. So there you go.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can listen to the full episode on the AdFreeShows network or watch it on the Grilling JR YouTube channel.
