Wrestling needs to be done with owners, GM and commisioners storylines, like, yesterday. It got old by 2001, really.

Wrestling needs to be done with owners, GM and commisioners storylines, like, yesterday. It got old by 2001, really.

HHH was removed as Raw GM but he's still COO. And Vince is still chairman.

Yet he has the power to fire the RAW GM, but not to make himself the RAW GM.

Yet he has the power to fire the RAW GM, but not to make himself the RAW GM.

Wrestling needs to be done with owners, GM and commisioners storylines, like, yesterday. It got old by 2001, really.

They've been doing it for so long that I legit don't think ppl in charge realise you can do "story" based wrestling without having an authority figure as a central character. Not even a WWE problem either as it's spread industry wide at this point, Indies, Japan, Mexico, all over.

John Laurinaitis is no longer listed in the group of WWE Executive Officers. Hunter has taken his place as Executive Vice President, Talent and Live Events.

http://corporate.wwe.com/company/executive.jsp
http://corporate.wwe.com/company/bios/p_levesque.jsp

Pretty much expected from the standpoint of HHH's position, but I am curious what that means for Big Johnny's position in the company.

Are you sure? I don't remember HHH having "and Live Events" added to his title or Laurinaitis losing Executive Officer status.

Other Executive Officers

[...]

John Laurinaitis has served as Executive Vice President, Talent Relations, since March 2009, and as Senior Vice President, Talent Relations, since February 2007. Prior to that, Mr. Laurinaitis was Vice President, Talent Relations, since June 2004, and Director of Talent Relations from June 2001.

Other Executive Officers

[...]

Paul Levesque has been our Executive Vice President, Talent since August 2011. In this role, he oversees the talent relations and talent development departments, training of WWE Superstars and Divas, and management of worldwide recruitment. In addition to his talent duties, Mr. Levesque has continually had an integral role behind the scenes; as a director and producer he works to shape the creative direction and storylines of WWE’s programming. Mr. Levesque debuted as a WWE Superstar in 1995 and has captured every major championship, headlined thousands of WWE events, and entertained millions around the world. He is the national spokesperson for Muscular Dystrophy’s “Make a Muscle, Make a Difference” campaign. Mr. Levesque has had starring roles in commercials, television programs, talk shows and feature-length films. He is author of Make the Game: Triple H’s Approach to a Better Body. Mr. Levesque is the husband of Stephanie McMahon and the son-in-law of Vincent McMahon.

John, I know that Levesque has been "EVP, Talent" since last year. He had the title concurrently with Laurinaitis being "EVP of Talent Relations." Levesque being "EVP, Talent and Live Events" with Levesque officially being demoted from executive officer status is what's new. It's been known for a while that Laurinaitis was reporting to Levesque and that the talent relations department would become Levesque's, but I don't remember any speculation about Laurinaitis losing his executive officer status or maybe being fired as an office worker, which is a pretty big deal.

As for there being a lack of reporting / speculation... it's the freaking Pro Wrestling Media. Like they're always hip on this stuff if it doesn't slap them in the face? How many of them actually regularly go over to EDGAR to read and think about the public filings? If they had, something was staring them in the face in the March filing and they could have asked their sources in the WWE when and why Johnny had gotten demoted.

Huh, how about that: http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displa...cik%253d1091907

Wonder why it took them so long to change the WWE Corporate website. And what HHH's official corporate role was before the August 2011 promotion (he has a salary listed for 2010, but not 2009, so it's not referring to his talent contract).

To be fair - Dave was on this, I just can't remember the issue.

Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

Meltzer has strongly implied in the past that Stephanie is a Laurinaitis booster so I'm not so sure about that, especially since he's outright said they'll fire Kevin Dunn as soon as they get full control.

If Dunn is smart, he will be setting up retirement at that point. He's 51/52. Barring death, Vince isn't going to step down today. 5 more years, Dunn is 55+. Rather than taking a fulltime gig, he probably could do consulting / advisory stuff with production companies.

I wonder if HHH is going to have consequences for some of the people he's burned on his way up once he gets to the top. Sure, they may work for him if he's the only game in town, but will he command the same loyalty that Vince has had?

Maybe the younger ones will respect him, but the wrestlers who have been around long enough to remember when he was "one of the boys" (even though he's been management for over a decade, albeit in an unofficial capacity for a lot of that) will never view him as a Vince-like figure.

What I wonder about is the treatment of some of the legends in a HHH-run WWE, specifically the ones he doesn't like. Would there be any place for occasional Bret or Foley appearances if he was the one in charge? Dave has reported that HHH was against Bret's comeback and all of Hogan's after the initial 2002 run, so I don't think he has Vince's capacity to put aside personal differences for business's sake, though that might change when it's his money and reputation on the line.

Dunn knows "where the bodies are buried". If Trips and Steph are smart they'll keep him him sweet. There's a reason James Dudley is in the Hall of Fame.

What I wonder about is the treatment of some of the legends in a HHH-run WWE, specifically the ones he doesn't like. Would there be any place for occasional Bret or Foley appearances if he was the one in charge?

Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer was asked by a reader during his radio show why WWE has not utilized Mick Foley on television more frequently since his return to the organization last November. He said this is due to wrestler/executive Paul 'Triple H' Levesque's lobbying, who is resentful of "The Hardcore Legend."

Meltzer reports Levesque deprecates Foley whenever his name is broached in creative meetings. While Brian Gewirtz, WWE's Senior Vice President of Creative Writing, feels Foley is a creative and a good performer, Levesque thinks otherwise. He says Foley 'doesn't look tough' and can't be taken seriously as an in-ring performer.

A former WWE creative writer told Power Slam in 2008 under the condition of anonymity that Levesque would disparage Foley whenever he appeared for the company, and in the process, diminished his value in the eyes of Vince and Stephanie McMahon.

"Foley is an out-of-shape nobody," Levesque was reported as saying by the writer. "No one cares about him at all. Funaki puts more asses in the seats than Foley does. He should pay us for coming on our shows."

Meltzer believes the real reason Levesque still holds Foley in contempt is because he gets irritated over the consensus of his closest co-workers that his memorable matches with Foley in 2000 'made him a star.'

Foley has criticized Levesque in the past; he took several veiled shots at 'H in his 2007 autobiography The Hardcore Diaries. He also took issue online with Levesque belittling ring announcer Lilian Garcia with a remark he felt was hurtful during an April 2010 episode of Raw. Foley acknowledged then that he may have cost himself professionally, but felt he had to stand by his principles.

Bret, Austin & Rock don't like him, and are all rich enough that they don't need a handout.