John Laurinaitus has been “quietly let go” by the WWE per Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the termination happened in the last week or so and was kept quiet. Johnson made it clear that, while they’re trying to figure out when exactly the termination came, Laurinaitus is definitely not with the company anymore. Laurinaitus had been with the company since early-2001 when WCW was bought out. He helped in putting matches together for the talent in WCW, and was promoted to Director of Talent Relations in WWF only a few months after the buyout. He rose in rank again in 2009, becoming “Executive Vice President of Talent Relations”, but was demoted back down to a basic producer in 2012. As revealed by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, his demotion matches up timeline-wise with an alleged $1.5 million nondisclosure agreement that was reached in the same year.
JOHN LAURINAITIS TERMINATED BY WWE Elite: https://t.co/Tz2nsjJi4f, Free: https://t.co/BNd5Kj7trN
— PWInsider.com (@PWInsidercom) August 8, 2022
The initial WSJ article noted:
“The board’s investigation, which began in April, has unearthed other, older nondisclosure agreements involving claims by former female WWE employees of misconduct by Mr. McMahon and one of his top executives, John Laurinaitis, the head of talent relations at WWE, the people said. The Journal couldn’t determine how many previous agreements were being scrutinized.
The board’s outside counsel was still collecting information about the other NDAs this week but has determined that the payments totaled in the millions of dollars, the people said.”
The article states that the Board of Directors learned of the allegations when they received an email from a friend of the former employee in March. The email claimed the employee was hired with a $100,000 salary that doubled once she began a relationship with McMahon. The WSJ report noted, “The email to the board also alleged that Mr. McMahon “gave her like a toy” to Mr. Laurinaitis.”
These allegations indirectly led to the retirement of Vince McMahon.
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