John Laurinaitis allegedly promised ex-WWE star "a job for life" before their release

Jazz recently claimed that John Laurinaitis guaranteed that she could work for WWE for the rest of her life if she wanted to.

The two-time Women’s Champion initially performed for WWE between 2001 and 2004 before returning for a brief run in ECW in 2006. The highlight of the villainous superstar’s run with the company came in 2002 when she defeated Lita and Trish Stratus at WrestleMania 18.

Speaking on Rene Dupree’s Cafe de Rene podcast, Jazz recalled how her release in November 2004 contradicted past comments from WWE’s Head of Talent Relations:

“It [WWE release] came out of the blue, like had no idea. First of all, Johnny Ace [Laurinaitis] always told me, ‘Jazz, you have a job for life, you’re unbelievably talented, we’ve never had anyone like you. You have a job for life.’ So I kind of believed that, but yet still I wasn’t content and comfortable. I always kept working hard.” [18:25-18:51]

Although Laurinaitis is not responsible for WWE releases, it is his job to inform superstars that they are no longer needed by the company. The 59-year-old has also worked as a road agent during his 21 years in WWE.

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Jazz could not understand why John Laurinaitis released her

Jazz competed in a seven-person WWE Women’s Championship match at Taboo Tuesday 2004, shortly before receiving her release. She also spent the previous two years in storylines with top female stars, including Trish Stratus.

For that reason, the 49-year-old had no idea why she was among the list of superstars who John Laurinaitis was told to release:

“He called me, he was like, ‘Hate to do it, yeah, creative just don’t have anything for you.’ You’re like, ‘Huh… what? What do you mean? I was just your champion. What do you mean?’” Jazz continued, “Trish and I carried that f***ing company for about two years because Lita was out with a broken neck.” [19:00-19:29]

Jazz also said in the interview that Stephanie McMahon liked one of her WWE storyline pitches but decided to give the idea to someone else. Following that incident, the two-time Women's Champion stopped watching wrestling and “wanted to break the TV” if she saw it was on.

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Please credit Cafe de Rene and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.