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John Laurinaitis was a polarizing figure in WWE during his 21 years with the company. NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion EC3 is the latest wrestler to give his take on the controversy surrounding the former backstage executive.
Janel Grant, a WWE employee from 2019 to 2022, alleged in a lawsuit last month that Laurinaitis and Vince McMahon sexually assaulted her. Laurinaitis' lawyer denied the accusations, claiming his client is a victim and not a predator.
EC3 wrestled for WWE between 2009-2013 and 2018-2020. On Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws show with Dr. Chris Featherstone and Vince Russo, he speculated that some wrestlers might have a grudge against Laurinaitis if he fired them:
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"And if I may say, he did fire a lot of people, so there's probably a lot of people that are seeking their vengeance now. That's life." [5:27 – 5:38]
Corey Graves deleted his Tweet! More details HERE.
Watch the video above to hear the panel discuss the psychology behind John Laurinaitis obtaining a powerful position in WWE.
EC3 recalls his interactions with John Laurinaitis
During his first spell with WWE, EC3 wrestled under the name Derrick Bateman. He appeared regularly on NXT programming but never received a permanent call-up to RAW or SmackDown.
Due to his low position in the company, the 40-year-old did not interact with John Laurinaitis much during that time:
"In theory, John Laurinaitis is probably the person responsible for signing me, but at the same time, it was kinda like a signing that was made by a subordinate at the time," EC3 said. "Coming up through developmental, I didn't really have a lot of dealings with him... If you weren't completely right on the radar ready for TV, you were kinda insignificant and nothing. So, I would say we've had professional chats." [3:30 – 4:03]
John Laurinaitis did not inform EC3 of his WWE release either time he left the company. Instead, former backstage officials Canyon Ceman and Mark Carrano were tasked with that responsibility.
"Any time I got fired, it wasn't him that did the calling," EC3 continued. "'Hey, kid, I got some bad news for you.' Thank God... It was Carrano, and then who was that idiot before him when I was in NXT the first time? [...] Oh, Canyon Ceman. The irony of that name! John, he would talk to you. He'd tell you his thoughts. I don't think he was ever one to completely BS. He was kinda open and honest. 'Well, kid, you're on the bubble. You ain't that good.' Oh, well, I better work harder." [4:04 – 4:48]
EC3 also discussed the time he had a brief conversation with Laurinaitis while they were both injured:
"The only time we really got kinda personal is we were both rehabbing an injury at the same time. He was rehabbing his shoulder, I was rehabbing my knee, and we were at the same facility. It was just regular fella banter, you know, cordialities. 'How's this? How's that?' So, I really had no depth of knowledge of deviant behavior, nor do I have any animosity or ill will because he's never done anything wrong to me." [4:51 – 5:20]
In the same video, EC3 gave an insight into what the locker room thought about WWE employees who "knew where the bodies are buried."
Please credit Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.
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