Teddy Long blasts "coward" John Laurinaitis over Vince McMahon situation (Exclusive)
John Laurinaitis recently agreed to cooperate with Janel Grant's legal team in her lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE. Teddy Long, a WWE on-screen character from 1998 to 2014, did not hold back when asked for his opinion on the news.
In January 2024, Grant accused Laurinaitis and McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking when she worked for WWE. Laurinaitis initially claimed he was also a victim in the case before changing his legal stance to side with McMahon. In May, Grant's representative told POST Wrestling that the former executive had been dropped from the lawsuit after agreeing to provide evidence against McMahon.
Long has made no secret that he disliked working with Laurinaitis in WWE. On Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine, he told journalist Bill Apter and host Mac Davis that the 62-year-old should not have betrayed McMahon.
"No, I'm not [surprised]," Long said. "Like I said, I don't want to get into this, but the only thing I can say is this. John Laurinaitis is like a lot of other people. They would have been absolutely nothing without Vince McMahon. The guy that gave you the opportunity to finally be something and to run his company, put him in charge of his company. We don't know what happened there [between Janel Grant and Vince McMahon]. He's not been proven guilty yet, so I'm just saying, man, I would expect it from him because I got one word for him, and that's coward." [1:00 – 1:32]
Watch the video above to hear the panel discuss John Laurinaitis' U-turn, Alberto Del Rio's relationship with WWE, and more.
Bill Apter reacts to John Laurinaitis and Vince McMahon's dispute
From 2001 to 2022, John Laurinaitis was Vince McMahon's right-hand man in WWE. The former wrestler worked in several behind-the-scenes roles, including Head of Talent Relations. He also performed as a villainous on-screen authority figure in the early 2010s.
Sportskeeda Wrestling Senior Editor Bill Apter thinks Laurinaitis' latest legal shift is bad news for McMahon:
"I wanna see how it unfolds, and it will make an incredible movie eventually. I'm just talking about this specific chapter in the movie, if somebody makes it. John Laurinaitis, again, we don't know who's guilty, who's innocent in stuff like this, and if he is going to cooperate, this could be really bad for Vince McMahon, who has started a brand new company." [1:38 – 2:21]
On May 30, Vince McMahon launched a new sports and entertainment company called 14TH & I. It is not known if the 79-year-old plans to return to the wrestling business.
Please credit Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.
