Johnny Is Aces

Pictured: The Perfect Stooge
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Sometimes, it's all about the character.

Take for example John Laurinitis last night. I'm sure there were audible groans from fans when he opened RAW in Mexico City Saturday last night, and believe me, I really didn't have an easy feeling either. That being said, what followed was a clinic in awkwardly funny trolling that found me enjoying that first segment. It wasn't because Laurinitis blew me away with his great dramatic or comedic delivery. Quite the contrary, he came across as wooden and even flubbed a few of his lines. He didn't say anything that would remind me of CM Punk with a pipe bomb in his hands (man, those days are far gone, aren't they?). He didn't stand with confidence or come across as a guy to be feared or even respected.

Then again, was all of that the point? I'd argue that it was the furthest thing from what they wanted to convey with his ascension to "interim" RAW GM as possible. Johnny Ace, from day one when he got his clock cleaned by John Cena at Money in the Bank, was positioned as a stooge, a modern day Gerald Brisco who served as a proxy for the shadowy corporate structure that resides in Stamford. He was introduced as an onscreen character by Vince McMahon's side, and he's been seen as an enemy to everyone who is being pushed as cool to the fans. John Cena clocked him. CM Punk WANTED to clock him. Triple H constantly clashed with him. Why would anyone want a guy who is the enemy of everyone they want the fans to cheer to come across as cooler or better than any single one of them?

With that context in mind, the John Laurinitis character was one of the most successful things on the show last night because he came off as such a goober. IT helps to look at the man with a heavy sense of irony, but I think that's how we're supposed to view him, as this self-aware corporate caricature that embodies everything that we as fans have come to hate about WWE. He interrupts matches. He fires beloved announcers. He tries to keep things "PG". He's self-aware.

And that's fucking awesome.

Great wrestling characters aren't always the funniest or the best or the toughest. For as terrible as Triple H as an authority figure came off because he tried to be all those things is how great Laurinitis appears because he's none of those. He's a goober, and whether he's a great goober because he's a good actor or because he's an honest-to-God awkward stooge in real life is irrelevant. It makes for a great villain onscreen, and isn't that the thing that matters most?