WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long did not mince words when addressing former WWE executive John Laurinaitis and his recent involvement in the high-profile lawsuit filed by Janel Grant against Vince McMahon and WWE.
Speaking on the Road Trip After Hours podcast, Long reacted to the news that Laurinaitis has agreed to cooperate with investigators and was subsequently dismissed as a defendant in Grant’s lawsuit, which accuses McMahon of sexual abuse and trafficking over multiple years.
When co-host Mac Davis asked if Laurinaitis’s actions came as a surprise, Long replied with a telling, “Exactly. Yeah, yeah,” implying the move aligned perfectly with what he expected.
Long went further, slamming Laurinaitis’s character and reflecting on his own experience working with him in WWE:
“If what we just heard, if all this is true, okay, he just turned on the man that made him somebody. He wasn’t nothing until he came to work for Vince. Vince put him in charge of talent relations, gave him a bunch of power and stuff, and he abused that power because I was there, and I was one of the guys that he abused.”
While Long refrained from going into too much detail, he made it clear that he felt Laurinaitis mistreated him during their time working together.
“What I’m saying is the truth,” Long asserted.
He also accused Laurinaitis of betrayal and disloyalty:
“If you don’t care nothing about the man that he worked for and made him what he is today, then you know damn well he didn’t care nothing about me.”
When Davis speculated that Laurinaitis had taken a deal to save himself, Long responded bluntly:
“That’s what you call a coward… Okay, if you was in there with the man, and if it’s true, you know what I mean, just tell the truth or whatever and be done with it.”
Long remained skeptical that cooperating with authorities would bring Laurinaitis any peace:
“He may get off, may have, may get free, or may not get convicted… but he’s got to live with that for the rest of his life.”
The segment also featured comments from listeners, including one from a viewer identified as Pretty Classy Lady who stated, “Laurinaitis has been full of it for decades.” Davis responded by saying that he had heard similar stories long before the lawsuit became public.
Teddy Long concluded with a broader statement about the wrestling industry’s past behind closed doors:
“A lot of it just hasn’t been exposed and brought out.”
Stay tuned to PWMania.com for continued coverage of this developing situation and all the latest updates from the wrestling world.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
