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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on Dec 7, 2022 18:31:13 GMT -5
I mean Ace was considered fairly bad at his job even before the scummy stories came out. I can't same I entirely blame JR if focused on how how incompetent he was at it given that's likely what Ross likely was exposed to far more often. Ace was the guy who was told to go out and specifically hire Zach Gowen, and then proceeded to hire a completely different indie wrestler who just also happened to be working with a prosthetic leg. He also offered Adam Cole a WWE contract in 2010 because he got his shoot name confused with Austin Creed...who was on international TV within the past few months and is very clearly not Adam Cole |
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Dec 7, 2022 19:03:16 GMT -5
I remember the Juniors division, way back when and the story behind it. Court Bauer pitched to Vince a revival of the Cruiserweight division modelled after the Juniors division in New Japan and pitched a bunch of talent, the best and brightest light heavyweights available, guys like Juventud, Psicosis, Mistico, Milano Collection and so on. He got the green light and gave the list to Johnny to sign... And Johnny went ahead and signed a slew of minis instead and made them a comedy act. The division was DOA and after arguing with Ace, Court and co went to Vince and said 'Look at my list and look at John’s, who do you think f***ed up?’
Ace remained employed after that, given what we know now it's less of a shock than it should be.
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Post by BorneAgain on Dec 7, 2022 19:10:43 GMT -5
I am honestly not sure how much I've heard anyone in wrestling compliment Ace. Lance Storm liked him in WCW because he found he was one of the easier management types to work with, and DDP enjoyed stealing his finisher and a bunch of variations on it and getting the credit for it, but that's about it. People who dealt with him as an agent in WCW seem to like him, but even they said he was in way over his had when taking over for JR. I think the only person I heard say anything nice about him in that role was Charlie Haas who said Johnny offered to reach out to connections in Japan to help him out. Aside from that? Nicest thing I've heard is Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman saying that a lot of the hate Johnny got from the locker room in terms of lies/broken promises shouldn't have been directed at him, but Johnny had no issue being viewed as the bad guy and getting the heat so more power to him... but Nash also called him a tool One of my favorite backhanded defenses of Ace is when an interviewer told Nash that Laurinaitis' unpopularity was such that people viewed him as the Antichrist. Nash: Laurinaitis is too stupid to be the Antichrist. |
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Dec 7, 2022 19:25:32 GMT -5
Ace showed that you can succeed with miniscule talent and ability if you kiss the ass of the right people.
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Post by XIII on Dec 7, 2022 19:48:27 GMT -5
Probably being Animal’s brother helped him out a lot too, because he would always get a gig because everyone wanted to book the Road Warriors.
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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on Dec 8, 2022 4:43:58 GMT -5
I listen to JR'S podcast every week and have been since it launched. This is not the first time JR has shit on Ace. It's only getting noticed now that Ace's skeletons have come flying out of the closet in the last few months.
Cornette said that when Ace took over the position from JR, Stephanie told everyone, "finally we have someone in that position that's going to work with the creative team instead of against it!" Which to me translates to "we finally have a spineless Yes Man in that position that will tell me and my lame ass soap opera writers that their shitty ideas are great. Instead of a seasoned veteran with years of experience and a proven track record that always tells us when our shitty ideas are shit."
As others have mentioned I have never heard anything positive about Ace. The closest thing to positivity I have heard regarding Ace is from Mick Foley, who is too nice to say anything mean about anyone, so he just kind of beats around the bush when Ace is brought up.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 8, 2022 4:47:28 GMT -5
I listen to JR'S podcast every week and have been since it launched. This is not the first time JR has shit on Ace. It's only getting noticed now that Ace's skeletons have come flying out of the closet in the last few months. Cornette said that when Ace took over the position from JR, Stephanie told everyone, "finally we have someone in that position that's going to work with the creative team instead of against it!" Which to me translates to "we finally have a spineless Yes Man in that position that will tell me and my lame ass soap opera writers that their shitty ideas are great. Instead of a seasoned veteran with years of experience and a proven track record that always tells us when our shitty ideas are shit." As others have mentioned I have never heard anything positive about Ace. The closest thing to positivity I have heard regarding Ace is from Mick Foley, who is too nice to say anything mean about anyone, so he just kind of beats around the bush when Ace is brought up. Lance Storm put over that he was a good person in the office to deal with in WCW, but that isn't really saying a lot given how many utterly useless people WCW often had in authority positions. |
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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on Dec 8, 2022 4:55:02 GMT -5
I listen to JR'S podcast every week and have been since it launched. This is not the first time JR has shit on Ace. It's only getting noticed now that Ace's skeletons have come flying out of the closet in the last few months. Cornette said that when Ace took over the position from JR, Stephanie told everyone, "finally we have someone in that position that's going to work with the creative team instead of against it!" Which to me translates to "we finally have a spineless Yes Man in that position that will tell me and my lame ass soap opera writers that their shitty ideas are great. Instead of a seasoned veteran with years of experience and a proven track record that always tells us when our shitty ideas are shit." As others have mentioned I have never heard anything positive about Ace. The closest thing to positivity I have heard regarding Ace is from Mick Foley, who is too nice to say anything mean about anyone, so he just kind of beats around the bush when Ace is brought up. Lance Storm put over that he was a good person in the office to deal with in WCW, but that isn't really saying a lot given how many utterly useless people WCW often had in authority positions. If people asked 100 of my former coworkers about me I would seriously hope AT LEAST ONE of them had SOMETHING positive to say about me. Otherwise you kind of sound like a total failure as a human being. |
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 8, 2022 5:02:17 GMT -5
Lance Storm put over that he was a good person in the office to deal with in WCW, but that isn't really saying a lot given how many utterly useless people WCW often had in authority positions. If people asked 100 of my former coworkers about me I would seriously hope AT LEAST ONE of them had SOMETHING positive to say about me. Otherwise you kind of sound like a total failure as a human being. I can't find where he brought up Ace on his Stormwrestling site, like I know he has stuff about him there, too, but some insight on Ace in WCW. Makes sense Storm got along with him since Ace was an advocate of his in booking, seems like. Not surprised with what he says about Russo here given on their very first meeting, Russo tried to push for Storm to be Eric Bischoff's son, something both Storm and Eric immediately shot down as a terrible idea. |
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Dec 8, 2022 5:28:57 GMT -5
I remember the Juniors division, way back when and the story behind it. Court Bauer pitched to Vince a revival of the Cruiserweight division modelled after the Juniors division in New Japan and pitched a bunch of talent, the best and brightest light heavyweights available, guys like Juventud, Psicosis, Mistico, Milano Collection and so on. He got the green light and gave the list to Johnny to sign... And Johnny went ahead and signed a slew of minis instead and made them a comedy act. The division was DOA and after arguing with Ace, Court and co went to Vince and said 'Look at my list and look at John’s, who do you think f***ed up?’ Ace remained employed after that, given what we know now it's less of a shock than it should be. Knowing that we do it's actually kind of impossible to separate the question of how he stayed in those prominent positions for so long while being a colossal f***-up with multiple dumpster fire signing disasters under his belt, with him being Vince's Eiffel Tower buddy. It's not an issue to me of if he stayed on in spite of his misdeeds, but how likely it is that his misdeeds are so much of why he was allowed to stay on and even resumed his post after Triple H was deposed. |
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Post by Alice Syndrome on Dec 8, 2022 7:39:20 GMT -5
Reminder that when the Rock's contract expired in 2004, he'd put up a month or two of free time before that to negotiate.
Johnny Ace waited until his contract expired, and then sent him such an insultingly low offer that he didn't even bother thinking about another offer until 2011
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Dec 8, 2022 7:47:23 GMT -5
I remember Cornette talking about the differences in running development under JR as opposed to Ace.
He said JR would call him weeks in advance to say, “We’re going to be calling up So and So soon, so you might want to start wrapping him up.” Cornette would then have weeks to write the guy off TV.
Johnny would just call up guys out of the blue. Then there’s the story of Danny Basham, OVW champion, who had been sporting the old “long hair and leather pants cool heel” look. Cornette comes to OVW TV and Danny has shaved his head. In the words of Cornette, “He looked like a 40 year old truck driver!” Cornette asked, “What the f*** did you do?” Basham replied, “Well, when they had me come to TV on Monday, creative wanted to know what I looked like bald.” Cornette left a voicemail for Laurinaitis: “John Laurenaitis, this is Jim Cornette. My top heel just walked in looking like a 40 year old truck driver. Would you please tell this alleged creative team that if they can’t pretend and imagine what somebody looks like bald, give me 2 weeks notice. I’ll book ‘‘em in a hair match, I’ll shave their head, and I’ll sell some tickets. Thank you, f*** you, bye!”
Jim also mentioned getting a date on Randy Orton for one of their big Six Flags shows. Shortly before, someone from the office called Jim to say Orton wasn’t going to make it because he had bought a non refundable vacation for his family. Cornette said, “This has been booked for months, why the f*** would he do that?” The person said, “I don’t think Laurenaitis told him.” Johnny apparently tried to blame Tommy Dreamer, who called bullshit.
Add in some good old fashioned sexual predator behavior, and yeah, the guy sounds like a nightmare.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 8, 2022 7:52:20 GMT -5
I remember Cornette talking about the differences in running development under JR as opposed to Ace. He said JR would call him weeks in advance to say, “We’re going to be calling up So and So soon, so you might want to start wrapping him up.” Cornette would then have weeks to write the guy off TV. Johnny would just call up guys out of the blue. Then there’s the story of Danny Basham, OVW champion, who had been sporting the old “long hair and leather pants cool heel” look. Cornette comes to OVW TV and Danny has shaved his head. In the words of Cornette, “He looked like a 40 year old truck driver!” Cornette asked, “What the f*** did you do?” Basham replied, “Well, when they had me come to TV on Monday, creative wanted to know what I looked like bald.” Cornette left a voicemail for Laurinaitis: “John Laurenaitis, this is Jim Cornette. My top heel just walked in looking like a 40 year old truck driver. Would you please tell this alleged creative team that if they can’t pretend and imagine what somebody looks like bald, give me 2 weeks notice. I’ll book ‘‘em in a hair match, I’ll shave their head, and I’ll sell some tickets. Thank you, f*** you, bye!” Jim also mentioned getting a date on Randy Orton for one of their big Six Flags shows. Shortly before, someone from the office called Jim to say Orton wasn’t going to make it because he had bought a non refundable vacation for his family. Cornette said, “This has been booked for months, why the f*** would he do that?” The person said, “I don’t think Laurenaitis told him.” Johnny apparently tried to blame Tommy Dreamer, who called bullshit. Add in some good old fashioned sexual predator behavior, and yeah, the guy sounds like a nightmare. He sounds marginally, and I mean marginally, more competent than Chief Jay Strongbow, but at least Jay was bringing in talent (well, paying other people to do it for him) when the stakes were much lower. Ace doing it when the company was much bigger was just such a bad call. |
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Post by Feyrhausen on Dec 8, 2022 8:22:00 GMT -5
Aces ascension is just another example of Vince becoming Monty Burns. Give a good CEO speech about wanting people who disagree and challenge him while hiring and promoting the worst yes men out there.
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Dec 8, 2022 8:34:34 GMT -5
Johnny Ace was planning to get Stevie Richards fired for doing what he saw as a bad impression of him, until Tommy Dreamer informed him that was his real voice. Imagine being that petty and that unfamiliar with the product you're in charge of you'll try to can a guy who's been there for years, speaking like that for all the world to see on TV.
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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on Dec 8, 2022 8:37:07 GMT -5
Aces ascension is just another example of Vince becoming Monty Burns. Give a good CEO speech about wanting people who disagree and challenge him while hiring and promoting the worst yes men out there. I think it was also a case of no one else with anything resembling qualifications wanting the job. Ace is definitely one of Vince's Boys (including all of the gross sexual connotations) but when JR wanted to stop doing talent relations there wasn't anyone else in the company with talent booking experience who wanted to be in the worst job in the company. It made Prichard almost quit wrestling entirely and he only did it for a few months. Ace was the western talent liaison for AJPW and filled in as WCW was going into the shitter, he's just a bit of a dunce and can't handle an actual office job |
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Magnus the Magnificent
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Post by Magnus the Magnificent on Dec 8, 2022 13:13:43 GMT -5
And he can't even ride a skateboard!
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Post by DrBackflipsHoffman on Dec 8, 2022 15:00:35 GMT -5
I keep reading this as JIM ROSS APPARENTLY BURIED AT SEA WITH JOHNNY ACE
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Post by Mr Mario Mario on Dec 8, 2022 15:17:00 GMT -5
Yeah JR had nothing nice to say even back when I used to listen
100% it’s to do with him replacing him and nothing to do with his crimes
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2022 15:29:28 GMT -5
There's a shoot interview with a stoned Godfather which from about 15 years ago which is great as he basically loves everyone in wrestling ever. All his opponents, colleagues, people who got pushed instead of him, bookers. Everyone... except Johnny Ace, who he hates. Is there ANYONE that's more universally hated in WWE management than Ace? Dunn, maybe?
In the past? Everyone hated Chief Jay Strongbow. |
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