A current AEW star has claimed that former WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis put a stop to a major feud with Edge earlier in his career.
Back in 2002, Edge was beginning to make his name as a singles star after previously being known as chiefly a tag team wrestler. On SmackDown at the same time, another star paving a similar path to the future WWE Hall of Famer was Matt Hardy.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy explained how he was set for a big feud with Edge back in 2002 which would lead to a push as a villain in the company:
“Edge was going to make the save, and then I was going to go into a long-form angle with Edge earlier on when he was the big babyface, and he had a strong push at that point. And then I was going to get the big push as a heel.”
Hardy then explained that it was John Laurinaitis in his role in the talent relations department that put a stop to it. According to Matt Hardy, Lauriniatis favoured a push for A-Train [current NXT Head Coach Matt Bloom]:
“But John Laurinaitis was the guy who ended up ultimately getting that changed. He was like, ‘Well, you know, Matt’s alright, but the guy we really need to push is this big guy A-Train. I think we need to put A-Train, let him take out Rey Mysterio, and let him work against Edge. There is much more equity in him. He is a big monster. Matt’s just an average-sized guy, or whatever.’ And then, A-Train ended up getting that angle; it was the beginning of the disagreements between John Laurinaitis and me after WCW came into WWE.”
A-Train left WWE in 2004 before going on to forge a career in Japan before returning to WWE in 2012 as the short-lived Lord Tensai.
Matt Hardy ended up getting a major singles feud with Edge in 2005 as art imitated life as a feud was born out of the real-life love triangle between Hardy, Edge, and Lita.