John Morrison recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet and discussed his return to WWE, his run with IMPACT Wrestling and more. Here are some highlights:
On leaving WWE and coming back:
Morrison: “I left because I wanted to make a movie, and not just be in a movie but I’m a film major, I went to UC Davis, that’s what I studied in school, so I wanted to do the whole process: write, produce, star, work on the action design. And when I left, I thought that was gonna take a year, maybe two, nope. I mean the whole process, from coming up with the idea to the release, is five years. I mean it took a really long time and I could probably do it a lot faster now because I could avoid some of the pitfalls.”
“I had always intended to go back to WWE and as the years went by, I kept in touch. I was never on bad terms with anyone….You always want to finish where you start, for me in wrestling, especially if you start with WWE, like you want to finish at the highest level and I’ve always seen having my final run at WWE. So when I hit Vince up about coming back, I was really excited when they seemed interested, I’ll put it that way.”
On this being is final run:
Morrison: “Let me explain what a run is, I’m still on what like a 1- year run from when I started, so this final run could mean five years, ten years, 15 years, who knows. Whatever happens, I’d like to finish out at WWE.”
On the creative of his return:
Morrison: “I debuted in a backstage vignette with Miz, and if you really think about it, my debut was, ‘Hey is Miz there?’ Here’s John Morrison. ‘Nope, Miz isn’t talking right now. Thanks, see you.’ And close the door. So basically, my debut was telling the interviewer that Miz was unavailable. And I walked, after that aired, they were following me with cameras for the chronicle, and saw [Dolph] Ziggler, we kinda crossed in the hallway. And he just goes, ‘Hey, sweet debut, bro.’ And we high fived, both super sarcastically.”
On what he had in mind for his return:
Morrison: “It’s tough to have a plan because I found with WWE, if you have a plan, and it’s like I wanna wrestle this person and do these things, that’s not how it works, really. Your plan should be mostly all about you, your character, all about how you interact with everybody else on the roster. So I had been and still have been working on that, like what would I do in the ring against Otis, obviously I’ve done that a lot, Roman, against Seth, against Rey, against Buddy Murphy against Daniel Bryan, Riddle, like who am I to those possible? Who is John Morrison? That’s the key to figuring out where you fit into the business.”
On his match at WWE WrestleMania 36:
Morrison: “I felt like, and still do, feel like I’ve got a little chip on my shoulder, something to prove but especially during that match, I felt like I had this chip on my shoulder of stuff to prove. And everything worked out for me that time. I don’t necessarily like playing it safe, I like taking chances and there were a couple chances I took in that match that could have gone wrong,. The rope walk for example, it’s a really big risk because I’m not like 100 percent on that, I’d say I’m like 50/50. Sometimes, when I had the ring in the yard last time you were here, I was up to 70/80 I could make it, but I’m glad I took that chance, I glad it paid off,. The spiral tap out of the corner onto [Uso] on the ladder, there’s a lot of things in that match that felt good because I was flying really close to the sun, so to speak, you know what I mean, close enough that if I had gotten burned, I would have fallen, it would have hurt, it would have been awkward. And I didn’t know necessarily if I was gonna be able to do some of the things that I tried. And they all worked.”
The full interview is available here:
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