Former IMPACT Wrestling World Champion John Morrison has opened up on one of the most memorable, and infamous, matches of his career.
During Morrison's tenure with IMPACT Wrestling, then known as Johnny Impact, Morrison challenged then-IMPACT World Champion Austin Aries in the main event of Bound For Glory 2018 for the IMPACT World Championship.
However, the feud quickly blurred the lines from a typical professional wrestling angle into a shoot on social media, with both wrestlers trading personal insults at each other.
The match took place at Bound For Glory in 2018, where John Morrison defeated Austin Aries to capture the IMPACT World Championship for the first time in his career. However, the match is infamous for being Austin Aries' last match with the promotion.
Once the match was over, Austin Aries no-sold the finish of the match and proceeded to shout at commentator and Executive Vice President of IMPACT Wrestling, Don Callis, at ringside before flipping everyone off in sight.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, current WWE Superstar John Morrison revealed that despite the infamy of the match, the blur between the lines of fiction and reality make the match one of Morrison's favourites in his career:
"Yes, it's a match that I'm very proud of and it's one of my favorite matches. He might not be one of my favorite people, but it's one of the only times in my career where I feel like everybody believed in that match, including me. It felt real. It felt like the two of us had a real issue and the issue was not resolved before we went out to the ring," (h/t Wrestling INC)
John Morrison on uncertainty in the IMPACT World Championship match
Continuing to discuss his match against Austin Aries at Bound For Glory 2018, John Morrison explained the amount of uncertainty that everyone participating in the encounter had going into it.
John Morrison revealed everyone involved was wondering what was going to happen:
"So, there was so much uncertainty surrounding that match. People, including myself, Taya [Valkyrie], Moose, Killer Kross on the outside – for him, we're wondering what was going to happen. And it feels like that type of situation is exactly what wrestling was in the glory days back when everything was kayfabe. Everyone thought everything was real, but that in its own way was a real authentic moment and because of that, it felt different. It's something that I still think about a lot, too. It was a really cool experience." (h/t Wrestling INC)
What are your memories of Johnny Impact vs Austin Aries at Bound For Glory 2018?