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Former Impact Wrestling Champion and WWE Superstar, John Morrison, has reportedly signed a new deal with WWE. This will see Morrison return to the company he first wrestled for almost 10 years ago.
Morrison first came to light after appearing on Tough Enough where he won the season alongside Matt Cappotelli. Morrison spent 7 years on the main roster and was undoubtedly the competition's most successful winner and one of it's greatest finds.
While Morrison was offered a three-year contract to stay with the deal, Morrison chose to turn down the offer to pursue other opportunities.
After leaving WWE, Morrison would eventually find a new home at Lucha Underground wrestling under the name Johnny Mundo. During his time at Lucha Underground, Morrison was in several high-profile feuds against Prince Puma and Alberto El Patron. Then from 2017 to 2019, Morrison wrestled for Impact Wrestling under the name Johnny Impact quickly inserting himself into the main event picture.
He also wrestled for a variety of smaller promotions including 5 Star Wrestling, World Series of Wrestling, What Culture Pro Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Guerilla. Reports this past week revealed Morrison had re-signed with the WWE. The deal comes after it was announced that Morrison's contract with Impact Wrestling had expired and that Lucha Underground's fifth season was basically dead in the water.
With Morrison heading to WWE, it means that he is unlikely to step into an All Elite Wrestling. However, here are 3 reasons why Morrison should have considered the fledgling All Elite Wrestling promotion to be his new home. Perhaps he could have even called himself Johnny Elite.
#3 It would have given him the freedom to still pursue acting
While the WWE is arguably one of the best places to work as a wrestler, it isn't the best if you also want to do other things, like launch an acting career. Morrison featured on Netflix's GLOW series and was a part of 37th season of Survivor. In 2017 he produced and co-wrote Boone: The Bounty Hunter in which he played a starring role.
While WWE superstars are able to act in WWE studios movies, there aren't a whole heap of roles in those films, and they rarely achieve critical success. Considering the fact that Morrison has received critical acclaim for his roles in GLOW and a positive reception for his time on Survivor, WWE Studios movies would probably not be the place for Morrison's next big movie step.
However, with the All Elite Wrestling schedule and freedom for the performer, Morrison would have been able to persue more independent acting credits. All Elite Wrestling would also be more welcoming of the broader spectrum of fans that Morrison's acting career could bring to the company
#2 He has achieved success on the Independent Scene
John Morrison has already been Johnny Mundo, Johnny Nitro, and Johnny Impact, and if he had joined the roster of All Elite Wrestling he could become Johnny Elite. He was already a World Champion in Lucha Underground, Impact, AAA, and has been the ECW World Champion and held the WWE Intercontinental title.
He is unlikely to achieve much more than that by returning to the company. There is a high probability that he will start at the back of the queue.
However, with All Elite Wrestling building up their roster, Morrison would undoubtedly be a great addition to their roster as someone that brings name recognition as well as not being too old and still relevant to many of today's fans. Morrison's run in Lucha Underground helped put the fledgling promotion on the map and allowed it to really take off. Morrison could have done the same for All Elite Wrestlig.
All Out showed that AEW's roster doesn't have depth, and after Cody, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, and the Young Bucks, AEW's top talent starts to go a little thin. MJF is fantastic and the trio of Darby Allin, Joey Janella and Jimmy Havoc are great if you love the deathmatch style, but there aren't too many top-notch options after them.
#1 Re-uniting with friends from Impact, Lucha Underground and AAA
John Morrison returning to WWE will see him reunite with old friends like The Miz, Kofi Kingston and many others from his first stint with the WWE, there would have been a whole heap of friendly faces waiting for him at All Elite Wrestling if he decided to go that way as well.
With LAX debuting on All Elite Wrestling and with Fenix and Penta already regular members of the AEW roster, Morrison would be surrounded by familiar faces within the new promotion. Morrison has already featured on an episode of Being the Elite earlier this year, after crossing paths with the Young Bucks on the Indy scene.
Morrison, and his real life wife Taya Valkyrie also appeared on an episode of Being the Elite where they ran into Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus. They traded Marko Stunt for their dog but forced to do "poo-core" when they were accused off-screen of not picking up their dog's "excrement". The segment was used as a promo for the Jurassic Express' match against SCU at All Out.
