John Morrison

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[GOTNW]

Only way he makes it is if WWE is the only promotion you've ever watched.

[Jingus]

Not a fan of his Lucha Underground work?

[GOTNW]

I liked him in Lucha Underground but it's questionable whether he was even a top 5 performer during the first season, off the top of my head I'd easily rank Pentagon Jr., Muertes, Fenix and Puma over him. It would be a key part of his case if someone were to rank him but if you're that open minded and seriously invest time in seeking out new wrestling I don't see how you come up with a conclusion John Morrison is among 100 best wrestlers ever. But hey, people were making cases for Sheamus here and that sounds almost equally insane to me so....

[Jimmy Redman]

I nominated him and I'll probably end up voting for him. I was racking my brain trying to think of anyone I'm familiar with that I could possibly consider who hadn't been nominated yet, and now the more I think about it the more I like his case.

 

He was part of two of the best WWE tag teams of the 00s decade in MNM and Miz & Morrison. MNM were a great team that you should all look at for the tag team ballot, they were great working heels and have a slew of good to great matches with Rey/Batista, Londrick, the Hardyz, etc. Miz & Morrison were more out of the ring great, they were entertaining as hell and I don't ignore that stuff oout of hand (by the by, they were probably the first WWE act to use their internet presence to get over as an act, years before Zack Ryder or anyone else did it). And they did actually do a lot of good work in the ring. There's that Yang/Moore ECW match, I really enjoyed their series of matches with the Colons on SD, and then end of 2008 stuff on Raw with Rey/Bourne/DX. They were another really good, effective working heel team.

 

He had Punk's first great WWE match with their ECW Title switch in 2007. And just generally a LOT of great TV matches over the years from 2007-2011. He was never given a main event push or had a lot of big PPV matches, so if that stuff matters then he's not for you, but as a midcard mainstay he was consistently having good matches for years, and his best stuff is actually pretty damn good. He was part of the crew that turned ECW into the workrate show in 2008, then part of the "New Smackdown Six" crew in 2009, so there's a certain volume of good to great matches on a weekly basis there.

 

And I think his case is more of a 'Great Match Theory" case than one of breaking down his abilities. If you look at him analytically, he's got that goofy, gymnastics style of moving and flipping, he went through that period of having goofy, non-hurty offense, and he's incredibly wooden facially and in promos. On paper he's a flippy do spot monkey with no charisma. But in reality he was far greater than the sum of his parts. As a heel he was good at bumping and stooging and taking guys shit, and also knew how to be a dick while showing off with flippy offense. As a face, I mean he's no Hogan but he did have a kind of understated babyface charisma, not the kind to get crowds chanting but the kind that made you want him to win. He had some fire in the ring when needed. And he did have goofy, flippy offense, but a lot of it was really pretty, and he could also knee people's faces off and the like. All of which, again, combined to make for a surprisingly deep list of good matches.

 

Best singles matches:

 

vs Jeff Hardy, Unforgiven 2006

vs Jeff Hardy (Ladder) Raw 11/06

vs Punk, ECW 9/07

vs Miz vs Matt vs Finlay, ECW 7/08

vs Matt Hardy, ECW 8/08

vs Bourne, ECW 4/09

vs Edge, SD 6/09

vs Punk, SD 6/09, 7/09, 8/09 (they had a really good series over this period)

vs Jeff Hardy, SD 7/09

vs Rey, SD 9/09 (one of my favourite TV matches ever)

vs Jack Swagger, SD 4/10

vs Sheamus (Falls Count Anywhere) Raw 9/10 (their whole feud was quite good)

vs Sheamus (Ladder) TLC 2010 (one of the best singles ladder matches in company history)

vs Miz (Falls Count Anywhere) Raw 1/11

vs Drew Mac, Superstars 11/11 (just before leaving)

 

I've caught a couple of his LU matches and he looked...exactly the same, but someone else will have to help with those details.

[Dylan Waco]

Morrison wasn't and still isn't on my radar. That said, that's one of the better arguments I've seen someone make for including a somewhat off the radar pick. And if I do a tag ballot I can't see leaving MNM off the more I think about it. Perhaps the Miz/Morrison team being the clear peak of Miz's career is more telling than we might think

[Matt D]

There's such a discrepancy between him as a babyface and a heel.

[Timbo Slice]

Miz is having a bit of a renaissance right now, and good for him, actually.

 

Morrison seems to love where he is right now and people are receptive to his LU work, but he always seemed like a great underachiever to me. He should never be a face. He should be a jock heel that's a better athlete than you. He should essentially be Mr. Perfect. When he does that, he's pretty good. When he doesn't, it's hard to watch sometimes. I won't be able to find room for him on my list, but I do think the MNM team has a chance of making my tag list.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Morrison's one of those guys that you look at and go "huh, how did this guy not be world champion?" on the surface evaluation. He's agile, incredible look and charm, isn't undersized and has some innovative offence on his part. It's when you peer closer that you realise that he's only really agile when it comes to setting up spots, his charm goes away when he starts trying to cut a promo by his lonesome, and he's always overshadowed by the actual main eventers.

Like, I get it: he's a great foil with Miz (even if he didn't really need it the second time) and can have good matches with great workers. When not paired with someone like that, he's pretty bleh and less said about his IMPACT! run the better. Never felt like he hammered down a signature style beyond a few spots he'd keep pulling out and the guy can't do anything else but said spots with actual engagement. No one is talking about his brawling or technical stuff because it's either non-existent or quite boring. Psychology isn't really there as well. Like if you take out all of his big spotty moments, do you really have that much to go off of at all? Mixed as a singles but a lot more solid in a tag where his style comes over more fresh and he doesn't need to pad out things nearly as long otherwise.

 

[El-P]

Morrison's stint in IMPACT is better than anything he ever did elsewhere, from his match with Aries (apart from the finish of course, which was kinda hilarious in a douchebagy way) to his heel stuff, because indeed, he's an excellent heel. Yeah, his finisher sucks because of how it lands, but he's one of those workers that can be an extraordinary dance partner because of what he's physically able to do, kinda like RVD at one point, in a different way. He's a flippy, parkour guy ? Of course. That's what he does. He even told it itself, he's telling his stories with flips. Had a bunch of great matches in Lucha Underground too. He has MNM too to his credit. Will he make my list ? I don't think so. He's better than a lot of people I see being nominated around though, and I would have no issue with him making the top 100 honestly.