Two months ago, John Morrison looked poised to ascend the WWE ranks and become a legitimate main event competitor. He was a favorite in the Royal Rumble, and before John Cena was moved out of his feud with CM Punk and into his current rivalry with The Miz, many people thought The Shaman of Sexy might be the man to challenge Miz for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. A lot has changed in the past few weeks.
After having the most impressive outing of any superstar in the Royal Rumble (but losing) and stealing the show at the Elimination Chamber (but losing), WWE management kicked the legs out from underneath Morrison’s apparent push. Prior to last night, there had been three Raws since the Elimination Chamber. Morrison lost to CM Punk in three minutes flat at the first one, was left off of the second show entirely, and jobbed to Dolph Ziggler on the third. Then, as if to further hammer Morrison’s push into the ground, his WrestleMania match was announced last night, and it’s not becoming of a future main event star. Morrison will team with Trish Stratus & Snooki of Jersey Shore fame to take on Dolph Ziggler & LayCool in a 6-person tag team match.
What?! John Morrison, the man who just a few months ago appeared to be on the verge of his monumental first WWE Championship reign, now finds himself teaming with an MTV reality series star (who isn’t the Miz) at WrestleMania 27? It seems like the WWE creative team has made a sport of building young stars up just to knock them down recently. I’m not saying that this recent de-push will prevent Morrison from taking the helm as the face of the WWE someday, but it certainly has put a sizeable detour in his path. My heart goes out to Dolph Ziggler too. For someone who was in a World Title match at a pay-per-view less than two months ago, this match seems like an especially cruel fate. If Morrison and Ziggler were meeting in a singles match on wrestling’s grandest stage, I’d be excited to watch what would surely by the match of the night. Instead, I’m bracing myself to watch these two promising stars of tomorrow do their best to salvage what could be one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history. Doesn’t seem fair to me.
The two upsides: Trish Stratus gets on the card. Vicki won’t be wrestling.
I’ve never seen an episode of The Jersey Shore and Monday was the first time I’ve ever seen Snooki. As much as I dislike her on reputation alone, she shouldn’t put too much of a damper on the match. I imagine Morrison and Dolph will carry a lot of the action and Trish will do her best with Divas that can’t compare to her. Snooki will probably come in on a hot tag, do a double clothesline on the girls and do some sort of finisher, end match.
Sucks that JoMo and Ziggs won’t get to strut their stuff but I think it could be argued that this will help with Morrison’s push because my sisters now know who Morrison is and they think he’s hot and cool. So anytime you can get the general public in your corner, it’s gotta be a little good for your career.
My concern is that Morrison’s relocation from borderline main event status to solidly entrenched in the midcard is going to be a permanent one. When a non-main eventer starts generating crowd reaction like he was a couple months ago, I’m of the opinion that you have to strike while the iron’s hot. WWE has missed similar opportunities with Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston in the past. At one time or another, both guys were receiving pops comparable to any main event star. WWE took the “we’ll get to them later” approach with them though, and eventually, being crushed on WWE programming destroyed the fans’ taste for the guys, and they were never able to recover from the de-push. They just wallowed away in the midcard scene for the rest of their time in the company. Sure, maybe Kofi’s day will come yet. And Morrison might not suffer the same fate, maybe his move from World Title contender to part of a 6-person tag match that every wrestling fan in the world rolled their eyes at when it was announced won’t adversely affect him. But I think it will. If you don’t play the hot hand, it will eventually cool off.
I think that Morrison vs Ziggler might have been remembered in the same way Savage vs Steambot and Piper vs Bret Hart are, as far as Mania matches go. And you’re right, they’ll carry the majority of the match. But it’s an already crowded card, and in addition to the two title matches, Triple H vs Taker will surely get a ton of time. So we’re probably looking at a ten minute (fifteen if we’re lucky) match here, and I’d be willing to bet that Snooki’s hot tag will be the bout’s closing minute. Another spot is going to have LayCool perpetually double-teaming Trish before she can get the hot tag to Snooki. Of course, before the double team, we’re due for a little bit of Trish kicking ass. You factor all of this out, and I’m betting Morrison and Ziggler get about 5 minutes of action on the biggest stage of the year.
I’m probably over-reacting. I hope I am. It just seems like they’re missing the boat with this one. Sometimes it’s not just about the wrestler. It’s about the stage. It’s about the moment. The window is small, and if it’s not capitalized on at the right time, there’s a good chance it’s going to shut.
[…] month, I ranted about how John Morrison should have been in the WrestleMania main event, complained vehemently about his de-push, and insisted that the Tough Enough winner was ready to […]
[…] is as heel as they get. I’ve been contemplating the case of John Morrison for a while, demanding he be put into a main event and also reasoning why he might not be ready. As for Truth, his character was pretty stale, and I […]
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