John Morrison

Welcome to Slamtown, troper.

"Hello, my name is John Morrison and if I had a nickel for everybody at Wrestlemania better looking then me......I'd have no nickels."

"Hi, I'm John Morrison and think so deep, I eat religion and crap out enlightenment."

John Randall Hennigan (born October 3, 1979) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name, John Morrison (and previously Johnny Nitro).

That Other Wiki has a rundown on his life and career.

Tropes associated with John Morrison include:

• Alpha Bitch: Male example. John mocks those less attractive than himself (a.k.a. everybody else).
• Alternate Company Equivalent: High-flying Estrogen Brigade Bait that aren't famous for their mic ability? Are we talking about John or AJ Styles? AJ has even called him out for using a lot of his moves.
• Amazon Chaser: This probably explains why he is married to Taya Valkyrie.
• Arch Enemy: The Miz, CM Punk, Sheamus, R-Truth, Brian Cage, and most recently the New Day
• Awesome Yet Impractical: His finisher Starship Pain is a tough move for Morrison to hit on a consistent basis due to the high degree of difficulty. It's not the split-legged corkscrew moonsault that gives him problems, it's a tendency to overshoot the opponent (either by his own doing or by improper position by the opponent) and barely graze him.
  • Botchamania 158: "EVERY. FUCKING. TIME."
• Badass
  • Badass Beard: He's started growing one, because his Twitter followers who support the beard outnumber those who don't.
  • Badass Baritone: John has a natural deep voice even without holding a microphone. Later years adds more guttural rasping, which is much more noticeable in his second WWE run.
  • Badass Longcoat: A befeathered, occasionally animal-print, longcoat.
  • Badass Long Hair
• Beware the Nice Ones: On the 2-7-11 episode of RAW, Morrison, after celebrating a victory against a member of the New Nexus, was attacked from behind by New Nexus leader CM Punk, who pepper sprayed him in the face. Fast forward a week to the Valentine's Day 2011 episode of RAW, where he and R-Truth are in a tag-team match with Michael Mc Gillicutty and David Otunga from the New Nexus. When R-Truth finally tags him in, cue Morrison - whose face was still obviously swollen from the mace attack and whom the announcers were questioning whether he could even see enough to wrestle. Morrison hardly attempts to tap into the 'Parkour offense' for which he is so well known. Instead, he flies into a rage and starts beating on every member of Nexus he could get his hands on - even Mason Ryan, who wasn't in the match. After literally throwing R-Truth over the ring at the two other Nexus members to make sure they didn't interfere, he turns around, shouts, "I hope you're watching this, Punk!" and hits Michael Mc Gillicutty with a running knee smash right to the skull. After the pinfall victory, cue a shot of Morrison with his hair disheveled and an overall facial expression of which Edge would have been proud. Moral of the story: Do not piss John Morrison off.
• Black Best Friend: He has his in R-Truth, they've even tag-teamed together under the Fan Nickname Truth and Wisdom.
  • And he took said guy championship match, some friend he turned out to be. (Though Truth wasn't obligated to take the match - he knew that Morrison was trying to bait him, but he fell for it anyway).
• Blond Guys Are Evil: If he's a heel, and his name is Johnny Nitro.
• Book Ends: Morrison's first and last match on Raw in 2011 were falls count anywhere, no DQ with the Miz. Both matches also involved a spot using the giant WWE logo on the entrance ramp.
• Captain Ersatz: A wrestling Jim Morrison impersonator?
• Captain Obvious: The night he underwent a Retool into John Morrison

"My name isn't Johnny Nitro."

• Casanova
• Catch Phrase: When doing The Dirt Sheet, he would begin each show with "Hi, my name is John Morrison and..." followed by something humorous. Look at this compilation. Also, "We don't [blank] at the Palace of Wisdom." For example, in the first episode they showed footage of Finlay dancing in the ring with Hornswoggle, and John's response was "We don't dance like that at the Palace of Wisdom."
• Chivalrous Pervert: As a face.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Has a very...eccentric promo style.
• Cool Shades: With Creepy Cool Crosses on them, Jerry Lawler wondered how he could see through them. They're in fact so cool, his mic skills noticeably improve when he's wearing them (which is why a lot of comedians wear sunglasses, so fans don't stare at them and throw them off their game).
• Curb Stomp Battle: His last match with The Miz was one. Morrison got in a few offensive moves, but Miz dominated the match, and after receiving a Skull Crushing Finale on the steel steps, the ref simply called for the bell rather than Miz pinning him.
• Dance Battler: John uses some Capoeira-inspired moves, especially noticeable when he flairs before a leg drop.
• Darkskinned Blonde: When he was Johnny Nitro, he had a disgustingly fake tan and dyed blond hair.
• Deadpan Snarker: On the Dirt Sheet his lines were always delivered with a wonderfully dry tone.
• Determinator: Has become an element of his matches during his recent push.
  • Particularly apparent at Elimination Chamber 2011. Despite being one of the first two guys out, and taking by far the most amounts of punishment, some of it self inflicted, he still managed to last until the last five minutes of the match.
• Dirty Coward: Heel.
• Distaff Counterpart: While not exactly the same, both he and ex-girlfriend Melina are known as rather limber, flexible, and acrobatic wrestlers. They're also both Tall, Dark and Handsome (OK, Melina ain't so tall), both have the ability to invalidate orientation, and even wear similarring gear.
  • Ditto with his now-wife Taya Valkyrie. The only difference is Taya is all buff equal to the same level as Beth Phoenix.
• Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: "Welcome to Slamtown"
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Went from Number One contender at the beginning of the year, to something of a Jobber at the end of it. All due to what happened during the Wrestlemania period. Even his last match was something of a Curb Stomp Battle.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Beyond those abs, he is sexy on many, many, many levels.
  • Bishounen: He's often painted with this brush.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Oh, those abs.
  • Gaussian Guy: His entrance is even in slow motion.
  • Handsome in Mink
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders
  • Tall, Dark and Handsome: As a face.
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky: As a heel.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Well his pants, coat, shades and abs are anyway.
• Everything's Better with Spinning: His repertoire contains a corkscrew neckbreaker and shooting star press.
  • Don't forget his finisher Starship Pain: A split-leg corkscrew moonsault. Yeah, it's that awesome...if impractical. (see above entry)
• Extremity Extremist: John almost always uses his legs, when he isn't jumping on people or throwing around the compulsory punches and clotheslines.
• Face Palm: When his NXT Season 2 rookie Eli Cottonwood made the now infamous mustache promo, John was doing this.
• Finishing Move: Currently, a split-legged moonsault called Starship Pain; previously, he had a superkick called the Nitro Blast and a spinning neckbreaker variant called the Moonlight Drive. Also, a Shining Wizard variant where he strikes with the knee instead of a full roundhouse kick.
• Fridge Logic: If he is a Jim Morrison Ersatz, then why is his music an Expy of Jimi Hendrix instead of, you know, The Doors?
• Fur and Loathing
• Game-Breaking Injury: R-Truth mentioned that after he beat up Morrison, he was sent to the hospital. This was an in-story explanation for writing off Morrison so he could get a pinched nerve in his neck fixed. When he returned, that neck became the in-story explanation for his absence instead.
• Guile Hero: Has had his moments, like when he goaded R-Truth into putting his #1 contender status for the WWE Championship on the line by questioning Truth's fitness and conditioning. JoMo won the match, by the way, but...
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Great job, JoMo! Your plan worked and you've maneuvered your way into the Triple Threat match for the WWE title at Extreme Rules 2011! Side effects include R-Truth flipping his shit. beating you to a pulp, and literally blowing smoke in your eye. Oops.
• Happily Married: To Taya Valkyrie.
• He's Back: His second run in WWE and reuniting with The Miz.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Yeah, in hindsight it wasn't exactly smart to cost R-Truth his title shot, huh JoMo? You know, considering he's now made it his life mission to beat the crap out of you and screw you over at every possible opportunity.
• Ho Yay: He and tag-team partner Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.
• Hidden Depths: When John was on Tough Enough he was seen as a pretty boy gymnast that didn't really appreciate or care about the business, he's still willing to take the craziest bumps in WWE-PG and has worked out of being a Spot Monkey.
• I Have Many Names: Outside of using the Morrison surname, his real name and his old Johnny Nitro name, John used many names outside of the WWE, namely Johnny Mundo in Lucha Underground, Johnny IMPACT in Impact Wrestling,
• I Have the High Ground: One of the few homegrown ones WWE has.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As a face, he mocks his enemies for their speech impediments, nationalities and other uncontrollable things.
• Le Parkour: Which has been played up by the commentators a lot, check it out. It helps that the practice is actually part of his training
• Lightning Bruiser: A very fast paced and flashy wrestler... who's also starting to need to take a crapload of punishment in order to be taken down.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "We don't allow (X) at the Palace of Wisdom."; "I'm John Morrison and (some random bit of trivia that probably isn't true)."
• Man in a Kilt: Wore won to mock Drew McIntyre's Scottish heritage.
• Meaningful Rename: Johnny Nitro, tag-team mainstay and member of MNM, becomes John Morrison soon after winning the ECW title. Notable because it's one of the few times WWE has acknowledged a name change on air. Their normal M.O. is to give a wrestler's previous name the Discontinuity treatment.
• Messianic Archetype: For a while he was feuding with CM Punk because while Punk was preaching about the importance of the material world, John promised a paradise.
• Nice Guy: His current Face run basically consists of him sticking up for the little guy i.e, saving Santino from getting his ass kicked by Sheamus, kick-starting their minifeud.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Yeah, you know how R-Truth is now a completely insane heel? Morrison taking his title shot from him started that...
• No Shirt, Long Jacket
• One of Us: Even outside of his promos, he shows a knowledge and interest of not just pop culture but lesser known pieces. For instance, in his Twitter feed, he mentioned going to an art museum and seeing a piece that reminded him of Gir from Invader Zim.
• Paparazzi: Until MNM disbanded, their entrance involved a red carpet and photographers.
• One-Scene Wonder: He's been giving the performances of the night starting with Survivor Series '10.
• Paying Their Dues: Subverted in that he underwent this AFTER becoming a star. After his and Melina's treatment of Trish Stratus that rubbed a lot of folks backstage the wrong way, in addition to Melina forcing her way out and Morrison's contract expiring, the WWE put him through the jobber ringer in order to see if he was loyal and committed to the company or was trying to Matt Hardy his way out with his behavior. A big upset win over Dolph Ziggler in November seemed to signal he was through the process... then he promptly lost a US title match against Ziggler at Survivor Series (to add insult to injury, it was a title shot that the crowd felt should've gone to Zack Ryder, and they let Morrison know it) and was unceremoniously beaten in his final match on Raw - a Curb Stomp Battle at the hands of his former tag team partner The Miz.
• Persona Non Grata: After jumping into a pool with his girlfriend Melina because it was her birthday, they both got banned from the Skybar (a Los Angeles nightclub).
  • His recent demotion to Jobber can also be conected with Melina. Her bad attitude backstage combined with his relentless protection of her and absolute refusal to admit she ever did anything wrong rubbed a lot of people in the WWE brass the wrong way.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Yes he wears sparkling glittery animal print longcoats, he's still a badass.
• Red Baron: The Shaman of Sexy, The Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday Night Delight (the day changes depending on show he's on), The Guru of Greatness, The Prince of Hardcore Parkour (as Michael Cole has dubbed him). His most recent is the Mayor of Slamtown.
• Redemption Demotion: His Heel Face Turn has not worked out so well, while he was a Heel, his arrogant pretty boy meets pretentious rockstar gimmick made him many fans, as a face, he's floundered with finding an interesting character, though his burgeoning Le Parkour is a step in the right direction. In part, this is due to him being pretty Genre Savvy with pop culture and wrestling and snarky. As a heel, this meant he could poke fun at most anything. But faces generally don't do that sort of thing so his promo style got a little deflated- somewhat ironic considering his flashy wrestling style and move-set is much more suitable for a babyface.
  • Probably has something to do with the fact that his ECW On Sci-Fi promos and videos for The Dirt Sheet were his own ideas with him just goofing off and having fun with it, whereas his promos for the past two years...weren't.
• Ricky Morton: Plays this role in singles matches, Morrison will injure himself doing some insane spot, Heel will take advantage and savage Morrison's injury, than Morrison comes up with another, even more insane spot and grabs victory while making his opponent seem like a monster.
• The Rival: The Miz, his former tag team partner. Back in ECW, when he was a Heel, he feuded with CM Punk for a good length of time over the ECW Championship.
  • More recently, Sheamus.
• Salt and Pepper: He's had an off and on partnership with R-Truth.
  • Used to.
• Self-Deprecation: In one Palace of Wisdom exclusive, he goes back and time...to meet up with his former persona Johnny Nitro. He basically tore down what was so awful about his former persona (the spray-on tan and the blonde hair specifically) and sarcastically states that if everyone was like him (Johnny Nitro), the world would be a better place.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: John rambles like hell on his promos.
• Shout-Out: The Flying Chuck
• Spicy Latina: His girlfriend, Melina, widely considered to be one of the more talented divas, oh, and Even the Girls Want Her.
• Spiritual Antithesis: When paired with The Miz as a tag team, Miz and Morrison are the polar opposites to MNM. Both are Hollywood-themed heels (MNM have the paparazzi and red carpet entrance, Miz and Morrison's web-series The Dirt Sheet have the Hollywood-style background) with three tag team title reigns (MNM won the WWE Tag Team championships three times, Miz and Morrison won the aforementioned WWE Tag Team title, the World Tag Team Championship, and most recently the SmackDown Tag Team Championship). In fact, Morrison used to be Johnny Nitro before winning the ECW championship.
• Spot Monkey: There have been some very hotly contested debates as to whether or not Morrison counts as a Spot Monkey. The general consensus is that he is one, but is much better than the usual example in that he actually has a sense of psychology. He did improve in that area in 2011, as noted in Wrestling Psychology below.
  • To elaborate, Morrison's psychology is extremely erratic, and fluctuates as to whether or not it's a major match. Are you watching Morrison on a PPV? Then you're going to get an awesome match with great high-spots and excellent psychology. TV? Enjoy your spot-fest!
• Take That: To Mike Adamle ("Hello. My name is John Morrison, and I may look like Tarzan, but I certainly don't hit like Jane.")
  • During his first tryout for Tough Enough 2, back when he was a lot cockier than he is now, he mentioned his background as a breakdancer and was asked if he can do a spinneroonie. He responded by asking what a spinneroonie was. T.E. judge Jim Ross questioned him on not knowing who Booker T is and if he was really a fan of the WWE. Morrison responded not by doing the spinneroonie, but doing the breakdance move Booker T based his trademark gesture on. This is not only a Take That to the judges, but possibly a Take That to Booker T himself. Needless to say, the judges didn't like his attitude and he didn't make the cut for T.E. 2.
• Took a Level In Badass: A very strange example of this, John had been practicing Parkour for a while, but it was only in 2010 that WWE creative decided to turn that into a character point, turning bland babyface Morrison into Crazy Awesome But Practical athlete that puts on incredible matches.
• Ted Baxter: Heel.
• Those Two Bad Guys: The Miz and John Morrison.
• Two Guys and a Girl: MNM, Which was Melina (his then-Real Life girlfriend), Johnny Nitro (his old name), and Joey Mercury (the Janetty).
• Villainous Breakdown: Even as a heel, John never loses his cool. The first instance he flipped his shit is after he and Miz lost to The Usos in the 02/28/2020 episode of SmackDown, one day after winning the SD Tag Titles from the New Day in Super Showdown.
  • He and Miz are at it again the week after, losing in a tag team gauntlet match vs. Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker) and beat the living Jesus out of Otis and Tucker out of spite.
• Warrior Poet: Mostly his heel character, though a little bit creeps in as a face.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Got some backstage heat for giving the cold shoulder to Trish Stratus when they were having an angle together because he felt she took Melina's spot on the card at Wrestlemania XXVII. That he allegedly did it at Melina's insistence while she has cheated on him with other wrestlers in the past makes him look like a Henpecked Boyfriend as well.
• When He Smiles: When he smiles, he looks even more Bishonen and around ten years younger.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl
• Wrestling Psychology: Made a major improvement in this area in 2011, selling injuries like a pro and telling stories with his matches (see the Beware the Nice Ones entry), especially when it comes to his legs. During his Elimination Chamber match, he was either acting like Spider-Man or looking like his knee was about to explode.
  • The night after Elimination Chamber 2011, he and CM Punk faced each other in the opening match on Raw. They were the only two participants of the EC match who were selling the prior night's injuries, including limping and a general aura of soreness. (Although considering the beating both men took that previous night, you kind of have to wonder how much of that was selling.)
  • In the weeks immediately following his return from a legit neck injury, he has done exceptionally well at working that injury into his matches.