10 Ways WWE Has Changed Since John Morrison Left
JoMo Money, JoMo Problems?
On November 28th 2011, John Morrison was mostly decimated by The Miz during a Falls Count Anywhere match that called time on his sort-of successful WWE career.
It was the first match on the show and went relatively short thanks, in truth, to there being bigger gap than story between them. Linked to each other thanks to a celebrated run as sh*thouse tag team heels several years earlier, Morrison had struggled to break free from the midcard whilst his 'A-List' associate had gone on to become WWE Champion a year earlier. The reign had failed, but Miz managed to stick around towards the top of the card long enough that by the time he battered 'JoMo' here, it was framed as him getting rid of more dead weight in an effort to refocus.
Morrison adhered to Vince McMahon's time-honoured tradition that night, seeking pastures new that took him to several new promotions before the surprising announcement of his return, just days before one of the biggest weeks in company history.
It was part of his gimmick as a heel, but he was still a man out of a time as a babyface during his original run. Never quite balshy enough to break free from the scripted confines of his promos, never pushed enough to look credible against the real stars, never able to show some substance underneath his style.
But a lot has changed since then...
10. Development Heaven
The multi-year talent development malaise John Morrison managed to escape from in the mid-200s was finally addressed by Triple H’s first major move into corporate corners of the company.
Seeing first hand how talents just like the 'Shamen Of Sexy' were struggling to break through from an evidently broken system, ‘The Game’ carefully castrated goobers of his ilk on television until his argument for enforced change sold itself behind the scenes. Reimagining the failing Florida Championship Wrestling as a scaled-back version of the similarly sh*te NXT, he then transformed that into one of the hottest ticket in the wrestling world.
The black-and-gold brand rapidly became beloved by Orlando natives attending tapings at Full Sail University and television viewers thirsty for the sort of Sports Entertainment they simply weren’t served on the main roster.
Carefully plotted and planned, the gimmicks and matches delight by design in the sort of way the sometimes-robotic Morrison could shine. It has at least been fuelled by another significant philosophical shift, one so powerful that 'JoMo' himself was able to make a living long after his WWE exit...