John Morrison (wrestler)
John Randall Hennigan, better known by his ring name John Morrison, is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling, where he performs under the ring name Johnny TV and is a member of MxM TV. He also performs for their sister promotion Ring of Honor. He is best known for his tenures in WWE from 2002 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2021, where he performed under the name John Morrison. He also appeared for promotions such as Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground. He also performs on the independent circuit under various ring names.
After winning Tough Enough III, Hennigan was assigned to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling. WWE promoted Hennigan to its SmackDown! roster in April 2005 under the ring name Johnny Nitro; winning the WWE Tag Team Championship with Joey Mercury in his first match on the show. Hennigan has also held main event roles in several promotions outside of WWE, including Impact Wrestling, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide and Lucha Underground. Outside of WWE, he has used several different ring names, including Johnny Impact in Impact Wrestling and Johnny Mundo in various Mexican promotions.
Hennigan has won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, AAA Mega Championship, Impact World Championship, and Lucha Underground Championship once each. In WWE, he also held the Intercontinental Championship three times, and was a six-time tag team champion. In lucha libre, Hennigan was a central fixture in all four seasons of Lucha Underground, and was AAA's first-ever triple champion, holding the AAA Mega Championship, AAA Latin American Championship, and AAA World Cruiserweight Championship simultaneously. He has headlined multiple major events for WWE and Impact, including the latter company's flagship event, Bound for Glory, in 2017 and 2018.
Outside of wrestling, Hennigan has also worked in the film and television industry. In film, he has mainly worked as an actor, producer and stuntman. He also competed as a contestant on the 37th season of the competitive reality show Survivor.
Early life
John Randall Hennigan was born on October 3, 1979, in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Palos Verdes Peninsula, where he attended Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. He graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2002, where he studied film and geology.Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE (2002–2011)
''Tough Enough'' and Ohio Valley Wrestling (2002–2004)
After graduating college with a degree in film and geology and deciding that he did not want to pursue either path, Hennigan began his professional wrestling career training at the Supreme Pro Wrestling school in Sacramento, California. After failing his audition for Tough Enough 2, a competition in which the winner earned a World Wrestling Federation contract, he was accepted as a cast member for Tough Enough III in 2002, eventually becoming the co-winner with Matt Cappotelli. For winning, Hennigan was awarded a developmental contract and assigned to their developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, to continue his training. Hennigan competed in Acolytes Protection Agency's invitational Bar Room Brawl match on July 27, 2003, at Vengeance. Hennigan and Cappotelli made an appearance on an episode of Heat in January 2004, losing to Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak. In March, Hennigan, going by the ring name "Johnny Superstar", turned on Cappotelli, establishing himself as a heel.Eric Bischoff's assistant and MNM (2004–2006)
On the March 1 episode of Raw, Hennigan debuted on the main roster as a heel under the ring name "Johnny Blaze". His gimmick was that he was the apprentice and assistant of the Raw General Manager, Eric Bischoff. The next week his name was changed to "Johnny Spade", and three weeks after that it was changed to "Johnny Nitro". The Nitro name, which finally stuck, was a reference to WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of World Championship Wrestling for which Bischoff had previously worked, using the Nitro theme as his ring entrance music. Nitro acted as Bischoff's apprentice and assistant until June, when he was sent back to OVW. To explain his departure, Nitro lost a match on the June 7 episode of Raw against Eugene, which carried the stipulation that upon his loss, he also lost his job, but was actually returned to OVW.Upon his return to OVW, Nitro was put into a feud with Matt Cappotelli. During the course of the feud, Melina was brought into the company as Nitro's ex-girlfriend and an ally of Cappotelli, only to turn on him and side with Nitro. Not long after, Nitro and Melina were joined by Joey Mercury, forming the stable MNM. MNM wrestled in OVW for around a year, holding the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, before losing the titles to Cappotelli and Johnny Jeter in January 2005. They were soon called up to the main SmackDown! brand in April that same year.
In their debut match on the main roster, MNM won the WWE Tag Team Championship from Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio on the April 21 episode of SmackDown!. MNM held the titles for three months, having successful defenses against the teams of Guerrero and Mysterio, and Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly on May 22 at Judgment Day, before dropping them to the Legion of Doom on July 24 at The Great American Bash. They won the titles again on the October 28 episode of SmackDown! in a four-way match defeating Legion of Doom, The Mexicools, and William Regal and Paul Burchill, but lost them to Rey Mysterio and Batista on the December 16 episode of SmackDown! two days before Armageddon. Due to help from Mark Henry, MNM defeated Mysterio and Batista in a rematch on the December 30 episode of SmackDown! to win the championship for the third time. They began a rivalry with the team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick that lasted over three months, until they dropped the championship to London and Kendrick at Judgment Day on May 21, 2006, with the storyline leading to Nitro and Melina suddenly turning on Mercury after the match, breaking up the group. Melina and Nitro left the SmackDown! brand by losing their jobs in kayfabe.
Singles competition and championship success (2006–2007)
The next week, Nitro, along with Melina, debuted on the Raw brand in a loss to WWE Champion John Cena. Nitro was immediately placed in the Intercontinental Championship picture, and at Vengeance on June 25, he defeated champion Shelton Benjamin in a triple threat match also involving Carlito to win the title. Nitro held the championship for four months, retaining against Jeff Hardy on September 17 at Unforgiven, before losing the title back to Hardy on the October 2 episode of Raw. Nitro recaptured the Intercontinental Championship from Hardy on the November 6 episode of Raw, but lost it back to Hardy on the following week's Raw. Also around this time, Nitro entered into a partnership with rapper Kevin Federline, with the duo antagonizing and beginning a rivalry with WWE Champion John Cena. Federline was then, in storyline, trained by Nitro for a match with Cena, which he won after interference from Umaga.MNM reunited on the November 27 episode of Raw to accept an open challenge from The Hardys at December to Dismember on December 3, a match that they lost. MNM and The Hardys feuded across the brands throughout the month, with the two teams competing in a four-way ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Armageddon on December 17 also involving Brian Kendrick and Paul London and Dave Taylor and William Regal, which MNM failed to win. Nitro challenged Jeff Hardy for the Intercontinental Championship in a steel cage match at New Year's Revolution on January 7, 2007, but lost. MNM lost to The Hardys at the Royal Rumble on January 28, and again at No Way Out on February 18, which ended the feud. MNM disbanded as a team when Mercury was released from WWE in March 2007.
After Mercury's departure, Nitro also ended his association with Melina. Nitro was placed in a tag team with Kenny Dykstra, until the 2007 WWE draft, during which Nitro was drafted to the ECW brand. Nitro made his debut for the brand on the June 19 episode of ECW, with a win over Nunzio, and few days later, on June 24, at Vengeance: Night of Champions, he won the vacant ECW World Heavyweight Championship by defeating CM Punk, replacing the absent Chris Benoit due to the latter's double-murder suicide. A few weeks after winning the title, Nitro was repackaged as John Morrison, a reference to musician Jim Morrison, to whom Hennigan bears a strong physical resemblance. Morrison retained the title against Punk at The Great American Bash on July 22, and on August 26 at SummerSlam. Punk would again challenge for the championship on the September 4 episode of ECW, in which Morrison lost the championship to Punk, ending his reign at 69 days. Morrison was then suspended for thirty days for violating WWE's Wellness Program, renewing his feud with Punk upon his return, as well as competing against The Miz for the number one contendership to the title.
Teaming with The Miz (2007–2009)
Though rivals, Morrison and The Miz faced the dysfunctional tag team of Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter on the November 16 episode of SmackDown! for the WWE Tag Team Championship in a winning effort, marking Morrison's fourth WWE Tag Team Championship reign. At Survivor Series two days later, Morrison and The Miz were both defeated by CM Punk in a triple threat match for the ECW Championship. After the defeat, the rivalry aspect of Morrison and The Miz's relationship faded, as they were now portrayed as trusting friends. Morrison competed in the 2008 Royal Rumble match on January 27, but failed to win after being eliminated by Kane. In February 2008, Morrison and The Miz were given a streaming segment on WWE.com named The Dirt Sheet in which they mocked other wrestlers and facets of pop culture. Morrison and The Miz co-wrote each episode of The Dirt Sheet each week, and Morrison credits his time in college studying film with contributing to the success of the show. On March 30 at WrestleMania XXIV, Morrison competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match, which was won by CM Punk. Despite being unsuccessful, Morrison had a standout performance in the match, in which he performed a moonsault from the top rope to the outside of the ring while holding onto a ladder.Morrison and The Miz retained the titles against Kane and CM Punk at Judgment Day on May 18 and Finlay and Hornswoggle at Night of Champions on June 29, before dropping the titles to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder on July 20 at The Great American Bash in a fatal four-way match which also featured Jesse and Festus. Neither Morrison nor The Miz were pinned, as Hawkins pinned Jesse to win the titles. Afterwards, they started a feud with Cryme Tyme through each team's Internet show, which then transitioned to matches on Raw and on October 26 at Cyber Sunday. After winning the Slammy Award for Best WWE.com exclusive earlier in the day, Morrison and The Miz won the "Tag Team of the Year" Slammy Award on December 8, 2008 episode of Raw. On December 13, Morrison and The Miz won the World Tag Team Championship from CM Punk and Kofi Kingston at a live event.
Morrison and The Miz engaged themselves in a feud with The Colóns, who were the reigning WWE Tag Team Champions, which resulted in both teams defending their respective championships successfully in separate matches. Their feud culminated in a tag team lumberjack match where both titles were on the line at the WrestleMania 25, but it was The Colóns who would unify the championships with a win. On April 13, as part of the 2009 WWE Draft, The Miz was drafted to the Raw brand to split up the team, and as a result, The Miz attacked Morrison.