John Morrison’s very honest answer about returning to WWE

It’s hard to imagine John Morrison’s second WWE run lived up his expectations for it.

He did get a Tag title run with his buddy The Miz after returning in January 2020, and successfully defended the belts by himself in a ladder match at WrestleMania 36. But for most of the next year-and-a-half they were used to put others over. That’s all part of the heel gig of course, but it doesn’t always involve getting eaten by zombies or drenched by super-soakers.

A feud between Miz & Morrison was set-up, but the JoMo’s release came before anything happened in that program (and just weeks after the company gave his wife, Taya Valkyrie, her walking papers).

So would he give it another go? Here’s what Morrison told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour earlier this week:

“I hate that place, but sure if they called me, I’d go back.”

Morrison went on to explain that working for WWE is like getting your dream job, then realizing you’re doing “the things that you dreamed of doing but it’s a bastardized version of what you want to do.” He was also quick to clarify that “hate” was an exaggeration:

“I try not to burn any bridges. I love the roster there. I love the people there. I love the roster of AEW. Tony [Khan] I like a lot. Vince [McMahon] I actually like a lot too. I like all the minds in professional wrestling.”

Before he would re-sign with WWE — or ink his first deal with AEW for more than a handful of dates — Morrison would want to have a “good, honest talk” with the folks in charge:

“Hopefully they’re honest, and if I don’t like that I’ll probably not go, and if I do, I will. That’s more important to me than the money right now.”

In addition to his wife, Morrison has a lot of friends at AEW, and he confirmed he’s had some conversations with the company. The undefeated boxer is definitely glad AEW exists, especially in light of Endeavor’s acquisition of WWE and plan to merge it with UFC:

“I’m really glad AEW is around to balance that out a little bit because if they weren’t there would be no leverage, nowhere else to go, and WWE and UFC would be like this weird monopoly that just like wring the money out of the fighters and wrestlers and I think that sucks.”

Watch Morrison’s entire chat with Helwani here.