Off of just the segment involving John Morrison and Miz, there are two things I would like to talk about. Since I will probably want to spend some time on both, I will split it up. Right now, John Morrison.The Miz attacked Morrison from behind and took out his knee before their match officially started on Raw last night. Morrison went on with the match anyway, showing some guts. He looked impressive in holding his own for a while, but got taken out again on the stage. Medics then stretchered him out.
There was talk for a long time that John Morrison would not be staying in the WWE. When they gave him that win against Dolph Ziggler and looked to be pushing him again, it looked like things might have been settled or that the WWE was at least trying a little more to convince John Morrison not to leave. I guess it was not enough. John Morrison definitely looks like he has been written off. Looks like WWE may have lost him.
John Morrison is not the kind of guy the WWE would want to lose. Even if Rey Mysterio, Christian, Triple H, and whoever else were not out with injuries right now, or suspended because of the wellness policy, you still had dwindling star power, which was definitely being felt in ratings and other such indicators. Regardless of whether or not you even have a ton of talent or not, John Morrison is a unique performer. He can pull off a lot of crazy spots. Mistakes may happen now and then, but I feel it is a waste to even bring that statement up. Morrison was a solid worker in that respect. Some people may criticize his charisma and mic skills, but if you give this guy the room to do his own character his way, he can do fine. He definitely has the look too.
Judging by the fact that the WWE did not just terminate his contract and toss him out like garbage, they did not want to lose him. Did they do enough to try to keep him? Obviously, I do not work for the WWE and I am not going to be refreshing my favorite wrestling news site every 5 minutes for a report on the situation. I wouldn't blindly believe it anyway. Unless John Morrison himself cares to shed some light on what was going on with negotiations, I can only talk about what I can see myself. What did I see? A losing streak angle. You can make a lot of false promises and BS to your workers backstage, in the end, if their issue is how they are being pushed, not money or other such incentives, people can see for themselves whether or not the workers have a legitimate gripe. Again, a losing streak angle? Most of them lead to something good at the end, and Morrison's almost did, but I don't think they really did enough to convince this guy to stay. It looked like he would still be pushed around all over the place. Considering his potential, he deserved a push a lot more than some of the other guys.
The WWE made another dumb move. Not only would pushing Morrison better in his final weeks have been a good way to convince him to stay, it might have made for some good matches. In that way, even if Morrison still refused to stay, at least you got your money's worth out of him, or tried to. They just sent him out there in a lot of regular matches. He looked impressive here and there, but none of the really amazing spots you could usually expect from him when put in that kind of situation. When they announced what kind of match Miz vs. Morrison was going to be, I expected a spot that would work to write Morrison off, but I was also looking forward to Morrison being allowed to show some of that amazing ability of his that can really get fans interested. Nope. He showed heart in the story of the match, but no really cool spots from him. I can understand if the WWE does not want to treat Morrison as something too impressive, just to make fans even more eager to watch TNA, should he pop up there anytime soon, but was it really worth passing up an opportunity to make their own product look good? If this was their mentality, they might as well had released Morrison already, just sit him out until the contract expired, or have him end his run jobbing on Superstars. I understand that their decision was more for Miz's benefit than Morrison's, and I will get to that next time, but just in terms of using your workers properly to deliver exciting moments that can really draw the fans in, they could have done a lot better with Morrison in his final weeks.
To be fair, maybe the WWE never had a chance to really keep Morrison. Earlier this year, when I talked about the likely possibility that Melina would soon be released, the top reason I gave as to why the WWE may think twice about releasing her was her relationship with John Morrison. I am not going to talk about whether or not Melina has Morrison on a short leash, but the WWE did not seem to be giving Morrison any other great reasons to stay. If they had, he would still be there. Had Melina still been in the WWE today, maybe she would have convinced him to stay and continue to be stuck in the midcard. She was passionate about being in the WWE and did not want to leave. With no Melina and the WWE not providing any signs that great things are really to come, I could understand why Morrison might not want to continue there.
If some kind of other deal has been worked out and Morrison is just taking a short time off, that would be good for the WWE. If not, the WWE may have lost another good worker to TNA.
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