Wrestling / John Morrison

We do, in fact, have tropes in the Palace of Wisdom.

"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 I think so deep, I eat religion and crap out enlightenment."

John Randall Hennigan (born October 3, 1979 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film major turned professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, John Morrison (though he has less frequently wrestled as Hennigan, Johnny Nitro and several variations thereof, being Johnny Mundo in Lucha Underground, Johnny Impact in Impact Wrestling, John Superstar in AAA and most recently Johnny Elite (and later Johnny TV) in All Elite Wrestling). After training in California's Supreme Pro Wrestling school, he tried out for WWE Tough Enough, being rejected for II but making the cast and winning III. So far he has had the most successful WWE career of any Tough Enough winner, ring wise.

He's had a fair share of success since leaving WWE as well, taking up an acting job that saw him appear in several movies and television spots as well as becoming a Family Wrestling Entertainment Heavyweight Champion, Continental Wrestling Federation United States Champion, World Wrestling Fan Xperience World Champion, Next Generation Wrestling World Champion, QPW Souq Waqif Champion, Lucha Underground Champion, Impact World Champion, a triple crown AAA champion, holding the AAA Latin American, World Cruiserweight and Mega Championship belts all at once and a Pacific Coast Wrestling Heavyweight Champion.

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"Now his trope list! This ain't no make believe"!

• Alpha Bitch: Male example. John mocks those less attractive than himself (a.k.a. everybody else).
  "He's really just not as good as me. He reminds fans of themselves. They don't have the chilled abs, they can't afford the fur coats, they've got the cheap tattoos and bags under their eyes because they didn't get enough sleep."
• Alternate Company Equivalent: High-flying Mr. Fanservice 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. In March of 2015, Family Wrestling Entertainment took advantage and booked the two against each other in a two out of three fall match. Ironically, the two of them did co-exist with each other in the same company during Morrison's second run in WWE but despite sharing some skits and tag team matches where they were on the same side, the two never officially faced one another in WWE.
• Always Introduces Themselves: During his tenure in WWE as a Jim Morrison expy:
  "Hello/Hi, I'm John Morrison, and <insert rambling here>"
• Arch-Enemy
  • The Miz, CM Punk, Sheamus, and R-Truth. Also, Matt and Jeff Hardy for breaking former partner Joey Mercury's face with a ladder.
  • During MNM's run, London and Kendrick.
  • Lucha Underground gave him several.
    • Dario Cueto. Their relationship was very similar to the one between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon. Cueto took any chance he had to screw Johnny over, and Johnny found no greater pleasure than messing with Cueto's plans or smacking him upside the head. He later somewhat averted it by allying with Cueto, but they still disliked each other to the point where Cueto kept him from getting title shots during season 3.
    • Had some very personal beef with Alberto El Patron, which came to a head in their match for the right to face Hernandez for the #1 contendership. Alberto winning the match was a slap in Johnny's face, and Johnny retaliated, costing Alberto the fight against Hernandez.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: While Johnny can get along well with other people, he still thinks he's better than them, and he's usually right. His attitude understandably rubs people the wrong way, though.
• As Himself: On Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
• The Atoner: In Lucha Underground. In a very minor way, part of the reason Mundo seemed to be attracted to the Temple is that it's a place where the best will face the best, a place where Mundo can establish himself as an honorable competitor, and a place free of the political nonsense of mainstream wrestling. Abandoned after he turned rudo.
• Awesome, yet Impractical:
  • His finisher Starship Pain/End of the World is a tough move for him 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 Longcoat: A befeathered, occasionally animal-print, longcoat.
• Bantering Baddie Buddies: His first run with The Miz, where they bounced between Smackdown and WWECW annoying everyone within their earshot. Most of the talking was done by the loquaciousness Morrison than the, terse, Miz but there was clearly something in common enough to keep them together at all times. Miz turned on Morrison after becoming more talkative, instead of drawing them even closer together.
• Bash Brothers: For a while he had this kind of partnership with Prince Puma, until an accidental chairshot soured that and they ended up feuding. They put their differences aside for the first Trios title tournament, though.
• Battle Couple: With Melina and then Nikki Bella in his first WWE run. Taya Valkyrie took Melina's place in Lucha Underground and also joined with him in Impact, then they made it more than official by eventually getting engaged and then married both on air and in real life.
• 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 McGillicutty 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 McGillicutty 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.
  • Creeps up again in Lucha Underground as his reason for turning heel. Initially treated as a face despite being money hungry due to his honorable and fearless style, Johnny Mundo was the last man eliminated by Prince Puma in the Aztec Warfare match to determine the first ever Lucha Underground Champion, but never got another championship match after that point. Meanwhile, Alberto El Patrón later came into the temple and was treated like a king just because he was a former lucha star turned WWE World Champion and back, yet had no qualms about repeatedly needling Mundo in backstage talks about not having what it takes to be number one. Finally, when both men faced off in a match to determine who would challenge the then number one contender Hernandez, Alberto beat him. At that point Johnny had absolutely had enough of El Patrón, so the following week, as Alberto was facing Hernandez for the #1 contender position, Johnny decided to Shawn Michaels the man through Dario Cueto's office window and cost him his title shot.
• Blatant Lies: "My name is not Johnny Nitro." OK, that much is true, if a little obvious. "My name is John Morrison." Um, that's closer to reality, but still not quite right. "I was given that name at birth-" OK, gonna have to stop you there Mr. Hennigan, now you're just making shit up. To be fair he was establishing the identity of his gimmick as opposed to his real-life self, and has since protected the name by reverting to the using "Johnny nicknames" whenever he was on TV in between WWE runs. Plus he and Jim Morrison look so much alike the reference honestly makes sense.
• 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.
• Bounty Hunter: He was "Boone The Bounty Hunter"^note his character from his surprisingly good 2017 movie of the same name for one night during a Pro Wrestling Revolver/WrestleCircus crossover.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: The Miz and Morrison always had bumbling habits, but the first time they teamed together they managed to be successful despite them, ill advised challenge to D-Generation X aside. Their luck completely ran out when they reunited, however, becoming a couple of jobbers aside from a short tag title run and a Money in the Bank heist/transitional WWE Championship angle for Miz. They were even eaten alive by zombies once.
• Canon Name: While he would wrestle with his real surname of Hennigan on the indies, whenever John entered a major/televised promotion his ring name was always a "Johnny nickname" with the second word fitting a title or aspect of the promotion, a practice that actually began in WWE when he adopted "Johnny Nitro" as Eric Bischoff's assistant. This protected John Morrison as the "actual name" associated with his character, serving well for a future WWE return — despite openly acknowledging the homage to Jim Morrison of The Doors.
• Capoeira: Incorporated this into his matches later on, his one handed counter kick in particular.
• Captain Ersatz: A wrestling Jim Morrison impersonator?
• Captain Obvious: The night he underwent a Retool into John Morrison.
  "My name isn't Johnny Nitro."
• The Casanova: What he claimed to be but if pressed Johnny Nitro proved to be loyal to Melina since his OVW days. This did not change even after Morrison took up the Shaman of Sexy moniker.
• Catchphrase: 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."
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Johnny is a walking inversion of this trope; he's the second Triple Crown Champion in Lucha Underground (after Fenix), and everything he's won is the result of his shameless cheating. He led the Worldwide Underground to the Trios Championships on a wave of crotch kicks, he stole the Gift of the Gods belt from Sexy Star with run-ins, distractions and a pair of brass knuckles, and he cashed that in to steal the Lucha Underground Championship from Sexy as well by planting Taya in the crowd disguised as a Sexy Star fan with, again, a pair of brass knuckles. Ironically, the one and only prize he ever did win cleanly (the suitcase containing $100,000 he won in the Temple's first ladder match) he returned to Dario as a bribe to get his shot at the Gift, so he's basically only ever prospered in the Temple as a dirty cheat.
• Chivalrous Pervert: As a face.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Has a very... eccentric promo style.
  Morrison: Hi, I'm John Morrison, and this year I'm gonna be voting for both Clinton and Obama.
  The Miz: ...you only can vote once.
  Morrison: We'll see about that!
• Combat Pragmatist: After going heel in Lucha Underground, it became pretty hard to find a single match that Johnny won clean. The same goes for his heel runs in other companies in the independent scene, with Morrison being more than happy to rely on low blows, cheap shots, and having Taya interfere in his matches to pick up the tainted win.
• Commonality Connection: When they were first forced to team up, Miz and him hated each other. What allowed them to bond was their shared hatred of CM Punk, which led to them realizing they had other similarities as well.
• Cool Shades: With 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).
• Crowd Chant: After turning heel in Lucha Underground, the Believers started chanting "Johnny Puto!" at him. Given how severe a profanity that is in Spanish, the TV broadcasts usually dub in "Johnny Zero!" over it.
• 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, such as kicks from handstand and evasive maneuvers.
• Deadpan Snarker: On the Dirt Sheet his lines were always delivered with a wonderfully dry tone. Continued into Lucha Underground.
• Demoted to Extra: Ever since his return from injury, he's been jobbing out to guys like R Truth on a regular basis.
• Destination Defenestration: If you're the face in a feud with Johnny Mundo, he will try to put you through Dario Cueto's office window. He cemented his heel turn by doing it to Alberto El Patrón, costing Alberto a title shot. He also did it to Cage, but that time didn't work out as well.
• Determinator
  • Has become an element of his matches during his first face push as John Morrison.
  • 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.
  • In Lucha Underground, he was right up there with Prince Puma as one of the guys who'd never say die.
• Diabolus ex Machina
  • Johnny Nitro's inclusion to the Raw roster and insertion into Shelton Benjamin and Carlito's feud for the intercontinental title, which he won with little buildup no less.
  • Johnny Nitro's transfer to WWE's version of ECW to replace … as the guy slated to beat CM Punk for the ECW Championship.
  • John Morrison and the Miz challenging for the WWE tag team championship. At the time they were exclusive to Smackdown, a show neither man was on and Miz and Morrison were also in the middle of a feud. It served no other purpose than to break up Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter and no sense in story since there were other teams on Smackdown who could have done the same thing. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder had the honor of putting an end to that silliness.
• Dirty Coward: When he turned heel in Lucha Underground, he started turning into one. By season 2, he was constantly running away from fights, hiding behind his tag team partners, and sneaking up on his opponents with weapons.
• 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 similar◊ring gear.◊
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: His Lucha Underground theme "Welcome to Slamtown".
  • His WWE theme "Hey Hey" with The Miz.
• The Dragon: Johnny Nitro started out as this to Eric Bischoff. In fact, his first entrance theme under that name was the old WCW Monday Nitro music.
• 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.
• Easily-Distracted Referee: Justified because Johnny Nitro was used by Eric Bischoff to screw over wrestlers he did not like.
• Enemy Mine: Though they'd had problems in the past, in Lucha Underground he recruited Aerostar for his Atomicos team against the Reptile Tribe.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Well his pants, coat, shades and abs are anyway.
• Expy: First name John, often called Johnny, pretty boy looks, a penchant for Cool Shades and not wearing a shirt, acrobatic fighting style, often relishing in and motivated by money and fame…yep, he's like the wrestling version of Johnny Cage.
• Extremity Extremist: John almost always uses his legs, when he isn't jumping on people or throwing around the compulsory punches and clotheslines.
• Facepalm: When his NXT Season 2 rookie Eli Cottonwood made the now infamous mustache promo, John was doing this.
• Face–Heel Turn: After costing him a shot at the Lucha Underground title, Johnny decided he had enough of Alberto El Patron (who had already been harassing and riling Johnny backstage for a while) and busted him through Dario Cueto's office window during the #1 contendership match against Hernandez, leaving him a bloody and neatly packaged mess for Hernandez to pin easily.
• Finger Framing: He and Joey Mercury before doing their finishing move, the "snap shot".
• Finishing Move: Currently, a split-legged moonsault called Starship Pain/Fin Del Mundo(End Of The World); 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 the leg.
• Five Moves of Doom: Clothesline, clothesline, jumping roundhouse kick, running knee smash to downed opponent, Starship Pain.
• Flipping the Bird: At WWC Aniversario 2012 Morrison flipped off the referee in response to none of his moves getting a three count on El Leon Apollo. Of course, Morrison kept his hand behind his back while doing it.
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: Mundo and El Mesías turned against Mexico to join with the already anti-Mexican Shawn Hernandez and Taya Valkyrie. This lead to a feud with Pentagón Jr that saw Mundo become the first non Latin American, and more importantly, the first non Mexican to win the AAA Latin American Title.
• Fur and Loathing: A holdover from his days in MNM, whom JR described as "dressed in roadkill".
• 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.
• Go Seduce My Arch Nemesis: The Melina\Batista case on Smackdown. Technically Rey Mysterio Jr. was closer to MNM's arch nemesis but he'd probably have known better by then and Batista was his tag team partner at the time.
• Groin Attack: Frequently utilized after his heel turn in Lucha Underground, especially when the referee was distracted.
  • After taking one too many, karma came around to get him when a furious Prince Puma gave him a full-force soccer-ball kick square in the crotch.
• 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.
• Hanging Separately
  • Team Lucha Underground was divided in the 2015 Lucha Libre World Cup, with Morrison deciding to go with TNA wrestlers Matt Hardy and Mr. Anderson while Brian Cage joined up with Ring of Honor wrestlers Moose and ACH. Team Lucha Underground/TNA and Lucha Underground/ROH came in second and third place, respectively, both knocked off by the first place team. In 2016, Morrison and Cage joined up with Chavo Guerrero Jr. on a united Team Lucha Underground to win the cup.
  • While Johnny Mundo himself wasn't a problem when he filled in for Angelico to help The Son Of Havoc and Ivelisse Vélez remain in Lucha Underground's trios division, his girlfriend Taya Valkyrie and Velez's boyfriend Jeremiah Crane were. Both were being manipulated by Catrina to undermine the trio and both ended up derailing its momentum by beating up Velez.
• Heel–Face Turn: After almost 3 entire seasons since his initial heel turn, Johnny seemed to turn back at the end of his feud with the Reptile Tribe- he fired up to a level not seen since Season 1 to win the match entirely clean, then passed up the opportunity to gain a wish from Kobra Moon in favour of forcing her to free Drago on behalf of his impromptu partner Aerostar.
• 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.
• 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.
  • Johnny tends to get himself in trouble a lot, but his worst moment was in the lead-up to Aztec Warfare III, where he bailed up Dario before the match to gloat about how he intended to become the champion, and even if he didn't then he was cashing in his Gift of the Gods belt the next week anyway. He rubbed Dario the wrong way so much that Dario promptly swapped his entry from #12 to #2. Who was #2? Sexy Star, the woman Johnny had been antagonising for most of the season before finally stealing the Gift from in the first place. Who eventually eliminated Johnny? Sexy Star. Who won Aztec Warfare III? Yep, that's right, Sexy Star. If Johnny had only been able to keep his big fat mouth shut he could well have been the one who came out with the championship, just as he'd planned.
• Homage: His proposal to Taya was one for Randy Savage's proposal to Elizabeth.
• I'd Tell You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You: How he'd make gasoline cost only 50 cents per gallon.
• Identical Stranger: Jim Morrison. Seriously◊ uncanny◊.
• I Have Many Names: Johnny Nitro, John Morrison, Johnny Mundo, Johnny Impact, Johnny Blackcraft (for Blackcraft Wrestling), John Superstar, Johnny Elite/TV - while essentially playing the same character, he adapts his last name to wherever he is working at the time.
• Informed Ability: The supposed athletic ability and wrestling skill Johnny Nitro was said to have on Raw. He eventually displayed these abilities as part of MNM and even more so when feuding with Carlito and Shelton Benjamin but that all happened after being easily bested by the likes of Eugene with little to no offense or finesse and then disappearing to popup on Smackdown a year later.
• It Will Never Catch On: Morrison was rejected from season 2 of Tough Enough because Kevin Dunn didn't like his attitude, believing that Morrison was patronizing the judges and that he didn't truly want to be a WWE Superstar. The fact that he came back to take part in and win season 3 before going on to have a successful run in the company is further proof that Kevin Dunn has no goddamn idea what he's talking about.
• 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
  • Combat Parkour: Said training does him a lot of favors at the Royal Rumble, where he proved to be about as hard to eliminate as Kofi Kingston, if not more so. It also set him apart from many competitors in Lucha Underground.
• Lightning Bruiser: A very fast paced and flashy wrestler... who's also starting to need to take a crap load of punishment in order to be taken down. This is even more apparent since leaving WWE since in most other federations, guys big enough to dwarf him are in much smaller supply.
• Los Angeles: Currently resides and is billed from there.
• Loser Leaves Town: The match he lost to Eugene was loser gets fired, since they were both on Eric Bischoff's bad side at that point.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: "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 one 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 Canon 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.
• Mr. Fanservice: Beyond those abs, he is sexy on many, many, many levels.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Oh, those abs.
  • Gaussian Guy: His entrance is even in slow motion.
  • Handsome in Mink: With Joey Mercury in MNM
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Excepting when he had a beard
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: Even Jerry Lawler had to admit his entrance was visually appealing
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: As a face.
  • Tall, Dark, and Snarky: As a heel.
• 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 became a completely insane heel for about a year or so? Morrison taking his title shot from him started that...
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: As Morrison. It was increasingly deemphasized as time went on, however.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: Later as he stopped wearing as much fur. Topped off with some Cool Shades and, in Lucha Underground, Dramatic Wind courtesy of an industrial fan.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Despite the fact that Mundo cheated literally all the time in Lucha Underground since he went rudo, he's never, ever been punished for it by the inept refs of the Temple. Ironically, his two arguable main rivals Prince Puma and Sexy Star, the two biggest Faces in the Temple, have each been disqualified more times than he has!^note Although in their cases they acted out of righteous fury and didn't even attempt to disguise their actions, while Mundo has never been caught, no matter how blatant his cheating is.
• Paparazzi: Until MNM disbanded, their entrance involved a red carpet and photographers.
• Odd Friendship: Unfortunate Raw viewers were subjected to his interactions with non wrestler Kevin Federline. Adding Umaga to the mix did not make things any better, especially after Federline scored a pinfall victory over WWE champion John Cena rather than Morrison or Umaga doing so.
• Older Than They Look: He's 42 (born in October 1979). He doesn't look a bit different than he did toward the end of his first WWE run more than a decade ago.
• 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 demotion back down to jobber can also be connected 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.
• Pet the Dog: In an uncharacteristic show of kindness, Mundo gave the wish he won from Kobra Moon to Aerostar as a reward for helping them against the Reptile Tribe, using it to free Drago from her thrall.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: As a face, he mocks his enemies for their speech impediments, nationalities and other uncontrollable things.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Yes he wears sparkling glittery animal print longcoats, he's still a badass.
• Rebellious Spirit: Seems to have more of an issue with authority than the other Lucha Underground wrestlers. Justified, as he's the most experienced American wrestler on the roster, and thus has much more experience when it comes to dealing with crooked promoters. His motivation for leaving other promotions was him being tired of the politics, so that's why Mundo was extra motivated in stopping Dario Cueto from trying to build another corrupt dynasty... At least, 'til Cueto corrupted him as well.
• Red Baron: The A-list Elitist, The Shaman of Sexy, The New Face Of Extreme, The [insert day of the show he's on] Night Delight, The Guru of Greatness, The Portal To The Internet, The Prince of Hardcore Parkour (as Michael Cole has dubbed him), Johnny Drip Drip, America's Moist Wanted.
• 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 up on 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 were handed to him by "creative".
• The Resenter: Towards Alberto El Patron in Lucha Underground, and for the most part, it was quite justified. Johnny has been part of the Temple since day one and has been in some of its most legendary feuds and matches, yet El Patron came in and was treated like royalty just because he was already a champ on another show. In addition, Alberto took particular delight in pushing Johnny's buttons and costing him a shot at the LU title (which Johnny had NEVER had a shot for since Puma won it at Aztec Warfare I).
• 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
  • He and Carlito started out as tag team partners in developmental. Carlito initially took a liking to Johnny Nitro's MNM group, though they ended up as enemies on Raw(see Diabolus Ex Machina above) and continued to feud on and off outside of WWE.
  • 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.
  • Later, Sheamus.
  • Johnny Mundo quickly developed a rivalry with Konnan's golden boy Prince Puma in Lucha Underground, the point Mundo prioritizes attacking Puma over the infernal Mil Muertes. The two don't hate each other though, Johnny's just an opportunist, and they definitely both have an extremely strong respect for the others' ability.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: Subverted. JoMo is the only known winner of Tough Enough to have a respectable career. The only other winner to have any real success at all is Maven, and his gimmick was basically "that guy who won Tough Enough" — what he's best known for is eliminating The Undertaker from the 2002 Royal Rumble, who then proceeded to beat the utter crap out of him. That being said, most people tend to forget Morrison won TE because he was so successful — the most successful alumni from the show are those who were eliminated during their season, including Morrison's former tag team partner The Miz, the runner up in season four, who went on to become WWE Champion.
• Running Gag: Whenever he shows up in a new promotion, he changes his last name to match. He was Johnny Mundo in Lucha Underground, Impact in Impact Wrestling, Superstar in AAA and Elite in AEW. At one point towards the end of his last WWE run (normally the only place where he's called "John" rather than "Johnny") he picked up the nickname "Johnny Drip-Drip". For a match at Triplemanía XXX teaming with Matt Hardy (as Matt's replacement partner after his brother Jeff was forced by real life circumstances to be pulled from the show) he even appeared as "Johnny Hardy". Although despite debuting as "Johnny Nitro", he obviously never actually worked for WCW; it was his boss at the time who used to run that company.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Oddly departed from an AAA B Show in a rage at director of talent Vampiro. This apparently had something to do with Vampiro's use of Loophole Abuse to get the Reina de Reinas off Taya Valkyrie and onto the no longer retired Sexy Star. However Mundo remained in AAA as a whole, and was "forced" to keep defending the three belts he tried to vacate.
• 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.
• Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Implied to be a substantial part of Mundo's motivation for competing. During a vignette about why he's in Lucha Underground, after talking about the politics that drove him away from other promotions, he discussed how he spent the time between said promotions and Lucha Underground, and the phrase "other passions" was mentioned, along with a wink from Mundo while the screen flashed a street sign for Hollywood Boulevard, champagne being popped, and him doing flips, all while he was sitting on a throne surrounded by three attractive women.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Flying Chuck
  • When he proposed to Taya, he made his voice deep and growly as he gritted out "Will.. you... marry... me?", and when Taya accepted he shouted "Ooooooh YEAH!" and Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance started playing as he lifted Taya up and sat her on his left shoulder, all call backs to "Macho Man" Randy Savage's famous on-air proposal to Miss Elizabeth in the lead up to SummerSlam 1991.
• Signature Move: Morrison has won matches with a running knee following a snap mare and a spring board kick but they usually just get two counts.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Heel, especially as part of MNM.
• Spectacular Spinning: His repertoire contains a corkscrew elbow drop, corkscrew neckbreaker (moonlight drive) and a standing shooting star press. John Morrison/Mundo's finisher, Starship Pain/The End Of The World, is a split-leg corkscrew moonsault. Yeah, it's that awesome...if impractical. (see above entry)
• Spicy Latina: The name "Mundo", as well as his bipolar tendencies would imply this but he's not of the right nationality so it is subverted. His frequent valet and girlfriend, Melina, widely considered to be one of the more talented "divas", was a straight example though. After their WWE departures they reunited in Lucha Underground against Alberto el Patrón.
• 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!
  • On Lucha Underground, since changing his name to Johnny Mundo (and particularly since turning rudo) his skills appear to have fully matured. Every match he's in gets the same consistent level of psychology to accompany the impressive spotwork, and he's considered by many to be one of the best all-around performers on a very talented roster.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Him and the Miz winning the WWE tag team championship belts despite being on ECW, the wrong brand for them and showing up on Raw more than most people officially a part of Raw while also regularly popping up on their own brand and defending Smackdown belts. They even got their own web show. After finally losing the belts to Smackdown wrestlers, they then won the Raw belts so they could repeat the whole thing all over again. To compare, the Colon's later held the Unified tag team championship belts meant to cross brands and still did not show up as often as these two.
• 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
  • Johnny Nitro, from unaccomplished braggart to winning the WWE Tag Team Championship in MNM's first match on Smackdown against Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio!
  • John Morrison had 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 an awesome athlete that puts on incredible matches.
• Tournament Arc
  • Many mutants try to forget it, but his first victory in one of these may have been the two day "ECW" on SyFy tournament for the platinum phoenix belt.
  • Been in more a few besides the above, but one of the few he actually won was in Calgary Canada to determine the Next Generation Wrestling World Champion. It started as a tag team tournament, where Morrison teamed with Teddy Hart, then became a free for all in the finals, leading to Morrison outlasting Brian Cage, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Jack Evans, Samuray del Sol and Teddy Hart. Kevin Nash had won in the semi finals too be did not participate in the last match.
  • Beat Alofa in the finals of the Quatar Pro Wrestling Souq Waqif Title Tournament in 2015.
• Two Guys and a Girl: MNM, Which was Melina (his Real Life girlfriend), Johnny Nitro (his old name), and Joey Mercury (the Janetty).
• Ur-Example: The first WWFX heavy weight champion, defeating Shelton Benjamin.
• Warrior Poet: Mostly his heel character, though a little bit creeps in as a face.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: After getting a singles push as a face, there was a portion of his fanbase that vastly preferred him when he was a heel. This is less because he was a heel and more that he lost most of the interesting traits he had as one.
• 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 who he did not proceed to stand up to about it makes him look like a Henpecked Boyfriend as well. This is arguably the reason why his push plateaued as it did, as Vince McMahon is said to have perceived him as soft and unmanly as a result.
• When He Smiles: He looks even more Bishonen and around ten years younger.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Excepting times where Melina orders he help her take someone out, Morrison is otherwise fairly chivalrous in this regard. Even acting as Melina's accomplice he almost never does more than hold someone still for her.
  • Completely averted on Lucha Underground where everyone has to be willing to hit a girl because it's an intergender promotion. He had an extended feud with Sexy Star which culminated in a steel cage match.
• Wrestling Doesn't Pay: A subversion, as he only took acting jobs with the belief that it would improve his promo skills rather than because he needed extra money or already had a profession with wrestling as a side job. In character though, he seems to play it straight as wrestling Jim Morrison impersonator/guru.
• 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.

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