John Morrison on shaving his head, his place in AEW, Elimination Chamber, and more

John Morrison sat down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, California to discuss losing a hair vs. hair match at CMLL and now being bald, his wife Taya’s reaction to the new look, replacing Chris Benoit at Vengeance and winning the ECW World Championship in 2007, his dive from the top of the Elimination Chamber, his parkour Royal Rumble save, having more than 34 names throughout his pro wrestling career, and more!

Are you getting used to seeing yourself with no hair?

“No. Imagine your whole life, every time you see your reflection there’s a guy there with hair. I never shaved my head. But more than that, for the last 24 years, 25 years, I’ve had long hair. When I got my WWE contract in 2003 that was the day I stopped getting haircuts. Basically, I just grew it out from then till now.”

“I gotta admit, the match did feel fantastic. That hair match, I feel like, was one of the best matches I’ve had in years. Was the first time in a while that I felt like me again. Kind of feeling unfulfilled, basically. Not just me, a lot of people in wrestling. But for me right now, in AEW, I feel underutilized. Can’t blame anyone, that’s just how wrestling promotions work. There’s only enough TV time for a certain amount of people. Those people at AEW, we’ve coined the term the island. Those people are on the island, so to speak. I don’t feel like I’m on the island with Tony or AEW right now. So because of that, I feel like I’m doing like 10-20% of what I’m capable of, storytelling-wise, wrestling-wise, in the ring. With CMLL, I’m on their island, and so I got to do everything that I could, and it was cool.”

You were the first one to have a real crazy Elimination Chamber spot. How did you dream this up?

“I wouldn’t say growing up, but high school, college, I was watching the Chambers, always thought they were cool. When I got signed, and I was in OVW, Louisville, I started watching more closely. Then I saw that parkour movie, District 13, and started doing parkour a bunch, and I hadn’t been in a Chamber match. Then I started watching parkour and Chamber matches, and in my head, booking all these crazy things that I could potentially do in the Chamber and this is like two years before I had my first Chamber match. So when I knew that I was going to be in the Chamber match, I had like 10 ideas of different kinds of crazy things that I wanted to do, ready to go.”

That’s high when you’re up there!

“It’s so high! The one where I crawled up to the top and then dropped down on Sheamus. It’s funny. When you’re up there and you’re dropping, it feels like you’re three stories up. It doesn’t look like that on TV. It’s not that high, but it feels that high. It’s also when you’re falling backward, you just have to have a lot of trust in what’s behind you. I know Sheamus. I trust the hell out of that guy. He would always be there to catch you, pick you up, and then just hit you in the face with his fist.”

I read that you are on your 34th name right now. Does that sound accurate?

“It sounds accurate, if not underrated. I feel like there’s a handful of names that I’ve had. Johnny Zero, when I wrestled for Below Zero Wrestling in North Dakota for one show. There’s a ton of those one-show names that I’ve had. It’s hard to keep track of”