"John Morrison" is a Horrible Gimmick

[zappafrank 0]

John Hennigan has so much potential, and has always shown it since debuting. But his "John Morrison" character is so lame.

 

The gimmick relies heavily on promos, and right now, that just isn't his strong point. He comes across as forced, stilted, and awkward.

 

This then only adds to the quixoticness of his catchphrases. Saying the things he says doesn't make him sounds mysterious or provocative, it makes him sound like someone who's trying to be deep but who doesn't have the intellectual capability to do so. It's almost as if they're trying to mold him in Jericho's form, but without the charisma.

 

I'm a few weeks behind on ECW, and I just watched the contract signing he had w/ Punk. After Morrison went through this spiel about average reality and the like, Punk delivered a simple, effective promo that was organic and believable. I really think Hennigan's taken a step back with this gimmick.

[death_by_burrito 0]

How is he taking a step back, when in his previous gimmick he had no promo time and hardly any tv time? From when he first showed up on Smackdown until he went to Raw, Melina did all the talking. Now that she isn't around, he's gotta do the talking. Sure, he isn't great at it now, but give the guy time. He was never given too much time to develop on his own, so now that he is on his own he's gotta make this work. I'm sure he'll lose to Punk at SS, but let him keep this gimmick and chase after Punk while also working on his character and i'm sure he'll be fine.

[muzz 0]

Stop putting every single thought of yours in a separate topic.

[edgehead69 0]

Jim Morrison said a lot of crazy stuff like what John Morrison says.... like palace of wisdom and stuff like that.

Face the Facts... The Man has Talent, Im sure he writes his own promos and is a fan of the late Jim Morrison.

 

As for me... I LOVE John morrison, Everything he says is so smooth and cool that he is on the rise to be one of my personal favs in the coming years.

Sure he is no HHH on th emic, but he is unique in his own special way that makes him who he is... His promos are complex yet very intuitive...

He is the reason I watch ECW, as well as Elijah Burke...

 

[cd213 0]

For someone that is horrible on the mic, it's going to take time to get there. Not everyone is a natural on the mic, some people need to work on it. Look at someone like Shane Helms. When he was in WCW he was HORRIBLE! When he came to the WWF and got the Hurricane gimmick, I used to be excited for his promos, especially the ones he had with Rock. Those were great.

[Perfection 0]

Jim Morrison said a lot of crazy stuff like what John Morrison says.... like palace of wisdom and stuff like that.

Face the Facts... The Man has Talent, Im sure he writes his own promos and is a fan of the late Jim Morrison.

 

As for me... I LOVE John morrison, Everything he says is so smooth and cool that he is on the rise to be one of my personal favs in the coming years.

Sure he is no HHH on th emic, but he is unique in his own special way that makes him who he is... His promos are complex yet very intuitive...

He is the reason I watch ECW, as well as Elijah Burke...

 

Wow. He truly is about as boring of a character imho that there is. Shelton Benjamin has far more charisma, mike skills, and character than this guy. And I'm not being sarcastic either. I find the morrison gimmick, which is way too much like his nitro gimmick, even remotely interesting.

 

IMHO they need to get the title off him and have Burke fued for the belt. Right now on ECW he is the all around best. I love watching him wrestle as he can make a rather unimportant match interesting simply because of how he does small stuff in the ring. Like certain looks and selling. Morrison needs another total gimmick change or be taught how to give a better promo. He is just boring to me.

[Kristianna 0]

I've pretty much hated him from the start. The gimmick, not the wrestler. Mr. Hennigan is a very talented athlete, and I especially enjoyed his IC title matches with Jeff Hardy. I'm not saying I'd like for him to be Johnny Nitro again, because that gimmick blew dogs too.

 

I guess I don't have an answer for the guy... but I do know that I'm really looking forward to seeing him lose.

[haVoc 0]

My biggest problem with the character is they changed him over night. He could have stayed Johnny Nitro and transformed into this character gradually within a month and it would have been fun to watch him evolve.

 

Also, I'm not crazy for the Morrison name. They didn't have to change his name for him to be a Jim Morrison clone.

[Mad Scientist 0]

It is a terrible gimmick, but it's tons better than the old one. You're right in some respects...the guy doesn't have the mic skills to pull off these surreal promos. He'd be better with just being an arrogant jerk opportunist heel, in the Edge mold. That doesn't require him to use pseudo-intellectual catchphrases, which his current promo abilities don't allow him to pull off without sounding a bit like a local news guy reading a report about someone interesting.

 

I think the "Morrison" gimmick could work, and I love the weird surreal references, but Johnny's promos in that vein come off terribly. I blame bad booking...you don't go from being second fiddle, promo-wise, to talentless T&A to trying to pull off a relatively complex gimmick based almost entirely off of your ability to convincingly deliver surrealist promos containing references to Nietzschean philosophical catchphrases that he probably doesn't get. That's a huge leap to force on someone at the same time you toss them into a title scene that they have not only never been involved in before, but also are, character-wise, completely unsuited for ("Hollywood" scthick and "eXtreme wrestling" go together like a mariachi band and Eskimos).

[hyperchord24 0]

John Hennigan has so much potential, and has always shown it since debuting. But his "John Morrison" character is so lame.

 

The gimmick relies heavily on promos, and right now, that just isn't his strong point. He comes across as forced, stilted, and awkward.

 

This then only adds to the quixoticness of his catchphrases. Saying the things he says doesn't make him sounds mysterious or provocative, it makes him sound like someone who's trying to be deep but who doesn't have the intellectual capability to do so. It's almost as if they're trying to mold him in Jericho's form, but without the charisma.

 

I'm a few weeks behind on ECW, and I just watched the contract signing he had w/ Punk. After Morrison went through this spiel about average reality and the like, Punk delivered a simple, effective promo that was organic and believable. I really think Hennigan's taken a step back with this gimmick.

Ever thought that might HELP him get over as a heel?

 

I think this gimmick could work. I don't hate his abilities on the mic, but given time, he could do a better job. As it stands, his delivery is fine, just so long as they don't write promos for him that might lead to rambling.

[Human Fly 0]

If he loses on Sunday they best thing they could do for him would be to cut a promo right after the match and say he needs to go "find himself".

 

Then for the next month they could have him filming all of these vignettes of John Morrison "finding himself" which would basically be him spouting his nonsense in strange places like the middle of a desert, an old cemetary, weird looking spots on the next international tour etc. etc. Depending on how much of the envelope they feel like pushing they could imply that Morrison is doing nothing but getting high all over the world. Since these would not be live they could coach him up (so to say) and get some good promos out of him.

 

Then when he comes back in a month he needs to have new gear. I do not want him dressing like he just came out of the early 70s but the gear he is wearing now does not fit.

[TheFranchise 0]

I do not want him dressing like he just came out of the early 70s but the gear he is wearing now does not fit.

[TheFranchise 0]

Well, it doesn't work, but it was a picture of Mike Awesome during his That 70's Guy run.

[Mike wanna be 0]

On the bright side, we won't be seeing MNM ever again.

 

And upon further review, I never realized how little mic time he got...he's been with Melina for most of his WWE time, and they came up with her so I imagine he had her in development as well.

[mysterious_w 0]

Unrelated to his gimmick, but do you think the reason he does the corkscrew moonsault off the middle rope is to avoid breaking WWE's top-rope moves rule?

[zappafrank 0]

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[The Buzz 0]

It's not a terrible gimmick, he's not terrible on the mic, and if anything he's getting comfortable in his role. In a time in wrestling when guys are brought up in their teens and early 20s with little real world experience let alone wrestling experience you can't expect everyone to be great right off the bat. Four years in OVW isn't quite like working the territories, or even working Independents, Mexico, and Japan for a few years. It took Brock Lesnar until the end of his run to become what I considered a good all around package. The Rock took 2-3 years to finally break through like they wanted him to in the beginning, and that was after what I believe was a year or so in a developmental league. If anything his poses/gestures look a little robotic and need work. His promos sound cool, but it sounds like he's trying to ad lib the promos as he goes which makes them come off maybe a little slow in between words. I didn't like Johnny Nitro all that much except for his short run with Bischoff, but with the Morrison gimmick and his performance he's growing on me.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Stop putting every single thought of yours in a separate topic.

 

...I like toast.

 

I thought he came off and sounded fine during the contract signing the other week. It's growing on me. The name still sounds too generic to me though, it screams Heat jobber. Maybe if he found one of his dozen or so nicknames to stick in the middle/in front regularly, to make it stand out a little more.

[Jingus 0]

On the bright side, we won't be seeing MNM ever again.

Bright side?! MNM was one of the few good new teams to come along in the past few years. Compared to black holes of suckitude like Deuce & Domino, they're fucking awesome.

 

Unrelated to his gimmick, but do you think the reason he does the corkscrew moonsault off the middle rope is to avoid breaking WWE's top-rope moves rule?

There is no across-the-board "top-rope moves rule". The 450 and the shooting star press are the only things they specifically discouraged.

 

Personally I don't like the Morrison gimmick, I didn't see any need to change Nitro in the first place, and 90% of the fans have no idea who the hell The Doors were anyway. But something must be working, since ECW's ratings have consistently gone up ever since Johnny got the belt.

[Bix 0]

Personally I don't like the Morrison gimmick, I didn't see any need to change Nitro in the first place, and 90% of the fans have no idea who the hell The Doors were anyway. But something must be working, since ECW's ratings have consistently gone up ever since Johnny got the belt.

I don't know how hitting record lows for several weeks in a row means "ratings have consistently gone up."

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The ratings started going up when Vince began appearing on the show.

[Papacita 0]

Did I miss something and MNM suddenly become disliked by the IWC? Aside from being a good team, I always thought their paparazzi thing was pretty cool.

[Celtic Jobber 0]

I love the John Morrison gimmick, he's one of the best characters in WWE at the moment, IMO. I'll admit John's mic skills leave alot to be desired, but I think he'll improve over time. I think he is basically WWE's re-imagining of the Raven character, only without a flunky, and with more pumped up Jim Morrison undertones.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Did I miss something and MNM suddenly become disliked by the IWC? Aside from being a good team, I always thought their paparazzi thing was pretty cool.

I always hated it, so that's why I said what I said (and I don't speak for the entire IWC, sadly )

 

Their music sucked (Melina's still got it, which blows), it always made me want to change the channel because it's just so fucking annoying.

Their gimmick sucked because while it was "original", it was just....fake. I never cared that they were "megastars". I will take Cade & Murdoch over MNM every day of the week (although I also hate Cade's fake-intense throwing of the chaps).

[Jingus 0]

I don't know how hitting record lows for several weeks in a row means "ratings have consistently gone up."

Haven't they gone up the last month or so?

 

::checks how long Mornitro has had the belt::

 

Whoops, nevermind, looks like the ratings did indeed only pick up with the Whose Your Daddy angle... sigh.

[Scroby 0]

Zappa, why did you refer to Morrison under his real name?

[Bix 0]

When you invoke someone's shootname, you take away all of their powers.

[AntiLeaf33 0]

I really have no issues with the name/gimmick change. Johnny Nitro seemed too odd to be a World Champ beacuse he was always the guy from MNM. John Morrison is a way to clean the slate and re-establish his character

[razazteca 0]

He went from absolute shit in doing the MNM "press conferences" which was basically "uh, um, er, I'm famous, I know famous people in hollywood" which nobody brought to "bare witness to my greatness for I am the leader of the forsaken, unwanted, undesirable...". It's an improvement but still looks unnatural and unbelievable because as stated before he is just remembering his lines. You can't take someone who was basically a sidekick to a diva to throwing him into the fire and think he will get over as the #1 heel of the brand. Right now he is stuck in the gimmick deadzone between Jeff Hardy and Edge characterizations.

[zappafrank 0]

Zappa, why did you refer to Morrison under his real name?

 

I wanted to differentiate the wrestler from the character. IMO, John Morrison is lame, but only in the gimmick sense. I have no problem with what he does when he wrestles. Honestly, right now, I don't see much potential in the Morrison gimmick without some overhaul; that's why I used his real last name to indicate I didn't have a problem with him, per se.