https://youtu.be/vD8eZlLNFks

Source: The Art Of Wrestling

Recently on The Art Of Wrestling, ‘The Podcast King Of Chicago’ Colt Cabana spoke with Lucha Underground’s Johnny Mundo, formerly known as WWE’s John Morrison. Among other things, Morrison talked about his WWE departure, why he left WWE, and why he used to “phone it in” during his first year on the indies.

According to Morrison, he was not released from WWE, but rather, he did not resign with the company because he wanted to make a movie and he did not want to work 250 days a year.

“I wouldn’t say I quit or was released. At the end of 2011, I just didn’t resign. I let my contract run out. They offered me a couple of things. They didn’t offer me what I wanted.” Morrison continued, “I wanted to make a movie and I didn’t want to work 250 days a year.”

Moreover, Morrison explained that he was tired of not having “creative autonomy” and time for other projects.

“That’s one of the reasons I left. I was tired of just kind of being on that express train, whatever you want to call it, so to speak. It just sort of shoots forward and you have no creative autonomy, no control over your time, and there’s not much time for side projects or family and friends.”

During the podcast, Morrison admitted that he does not “phone it in” on the indies anymore. While Morrison stated that he never tried to put on bad matches in his first year on the indies, he was distracted by trying to get his Hollywood career going.

“Over the last couple of years, I went from doing independents to make money from looking at it differently. I look at it now as every show I have, I’m building my brand. I don’t phone it in anymore.” Morrison continued, “you’ve got all this stuff in your head and it’s not like you’re purposely trying to have a bad match, but I’ve got pages of sides in my little computer bag and I’m at shows and I’m emailing my agent, following up with casting directors, so it’s not like my head was necessarily in the game for the first year of independent wrestling.”

Also during the interview, Morrison shared that when he left WWE, he thought he was going to take a year off and do a couple of movies.

“When you leave WWE, like, when I left I was thinking, ‘maybe I’ll take, like, a year off, and in that year, I’ll probably do a Marvel movie, maybe a couple of movies. I don’t know.’ And, obviously, completely unrealistic.”

This “unrealistic” thought process was also on display when Morrison believed his WWE run would open doors for him in Hollywood.

“I was thinking with the TV exposure I had with WWE, and it’s kind of hard to explain to people sometimes how many countless hours you are on television when you’ve been on the road with WWE. I was thinking that was going to open doors, get me auditions, and get me into a lot of high profile roles. The thing that I didn’t take into consideration is that acting, like wrestling, is a skill. And, as many people are fans of wrestling that are going to be excited to meet you, talk about what The Undertaker and John Cena were like, there [are] a lot of people out there who are movie producers and casting directors who are not impressed with wrestling on your resume.”