John Hennigan

John Hennigan
Statistics
Ring name(s)	John Hennigan[1] Johnny Blaze[1] John Morrison[1] Johnny Nitro[1] Johnny Onyx[2] Johnny Spade[1] Johnny Superstar[3]
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[4]
Billed weight	219 lb (99 kg)[4]
Born	October 3, 1979 (1979-10-03) (age 30)[1] Los Angeles, California, U.S.[5]
Resides	Los Angeles, California[6]
Trained by	SPW staff[2] Tough Enough III trainers OVW staff Nick Dinsmore
Debut	January 27, 2003[1]

John Randall Hennigan^[7] (born October 3, 1979)^[1][8] better known by his ring name John Morrison, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) performing on their ECW brand.^[4] He came to WWE in 2002 after co-winning their reality television program Tough Enough, and has since held championships in the company on seven occasions; having held the WWE Tag Team Championship four times, Intercontinental Championship two times, and the ECW Championship once.

Career

Tough Enough

Before getting into professional wrestling, Hennigan attended University of California at Davis studying both film and geology.^[5] Upon deciding that he did not want to pursue either path, he began his professional wrestling career training at the Supreme Pro Wrestling professional wrestling school.^[2] After failing his audition for the second series,^[9] in 2002 he was accepted as a cast member for the third season of the WWE/MTV reality show WWE Tough Enough, eventually becoming co-winner with Matt Cappotelli.^[10] For winning he was awarded a WWE developmental contract and assigned to WWE's "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to continue his training.^[11] The duo made their first appearance on WWE television on an episode of Heat in January 2004, losing to Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak in a tag team match.^[12]

World Wrestling Entertainment (2004–present)

Bischoff's assistant and apprentice

On March 1, 2004 Hennigan debuted on the Raw brand. His character was depicted as the apprentice and assistant of Raw brand General Manager Eric Bischoff and given the ring name Johnny Blaze.^[13] The next week his name was changed to Johnny Spade,^[14] and three weeks after that it was changed to Johnny Nitro.^[15] The Nitro name, a name which finally stuck, was a reference to Monday Nitro, the flagship show of World Championship Wrestling which Bischoff had created, and to drive the point home he began using the Nitro theme music as his ring entrance music.^[16] Nitro acted as Bischoff's apprentice and assistant until June, when he was sent back to OVW. To explain his departure he lost a June 7 Raw match against Eugene which carried the stipulation that upon his loss, he also lost his job.^[17]

MNM

Upon his return to OVW he was put into a feud with his former partner Matt Cappotelli. During the course of the feud Melina Perez was brought in to the company as Nitro's ex-girlfriend and an ally of Cappotelli, only to double-cross him and side with Nitro. Not long after, they were joined by Joey Mercury, forming the stable "MNM".^[18] MNM wrestled in OVW for around a year, holding the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, before being called up to the main SmackDown! roster in April 2005. While on SmackDown!, they were put into feuds with the teams of Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, Mysterio and Batista, the new Legion of Doom, and Paul London and Brian Kendrick. MNM held the SmackDown! brand's WWE Tag Team Championship on three occasions, all in their rookie year on the brand.^[19] At May 2006's Judgment Day MNM dropped the championship to London and Kendrick, with the storyline leading to Nitro and Melina suddenly turning on Mercury after the match, breaking up the group.^[20] Later that night Melina and Nitro were booked off the SmackDown! brand by having the General Manager, Theodore Long, "fire" them.^[21]

Raw and Intercontinental Champion

The next week Nitro (with Melina) debuted on the Raw brand in a loss to WWE Champion John Cena.^[22] He was immediately placed in the WWE Intercontinental Championship picture, getting his first reign at June's Vengeance pay-per-view with a win over champion Shelton Benjamin in a Triple-Threat match also involving Carlito.^[23] He held the belt, the first singles title of his career, for four months, feuding with several challengers before losing it to Jeff Hardy on the October 2 Raw.^[24] In addition, he was featured in a sporadic feud with John Cena throughout 2006. The feud was unique in that it also involved non-wrestler Kevin Federline, who appeared on the October 16 episode of Raw from Los Angeles.^[25] Federline was then (kayfabe) trained by Nitro for a January 1, 2007 match with Cena, which he ended up winning after interference from Umaga.^[26]

In the meantime, Nitro recaptured the Intercontinental title from Hardy on November 6 when former friend, and General Manager for the night, Eric Bischoff restarted a match that Nitro had been disqualified from.^[27] The very next week, however, Hardy got the title back.^[28] In November 2006 MNM reunited on an episode of Raw to accept an "open challenge" from The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) for ECW December to Dismember.^[29] MNM and the Hardys feuded across the brands throughout December, with the feud intensifying after Mercury was (legitimately) injured at Armageddon in December.^[30]

Morrison as one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, along with The Miz.

MNM continued on and off as a unit until Mercury was released from WWE in March 2007.^[31] Without Mercury, Nitro was paired up with Kenny Dykstra^[32][33] until the annual WWE draft, during which Nitro was sent to the ECW brand and Dykstra to SmackDown!.^[34]

ECW and ECW Champion

He made his ECW debut on June 19 with a win over Nunzio,^[35] and the next week, at Vengeance, took the vacant ECW World Championship in a match against CM Punk, when he was called on to replace the missing Chris Benoit.^[36]

A few weeks after getting the title, Nitro's name was changed to John Morrison and his character was tweaked to be even more conceited and self-aggrandizing,^[37] modeled after Jim Morrison, to whom Hennigan bears a resemblance.^[38] After defeating CM Punk again at the Great American Bash,^[39] he began taking part in a "15 Minutes of Fame" segment on the weekly ECW on Sci Fi television program, where if a wrestler could either defeat him or last 15 minutes without being defeated, they would be granted a title shot. The first wrestler to do so turned out to be CM Punk,^[40] setting up another match between the two at SummerSlam, which Morrison won when he used the ring ropes for leverage.^[41] The next week, Punk again became number one contender,^[42] this time taking the Championship at a September 1 television taping in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[43] Hennigan was then suspended for 30 days,^[44] renewing his feud with Punk upon his return, as well as fending off The Miz who was also after the title.^[45]

Teaming with The Miz

Main article: John Morrison and The Miz

Though enemies, Miz and Morrison teamed together on the November 16 (taped November 13) episode of SmackDown! and were booked to take the WWE Tag Team Championship from Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter.^[46] At Survivor Series, Morrison and The Miz were both defeated by CM Punk in a triple threat match for the ECW Championship.^[47] After the defeat, the rivalry aspect of Miz and Morrison's relationship was dropped, instead portraying them as trusting friends. The team had many successful title defenses over the next few months, before dropping the titles to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder at the Great American Bash in a fatal four-way match which also featured Jesse and Festus and Finlay and Hornswoggle. Neither Miz nor Morrison were pinned, as Hawkins pinned Jesse to win the titles.^[48] Afterwards, they started a feud with Cryme Tyme which through each teams Internet show, and then transitioned to matches on Raw.

Personal life

Hennigan was in a long-term relationship with Melina Perez, his former on screen manager,^[49] but they have since broken up.^[50] The pair met during auditions for Tough Enough III, although she did not make the show.^[6]

Articles posted by Sports Illustrated, the New York Daily News, and the Washington Post during the weekend of August 30, 2007, named Hennigan as one of a number of WWE superstars to have purchased pharmaceuticals from an online pharmacy, a violation of the WWE "Talent Wellness" program. Specifically, Hennigan received somatropin, anastrozole, testosterone, stanozolol and chorionic gonadotropin between June 2006 and February 2007, which is after the "no drugs from online sources" rule was instituted.^[51][52] As a result of the infraction, Hennigan was suspended for 30 days.^[44]

In wrestling

Johnny Nitro as the Intercontinental Champion

• Finishing and signature maneuvers
  • Hangman's neckbreaker – Mid–2007
  • Moonlight Drive^[4] (Corkscrew neckbreaker)^[53] – 2007–present
  • Nitro Blast^[54] / Superkick – 2004–2006, 2008–present
  • Standing shooting star press^[1] – 2005
  • 180° spun flare transitioned into a leg drop
  • Belly to back wheelbarrow facebuster^[1]
  • European uppercut
  • Feint vaulting dive transitioned into a baseball slide dropkick into the ring
  • Inverted headlock backbreaker followed into a kick to the midsection followed by an overhead Capoeira kick
  • Multiple corkscrew moonsault variations^[1]
    • Diving
    • Springboard
    • Standing
    • Starship Pain^[55] (Split–legged)
  • Russian legsweep
  • Spinning wheel kick
  • Springboard or a slingshot elbow drop
  • Springboard roundhouse kick^[1][56]
  • Springboard or a step–up enzuigiri^[57]
  • STO backbreaker followed by a Russian legsweep,^[56] an STO or a neckbreaker slam
  • Running knee strike to a seated opponent
  • Multiple mounted forearm smashes to a grounded opponent

• Nicknames
  • During his time as Johnny Nitro, he, as well as the rest of MNM, were often referred to as "A-Listers". After his name change to John Morrison he began referring to himself with a slew of nicknames, including "The New Face of Extreme",^[58] " The Guru of Greatness",^[59] "The Shaman of Sexy",^[60] "The A-list Elitist", and "The Tuesday Night Delight"^[61] in his promos.

• Entrance themes
  • As a singles wrestler, Hennigan has had four themes in WWE. When he was first given the name Johnny Nitro it was coupled with the former theme song of WCW Monday Nitro. After splitting from MNM, he continued to use their theme, Paparazzi, until his July 17, 2007 name change. After that he was given the Rock & Roll styled song "Ain't No Make Believe"^[62] performed by Stonefree Experience.^[63] It was originally played as an instrumental, but lyrics were added on August 7, 2007.

• Managers
  • Melina
  • Jillian Hall

• Signature taunts
  • Mimicking taking pictures with his hands
  • Pelvic thrust with accompanying finger guns
  • Showing off his eight pack
  • Holds one arm to side, followed by swinging his arm in a circle across him and raising his other arm, accompanied by slow-motion theatrics

• The Dirt Sheet
  • In February 2008 Morrison and his tag team partner the Miz were given a streaming segment on WWE.com named The Dirt Sheet in which they mocked other wrestlers and facets of pop culture.

Championships and accomplishments

John Morrison as the ECW Champion.

• Ohio Valley Wrestling
  • OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[64] – with Joey Mercury

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Tag Team of the Year (2005) with Joey Mercury^[65]
  • PWI ranked him #56 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the year in the in the PWI 500 in 2007^[66]

• World Wrestling Entertainment
  • ECW Championship (1 times)^[67]
  • WWE Intercontinental Championship (2 times)^[68]
  • WWE Tag Team Championship (4 times)^[69] – with Joey Mercury (3) and The Miz (1)
  • WWE Tough Enough III co-winner with Matt Cappotelli^[10]

References

External links

• John Hennigan (John Morrison) at WWE.com
  • The Dirt Sheet
• John Hennigan's (John Morrison) official MySpace
• John Hennigan (John Morrison) at Online World of Wrestling
• John Hennigan at the Internet Movie Database
• John Hennigan at TV.com