John Morrison reflects on his time as part of MTV’s WWE Tough Enough season 3 and his early years in Ohio Valley Wrestling.
John Morrison (aka John Hennigan) has wrestled worldwide but got his start as part of an MTV reality show called WWE Tough Enough. Morrison won season 3 alongside Matt Capotelli. Recently, he appeared on Power Up with Tony Horton and detailed how he got his start on Tough Enough, explaining how it all stems back from having to have his knee scoped from his days as a collegiate wrestler.
“I wrestled at UC Davis, which is D1, and I had to have both of my knees scoped. Not the end of the world, but it was just enough to bump me off that course,” said Morrison. “I changed majors from geology to film and started wanting to make action movies. I was like, ‘Huh, what do action movie guys do? Wushu, breakdancing, and gymnastics. So I signed up for the gymnastics team… I probably overtrained, now that I think about it. In the midst of that, there is a show called Tough Enough on MTV, the winner of which would get a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. I applied for season 2 and almost made it. I reapplied, and you couldn’t have timed it better. I flew out for the final casting thing, flew to Davis, graduated, and two days later, got a call to do the show.”
Morrison explained that when he and Matt won the competition, they were immediately sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling to learn the ropes. Morrison says that even though he’s glad the industry isn’t like this anymore, he understands that anyone who roughed them up was just trying to get them acclimated to the industry.
“So I loaded up my car, and I drove to Louisville, which is where the developmental system was,” he said. “When you get there, you’re making a lot more than guys that have been there for like 5 or 10 years, and they just love that. [We had] a huge target.
“I think that’s how the business was. It has changed since. But really, like, I think it’s kind of important in a way — nobody really crossed the line. You know, they just roughed us up a little bit. Because that’s just what they did. If you can’t take it, you quit. The toughness that it takes to travel on the road, fly and all these different places, drive for hours, then wrestle, then cram yourself into a car, lay down for a few hours, and do it over and over and over again, is more than it takes to make it through OVW. So if you can’t make it through developmental you’re not gonna make it.”
Fortunately for Morrison, he did make it. Even though he wouldn’t spend his entire career in WWE, he has branched out to win World Championships in multiple promotions. Currently, he is wrestling for MLW alongside his wife, Taya Valkyrie.
More must-reads: