John Morrison On Replacing Chris Benoit During Fateful Weekend, Alberto Del Rio's WWE Return, More
Recently on Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast, Lucha Underground's Johnny Mundo, formerly known as John Morrison in WWE, talked about his slow motion entrance in WWE, Alberto Del Rio's surprise return to WWE, and feeling like a "douche bag" for replacing Chris Benoit at WWE Vengeance: Night of Champions in 2007 in a match with CM Punk for the ECW World Championship.
With respect to the former JoMo's slowmo entrance in WWE, he said that it was the brainchild of his along with Stephanie McMahon and a production team member.
"It was a combo of me, Stephanie, and one of the guys in the truck that all put our heads together on this entrance. Yeah, and then it ended up evolving, adding the pyro and becoming this whole thing. And I still think it's the coolest entrance that I've ever had."
As for whether Mundo was surprised by Del Rio's return to WWE, Mundo admitted that he expected to be working with Del Rio for Lucha Underground this year.
"I was shocked! I was texting him back and forth and, like, we were talking about Lucha Underground. We worked in Mexico a couple of times. And then, I feel like I was on a flight and I was seeing stuff on Twitter like, 'Alberto Del Rio just beat John Cena for the US title' and I was like, 'what?'" Mundo added, "I thought we were going to do [Lucha Underground] season two together, but I figured eventually he would go back [to WWE]. At the end of the day, I look at it like this: pro wrestling is really hard on the performers, the luchadoras, and any time a performer is in a position to do something good for themselves and make money, I'm always happy to see that happen. And I think Alberto made a good deal for himself and is doing well, so I'm happy for him."
According to Mundo, he felt bad for hoping that Benoit no-showed the Vengeance pay-per-view, so that he could take the vacant spot in the ECW title match.
"That whole day, it was supposed to be Benoit vs. Punk. And then Benoit didn't show up, so, like, three hours later, [WWE officials] were like, 'what are we going to do? Chris isn't here. Like, we're either going to have to replace him, but who's on ECW?' And they're like, 'Morrison and Kevin Thorn, one of those two'. And then for two hours, I was like, 'please don't show up, Chris! Please let it be me and not Kevin Thorn.' And he ended up not showing up. I ended up winning and I was super excited and happy. And then when we found out what happened, I felt like the biggest douche bag in the world. It was really crappy. It was a really crappy, tragic situation."
In addition to these topics, Mundo discussed wanting to be the "white Jackie Chan", his goals for Lucha Underground, and much more. To check out the podcast, click here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast