Greetings from under the New Blue Black Yankee cap I received for my birthday.

Look who is back from a 3 week vacation and missed a hell of a lot of news in both the World of Wrestling and “the Real World”. There are actually a ton of things to talk about from the CNN special on Steroids in wrestling to the passing of the most important female in the history of professional wrestling to the return of a major name to the WWE to the debut of a major star in TNA. But today, we aren’t going to discuss any of those things. Why you ask? Well it’s simple. I am not going to provide you with a normal random thoughts column. Oh no. Instead, I am going to provide you with some insight. Drop some knowledge or whatever it is you kids today like to say. Today, I am going to talk about Teamwork.

You see, Teamwork is a major part of the professional wrestling business. Just recently, according to both Mike Johnson and Dave Meltzer both reported on a backstage altercation involving former WWE Champion and current Smackdown! Play by play man John Bradshaw Leyfeld and former ECW Champion John “Johnny Nitro” Morrison. It started with ECW when The Miz and Morrison were doing commentary during the CM Punk vs. Jamie Noble match. Rather than act as normal heels where they discuss the match and point out flaws in CM Punk, they in turn decided to pay little attention to the actual in ring action and instead not only bash Punk, use the time to put themselves over at the expense of the match. That was problem number one.

Problem number two came during Smackdown...

(MAJOR SMACKDOWN SPOILER AHEAD . IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE SPOILED BY SMACKDOWN, STOP READING THIS COLUMN AND COME BACK AFTER YOU VIEW IT. IT’LL BE HERE WAITING FOR YOU. OK, DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU.)

Miz and John Morrison were wrestling Matt Hardy and MVP for the tag team titles. They ended up winning the titles in the match however it was reported that the match wasn’t as good as it should have been. So JBL decided to corral everyone involved in this backstage (Punk, Hardy, MVP, Miz and Morrison) and proceeds to tell Miz and Morrison that they owe the other three apologies for A) disrespecting Punk and burying him to the point that if neither of them beat him at Survivor Series, they all look bad because of it. And B) not delivering on the quality of match that Hardy and MVP are accustomed to. Basically he felt that Miz and Morrison disrespected the other three because the other three are doing their damndest to make them look good in their respective angles/matches. Miz, who has been a target of hazing backstage by JBL, apologized. Morrison, while he did apologize to Punk/Hardy/MVP, proceeded to “cut a promo” on JBL stating that it was none of his business to get involved and he should go F*CK OFF. They jaw jacked back and forth and it ended with Morrison shoving JBL and several agents, including the head of talent relations, John Laurenitis breaking it up.

The reaction of Morrison is wrong on so many levels. The bottom line is, JBL is a veteran and was giving veteran advice. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t there and I can be pretty sure that JBL was probably not very civil when explaining and shouldn’t have tried to show up Miz and Morrison in front of the other three. The smarter thing to do was to speak to Miz and Morrison in private. With that being said, there is absolutely no excuse for Morrison doing what he did. As stated above, JBL is a veteran and has a better grasp for this business than Morrison. JBL, while not official, is an authority figure in the WWE. He is and has been a locker room leader and was doing what he felt was best for the company. Sometimes people in positions of authority have to make decisions that many may not agree with. But the bottom line is, “What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.” It was most definitely wrong of Morrison to become confrontational about the situation. He is a junior to JBL in the company and shouldn’t try to undermine JBL’s authority in the locker room even if he doesn’t officially have a title with the company as someone with backstage power. Would Morrison have done that if it were Taker who pulled them to the side? How about if it were Bob Holly? Probably not is the correct answer.

JBL, by explaining what the right thing to do in Miz and Morrison’s shoes is what most veterans should be doing to young up and comers. Sometimes people have to curb all the nonsense that goes on backstage and make sure that those who are getting a push by management know their place and don’t go around acting like a fool doing things that they shouldn’t be doing instead of accepting their new found place on the card. It doesn’t make sense why someone like Morrison who is featured in a main event role (even if it is on ECW) would go around and act like a schmuck and not set an example. So JBL put him in his place and made him understand the seriousness of the situation. When you are in a position that is above others, you shouldn’t be doing the things that Morrison was doing. That is all JBL was trying to explain. And as I said earlier, he probably didn’t do it in the proper fashion and may have been confrontational about it which was wrong on his part. But Morrison acted like a fool and will most likely pay a price for it whether it is being de-pushed by management or worse yet, let go like Crime Time was. Either way, Morrison was in the wrong for doing what he did and even more in the wrong for getting physical with JBL and not just accepting JBL’s position and tenure with the company and biting his tongue.

Ok kiddies, classes are over for now. See you all next week in soon!!!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to discuss whatever you’d like in the “ Anger Management” section of the message board or whichever section you see fit.

~Matt Dawgs  

World Wrestling Insanity writer