John Morrison on Proposing to Taya Valkyrie and Their Feud with Vampiro in Mexico’s AAA
John Morrison is ready to enter into an entirely new sector of professional wrestling: Mixed tags between married couples.
“My dream mixed tag match has always been against the ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth,” said Morrison. “Randy Savage would have been a dream match.”
Morrison and Kira Forster, better known in wrestling as Taya Valkyrie, are the newest engaged couple in pro wrestling.
“I’ve got somebody in my corner for the rest of my life,” said Morrison. “She will always have my back and I’ll always have hers, no matter what.”
Morrison asserted that he and Taya are the most accomplished couple in the business, and he is willing to defend that claim against the likes of The Miz and Maryse, Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella, and John Cena and Nikki.
“We’re the most accomplished, well-rounded couple in wrestling,” said Morrison. “There is no one that can beat us in a mixed tag.”
Regardless of the result of those fantasy match-ups, Morrison has full confidence that he delivered the best proposal possible to Taya Valkyrie.
“I took Kira to a nice dinner at a place called Moonshadows in Malibu, which is by the ocean, and I organized it so a school of young dolphins swam by our table. I took her for a long walk on the beach after dinner, and I told her all the things I love about her. Then I asked her to marry me.”
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The 37-year-old Morrison, who is a former WWE Intercontinental champion, is now set to make his Global Force Wrestling debut on August 4 and 5 at live non-televised shows on Long Island and Staten Island.
“It’s official,” said Morrison. “Myself and Taya Valkyrie are going to be working the GFW on August 5. I don’t know who we are wrestling yet, but I’m excited to work with a new company. I never thought I would wind up working for TNA, but this all happened really quickly and it feels just right.
“The show is going to be great, and the fans who haven’t seen me in a while are going to be surprised with what I do in the ring. It’s a cool combination of my work as Johnny Nitro from WWE, Johnny Mundo from Lucha Underground, and my work from the independent wrestling scene.”
The match could also be a coming attraction of sorts, as the possibility also exists for Morrison, who wrestles as Johnny Mundo in Lucha Underground, to appear on GFW’s weekly television show on POP TV.
“Anything is possible,” said Morrison. “We haven’t confirmed that just yet, but it would be great to do the TV tapings. As far as long term or short term goes, we’ll see. I haven’t even set one foot in their ring yet.”
Morrison’s foray into Hollywood has also been successful. His movie, Boone: The Bounty Hunter, was released on August 1 and will be available at every Dollar General store in the United States.
“We’ve had five screenings so far, and we’ve got more screenings coming up on August 13 in Woodbridge, Illinois, as well as August 19 at the Stockton Comic Con and on September 7 in Milwaukee the day before Mondo Lucha,” said Morrison. “Boone was hard to find at Walmart because it sold out so quickly, but we have a new release of Boone on DVD this August 1 and it will be available at every Dollar General. The DVDs are also available on Amazon.com, and I’m grateful that all the feedback and reviews have been so positive.”
Even though Morrison is adorned in gold, he reassured wrestling fans that, no matter which belt is around his waist, he remains the most talented wrestler in the world.
“I’ve been calling this year ‘Mundo 17’,” said Morrison. “Not only has my psychology of wrestling improved, but I’m all-around better now than I was in WWE. I’ve been pushing and training, for Lucha Underground and AAA, as well as parkour and stunt training for my movie, and I’ve blended those styles together for my wrestling.”
Morrison has also found himself caught up in controversy in his relationship with the Mexican-based AAA promotion. In addition to being Lucha Underground champion, Morrison is also AAA’s Mega champion, Latin American champion, and World Cruiserweight champion. He is defending those titles in a three-way Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against El TexanoJr. and El Hijo del Fantasma on August 26 in Mexico City, but his relationship with AAA is strained after the way they have treated his fiancée and stripped her of the women’s championship.
“I brought Taya’s Reina de Reinas championships to Mexico because AAA supposedly needed it for a photo shoot,” explained Morrison. “A few days later, it was announced that she was stripped of the title for using an illegal hold in a no disqualification match from a match in Tijuana when she won the belt. That made no sense, as the whole point of a no disqualification match is that there are no illegal holds.
“The real issue is that Taya has worked for that company for five years, done everything asked of her, and she would have agreed to whatever they asked. She’s spent thousands and thousands of hours on the AAA bus, changed in bus stations and behind barns when there were no locker rooms, just to have the opportunity to work for that company. She thought being stripped of the title without even being informed was a huge slap in the face. All she needed was a phone call, but they didn’t do that, so she got upset.”
The issue escalated when Vampiro, who is the head of talent relations for AAA, criticized Valkyrie on Twitter.
“Vampiro started trashing her on Twitter; for some reason, he tweeted a bunch of stuff and called her ‘a f------ mark’, then blocked her on Twitter, then unblocked her on Twitter, then wrote an apology on his Facebook page, then deleted the apology on his Facebook page,” said Morrison. “When I saw all the things he was writing about my fiancée, I felt like I needed to say something. Vampiro preys upon people’s dreams and lies to people, but he doesn’t keep track of his lies. Ultimately, he’s a mark for himself.”
