Newly re-signed star John Morrison made his first appearance on WWE programming since his return earlier this month.
The 40-year-old left the company in 2011, bringing an end to a seven-year stint, but officially returned on December 3 following a spell of rumors that began with a false report of him having signed a deal back in September.
Morrison made his first post-return WWE showing on Wednesday morning, featuring on The Bump, where he would be reunited with former partner in crime, The Miz. He was also treated to an impression of his own entrance by Kayla Braxton, who pulled it off quite nicely.
Among other things, The Shaman of Sexy discussed his reason for leaving WWE eight years ago, a run he says he did not expect to be as long - his WWE absence was eight times as long as he'd initially planned, mostly because the road back included stops at the indies, Lucha Underground, Lucha Libre, and Impact Wrestling.
“When I left in 2011, I meant to take like a year off, you know? I wanted to take a year off, I wanted to make some movies and do my own thing for a little bit and that year turned into eight years," he explained. "It’s crazy how fast the time flew and part of it was because I had a lot of fun wrestling for these other places.
“I was like the guy, the brand ambassador and it was cool having all that autonomy and why did I come back or why did it take so long? I think I was just having so much fun doing what I was doing and I’d always meant to come back here and then at this point when I realized, I was like, ‘Man, I better like, get my ass back to the WWE before ten years go by cause time’s flying.'”
It Was A Strange Affair
Perhaps surprisingly, the aforementioned promotions were all name-dropped and photos from his time at Underground and Impact even made it to the display.
Less shockingly, the returned star got to speak to his old pal (Miz) via a satellite phone call.
Maybe it's not the comeback we all expected but, hey, it's a start. Maybe that's what you get for planning to take a year off and then taking eight.
Source: Mandatory (transcription)