John Morrison (or Johnny Mundo, or John Hennigan, or whatever) is currently entertaining two careers at once. He’s still a major player in Lucha Underground, AAA, and elsewhere, but he’s also celebrating the release of his movie Boone: The Bounty Hunter, which was entirely his creation and showcases his acting (and action hero) chops.
The movie has been a major labor of love for Morrison, and he’s spent a whole lot of time, money, and energy on the project. But interestingly, it turns out that some advice he once got from Vince McMahon back in WWE has colored how he looks at projects like this, and even how he approaches writing a movie.
Morrison shared the advice McMahon gave him during an appearance on Eric Bischoff’s podcast. (Transcript via WrestleZone.)
“I compute things now in terms on pro wrestling frequently. Certainly when it comes to writing film. You’ve got your shine, heat spot, comeback, falsey and then finish of the match. I compare that a lot to the same three act structure in film. It feels like in order to understand the relationships in movies, television and sporting events it’s all wrestling terms for me now. It’s kind of how I compute the world.
“The one thing that I really took away was something Vince McMahon said to me once that really stuck with me was, ‘Wrestling,’ and in a broader sense television, ‘is all about emotions. That’s all it is. The whole point of entertainment and TV is to feel something.’ It can be happy, sad, empathizing with someone you relate to, feeling triumphant when you watch someone you relate to overcome, wanting to be scared. That really simple connection I feel is something that I think is frequently overlooked. When I get stuck in an acting role or writing or trying to decide if I should do something or not in any form of entertainment I usually go back to that simple thing that Vince told me that day and decide based on that. Will it support the story? Will it create an emotional response?”
Sound advice for anyone, I think. Well, anyone who’s creating content for a visual medium, anyway. I’m actually super interested in the conversation between Morrison and McMahon that actually led to this advice, but I imagine we’ll hear that story someday. You always hear the Vince McMahon stories. Always.
