WWE News: John Morrison vs. R-Truth, Time is of the Essence

If a casual WWE fan were to look at the current roster, they would see numerous potential rivalries. Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio have reignited their feud from Smackdown 2010. John Cena and The Miz continue their fiasco over the WWE Championship. And the WWE has sparked a feud between Randy Orton and Christian.

From a hardcore fan’s point of view, those feuds or predictable, or have run their course.

In 2010, the WWE avoided turning their performers’ heels. With the exception of Edge, there were no turns that absolutely shocked WWE fans like R-Truth’s. A longtime face, Truth was goaded into defending WWE Championship match against John Morrison. Truth and Morrison teamed sporadically and came over to RAW in the 2010 draft.

The duo even challenged for the Unified Tag Team titles on one occasion.

Truth’s turn began with him winning gauntlet matches with John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler. A former World Champion and a No. 1 contender defeated by a guy who hadn’t been on RAW in months?

Shocking.

Most Morrison fans saw threw Truth’s win with the overflow of news that flowed through the numerous dirt sheets. Morrison’s actions against Trish Stratus ultimately placed him the proverbial doghouse. Like Swagger and Sheamus before him, Morrison was set for a serious de-pushing. The gauntlet match loss was the first step in Morrison’s fall out of grace.

The shocking retirement of the Rated R Superstar would change the WWE Landscape, and save Morrison’s spot at the same time. With Edge retiring from in ring competition, Vince McMahon felt the WWE needed a top babyface with a similar “rock star attitude” like Edge once had. Thus McMahon renewed Morrison’s push and placed him in the triple threat cage match.

In the post promo, Morrison’s theme music echoed the situation. “Hey you should’ve never showed up to play cause I correct on the mistakes that you’ve made."

While this was at the expense of R-Truth, it was also a win/win situation for the WWE. Keep Morrison in the main event and continue pushing him to the next level. On the other hand, turn Truth heel and create a fresh feud for Morrison once Extreme Rules is over.  It was the perfect formula and caught most WWE fans by surprise.

The majority predicted that Morrison would lose the bout at Extreme Rules.

Instead, The Miz lost his WWE Championship and the WWE expanded Truth’s character by having him attack RAW’s top faces. Truth’s premeditated attack on Morrison on RAW and Randy Orton’s draft to Smackdown cemented this feuds status as the most heated in the WWE. We’ve seen what the WWE can do with both Superstars, but will it push either to the next level?

Yes, it will.

Like most of his counterparts, Truth was a star in need of a character alteration or a heel turn. Daniel Bryan, Alex Riley, Dolph Ziggler, and even Morrison himself, are in desperate need of heel/face turns. Truth’s heel work is clearly an improvement from the numerous years of what’s up?

From the little jimmy remarks on RAW to Truth’s hatred of a thief, his heel character has given R-Truth a new lease on life. At the same time, John Morrison finally has a substantial feud. Besides Sheamus in 2010 and Drew McIntyre in 2009, Morrison hadn’t received a feud worthy of his talent since his face turn.

2010 was a year of resurgence for Morrison as he spent the earlier portion of 2010 losing matches to Ted Dibiase, The Miz, and Nexus members. The Sheamus angle revamped Morrison and began his array of stunts at each WWE ppv. From the Royal Rumble to Elimination to Extreme Rules, Morrison has become the WWE’s proverbial stuntman.

It seems as if Morrison were echoing the actions of Jeff Hardy from '08-'09.

He received his first WWE Championship in a No Holds Barred match with The Miz. Despite a valiant performance, Morrison’s stunts cost him the WWE Championship. The match remains the best of 2010 and arguably Miz’s best match to date.

Considering what these guys were doing around this time last year, this is a major deal for both Superstars. It seems as if both will be knocking at the main events door in a short period of time. The responsibility however, rests on the hands of Creative and their awkward way of booking.

At this point, to insert an angle where the feud would become personal may be the best idea the WWE could produce. For example, Orton punting Cena’s father, Eddie Guerrero and Mysterio’s son, or Chris Jericho striking Shawn Michael’s wife. The feud has all the potential in the world but it needs the extra rub to increase the attention towards it.

Let’s say Melina somewhat attempts to shield Morrison from a Truth beating. What if Truth purposely or inadvertently strikes Melina? Better yet, drops Melina with the shut up. Truth’s actions would add to the nostalgia of R-Truth and passion of John Morrison.

The time is now for both competitors and I expect this feud to take both men to new heights in the WWE.