WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin interviewed Lucha Underground’s Johnny Mundo, the former John Morrison, on his podcast this week. During the interview Mundo talked about his time with WWE, and said that he felt “handcuffed” during his time with the company.
“[W]hen I say ‘handcuffed’, sometimes with WWE, I felt like I wanted to be the main event guy,” Mundo said. “I wanted to be the guy that could come up with any idea I wanted and have it happen. And just the way the business works over there, you can’t have that for everybody, you know? You just can’t. It’s impossible. And at Lucha Underground, I am that guy. Like, I’m the main event guy.”
Mundo noted that the reason he left WWE was to get into action/comedy filmmaking and producing. Additionally, Mundo stated that he wanted “more creative autonomy” and “more control over [his] time” when it came time for him to renegotiate his deal with WWE.
“I wanted a few specific things. Really, what I wanted was more creative autonomy. I just wanted some assurances of that and we were talking about a deal and they wanted me to sign a 3-year deal that was kind of the same deal that I had,” Mundo continued, “because I had that neck injury, and I was still having residual pain, and I hadn’t had time to fully rehab and I jumped back in to the road full time, I feel like I wanted more control over my time.”
Despite making the decision to walk away from the WWE, Mundo claimed that he left WWE on good terms.
“I just said, ‘I don’t want to re-sign right now; maybe I need 6 months or a year, and I’ll come back.’ We just left it at that and that has become 4 years now, almost.”
When asked if Mundo would consider returning to WWE, he replied, “Sure. Definitely. It’s always hard, though, to say in wrestling, what’s going to happen and I know Lucha [Underground] season 2 is happening, and they are really excited about it and I am too. And I feel like everything I wanted to do in wrestling is happening for me right now with Lucha, so I’m going to stay and I’m not going anywhere. But with WWE, I mean, as a kid, I was watching WrestleMania, and that was my dream.”
Mundo stated that he would be interested in returning to WWE if Lucha Underground season 2 does not happen or if the show gets cancelled.
“If there was no Lucha [Underground], I would consider going back [to WWE]. There is Lucha, and that, right now, is, I think, exactly what I wanted to have in wrestling and I think that there is a possibility that it could take off and become something much, much bigger than anyone was expecting.
“If I were to go back [to WWE], I feel like I’ve learned a lot about who I am in the ring and how to go about sticking up for yourself with who you want to work with, what you want to do.”
