John Morrison has done plenty of acting since branching out from WWE, but there was one wrestling role he never even considered taking. As it turns out, Morrison was once asked to play Chris Benoit in a movie—and his answer came almost immediately.
Speaking on The Johnny I Pro Show, Morrison said the memory came back to him after being asked which wrestler he’d want to portray him in a movie someday. Instead of answering right away, he shared a story he admitted he wasn’t sure he’d ever told publicly.
The story goes back to 2012, shortly after Morrison left WWE and began training at the famed stunt facility 87eleven. During one busy day at the gym, someone asked if he’d teach another actor how to perform an arm drag.
“One of the first… when I left in 2012, I started training at a place like 87eleven, which is a baller stunt studio… Some of the guys said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy here, like he wants to know like an arm drag. Will you show this guy an arm drag?'”
Morrison walked over and assumed the actor already had some wrestling knowledge. Instead, the first attempt fell apart almost immediately. Confused, Morrison stopped everything.
“I was like, ‘Okay. Do you know how to do an arm drag?’ Guy says, ‘Yeah.’… I go, ‘One, two, three,’ and he just does that and falls on his back. I stand there and go, ‘What did you forget?’ He’s like, ‘What do you mean? You didn’t go.’ I was like, ‘No, you didn’t grab my arm.'”
After showing him how to properly hook the arm, Morrison finally learned who he’d been helping: “That was Kellan Lutz from the Twilight movies.” That’s when the conversation took an unexpected turn. Morrison said Lutz told him he had acquired the rights to a wrestling-related script and was developing a film based on Chris Benoit.
“He told me that he had purchased the rights and was producing a script about wrestling… The script he had was going to be a fictional retelling of the life of Chris Benoit. And he wanted me to play Chris Benoit.”
Morrison said he didn’t spend much time thinking it over before making his decision. One of the biggest reasons, according to Morrison, was how the screenplay portrayed two of wrestling’s most well-known performers
“I turned it down immediately because it just felt really weird and… I didn’t like the script. I just thought it made Eddie and Chris look like crap.”
The movie ultimately never materialized, and Morrison moved on to other acting projects. Looking back, though, it’s one of those behind-the-scenes stories that could have sent his post-WWE career in a completely different direction—and one he says he never wanted to be part of in the first place.
What do you make of John Morrison turning down the chance to play Chris Benoit? Let us know in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
