page_title: John Morrison (wrestler)
section_title: Championship pursuits and departure (2010–2011)
hierarchical_section_title: John Morrison (wrestler) / Professional wrestling career / World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE / Championship pursuits and departure (2010–2011)
caption_attribution_description: John Morrison at Fort Hood in Texas on December 11, 2010, for WWE's annual Tribute to the Troops show.
context_page_description: John Randall Hennigan is an American professional wrestler, traceur, actor, and filmmaker. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name John Morrison.
  Hennigan was the winner of Tough Enough III, a televised competition that would award the winner a WWE contract, and was assigned to their then developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, to continue his wrestling training. Hennigan was called up to the SmackDown! roster in April 2005 under the ring name Johnny Nitro, and in his debut match won the WWE Tag Team Championship. After leaving WWE in November 2011, Hennigan began wrestling overseas on the independent circuit under several ring names, before finding success in lucha libre wrestling promotions Lucha Underground and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide as Johnny Mundo, as well as Impact Wrestling under the name Johnny Impact.
  Hennigan is a four-time world champion, winning the ECW World, AAA Mega, Impact World, and Lucha Underground Championship once each. In WWE, he has also held the Intercontinental Championship three times and is a six-time tag team champion.
context_section_description: On April 26, Morrison was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2010 WWE draft, and lost his first match back for the brand later that night to Jack Swagger. Later that week, in his final match on SmackDown, he lost to Cody Rhodes. On June 1, Morrison announced that he would be mentoring Eli Cottonwood in the second season of NXT. Cottonwood, however, was the second person eliminated from the competition, and was eliminated on July 27 episode of NXT. Morrison then went on to participate in the main event of SummerSlam in which he and six teammates (John Cena, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth, and Daniel Bryan) were victorious in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match against The Nexus. In October 2010, Morrison began a feud with Sheamus after he helped Santino Marella earn an upset win during a one-sided match against Sheamus. Within the following weeks, Morrison continued to save Marella from attacks by Sheamus. At Survivor Series, Morrison defeated Sheamus. Morrison entered the 2010 edition of the King of the Ring tournament, defeating Tyson Kidd, Cody Rhodes, and Alberto Del Rio. Morrison lost to Sheamus in the final round. He continued to feud with Sheamus and defeated him in a WWE Championship number one contender's ladder match at the Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view on December 19. Morrison received his WWE Championship match on January 3, 2011 episode of Raw, but lost to reigning champion The Miz in a falls count anywhere match. On January 30, Morrison participated in the Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble event and despite not winning, he had a stand-out moment which was praised by critics as "arguably the spot of the decade" when Morrison was knocked off of the ring apron and performed a cat leap onto the barricade to avoid having his feet touch the floor and then went on to precision jump onto the ring steps and re-enter the ring. On February 20, Morrison participated in the Elimination Chamber match at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event, but was eliminated by CM Punk. During the match, Morrison climbed to the top of the cage while inside the cage before dropping to deliver a crossbody on and eliminate Sheamus. At WrestleMania XXVII, Morrison teamed with Trish Stratus and Jersey Shore guest star Snooki in a mixed tag match to defeat the team of Dolph Ziggler and LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool).
  On the April 11 episode of Raw, Morrison participated in a five-man gauntlet match for the number one contender's spot for the WWE Championship, but was eliminated by R-Truth. The next week on Raw, Morrison challenged R-Truth to a match later on in the night, with the stipulation that if Morrison won, he would take Truth's place in the steel cage match at Extreme Rules. Truth accepted, and lost the match, making Morrison the new number one contender. After the match, Truth viciously attacked Morrison. At Extreme Rules, R-Truth interfered in the WWE Championship steel cage match, attacking Morrison and preventing him from winning the match. The next night on Raw, Morrison was attacked by Truth again, prior to a scheduled match between the two which did not happen as a result. Morrison then underwent surgery to correct a legitimately pinched nerve in his neck. Morrison initially returned on June 13 episode of Raw, but Truth attacked him again prior to their scheduled match, re-injuring him. Morrison returned again on July 25 episode of Raw, attacking R-Truth. At SummerSlam, Morrison teamed up with Kofi Kingston and Rey Mysterio to defeat R-Truth, Alberto Del Rio and The Miz. The following night on Raw, Morrison defeated R-Truth in a falls count anywhere match to end their feud. At Night of Champions, Morrison competed in a Fatal 4-Way match for the United States Championship, also involving Alex Riley, Dolph Ziggler, and Jack Swagger, with Ziggler successfully retaining his title. Morrison then challenged Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, but failed to win the title. Following this, Morrison went on a losing streak, lasting a number of 
caption: Morrison at WWE Tribute to the Troops in December 2010
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