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John Hennigan, aka John Morrison, is a high-flying WWE Superstar, multi-time tag team and world champion, actor, and parkour enthusiast, well known for his success on WWE’s Smackdown.
Normally, he’d be traveling to a different city every day for WWE television appearances and house shows (wrestling performances that aren’t televised) and preparing for WrestleMania, the WWE’s Super Bowl. But just like millions of Americans, life’s been a little slower for him as he’s been quarantining himself and practicing social isolation amid the COVID-19 crisis.
In the age of the coronavirus, we talked to him about how the pandemic has changed the way he goes about his daily training, the atmosphere of WrestleMania, and his day-to-day life. Here are some highlights from Morrison’s interview with Muscle & Fitness, which you can watch below.
On the feel of WrestleMania
Usually the “Show of Shows” is performed in front of tens of thousands of people, but this year it will be filmed in front of an empty arena due to the ongoing pandemic and restrictions on large gatherings. Morrison said that did not hamper his or other Superstars’ attitudes.
“I mean, yeah, the atmosphere is a little bit different than an arena full of 100,000 people, but it’s still WrestleMania,” he said. “It still has this vibe, it still feels like the most important show of the year. It still had that buzz backstage.”
On binging TV in COVID-19 self-quarantine
“I feel like I’ve watched every single action comedy movie out there, so now I feel like I’ve been just looking for good stories that I take longer [to watch]… We’re watching Dave, the Lil Dickie show on FX. It’s new. It’s a good one… Tiger King, I’m on episode five. Yeah, fascinating. In another life, that guy [Joe Exotic] could’ve been a wrestler.”
His quarantine jam
Despite having a whole list of songs he’s into right now, Morrison raved about one in particular. “There’s a song called The Heavy by Short Change Hero that I’ve been listening to a lot. It’s got a long intro, but it’s got kind of like this, like, space cowboy like rustic type feel that I think gets me going.”
Keeping his sanity while social distancing
“While everyone else is going to buy toilet paper, I went to Big Five to try to buy dumbbells, and the dumbbells were sold out. I was like, ‘how did the general population beat me to the dumbbells?’ It’s been fine. But in situations like this, personally I feel like keeping a schedule and staying physically active helps me keep my sanity.”
His tips for staying in shape
“If you have any cardio equipment, get up on the cardio equipment. If you don’t, you could jump rope. You could do DDP yoga. There’s a million different kinds of home workout type things you can do. My daily routine is some sort of resistance training… I mean obviously no one’s got like a full array of Hammer Strength equipment in their house. But there’s a lot of stuff you can do with pushups and using your body and leverage to change the resistance on your muscle groups. Different kinds of pushups and sit ups. If you have anything to hang off, body weight, mid rows, pull-ups. Squat variations, lunges… Broken up in the small chunks throughout the day is what I’ve been recommending to people.”
On his workout inspiration
Greatness is always derived from experience, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to how Morrison came up with his quick-burst workouts. “After I did Survivor and I got voted out, you have to stay there and you’re kind of confined to a small space. And I was there for a couple of weeks. And that’s where I had started this like working out in short chunks idea.”
