John Morrison and The Miz

John Morrison and The Miz were a heel professional wrestling tag team in World Wrestling Entertainment. The duo performed on its ECW brand, but also appeared on the SmackDown and Raw brands due to ECW's talent exchanges with those brands during their tenure as a team. The team had no official name, although they had been referred to as "The In Crowd" or "The Dirt Sheet Duo", after the name of their Slammy Award-winning online webshow, The Dirt Sheet. Both were former WWE Tough Enough contestants, with Morrison winning the show's third season and Miz the runner-up of its fourth season.

They first began teaming together in 2007. Originally rivals, John Morrison and The Miz became partners as a result of winning the WWE Tag Team Championship and making the title exclusive to the ECW brand, for a brief time. They eventually dropped the title in July 2008. During their title reign, Morrison and The Miz developed a gimmick that resulted in the duo being given their own webshow, The Dirt Sheet, and their own in-ring interview segment of the same name on ECW. In December 2008 they won the Slammy Award in the category for Tag Team of the Year and won the World Tag Team Championship. The team split in April 2009, after the Miz was drafted to the Raw brand and Morrison was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 WWE draft.

History

Tag Team Championship reigns (2007–2009)

Before they formed a partnership, John Morrison and The Miz were opponents, competing for the ECW Championship in October 2007.^[1][2][3][4] On the November 16, 2007, episode of SmackDown!, then-rivals Morrison and The Miz were paired together to face Matt Hardy and MVP in a match for the WWE Tag Team Championship, which they subsequently won after MVP turned on Hardy.^[5][6] After winning the title, Morrison and The Miz brought the title to the ECW brand. Soon after winning the WWE Tag Team Championship, the two were no longer portrayed as enemies, but rather as trusting friends. They would defend the title on numerous occasions on both ECW and SmackDown as well as multiple pay-per-views against opponents like Shannon Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang,^[7][8] Jesse and Festus,^[9] and Tommy Dreamer and Colin Delaney.^[10][11] The team's gimmick was further expanded upon when they were given a show on WWE.com called The Dirt Sheet. During the sixth annual WWE Draft on June 23, 2008, on Monday Night Raw, the duo defeated the Hardys (Matt and Jeff) which earned ECW its only draft pick, which turned out to be Matt Hardy.^[12] At the Great American Bash in July, Morrison and The Miz lost the title in a four team tag match to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder; however, neither The Miz nor Morrison were pinned during the match.^[13][14]

Morrison (right) and The Miz (left) in 2009.

After losing the tag team title, Morrison and The Miz entered a feud with ECW newcomers Evan Bourne and Ricky Ortiz, who they had previously mocked (and continued to do so) on the Dirt Sheet.^[15][16] They also had an Internet-centered feud with Raw's Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard and JTG) based on which WWE.com online show was better: the Dirt Sheet or Cryme Tyme's Word Up.^{[17][18][19][20]} Morrison and The Miz won a match between the two teams at Cyber Sunday, which was voted for by fans over a World Tag Team Championship match.^[21]

Throughout October, the team mocked D-Generation X (DX) (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), using phrases such as "Are you 50?" instead of DX's usual catchphrase "Are you Ready?" to mock their ages due to DX being formed in 1997, when both Morrison and Miz were in high school.^{[22][23][24][25]} On the October 28 episode of ECW, their feud with DX continued as they mocked them after a live Dirt Sheet and then proceeded to attack two impostors playing Michaels and Triple H.^[24] On the 800th episode celebration of Raw, Morrison and The Miz competed in a match against DX, and were defeated.^[25] During the match, they mocked DX's signature moves, with Morrison successfully performing a superkick (mocking Michaels' Sweet Chin Music) on Triple H as well as The Miz attempting a Pedigree on Triple H.^[25] Following their feud with DX, they continued to feud with Cryme Tyme.^[26] Morrison and The Miz were part of John "Bradshaw" Layfield's team at the annual Survivor Series but they lost to the team of Shawn Michaels.^[27][28]

On the December 8 episode of Raw, Morrison and The Miz won the 2008 Slammy Award for Tag Team of the Year and also for the Best WWE.com exclusive, for their show, The Dirt Sheet.^[29][30] On December 13, at a house show in Hamilton, Ontario, Morrison and The Miz won the World Tag Team Championship for the first time, defeating Kofi Kingston and CM Punk.^[31] In a dark match at WrestleMania XXV, Morrison and the Miz lost the World Tag Team title to The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) in a Lumberjack match to unify the World Tag Team and the WWE Tag Team Championships.^[32]

Split and feud (2009–2011)

On the April 13 episode of Raw, The Miz lost a match to Kofi Kingston after Morrison accidentally got Miz disqualified, which gave Raw a draft pick in the 2009 WWE Draft. The pick was then revealed to be The Miz, and he subsequently attacked Morrison, ending their partnership.^[33] Two days later on April 15, Morrison was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft.^[34]

In October 2009, WWE premiered a new pay-per-view event based around inter-brand matches. At the time, The Miz was the second-tier champion on Raw after winning the United States Champion and was subsequently booked against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, John Morrison.^[35] In the build up to their first match since splitting, the two hosted a one-off edition of The Dirt Sheet on the October 16 episode of SmackDown where the two compared themselves to '80s tag team The Rockers, debating over which is more comparable to the successful Shawn Michaels and which was the less successful Marty Jannetty.^[36] At Bragging Rights, Miz pinned Morrison to become the only member of the Raw roster to win an interpromotional match.^[37] The following month at Survivor Series, Miz captained a team of five wrestlers against Team Morrison in a five-on-five Survivor Series elimination match and once again bested his former partner.^[38] At the Tribute to the Troops in December, Miz rolled up Morrison for the win in a singles match. The two had another match the following March, when John Morrison and his new partner R-Truth challenged for the Unified Tag Team Championships held by The Miz and the Big Show. Morrison was finally able to defeat The Miz in a singles match, however Morrison could not pick up the victory for the titles at WrestleMania XXVI.^[39]

In 2011, after The Miz won the WWE Championship, he retained the title against Morrison in a Falls Count Anywhere match on the January 3, 2011, episode of Raw. At May's Extreme Rules, Cena won the title in a triple threat steel cage match against The Miz and Morrison.^[40] Later that year in November, The Miz and Morrison had another Falls Count Anywhere match, in which The Miz caused Morrison a scripted injury; this was used to write Morrison off WWE television as his contract had expired.^[41][42]

In wrestling

Morrison and The Miz as WWE Tag Team Champions during their ring entrance.

• Signature tag team moves
  • Catapult (Miz) into a forearm smash (Morrison), knocking the opponent backwards, followed by a slingshot elbow drop (Morrison) onto the opponent draped over Miz's knees
  • Double belly to back wheelbarrow facebuster
  • Double gutbuster
  • Double spinebuster
  • Simultaneous powerbomb (Morrison) / neckbreaker (The Miz) combination
• Morrison's finishing moves
  • Moonlight Drive^[43] (Corkscrew neckbreaker)^[44][45]
• The Miz's finishing moves
  • Reality Check (Running knee lift followed by a neckbreaker slam)^[46]
• Managers
  • Nikki Bella
• Nicknames
  • "The (self–proclaimed) Greatest Tag Team of the 21st Century"
  • "The Dirt Sheet Duo"
  • "The In Crowd"
• Entrance themes
  • "Ain't No Make Believe" by Stonefree Experience^[47]

Championships and accomplishments

The Miz (left) and Morrison (right) with the World Tag Team Championship and Slammy Awards.

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2009) – Morrison
  • Ranked Morrison 43 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2008^[48]
  • Ranked The Miz 54 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2008^[48]
• World Wrestling Entertainment
  • World Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[31]
  • WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[6]
  • Slammy Award (2 time)
    • Best WWE.com Exclusive (2008)^[29]
    • Tag Team of the Year (2008)^[29]
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards
  • Most Improved (2008 and 2009) – The Miz
  • Tag Team of the Year (2008)

References

External links

• John Morrison on WWE.com
• The Miz on WWE.com