In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, John Morrison explained why he didn’t return to WWE sooner:
“When I first left WWE, I thought I was going to be back in a year or two. I left because I wanted to make a movie. Not just be in a movie, but I’m a film major. I went to UC Davis. That’s what I studied in school so I wanted to do the whole process. I wanted to write it, produce it, star in it and when I left I thought that was going to take a year or two. Nope. The whole process from coming up with the idea to the release was five years. I had always intended to go back to WWE. As the years went by, I kept in touch and I was never on bad terms with anyone. In 2016 or 2017, I had a conversation with Mark Carrano and he said ‘we would love to have you back, but if you sign again with Lucha Underground, it’s probably not going to happen.’ I signed again with Lucha Underground. It wasn’t a ‘screw you WWE’ thing, it was that I still wasn’t finished with my movie ‘Boone.’ I had a lot of things going on. I liked Lucha Underground. Lucha Underground made me a really nice offer. When I hit Vince up and Carrano up about coming back (this time), I was really excited when they seemed interested.”
(quote courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)
