Val Venis

Sean Morley
Born	March 6, 1971 Oakville, Ontario
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Scott Borders Sean Morgan Steel The Big Valbowski Chief Morley Val Venis
Billed height	191 cm (6 ft 3 in)
Billed weight	118 kg (260 lb)
Billed from	Las Vegas, Nevada
Trained by	The Missing Link Jason Robertson Dory Funk, Jr. Tom Prichard
Debut	March, 1991

Sean John Morley (born on March 6, 1971) is a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Val Venis, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment and wrestling on their RAW brand.

Career

Before becoming a wrestler, Morley studied at the London School of Economics where he developed his philanthropic skills. Upon graduating, he became a Motorcycle racer. He began his training in the early '90s under the tutelage of Jason and Dewey "The Missing Link" Robertson and debuted on the Canadian independent scene before making his way to the international circuit, finding work with All Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico. In Japan he was known as Sean Morgan as the name Morley was difficult to pronounce due to the lack of phonetic differences between the L and R in Japanese. In Mexico he adopted a robot-like mask and gimmick, changing his name to Steel and won the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

1998-1999

Morley was signed to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the late '90s and given the gimmick of a (well endowed) porn star named Val Venis, something which grew out of Morley's own sense of humor. The character was introduced with a series of vignettes purporting to showcase Venis' life style on and off the set, the most notable of these featuring Venis in bed with notable real life porn star Jenna Jameson.

He debuted on the May 18, 1998 episode of RAW is War, and almost immediately found himself involved in an angle with the Kaientai stable involving him having an affair with the wife of Kaientai's manager, Yamaguchi-San. As a result the members of Kaientai tied him up backstage where Yamaguchi-san attempted to castrate him with a sword. The next week, however, he reported that he was saved by "a little shrinkage" and help from his friend, John Wayne Bobbitt.

At the end of the year he formed a short lived tag team with The Godfather, unofficially dubbed "Supply and Demand".

Venis had more female troubles at the start of 1999, feuding with Intercontinental Champion Ken Shamrock after Venis made a film starring him and Shamrock's (kayfabe) sister Ryan called "Shaving Ryan's Privates". During the feud he won the Intercontinental title at February's St. Valentine's Day Massacre with the help of Special Guest Referee Billy Gunn. A few days later, he broke up with Ryan and eventually lost the Intercontinental title to Road Dogg. Throughout the rest of the year he found himself having "woman troubles" with Nicole Bass, Chyna and Debra. He also had short feuds with Mankind, The Rock and Steve Austin and found himself re-teaming with The Godfather for a short tag team feud with Droz and Albert.

In December, Venis defeated The British Bulldog and D'Lo Brown at Armageddon in a Triple Threat match to win the European Championship.

2000-2002

During the beginning of 2000, Venis lost the European Championship to Kurt Angle. A few months later, he turned heel by aligning himself with Trish Stratus. With Stratus as his manager, and a new look -- including a shaved head, white boots and trunks -- and the near total disposal of the porn star gimmick, he defeated Rikishi Phatu to win the Intercontinental Championship for a second time and aligned himself with Test and Albert. Venis was put over by taking a splash from Rikishi from the top of a 15-foot high steel cage at the Fully Loaded pay per view in the summer, after he'd just beaten Rikishi in the cage. His manager, Stratus, would inadvertently lose Venis' Intercontinental title to Chyna in a mixed tag match involving Venis, Stratus, Chyna and her partner Eddie Guerrero at SummerSlam that same year.

Shortly after, Venis underwent a complete change in persona and became a member of the Right to Censor (RTC) stable. Venis joined RTC after being (kayfabe) abducted by Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather (Venis' former partner; "The Godfather"). He became a censorship-based character, directly contrasting with his previously provocative on-screen character. He stayed in The RTC until they disbanded right before the Invasion storyline, feuding with Chyna and "The One" Billy Gunn during his tenure with the group.

When The RTC broke up and The Invasion began, Venis disappeared from WWF TV while recovering from surgery on his hip to remove bone spurs from his motorcycle racing days. After recovering he was kept off TV along with several other wrestlers, who WWE creative could come up with no ideas for.

Venis returned, back in his old gimmick, at the 2002 Royal Rumble before going on to RAW. On RAW he had two very short feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. Perfect before being drafted to SmackDown! during the brand extension.

On SmackDown! he aligned himself with the likes of Edge and Randy Orton and feuded with Chris Jericho, Deacon Batista, Ron Simmons and Reverend D-Von. Around this time he began calling himself The Big Valbowski and teamed with Chuck Palumbo until he was sidelined after an unfortunate (legit) injury caused by gym equipment falling on him at a gym in Australia. After his accident he was removed from television until doctors cleared him to return to in-ring action.

2003-2005

He returned to TV (on RAW, not SmackDown!) in November of 2002 and began going by his real name, Sean Morley. He was appointed "Chief of Staff" by RAW General Manager, Eric Bischoff, turning heel once again by acting as Bischoff's assistant.

Morley became one half of the World Tag Team Champions with Lance Storm after Storm's partner, William Regal, was sidelined with an illness. Storm and Morley successfully defended the World Tag Team Titles on an edition of HEAT prior to WrestleMania XIX against Rob Van Dam and Kane with help from The Dudley Boyz only to lose them to Kane and RVD the next night.

Morley was "fired" from his assistant job by Bischoff after he lost a RAW match to Jerry "the King" Lawler in which Jim Ross' job was on the line. He was quickly "rehired" by co-G.M., Steve Austin.

Throughout 2004 and the first half of 2005 Morley become a face again, once again using the name Val Venis, but would not get much in the way of a push. Venis reformed his previous tag team with Lance Storm as faces, but the partnership faded and Venis became utilized mainly as a "jobber to the stars".

To end 2005 he formed another team, V-Squared, with "The 500 pound love machine", Viscera. While wrestling on HEAT, they squashed a number of other tag teams before they defeated World Tag Team Champions Cade and Murdoch on an episode of RAW. After beating the champions again, by pinfall, in a non-title match, V-Squared was defeated in a fatal-four way along with The Heart Throbs, Snitsky and Tyson Tomko, and Kane and The Big Show.

2006-present

Venis and Viscera continued to team in 2006, getting another shot at Kane and The Big Show's titles, while occasionally having solo matches. In March of 2006 Venis suffered a (kayfabe) injury at the hands of The Spirit Squad which allowed him to take time off for elbow surgery, during which about a dozen more bone spurs were removed and six others were shaved down, and a nerve was transplanted. While he was out Viscera began teaming with Charlie Haas, leaving Venis to team with Snitsky upon his return in a team that didn't last long.

Venis began a feud with Eugene on HEAT when Eugene interrupted, then attacked, him during a "Kiss Cam" segment on December 4th. The short feud carried on into 2007, before Venis went back to facing jobbers.

In February 2007, Venis was given a video program entitled Sex University on WWE.com's broadband network.

In wrestling

File:ValVenisMoneyShot.jpg

Val Venis performing the Money Shot

• Finishing and signature moves

• Money Shot (Diving splash)
• Venis Fly-Trap (Reverse figure four leglock)
• Seaman Suplex / Pornplex (Fisherman suplex)
• Half nelson slam
• Spin-out powerbomb
• Spin-out toeknocker
• Spinebuster
• Russian legsweep
• Back suplex
• DDT
• Piledriver

• Managers

• Mrs. Yamaguchi-San
• Trish Stratus
• Terri Runnels
• Ryan Shamrock
• Nicole Bass
• Steven Richards
• Eric Bischoff

• Theme music

• Rick Martel's entrance song from his days as "The Model" was revamped and used as Val Venis' theme song.

Personal life

Morley is married to a Mexican woman named Lourdes and speaks fluent Spanish, which he learned during the time he spent in Mexican Lucha libre promotions. They have one daughter, Celina.

His sister Alanah was married to Adam "Edge" Copeland.

Mick Foley describes Morley's political stance as "extremely right-wing" in his autobiography, though Morley identifies himself as Libertarian in his blog. He is also big fan of libertarian talk radio show Free Talk Live.

Championships and accomplishments

• Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre

• CMLL World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• Ranked #331 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003.

• World Wrestling Council

• WWC Puerto Rico Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Shane Sewell (2), Rex King (1), and Ricky Santana (1)
• WWC Television Championship (2 times)

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• WWE Intercontinental Championship (2 times)
• WWE European Championship (1 time)
• World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Lance Storm

• Other Titles

• BWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• NCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• IWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ricky Santana (First ever)
• HWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Steve Bradley

External links

• Sean Morley's political views blog and website
• Val Venis at WWE.com
• Val Venis' Sex University archives
• Sean Morely at Obsessed with Wrestling