Val Venis
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2007) |
Sean Morley  | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 6, 1971 Oakville, Ontario, Canada |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Scott Borders Sean Morgan Steel The Big Valbowski Sean Morley Chief Morley Val Venis |
| Billed height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| Billed weight | [undue weight? – discuss] |
| Billed from | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Trained by | The Missing Link Jason Robertson Dory Funk, Jr. Tom Prichard |
| Debut | March, 1991 |
Sean Allen Morley (born on March 6, 1971 in Oakville, Ontario) better known by his ring name Val Venis, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on the 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 wrestling training in the early 1990s 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 that showcased Venis' life style on and off the set, the most notable of these featuring Venis in bed with prominent real-life porn star Jenna Jameson.
He debuted on the May 18, 1998 episode of RAW is War, defeating Scorpio. Almost immediately, he was 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 haircut, 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, and still going on to defeat Rikishi later in the match. His manager, Stratus, inadvertently lost 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 RTC until they disbanded right before the Invasion storyline, feuding with Chyna and "The One" Billy Gunn during his tenure with the group. When 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, for whom WWE bookers could not come up with any storylines.
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 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. However, he was soon sidelined after a legitimate injury caused by gym equipment falling on him at a gym in Australia during late July 2002. After his accident, he was removed from television until doctors cleared him to return to in-ring action.[1]
He returned to working SmackDown! dark matches in September 2002 and made one last televised appearance as Val Venis on October 26, 2002 at Rebellion, where he returned to team with Chuck Palumbo in a losing effort against Reverend D-Von and Ron Simmons.
2003-2005
He returned to TV on November 18, 2002 on RAW under 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 and going by Chief Morley.
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 as Val Venis.
Throughout 2004 and the first half of 2005 Morley became a face again, once again using the name Val Venis, but did 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 Lance Cade and Trevor 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 2006 Venis suffered a kayfabe injury at the hands of The Spirit Squad which allowed him to take time off for legitimate elbow surgery, during which about a dozen more bone spurs were removed, 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 and attacked him during a "Kiss Cam" segment on December 4.[1]
In February 2007, Venis was given a video program entitled Sex University on WWE.com, which lasted until April when it and its archives were removed from the site for unknown reasons.
Val Venis is in a fued with Santino Marella as of October 1, 2007, as Val came out during Sanino's "Marella at the Movies" Segment, And Santino attacked Val after he tried to seduce Maria
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
- Managers
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.[2] They have one daughter, Celina.
He has a sister, Alanah, who was married to Adam "Edge" Copeland.[3]
Morley identifies himself as Libertarian in his blog. He is also big fan of libertarian talk radio show Free Talk Live, and endorsed Marty Gobin of the Ontario Libertarian Party as his choice candidate during the March 2006 by-election in the Ontario riding of Whitby-Ajax.[4] He endorsed Ron Paul, Republican, for President in 2008.
Championships and accomplishments
- International Wrestling Alliance (Puerto Rico)
- IWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ricky Santana (First)
- World Wrestling Council
- WWC Television Championship (2 times)
- WWC World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Glamour Boy Shane (2) and Rex King (1)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him # 331 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003.
- Other Titles
- BWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- HWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Steve Bradley
- IPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Eric Shafee
References
- ^ a b "Sean Morley's OWW Profile". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- ^ "Size Matters to Venis". slam.canoe.ca. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- ^ "Edge's OWW Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- ^ "Sean Morley's political views blog and website". freetarian.com. Retrieved 2007-08-25.