Liv Morgan (@yaonlylivvonce) is an actress and professional wrestler with WWE. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet during this WWE Priority Pass On Location event in Philadelphia to talk about being a huge wrestling fan growing up in New Jersey, how she got discovered at a Hooters, her time in NXT, how she came up with her Oblivion finisher, the love triangle storyline she was in with Rusev, Lana and Bobby Lashley that didn’t lead anywhere, winning the WWE Woman’s Championship, her role in on the CHUCKY series and much more!
Quote I’m thinking about: “If you don’t sacrifice for what you what, what you want becomes the sacrifice”
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On the Royal Rumble return:
“It was great. I mean, I had a very pretty serious injury that we kind of even haven’t really disclosed the details of. So basically, I dislocated my shoulder in a match with Ripley. And I went and got an MRI, the MRI showed a labral tear. I don’t know if you guys know anything about MRIs, but they’re only 60% accurate. I did not know that. And so pretty much they’re like, hi, we recommend getting surgery because of the dislocation. So you’re gonna dislocate it again, whether it’s in five years, whether it’s WrestleMania next year, you’re going to have another dislocation. And so I sat around with it, because I really, I really didn’t want to miss time, obviously, but I also didn’t want to have this injury again. So I opted for the surgery, but luckily I did because like I said, MRIs are only 60% accurate. So when my surgeon opened up my little shoulder, he was like well, bicep tear, rotator cuff tear, labrum tear. And so I had all these extra tears and rips in my shoulder that we wouldn’t have known about had I not gotten the surgery. So if I chose to just rehab I wouldn’t have healed properly and we wouldn’t have known why. And so I got the surgery. But I honestly forgot I’ve had the surgery. I feel normal. I feel great in the ring. I only remember when I see my suture marks. So it was it was pretty crazy.”
Are you pain free?
“Pain-free, full rotation, full mobility. Work on getting my full strength back. My right is a lot stronger than my left right now, but I’m feeling great. It moves great. Yeah, so I’m happy, I got very, very, very lucky because shoulders are a little bit iffy. I’ve asked a lot of people on some people with shoulder surgery, they said like, it kind of feels worse than it did before. And I’m very, very, very lucky that mine feels 100% normal.”
On being murdered by Chucky:
“Honestly, I’d never thought ever in my life that I would get to be on the Chucky series and get murdered by Chucky so gruesomely. It was such a pipe dream come true, something that I genuinely did not think could ever conceivably happen. And it was so graphic, I don’t even think we’d allow it to happen. [How did it come together?] So I grew up just loving Chucky like I loved wrestling, I love Chucky. So I saw that they were working on a series and so I asked WWE, Hi, do you think we can just reach out and see if there’s any kind of way that I can be involved, even if it’s just like being on set and just like watching on set. And so WWE reached out to Don Mancini, the creator of Chucky. And I had a Zoom call with him that week, and he roped me into the show. And it was just as easy as that. And I had such a great experience. He treated me like family. And it was cool. I love Chucky, we have a great relationship despite the murder.”
What was the direction they gave you for that?
“None, just die, be Liv and then just get murdered. And obviously, I had never died before. So I didn’t know what that looked like. So I just tried to just like be in the moment and just die.”
From Hooters to WWE:
“So with a little backstory, everyone at Hooters knew I loved wrestling. I’d be doing my bar shifts I’d put WWE on the TV. I’d be serving with WWE on the TV like everyone kind of knew was my thing. And apparently before my time, there was a wrestler who will not be named that used to manage this specific Hooters. So anytime they came around in town they would go to Hooters. Me being the big WWE fan that I was I saw this wrestler coming to Hooters and I knew who they were exactly and I introduced myself. My manager was like, Hey, we have this girl. She just like loves wrestling and because you’re a wrestler, like maybe, you know, talk to her. So I talked to this wrestler for a while, and I was like I want to wrestle and they’re kind of just like, Haha, yeah. I kind of just spent all my wrestling knowledge to them. So they introduced me to this man, Joe DeFranco, he is like a world-renowned strength and conditioning coach, he only trains professional athletes, and he actually trains Triple H on a weekly basis. And so I went to his gym and he threw me right in with his NFL guys. I’d never worked out a day in my life before that. I didn’t even know what workout gear was, I think I wore sweatpants and a sports bra. And he’s like, Go, and I was like, Okay. So in my mind, this is my WWE tryout. So I’m giving it my all and I worked out with him for a couple of days. And I guess he just was impressed by my resilience, I don’t know, because I’m struggling through everything, but I wouldn’t quit. And so he reached out to WWE for me, it was like the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me so shout out to Joe DeFranco. He reached out to WWE for me and was like, Hey, we have this girl, I just think she’s worth a look. And I actually just missed the try-out camp and they were like, we have another one in six months. So keep training with her, then we’ll fly her in. And so I trained with Joe DeFranco every single day for hours a day, I train with him in the morning, and then go to my Hooters shifts. Then my trial finally came and I was very well prepared. Not in wrestling, of course, because I had no wrestling training. But as far as strength and conditioning I absolutely killed those cardio drills. And I got signed and it was just the craziest blessing in my whole entire life. It was bizarre.”
On improving:
“Honestly, probably when I got called up to SmackDown. I don’t know what it was, I think because in NXT, I felt like I was trying to make it to the next level so I felt, I guess very insecure because I felt like any mistake I made would enable me from making it to the next level. Then when I finally got called up I didn’t really have that fear anymore. So I don’t know, it’s just I was able to flow better. I had less pressure and less fears. And I had The Riott Squad with me, I owe so much to Ruby and Sarah for kind of taking me under their wing and guiding me and teaching me. So I feel around that time is when I really progress. Also we were doing so many live events. When you’re doing so many reps it’s hard not to get better because we were just working so much.”
On winning Money in the Bank:
“I feel like at that point it was probably the most opportunity I was given up to that point. I was getting promos in the ring, I was getting a lot of singles matches. They were kinda building me. I remember during that time, Sonya Deville was the GM and she would not let me into this match. So there were actually no qualifiers, she just was like, Yeah, you could be in this match, you could be in this match. And then I was qualifying and winning matches, and she still wouldn’t put me in this match. And remember, it was, week after week, I was having to prove myself, hey, please just give me the opportunity to put me in this match. And so I kind of had this build, leading into it and she finally let me in the match. And so I feel like there was kind of, the start of the rise.”
On cashing in on Ronda Rousey:
“I just knew with every fibre in my being that I had to pull this off. I was like, if it’s not right now, I’m probably going to never have another moment, an opportunity like this. And so I was just ready and willing to do whatever it took to grab that briefcase and be the last one standing at the end of the night. I didn’t think I was gonna cash in. I was in Vegas. I was like well I just won Money in the Bank, this is like the biggest victory in my whole entire life. I’m gonna go celebrate, I’m gonna go gamble, I’m gonna go have some drinks, I’m gonna celebrate my victory. And then I noticed that Ronda gets injured during the match and I’m like, oh, man, should I go? Should I not go? I’m kind of having this moment of what do I do? And then I finally was like, I’m gonna go. And so I just, again ran my little heart out and this time it paid off.”
On becoming champion:
“It was so much more. And also, like I said, I was very bad for a very long time, so it was a validation that I needed. I just was like everything was worth it, I am quite literally at the top of the mountain, so I just wanted to really sit with myself and just appreciate what just happened to really absorb. So I sat in my room with my briefcase all night. And that’s what I did. That was my celebration, but it was the best celebration I could have had in that moment.”
On helping CM Punk find his air pods:
“I’m on a Tampa flight heading to Chicago for Monday Night Raw. A couple of us live in Tampa so it’s a couple of us on the flight. He is just right in front of me in first class. And so I’m just like, Hi, I’m Gionna. And he’s like, Hi, I’m Phil, and we just introduced ourselves. I think I’d fallen asleep for most of the flight. I wake up to him kind of scrambling, he had lost his air pods, and everyone’s deboarding and I’m right behind him. So I’m like, oh, maybe it’s in my seat, maybe it fell in my bag. So I kind of just stayed to help him find the air pods, but he actually found the air pods, I think they were stuck in a seat. I wanted to help him find his air pods. And like I said, I’m right behind him, so it’s very possible that it’s maybe somewhere in my stuff or in my seat. And I like to give a helping hand when needed so I wanted to help out where I could.”
On saving herself and CJ Perry from disaster:
“So like two weeks ago, I fly home from Monday Night Raw and CJ is staying in my house, we’re best friends. So she’s staying at my house and she’s like, do you want tacos? And I’m like, yeah. So she puts taco shells in the oven because she wanted to toast them a little bit. And in typical CJ fashion, she hit broil instead of bake. I don’t know if y’all know what broil is, but broil is like fire. So pretty much my oven went on fire and we’re like, oh my god. I know I have a fire extinguisher and I only know how to use a fire extinguisher because of Extreme Rules 2022. So I swear, in that moment, you don’t even know I’m like, Thank you wrestling. So I put out the oven fire and then it burst into flames again. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, so I put out the fire again. And then that was it. I don’t know if you guys ever put out a fire but the fire extinguisher leaves a crazy residue, this crazy residue all over my kitchen. So then we were on our hands and knees with toothbrushes scrubbing the tiles and cleaning it all up. It was the best-case scenario for a house fire though there was no damage. We cleaned it up and it was kind of just ended up being a funny moment. But it could have been bad but luckily it wasn’t. No tacos. You know what’s funny about it is I don’t even like hard shells, so it would have been for nothing.”
What was the payoff to the Liv, Lana and Bobby Lashley triangle?
“The world may never know. I don’t know. But I was just down for the sickness. And who knows? You know, I’ll never know so you guys will never know.”
What is Liv Morgan grateful for?
“My health, my family and my job.”
