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Val Venis |
REAL NAME: Sean Morley
BORN: March 6, 1971 in Oakville, Ontario
6' 3", 250 pounds
AKA: Steel, Scott Borders, Val Venis
Sean Morley has come a long way from Peterborough, Ontario.
In fact, if you believe everything on TV, you might even be convinced
that he's a porn star named Val Venis from Las Vegas.
"I can still play the Canadianess up a bit, and that I just moved to
Las Vegas for, quote, 'work purposes'," he said laughing in a July 1998
phone interview with SLAM! Wrestling.
Since being training by
Dewey Robertson (aka The Missing Link) in 1991,
Morley, 27, has travelled the world for wrestling.
But it wasn't what the Peterborough native originally set out to do with his life.
"I wanted to become a helicopter pilot, and was set to go to university
at Colorado State for aeronautical science and what happened was, the
summer that I had off between high school and university, I went to
England. And as soon as I started my full-time job there, I decided this
is what I want to do."
After a year in England with the British Wrestling Federation as Scott Borders --
including a stint as BWF champ -- he went to Ozarks Mountain Wrestling
for eight months, then Puerto Rico for the World Wrestling Council for
five years.
"Puerto Rico kind of became my home base. I'd take four weeks off from
Puerto Rico, and I'd work for All Japan Pro Wrestling company. And then
I would return to Puerto Rico, and then spend four or five months in
Mexico, and then return to Puerto Rico. I just kept boucing back and
forth. I was really fortunate that I wasn't stuck on the independents
too much. I worked mostly all small territories."
A regular tag team partner and travelling companion in many of the
territories was The Canadian Glamour Boy Shane Sewell, who also calls
Peterborough home.
"We were tag team partners. We went to England together, about seven
years ago. We were tag team partners there. We were tag team partners in
Arkansas, tag team partners in Puerto Rico. And then he left Puerto
Rico, and I went singles from then on."
In Mexico, Morley wrestled under a mask as Steel for a little more than
a year.
"I had a really cool mask, a really unique mask in Mexico. It actually
looked like steel, the mask looked like Steel, like I had metal on my
face. It was totally unique, especially to Mexican standards. It got
over really, really big in Mexico."
He held the CMLL heavyweight belt for a spell but then the WWF came
calling.
His first tryout was in the summer of 1997 in Des Moines, Iowa. Then he
went back to Mexico and waiting for the call.
The WWF finally called again, and Morley did two more tryouts in
November, and was invited to take part in a training camp in January.
"From there I got my contract, and we've been working on the Val Venis
gimmick ever since," he said.
The gimmick came from Vince McMahon and Vince Russo. And Morley just
ran with it from there.
At the moment, Val Venis is sort-of turning babyface in a feud with
Kaientai.
"I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with this yet. Right now,
yeah, I'm working an angle with Kaientai and trying to build a storyline
there. But things change day to day. You never know what's going to
happen."
Expect to see him on the road more often from here on in.
He's in Toronto this week for media interviews to promote the August 1
WWF SkyDome show, on which he will wrestle Savio Vega. It will be a
homecoming of sorts for Morley, and he expects lots of friends and
family at the show.
"As you know, [Savio's] from Puerto Rico, and I spent a lot of years
down in Puerto Rico. I know him very well. I know his wrestling style. I
know his background. I think it's going to be the first time I've
competed against him one on one. It should be a good match, a real
decent match."
Morley is enjoying his time so far in the WWF, and is looking forward
to competiting against the top talent and possibly winning a belt. (He's
a little too big for the lightweight division.)
He has found that everyday is a new experience for him, and that he's
still got a lot to learning after only seven years of wrestling under
his belt.
"I think the day that you stop learning is the day you stop wrestling."
-- GREG OLIVER, SLAM! Sports
Stories
Aug. 27, 2009: Val Venis talks wrestling again and politics
May 11, 2003: Venis rising, and without the towel
Aug. 26, 2000: Change good for Venis
Aug. 17, 1999: WWF's Venis loves being the 'heel'
July 21, 1999: Venis high on promos and charity
April 23, 1999: Popular Venis up for bout
April 19, 1999: Venis takes a tough stand
March 25, 1999: Val concentrating on Wrestlemania, not politics
Dec. 20, 1998: Size matters to Val Venis
Aug. 8, 1998: Edge, Venis taking WWF by storm
July 25, 1998: Homecoming for WWF's ladies' man
Val Venis Memories
