How Liv Morgan became one of WWE's Top Heels

Sportskeeda Wrestling

Backstage Pass is your one-stop subscription to everything pro wrestling. Breaking news from the most reliable insiders, interviews with legends, live Q&As with industry veterans, we have it all. SUBSCRIBE NOW - https://bit.ly/3zbHEH8  From being in the Riott Squad to becoming WWE Women's Champion. Watch how Liv Morgan rose to the top to become one of WWE's biggest heels.  You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  #livmorgan #rhearipley #dominikmysterio #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00Liv Morgan is red hot in 2024. She's been up there as one of the most relevant

00:05superstars in all of wrestling and nobody is talking about it enough. It

00:09isn't just that she's been the pinnacle of the women's division for some time now,

00:12it's how she went about getting into that position. Despite the lies, the

00:17cheating, the manipulation, her character has had to take a long road to get where

00:24she is now. So exactly how did Liv Morgan become one of WWE's top bad girls? Join us

00:33as we take a deep dive into how Liv Morgan got to where she is. This is

00:38Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin Kellum. Why don't you hit the like button and let

00:42us know what you think of Liv Morgan in the comments below. You think you know

00:47all the wrestling stories? There's more you haven't heard yet. Join us on

00:52Backstage Pass. Liv Morgan has been with WWE for a decade now. She didn't get too

00:59much notoriety during her early days in WWE NXT, the developmental brand of WWE,

01:05but it was not hard to see why. NXT during her tenure between late 2014 and

01:10late 2017 was a highly competitive landscape with a women's division that

01:15featured huge names, generational headliners in Sasha Banks, Charlotte

01:20Flair, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Asuka, and many more. Liv Morgan wasn't exactly a

01:25veteran at that point, so it was always going to be very challenging to stand

01:30out. But she's an example of how success in NXT doesn't necessarily guarantee

01:35success making your way up to the main roster of Raw and SmackDown. There wasn't

01:40really too much of note in her NXT run because she was really just developing

01:44in the background while others got the spotlight. The TV time she had served

01:48more as preparation for that big stage and it served its purpose. The fact that

01:54it took her nearly two years from her WWE signing to get a singles victory

02:00should tell you how challenging, as we mentioned, challenging her NXT run was.

02:05But in late 2017, her career trajectory would really racket up a big change as

02:12she was called up to the main roster as part of a group known then as the Riot

02:17Squad, involving a true veteran in the independent ranks, Ruby Riott and Sarah

02:22Logan. The first full year was all about establishing herself on the main roster

02:26with this crew of rabble-rousers who were all about disruption. And this was a

02:32pretty young Liv Morgan in her early 20s. By being one of the more experienced

02:36people in the group, Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan would be able to develop Liv

02:41Morgan and their close friendships would really make some fun chemistry for them

02:46on television. And they got a fair share of TV time. The Riott Squad weren't

02:50exactly going to go down in history as maybe one of the best factions, but

02:54certainly one that had carved out their own following within the WWE fan base.

02:59But looking back at it, the biggest injustice that group may have faced was

03:03that Ruby Riott didn't benefit as much as she should have as a veteran, as

03:07someone who came into WWE with some significant hype. Either way, Liv Morgan

03:11would end up riding with the Riott Squad until 2019 with the Superstar

03:15Shake-Up when she shifted to SmackDown and ended her ties with that change. It

03:21wasn't the launching pad that everyone had hoped for as she developed her own

03:25individual fan base in the Riott Squad, turning into a good guy for the first

03:29time, or a good gal, on the main roster. The fact that Liv Morgan was the final

03:34pick of the WWE draft when that brand split resumed in late 2019 should kind

03:39of signal where she ranked amongst the talent overall top to bottom in WWE. But

03:45Liv Morgan, just like Carmella three years before, proved that the final pick

03:50is not a status that truly determines your future worth, that isn't a curse

03:54you may think it is on paper. She got her first significant spotlight on

03:58television when she returned on the final Raw of the 2010s to inject

04:03herself into that god-awful, yeah, like, talk show-like storyline between Bobby

04:10Lashley, Lana, and Rusev. Yeah. Just imagine from being as the final pick of

04:15the draft, she was just in the big surprise return role in one of the more

04:19notable, not for the right reason, storylines of the 2010s. Yeah, that was a

04:24pretty scandalous storyline and, uh, you know, really kind of pushed the needle of what

04:29WWE was trying to do, but they tried. But unfortunately, it didn't really go

04:33anywhere. That's right, we would have had Lana and Liv in a love quadrangle. I don't

04:40know, it was confusing. It did make sense for Liv to face off with her former

04:44Riott Squad leader in Ruby Riott, a brief feud where Liv Morgan really won almost

04:50all of the significant matches in the little program. A little after that, Ruby

04:54Riott successfully saw that, hey, let's get the band back together. Yes, a Riott

04:58Squad reunion, which some Liv-faithful fans at the time felt was a step back.

05:03Maybe she was supposed to be a single star, but the Riott Squad was back

05:08together. The most significant part of this reunion, and a pretty big one, was

05:12Liv Morgan getting the spotlight on the main card of WrestleMania 37. Yes, her

05:18first WrestleMania, where her team competed for the women's tag team

05:22titles. But when Ruby Riott was released just two months later, it seemingly felt

05:27like a never-ending list of WWE cuts was happening. Morgan was on her own

05:33again, surviving that round of cuts, and her group was broken up once again. Still,

05:38something had to change. When her alliance ended with Riott a second time,

05:43Morgan was much more noticeable, standing out as a performer who the fans were

05:48starting to get behind. When she competed in the 2021 Money in the Bank women's

05:53ladder match, she was the sentimental favorite of the crowd. You could hear the

05:58reactions getting louder for her every week, and it was all organic. After the

06:03Riott Squad, it was all about Liv Morgan moving to her own pace. At 27 years old,

06:09she was in a great position at the right time, and the powers that be in WWE

06:14simply noticed the organic reaction she was getting. Despite not becoming Miss

06:19Money in the Bank in 2021, she was quickly making a name for herself as one

06:24of the fastest rising stars in WWE's women's division. People wanted to see

06:29Liv, and they wanted to see her become Women's Champion. She started to flirt

06:34with the Raw Women's Championship picture, and took the normal route of

06:38being the youngster who failed multiple times to win the big one against veteran

06:42names, who in this case was The Man Becky Lynch. As the months rolled on, she found

06:48herself getting spots in major cards, pay-per-view cards, premium live events,

06:52continuing to make appearances in the Women's Royal Rumble, participating in

06:56the Women's Elimination Chamber match, and then teaming up with another rising

07:00star in Rhea Ripley to challenge for the Women's Tag Team Titles at Wrestlemania

07:0538. Liv was constantly in the mix, but she was never THE focus. Although she was

07:11constantly losing the big ones each time, it felt like she was getting closer and

07:15closer. The much bigger, physically daunting Rhea Ripley would turn on the

07:21smaller Liv Morgan not long after their alliance was formed, starting what might

07:26go down as a generational feud for the women's division, but maybe more on that

07:29later. The one-month alliance alone managed to set the tone for the rivalry

07:34for the next couple of years down the line. Yeah, we will get to it, we will get

07:38to it. If you notice the tone of her story up to this point, you'll see that

07:42Liv Morgan's career went from being a relatively unnoticed rookie in NXT, to a

07:47newcomer on the main roster with two mentors taking her under wing, to setting

07:52off on her own journey and facing setback after setback after setback,

07:56chasing her dreams but never getting that truly refined golden victory. Her

08:03authenticity made her likable, and it's not hard to see why fans would get behind

08:07someone like her, who before wrestling truly beat the odds just to get to the

08:11WWE. She had the duality of giving off that girl next door vibe, but also having

08:16a whole lot of sass and flair to go with it. Still dealing with her heart

08:20shattered in pieces at the hands of Rhea Ripley, it made sense for her to join AJ

08:25Styles and Finn Balor in their fight against the Judgment Day, the new baddie

08:30faction which Rhea Ripley was a part of with Damian Priest and a now evil Edge.

08:36Who the heck could have predicted that Liv Morgan would be a part of such a

08:40group? She may have failed in taking out the JD, but she managed to pin Rhea

08:45Ripley in a singles match, which was pretty significant because Rhea would go

08:50on to have a streak of not getting pinned for over almost two years before

08:55she was pinned again, and fittingly it was Liv who would do that. Enough

08:59fluctuating between timelines, in 2022 it looked like it was going to be Liv

09:05Morgan's year. Seeing how great the responses were for her at the Money in

09:10the Bank in 2021, WWE decided to pull the trigger and have her join Carmella,

09:15Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Asuka, and Nikki ASH in winning the Money in the Bank women's

09:22ladder match. Yeah, she got the contract that would allow her to cash in and get

09:27a title shot anywhere, anytime she wanted. They were finally saying it was Liv's

09:32time and she was gonna get a guaranteed opportunity to push herself into the

09:37title picture. She also joined them to keep the women's record 100% as she

09:43successfully cashed in on Ronda Rousey in shocking fashion to become the

09:48Smackdown Women's Champion. Yeah, that all happened in one night for little miss

09:54Liv Morgan. This was a breakthrough moment for Liv Morgan. She defeated one

09:59of the most certified badass women in the history of WWE, the long road as

10:04Michael Cole proclaimed it from Elmwood Park, New Jersey, had really come to a

10:09big point. Ideally this should have been a defining moment in her career and to

10:14some point it was, but the circumstances that were outside of her control meant

10:18she was gonna have to face other hurdles that only champions have to face. Morgan

10:23would not have a clearly defined strong run at first with the title, managing to

10:28drag it out and get a kind of returning conflict with Ronda Rousey at SummerSlam

10:34where she would pin the former UFC champion while controversially tapping

10:38out at the same time. A dusty finish if you will. They gave her the image of, yeah

10:43she's having the title, but is she really the champion until Ronda Rousey gets it

10:48back. That was the impression some fans had. Yeah, the internet makes some things

10:53into an opinion, then they say they're fact, but that's what the talk was. After

10:57a successful title defense against Shayna Baszler at the Clash of the

11:01Champions, Ronda Rousey came knocking once more, emerging as the number one

11:05contender and beating Morgan in an extreme rules match, putting an end to a

11:10rather underwhelming title reign in the eyes of many who thought that Morgan

11:14could really run with it. Liv was still quite popular at the time, but maybe WWE

11:18felt it made sense to highlight Ronda Rousey, a legitimate sports star, since

11:23she was the one getting the big bucks anyway. That's just what people said

11:27online, so it has to be true, right? It wasn't back to zero, but it was

11:30certainly back in line for Liv Morgan. In the 2023 Women's Royal Rumble, she was

11:35able to find her way into the multi-woman fray and heal an old wound

11:40from Rumble's past in 2019, where she was eliminated, yes, with the fastest

11:46woman's elimination in a Royal Rumble match. She wasn't in there long back in

11:502019, but 2023 was a different story. She was the runner-up to her former rival,

11:56former tag team partner, yeah, the one who broke her heart, Rhea Ripley, but she

12:02managed to last for a whopping one hour and 67 seconds, which was one second short

12:08of Rhea Ripley, who had the longest time in the Women's Rumble match. Yeah, back at

12:13it with Rhea Ripley. Once again, we'll get to that part. Historically, being the

12:18runner-up in the Royal Rumble means you get to do something significantly in

12:22the mid-card region in the road to WrestleMania, and some feel that Liv

12:25Morgan rejoining the tag team ranks may not have been that, but that doesn't mean

12:29that they weren't trying to do something special, pairing her once again with a

12:33powerhouse and Raquel Rodriguez, adding some fire to the women's tag team

12:38division by winning the titles from the mega powers of Becky Lynch and Trish

12:43Stratus on Raw in April of 2023. The yo-yo would go up with Liv Morgan coming

12:49back from an attack at the hands of Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler to

12:52regain the titles. That's something her and Rodriguez got to do, but the yo-yo

12:56would go down, suffering yet another untimely shoulder injury, leading to her

13:02and Raquel to lose the titles to Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville. Rhea Ripley

13:08viciously assaulted Morgan to write her off TV for another extensive period of

13:15time, and this was another continuation of their on-and-off story that would

13:20change Liv Morgan's character forever. The yo-yo had to stop. That pace had to

13:26end for Morgan. She had to settle into a lane, and she did, returning at the

13:31Women's Royal Rumble in 2024, and was once more the runner-up with a deserving

13:38Bayley getting her moment. But it was another bittersweet moment, and it began

13:45a story of Liv Morgan once again never being able to win an unfiltered, pristine

13:52golden moment. Yeah, there always had to be an asterisk involved. Even when she

13:58did get the big one on that occasion in 2022, you knew there was just something

14:03there. There was another huge chip added to the massive chunk already on her

14:07shoulder. Liv Morgan wasn't just back to lose another big match. No, she would once

14:13again have a WrestleMania road pulled out from underneath her, with Becky Lynch

14:18and Rhea Ripley getting a big spotlight for the Women's World title in

14:21Philadelphia at WrestleMania 40. But don't worry, Liv Morgan had a plan. She

14:28was seeking more than just a title. She was seeking all of it, and she was

14:34seeking it with revenge on her mind. At this point, Rhea Ripley became one of

14:39wrestling's hottest superstars. Regardless of her gender, she was

14:43probably one of the top five Googled names in wrestling. I don't know, but you

14:47know what we're getting at. And to get a match against her at WrestleMania 40

14:51would have been huge. It wouldn't have just meant something special for Morgan,

14:55but for her character and her mission, and she was left off the card entirely.

15:00Something we imagine that, you know, any Liv Morgan fan wasn't that happy about.

15:05But her time was coming, and it was coming closer than expected. Like I said,

15:10revenge was on her mind. Fresh off a big victory at WrestleMania 40, Rhea Ripley,

15:17purple black, dusted with joy in her post-WrestleMania glow on Monday at Raw,

15:23Liv Morgan would attack her from behind, legitimately injuring her, forcing

15:28Ripley this time to vacate a title, her Women's World Championship. That's

15:33right. Liv had Rhea lose a title without being in a title match, a championship

15:39that she won at WrestleMania 39 more than a year before. Rhea Ripley's title

15:45reign ended in a bittersweet moment, but now the bitterness was injected into her

15:51by her former tag team partner, who she had betrayed before. So sorry, sorry,

15:56Rhea. Karma's a b****. That was a lightning in a bottle moment that looked

16:01like it was going to put Liv Morgan in the driver's seat to become the Women's

16:06World Champion. No, yes, this is finally it. But that's not what happened. Not

16:11immediately, at least. Yes, the wrestling internet purists would freak out when a

16:16battle royal took place to crown a new Women's World Champion. Liv Morgan looked

16:20like she was finally going to have her moment. Fans were deflated when Becky

16:25Lynch got that title. Yes. And Liv Morgan was the runner up once again.

16:31Now, Becky Lynch makes sense. She's the man. She's super popular. It's a mix. It

16:35makes a lot of sense. But when you have fickle, fickle fans who say, give me

16:39what I want. Give me what I want. I want it now. Well, that lends itself to a

16:44continued emotional payoff. We'll get to the payoff. Fans on social media got out

16:50their virtual pitchforks and their digital gavels and started shouting that

16:54Becky was Becky Hogan, alluding to her having some backstage strings to pull

16:58like Hollywood Hulk Hogan to become the champion. I mean, I heard it on Twitter.

17:03Or actually, it's got to be true, right? It's not. Stop it. And these fans look

17:07silly when Becky Lynch, a true professional, was a transitional champion.

17:13Yes, turns out having Liv Morgan beating an established legend meant a lot more

17:19than just winning a battle royal on TV. Yeah. Who would have thought that Becky

17:24Lynch, the woman who used her backstage power to create an eight month

17:28storyline where she lost to Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 38, would be a

17:33giving person because she is. And she gave to Liv in a big way. Liv Morgan was

17:39the ultimate beneficiary of this. And that's when the Dominic Mysterio element

17:44came in. When Liv Morgan was set to face Becky Lynch for the Women's World

17:48Championship in Saudi Arabia, Dominic Mysterio appeared out of nowhere, saying

17:53that he would be there to keep her from getting the title that Rhea lost, except

17:58his involvement in the match would actually help Liv win the title. Or at

18:04least it appeared like it wasn't supposed to be a part of the plan. It

18:07made a lot of sense because her mommy, his mommy, Rhea Ripley, was out injured

18:13and the story was maintained of her eventually coming back to get back at

18:17Liv Morgan. But Dominic's interference ended up backfiring. And yeah, he helped

18:22her win the world title. This time it wasn't just about the championship glory

18:25for Liv Morgan. It was pure vengeance. She wasn't just gonna take the title that

18:30Rhea lost. No, she was gonna take everything that Rhea loved. Mind you, she

18:35wasn't officially a bad guy completely at this point. From her point of view, she

18:40thought she was doing the good thing. Yes, the best villains are the ones who think

18:44they're heroes in their own story. Again, we'd like to remind you that in this

18:48story, Rhea Ripley was responsible for Liv Morgan being out of action for half

18:52a year. So once again, let me remind you, karma is a bitch, yes. So it wasn't enough

18:58that she took time away from Rhea Ripley's career. It was about doing a whole lot

19:03more and taking Dom Dom and everything that was Rhea's empire away from her

19:08while she sat on the shelf and rehabbed from injury. A few nights after she won

19:13the title, Liv Morgan had to defend it against a enraged Becky Lynch inside a

19:18steel cage who invoked her rematch clause. But inside those same steel cages

19:23where you feel like outside elements would be neutralized, Dominic Mysterio

19:27once again tried to tamper with the outcome. Karma came back in the form of a

19:32six-foot-eight monster in a comical moment as Braun Strowman, who was going

19:37after the Judgment Day, bulldozed into Dominic Mysterio, whose body flimsily

19:42went up against the steel cage door that was open, smashing into Becky Lynch, who

19:47was about to escape the cage. Becky was just a second away from winning her

19:50title back, but this would directly lead to Liv Morgan escaping the cage,

19:55SLEEZING her way out and retaining the Women's World Championship under some

20:00dirty, dirty circumstances. And then there was the kiss. Yes, it wasn't just, I'm

20:07gonna take your title, or I'm just gonna take your little buddy and make him my

20:11ringside pal. No, I'm gonna take your man. That's right. She made her affections

20:15towards Dominic known with a big smooch. Yeah, that's when the story began to

20:21pick up in a big way, because people are shocked. Whoa! Sexual innuendos! On the

20:28surface, Dominic Mysterio wanted to make it clear that his Judgment Day members,

20:32especially Damian Priest, that he wasn't interested. I'm not into her. I'm

20:36waiting for mommy to come back. But when it came time to set his boundaries

20:40straight and let Liv Morgan know that Rhea Ripley was his lady, he couldn't do

20:45it. The consequences of his actions came immediately after he pinned his father,

20:51Rey Mysterio, for the first time. His father, Rey Mysterio, who whipped his hide

20:56at WrestleMania 39. Now he was finally getting revenge on his dad, and the

21:00person who helped him do that was Liv Morgan. Yeah, she was on top of him. What?

21:06What? What? What? Scandalous? Rhea Ripley returned, and both of them looked like they were caught in the act.

21:13Yes, all the soap opera. It's just dripping off the screen. This time, Liv

21:18Morgan had everything planned to a villainous revenge-filled tea, and it was

21:23spilling everywhere. Well, Dominic had to make Liv Morgan cry by telling her in

21:28front of Rhea the following week on Raw that the world, everyone watching, that he

21:33didn't want anything to do with her, and he cussed her out in Spanish, and she turned

21:37away with her crocodile tears. Oh, it was all just a big phony ruse. A ruse, I say.

21:46At SummerSlam 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio, Rhea Ripley was seeking revenge, and she

21:53was seeking to regain her title. So the stage was set once again for Rhea Ripley

21:58to get her own revenge, to get her title back, with her Dom-Dom at her side,

22:04entering Cleveland, Ohio, with Liv Morgan across the ring defending the title this

22:11time. And at last, Dominic truly revealed his true colors. He was directly

22:19responsible for Rhea Ripley losing the match, and then the final dagger of

22:25betrayal was made. She took Dominic Mysterio away from Rhea Ripley. That's

22:32right. He's not your Dirty Dom anymore. No, no, no. This was one of those big WWE

22:39angles that you saw coming miles away, but you didn't care because you just

22:43couldn't take your eyes off of it. Later that same night, within the Judgment Day

22:48rings, which were once the faction built around Rhea Ripley, Finn Balor cost

22:53another member of the group, Damien Priest, his world title match. Two nights

22:57later, Liv Morgan became a part of the Judgment Day. She put Rhea on the shelf.

23:02She took Rhea's title. She took Rhea's man. Now she took Rhea's group. She took

23:09everything. Liv Morgan's favorite song around this time may as well been

23:13Chaperone's My Kink is Karma, because she was getting pretty kinky. In the process

23:18of all of this, the Women's World Champion Liv Morgan, with revenge in her

23:23sneering eyes, truly became the most despicable figure in WWE's women's

23:29division. But when you take a closer look, she never hid her intentions of

23:34revenge. She said, I'm on a revenge tour, and the tour really ran through Rhea

23:40Ripley country. Does it make her less of a villain? Not really, but at least she's

23:44a consistent one. Like I said, the best villains are the ones who think they're

23:48the heroes. This time around, there was no doubting just how much she deserved to

23:53be world champion. Unlike two years before, she wasn't going to be a

23:57placeholder. She seized her moment using consistent character growth, great

24:03execution and production from multiple players, and a lot of support from WWE's

24:08creative and production teams to establish her as the villain for

24:14younger wrestling fans to boo. It isn't the bratty, devious Liv Morgan that began

24:19on the main roster seven years earlier. It was all there. You could see it in the

24:24Riott Squad and the mischief, but this is a colder, more calculated, truly

24:31veminous version of Miss Morgan, who has used her years of experience and a

24:38thirst for revenge to truly take her place at the top of the wrestling

24:44mountain. It'll be exciting to see what happens to her next. Who's the next heart

24:49to be broken on Liv Morgan's never-ending revenge tour? How do you

24:54feel about Liv Morgan? You've watched this whole video and you can't get into

24:58the comments? Come on, let's hear from you. Also, check out these great videos

25:01from Sportskeeda Wrestling.

Category

Transcript

Recommended