WWE will rarely tell nuanced or layered stories, so expecting them to do so is foolhardy, but it still seems like they’re still missing the boat on Liv Morgan. She’s not a member of the four horsewomen and isn’t considered to be on the same level as an Asuka, who went undefeated as a champion in NXT, or even newfound friend Alexa Bliss.
She’s been a feisty but smiley underdog throughout her career in WWE, and fans have gravitated towards her for those reasons. Morgan isn’t the biggest or the strongest, but audiences get the feeling that she’s leaving all of her heart in the ring whenever she performs. There is one thread that binds her whole career together to this point, though, and it’s shame that it hasn’t altered her character in any discernable way.
Take her recent friendship with AJ Styles and Finn Balor. Bull-Liv Club came about because the men needed a way to deal with Rhea Ripley, who’d joined the then-Edge lead Judgement Day stable. And remember, Ripley had turned on Morgan to do this, betraying her former tag-team partner and friend. Just a few weeks later, and Balor does the same thing. He turned his back on Styles and Morgan to boot Edge out of Judgement Day, meaning that Morgan had been backstabbed twice in as many months. Yet she still bounces to the ring before her matches, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her friends always turn on her.
She hit the ring to wrestle alongside Bliss in a tag-team match on the June 13 edition of Monday Night Raw like none of this had transpired. To be fair, Styles showed no signs of being affected by Balor’s heel turn either, but this has happened to Morgan on more than one occasion. Ruby Riott, now Ruby Soho in AEW, flipped the heel switch and buried Liv’s character repeatedly. This caused her to fire up a bit, but nothing in terms of long-term storytelling.
All this time, WWE could have been building Morgan up like a volcano, just waiting to erupt. She could pop off despite all her friends betraying her, and that would send a strong message to the crowd. It’d be a message of forgiveness. About not allowing the actions of others to define your self-worth. Morgan could have gone the other way too, finally standing up for herself and stabbing someone else in the back before they had the chance to get to her. One promo explaining that after Riott, after Ripley and after Balor she was just done with it and fans would have understood. She may have been a heel, but she would have been relatable. It’s not too late to paint Morgan with this third dimension to her character. Here’s to hoping something comes of this relationship with Bliss that isn’t simply Liv getting turned on yet again without it impacting her for more than a week or two.
