4 AEW stars who are close friends with WWE Smackdown Women's Champion Liv Morgan
It was a historic night for Liv Morgan at Money in the Bank in Las Vegas. She won the coveted briefcase at the beginning of the night, overcoming the likes of Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Shotzi, Raquel Rodriguez, and Lacey Evans.
Her reign as Ms. Money in the Bank would only last a few hours as she cashed in her contract on SmackDown Women's Champion Ronda Rousey later that night. The former Riott Squad member won via roll-up and captured her first title in the company. It was well-deserved as a superstar who has been on the cusp of winning championship gold for a long time.
But it wasn't just fans and colleagues who celebrated the victory. Morgan's championship win also sparked reactions from a number of All Elite stars. Let's look a 4 AEW wrestlers who have been known to be close to Liv Morgan.
#4. Liv Morgan is friends with AEW star Athena
Liv Morgan and current AEW star Athena are known to be rivals in the ring. The former Riott Squad member and former Ember Moon had a series of matches on WWE RAW in 2018 and crossed paths during their developmental days in NXT.
Fans might not realize that they also share a close friendship outside the ring. Both wrestlers are huge gamers and are known Pokemon fans. In fact, they have appeared on WWE Superstar Xavier Woods' gaming channel on YouTube, UpUpDownDown.
Many wrestlers are massive gamers from both companies, most notably the aforementioned Woods and former AEW World Champion Kenny Omega. You can now add the Smackdown Women's Champion and AEW TBS Title contender to that list.
#3. Liv Morgan shares a playful friendship with Brodie Lee Jr.
While Brodie Lee Jr. (AEW's Negative One) is not technically an AEW 'star' just yet, he has been offered a contract by owner Tony Khan which he can choose to sign once he turns 18.
In January 2021, the 9-year-old was spotted training with TJ Wilson (FKA Tyson Kidd). Brodie Jr.'s mother, Amanda Huber, shared a video of the young AEW star's friendly match with none other than Liv Morgan, who regularly trains at Natalya and Wilson's 'Dungeon' training facility in Florida.
It was especially heartening to see Liv Morgan selling Negative One's offense as if it was a high-level bout. -1 unleashed an impressive array of kicks during the sparing session with Morgan and even hit a smooth DDT-into-guillotine choke maneuver.
They even had a rematch of sorts later in the year. The 9-year-old dominated the exchange, beating the current Smackdown Women's champion again. Amanda Huber shared the fun little moment on social media.
Here's what the WWE Superstar wrote in the comments section of Amanda's Instagram post:
"My first inter-gender match and I’m so happy it was with -1 🖤 It was so great seeing you guys again 🙏🏼✨ Liv-0 Brodie-1.. until next time 🖤😝," stated Liv Morgan.
The unexpected friendship goes beyond different wrestling promotions. Morgan is helping a young boy live out his wrestling dreams while healing from the loss of his father, legendary AEW wrestler Brodie Lee.
#2. Morgan briefly teamed up with Toni Storm in WWE
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WWE Superstar Liv Morgan is well-known for her time in Riott Squad, where she was featured in multiple tag team matches with Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan.
In an interview with Scott Fishman of TVInsider ahead of Extreme Rules in 2021, she admitted that she wanted to stay away from tag team wrestling after Riott Squad broke up.
However, she also got a chance to team up with current AEW star Toni Storm before the latter was released from WWE. Here's what Liv had to say about the brief partnership:
“I love to team with Toni Storm. After the Riott Squad split up, I was so against tag teams. Toni Storm is the only one I would team with every single day. I feel like because I was such a fan before she came to WWE and put in tons of work. She is always going to give 150 percent no matter what the match, with who or how much time is given. That’s something I try to do, so I see that quality in her. I admire it and gravitate toward that," Liv Morgan said.
In a separate interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling, Liv would go on to praise Storm's talent and opened up about teaming up with the latter more often:
"So I'm only open to tag teaming with Toni Storm," Morgan proclaimed. "I think she's just an incredible competitor... I know she goes out there every single time and tries to have the best match that she could possibly have. And so I just appreciate that quality of her. Also, you know, our hair kinda looks alike. So aesthetically we look cool [laughs]. I just think Toni's great."
If WWE had pulled the trigger on the potential duo, Morgan and Storm could easily have become Women's Tag Team Champions and filled a spot in a division that needed reinforcements.
#1. Liv Morgan and Ruby Soho were part of the Riott Squad in WWE
“She texts me before all my segments like, 'I'm watching you, good luck, I love you. You're the best.'
I'm like, 'Yes. Ruby is watching. I got this, I'm the best. She said so, so it's real.' She just helped me believe in myself a lot"
- Liv Morgan on Ruby Soho https://t.co/OqfLWHMe1H
Liv Morgan and current AEW star Ruby Soho are known the be the best of friends, stemming from their time in WWE as part of the Riott Squad. The latter has been one of Morgan's biggest supporters and regularly watches her matches despite being in separate companies.
In an interview with The New York Post's Joseph Staszewski earlier this year, Soho was asked about the championship opportunities she had in WWE and how, surprisingly, the Riott Squad never won tag team gold.
Soho took a moment to praise not only the WWE roster but also her friend, Liv Morgan:
"We had such a talented roster over there and so many amazing women. I just know that Liv [Morgan] and I at the time were just trying to be the best possible tag team we could be, and honestly that was some of my favorite times was being able to share a ring with her and be able to learn and grow with her. So I don’t feel like that time was wasted by any sense of the word. I learned so much about tag team wrestling during that time and I got to experience it with one of my best friends."
They were stablemates from 2017 to 2019, but Ruby and Liv also feuded and reunited in 2020, before Soho's WWE release on June 2, 2021.
But it's clear that the former Ruby Riot still keeps tabs on her close friend's career. She even expressed her delight over Liv Morgan's breakthrough win at WWE Women's Money in the Bank ladder match and congratulated her.
Ruby being a proud friend to Liv was a heart-melting moment, but surprisingly, Morgan wasn't friends with her Riott Squad teammates initially. At first, Liv was good friends with Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville in NXT.
The SmackDown Women's Champion joined Table Talk w/ DVon to discuss how she became friends with Sarah Logan and Soho after teaming up with them.
“I wasn’t really friends with Ruby and Sarah. had my own friends and they had their own friends at NXT. We hung out with different people. I didn’t know them at all, and I was great friends with Mandy and Sonya actually. So, I was like, ‘Damn,’ and then we met and we worked together. We noticed super quickly how much we actually had in common right away," Morgan recalled.
Here's hoping both women remain close friends while pursuing their career aspirations in WWE and AEW, respectively.