Matt Morgan On When He Almost Returned To WWE, Helping The Young Bucks Get Signed By TNA, More

Former WWE and TNA star Matt Morgan, who you can now catch on the Wrestling Inc. Podcast as a co-host, recently spoke with entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet. You can see the full interview in the video above. Chris also sent us highlights from the interview.

After working with WWE from 2002 – 2005, Morgan found success with TNA during a run that lasted from 2007 – 2013. He then made a few appearances in 2015 and 2017. Morgan, a two-time TNA Tag Team Champion with Hernandez and Crimson, talked to Van Vliet about never winning a singles title in TNA.

"TNA gave me the opportunity to be a main event talent," Morgan said. "I think I headlined 6 or 7 Pay-Per Views with them and a lot of Championship matches for the Heavyweight Championship and they really should have capitalized on it a couple of times and they didn't. That's on them, not me. But again, you're telling a story and it's your job and you can't be such a mark for yourself. It's hard for wrestlers not to do that because we eat, sleep and drink it and we put everything we have into it. We sacrifice time away from our families for this and you dream these huge dreams, these dreams of grandeur that you're going to be the Champion one day. And if you don't have that, you really shouldn't be doing this and that's the truth."

Morgan continued and said one of TNA's biggest problems was not knowing how to get younger talents to the big finish line.

"That was one of TNA's biggest problems, they did not know how to get the young guys to that finish line even if it was right in front of them," Morgan continued. "Even if all signs pointed in that direction. 'No bro, we're going to throw a swerve' no, that's not the time to throw a swerve. Sometimes predictability in wrestling is good. It makes people emotionally invest in that character more. Kofi Kingston is a great example, it's that payoff of you could see where they were going with it at WrestleMania but we still wanted to see it happen."

Morgan got into politics back in 2017, defeating incumbent Mark Weller to become the District 4 City Commissioner of Longwood, FL. Morgan became the Mayor of Longwood back in early May of this year. Morgan talked to Van Vliet about why he wanted to become the Mayor of the city.

"This is a thankless job," Morgan said. "It doesn't pay much money, it's not enough to take care of your family. You do this because you want to make the city a better place... at the end of the day my job is to interpret law, that is what I do here in Longwood. My job is to have the pulse of my residents and to do that you have to be out there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at every single function there is, every event there is. That's not to take pictures and glad-hand and kiss ass. You're doing that because you're asking them these questions that you know are going to be coming up so you can a true feel for what your city wants."

Morgan's last WWE appearance came in July 2005. He revealed to Van Vliet that he was supposed to be a surprise entrant in the 2014 Royal Rumble Match. Morgan did not make the appearance because he needed to be with family after his son was born prematurely.

"It wasn't signed, sealed and done but I was going to come back, to my understanding, as a one-off for the Royal Rumble," Morgan revealed. "My son was born January 7th, 2014 and the Rumble was January twenty-something. It was either going to be let's see how it goes from there or I signed, I forget. I don't remember. It feels so long ago. He's only five years old but it feels like ten years ago he was born now."

Regarding AEW Executive Vice Presidents The Young Bucks, Morgan revealed that he was instrumental in helping them get signed by TNA. The Bucks worked for TNA as Generation Me from 2009 – 2011, and then returned in 2013 for two matches at pay-per-view tapings.

"I helped them get into TNA," Morgan revealed. "I did a lot of work, not that it was hard, but it was hard to get Terry Taylor and all of them to watch my phone because at the time that was all we had, to watch the Young Bucks. I was watching all of these clips that my fans were sending me on my Twitter. This was many, many years ago. I was like holy bleep, these are the next Hardy Boyz but they could be even better. I remember thinking that. I was showing it to Terry Taylor, I tried to show it to Vince Russo, he was too cool and couldn't watch it, but Terry Taylor watched it and I found out Alex Shelley was friends with them and Alex Shelley was big on pushing that too. Finally got them signed. I apologize guys on how it went for you after you got signed, they didn't know how to use you. Generation Me? Good Lord. They had a built in gimmick, just let them do it!"