Matt Morgan Talks Vince McMahon Pitching Him The Stuttering Gimmick

Former WWE and TNA superstar Matt Morgan spoke with The Post and Courier about his wrestling career, shift into politics, and the miracle birth of his son. While discussing the wrestling phase of his life, he spoke about his relationship with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and the stuttering gimmick he was given.

"I hated it," Morgan said. "I didn't tell those guys to call me up prematurely. But now I was finally getting an opportunity to work as a heel. [Trainers] would put me in scenarios where I didn't get to be seven-foot Matt Morgan the giant. There was nothing you could have thrown at me that I couldn't have handled. As for the stuttering thing, I did say in that office, and not talking back or anything, but you know, Vince sold this to me as he's always wanted to put this stuttering character on one of these bigger, super impressive looking guys."

Morgan walked through how Vince pitched the stuttering concept to him, rehashing the story from Vince's perspective.

"Joe walks into this bar and sees this beautiful woman. Everyone is staring at her; she's absolutely perfect. And you walk up to her and introduce yourself to her and she a deep voice," Morgan said of Vince. "I get it, there's an imperfection that nobody expected."

Morgan recalls McMahon inflating his confidence with regards to pulling off the character.

"'I think you can do this,' McMahon said to Morgan. "I think I can too," Morgan assured. "But I just want to put this out there? Do you know I have a degree public speaking? I graduated with honors. I might not be the best as it, but talking is kind of my thing. Any essentially we're going to pull that away? 'It's giving you an Achilles' heel.' McMahon said."

Morgan said McMahon wanted to originally send him back down to Ohio Valley Wrestling to perfect the new gimmick, but Morgan rejected the proposal in hopes of diving into it on WWE television.

"Sir, if I'm going to do this character, I do not want to go back to Ohio Valley Wrestling. I'm good to go," Morgan reaffirmed.

"I tried to do it to the best of my ability." Morgan admitted. "I didn't talk like other big guys. I talked very quickly, and while some things I said might have gotten lost in translation, I wrestled on a television show. I always thought that separated me because now you've got a thinking man's giant, you've got a guy that is well educated and well-rounded and doesn't have his weakness, and I thought that would like like a 'Mr. Perfect' of the giants.

"I wasn't a fan of it, but when Vince comes up with an idea, you gotta go with it. We'd be doing pre-tapes for Smackdown, and Vince generally was always behind the other side of that camera. Every time we were to stare off into space while I was talking, he was the one who was always producing a lot of those promos. So that makes it exciting. You may not be a fan of the character, but you're assuming it's going to have a lot more legs to it because Vince McMahon came up with the idea."