Interview: Matt Morgan on Becoming a Mayor, Problems with TNA’s Booking, More

Matt Morgan, who is now the mayor of the city of Longwood, Florida, was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet.

He talked about why he wanted to get into politics, a dream match of the mayors between him and Kane, being disappointed with never winning a singles championship in TNA, the plans for him to return to the Royal Rumble in 2014, getting the Young Bucks hired by TNA and much more.

On never winning singles gold in TNA:
“TNA gave me the opportunity to be a main event talent. 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.”

The biggest problem with TNA’s booking:
“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. 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.”

He was supposed to be a surprise entrant in the 2014 Royal Rumble but his son was born prematurely and he needed to be with his family:
“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. 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.”

He was instrumental in getting the Young Bucks signed by TNA:
“I helped them get into TNA. 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!”

Why he wanted to be the mayor of Longwood, Florida:
“This is a thankless job. 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.”