Matt Morgan on Almost Returning to WWE in 2014 at the Royal Rumble, Nearly Becoming Kane’s Brother

– During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former Impact Wrestling and WWE talent Matt Morgan discussed nearly returning to WWE in 2014 and why it didn’t come together, a scrapped storyline that would’ve seen him become Kane’s brother, and more. Below are some highlights sent to us by Van Vliet:

On nearly returning to WWE in 2014 at the Royal Rumble: “I would have had that chance when I was supposed to go back and re-debut with them [in] 2014, January 2014. The Royal Rumble. I was going to be The Blueprint finally on WWE TV, not TNA. But my son Jackson was born January 7. And that was something that my wife and I had been praying on for 12 straight years, we went through eight rounds of IVF, none of them worked. And by the grace of God, she naturally got pregnant, the biggest thing for me in my life ever, ever! And so when he was born, and I held him for the first time, this switch went off in my head, I’m done. I’m not going back on the road, I need to be a dad and I need to be home here every night, you know, with my son. And like I’ve said many times that ended up being the right decision because just, you know, almost three short years later, a little bit under three years later, Jackson was diagnosed as being nonverbal autistic. So again, it’s a tag team, between me and my wife, on being able to take care of him and do the listening and the myriad things we have to do every single day before he goes to school after he goes to school. All the therapy needs, you know, getting them in the right charter school, that all those different things that are very important. But let’s say it never happened. I was on track to be re-debuting for Royal Rumble 2014 that January. And so I called them up. I told them what happened.”

Matt Morgan on using the F5 as a finisher: “So funny story. I always felt like Vince called me into his office to tell me that was going to be my new finisher. And it was right, I always felt it was kind of like a shot to Brock at this point. Now I get called back up to SmackDown, black dyed hair, stuttering Matt Morgan, right, with the black trunks. And anyways, he [Vince] called me into his office and said that he wants me to use the F5 as a finish and could I do it? And I said sure no problem. But in the back of my head, I kind of thought that was a shot at Brock because he had just, you know, not too long ago quit their company to go and try out for the NFL. And I kind of thought that was maybe a dig at him because I was close with Brock at the time. My first time I got called up, I rode with him a couple of times. He told me anything I ever needed come to him with, and I did my first time I got called up. We had that Danny Davis Ohio Valley Wrestling connections together. But anyways, my first time doing the F5 was to The Big Show, that was the very first time I ever tried to do the F5. So when they said can you do it? Yes, sir. No problem. But then, you know, you hope Big Show will help you get, you know, get his big butt up, things like that when you deliver the move. But, you know, we pulled it off, luckily. And at the time, I’m pretty sure I was only the third time to lift, the third time, I and pretty sure I was only the third person to lift Big Show up on their shoulders, at least in a WWE ring. Cena did it and I know Brock did, I was the third.”

Matt Morgan on a storyline where he nearly became Kane’s older brother: “So no, Johnny Ace and Stephanie wanted me to wear a mask to work on my body language, right. And so I remember Jim Cornette just being like, what? What are you doing? He’s like our top babyface champion. Why has he got to wear this? This is stupid, like, totally put me over. And I’ll always be grateful to Jimmy for that. I love Jimmy. And anyway, so they put me in this stupid hood, and Jimmy found a way to make it work because he’s freaking brilliant. But listen, so then eventually, you know, Stephanie once told me that like, you know, if you don’t like it, tell us, you know, blah, blah, blah. But you might, we have an idea for you with this if you do like it, you know, and you would be brought on to television and to work with Kane. Now I’ve seen somewhere where like somebody who’s like, plans for this were abandoned and what’s his name? My boy. Good brother. Used to be Festus? Gallows would be brought in to [be the other brother]. No, two different time periods. When he was brought in to be fake Kane that was at a very different time. I wasn’t with WWE, I was already with TNA by this point. But anyways, so that never materialised for me being brought up to the roster as Abel. It would have been pretty cool, though. But I didn’t like wearing the hood if I’m being honest. I hated it.”