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Matt Morgan started the interview describing in detail how he found out about his release.  "I was actually just getting out of a doctor's appointment," he began, "and I had heard about the releases the night before and I got a phone call from a 203 area code.  I'm from Connecticut, so I kind of thought it was a family member or something.  Sure enough, it was Johnny Ace telling me he wanted to talk with me for a minute and we talked about my character; we talked about my improvement in the ring which they actually were satisfied with my improvement in the ring.  They just didn't feel that the character itself was working in the direction that they expected to".

 

Morgan didn't want to name the person that came up with his stuttering gimmick, but he said that it wasn't a writer.  "This was written by a man that I thought would know Matt Morgan as well as anybody could know Matt Morgan," he explained, "it's a man that's high up on the food chain there".  Because of that reason, Matt was surprised by the gimmick and questioned whether this particular person knew he could actually talk.  "With that, I was just shocked that I had to take that away".  Morgan continued by saying once he heard how it was "supposed" to go, he embraced the gimmick and actually had confident that it could possibly work after time.  However, he also said that he could tell the fans were insulted at first because they knew he didn't stutter, but he thinks they were starting to turn a little before he was let go.

 

The stuttering gimmick was supposed to taper down after a while, but that didn't happen.  Through all of it, Matt was doing everything he could to get it over, including practicing the gimmick off camera.  "I'm talking about going from airports to restaurants to dinners with my wife practicing the stuttering gimmick," Matt said, "and that's what kind of really set me off about it because nobody else - not a lot of our guys - will do that".  Morgan even went as far as stuttering when he signed autographs for fans.  All of this was taught to him by Jim Cornette while he was in OVW.

 

The hosts asked whether Matt put the blame on the creative team like Charlie Haas and some others released have recently done.  "What the company needs to understand..and they're so hell-bent on throwing crap against the wall and seeing what sticks today..they're losing the younger guys that need to have time to get over," Matt stated.  He put over Haas as an incredible worker and said that he was someone who needed time to get his character over, but wasn't allowed to.

 

"Thank God, you're done with that stupid, silly gimmick," is what Morgan said his wife told him after his release.  Host, John Pollock, said his release could be interpreted as a blessing in disguise because had he done that gimmick for two years, he could have been associated with that gimmick for good making it hard for him to ever do something else.  Morgan ended the interview continuing with words from his wife: "That's not you and people are going to remember you as the dumb, stuttering guy instead of the blueprint of this industry, Matt Morgan...or whatever they ended up coming up with down the road, but something that's more suited towards me". 

 

Lance Storm on Matt Morgan:  "I think Matt Morgan was more a timing issue than anything else. You know, I've heard people talking about 'Oh well, Matt Morgan will gather experience and he'll prove that it was a mistake letting him go'...but I don't think necessarily that it was a mistake letting him go.  I've heard different interviews with Matt and he seems to have a great attitude.  He's the kind of guy that's gonna go out there, he's gonna gather experience, he's gonna get better and they'll bring him back, but if they bring him back, it's like he got the experience that's not on their dime and they can make a star out of him later.  I don't think they let him go figuring we're done with this kid, to hell with him.  I think they realize he needs more than just a developmental program.  If he goes out there and gets booked in Japan and spends the next two years working in Japan, he's going to be worth ten times as much when they brin! g him back".

 

To hear the interviews with both Matt Morgan and Lance Storm, visit www.liveaudiowrestling.com.  To keep up with Matt Morgan, visit his website at www.matt-morgan.org or submit questions for him at www.totalwrestling.net.  To keep up with Lance Storm, visit his site at www.stormwrestling.com.  Storm is also starting a wrestling school in Canada and you can find more information on that at www.stormwrestlingacademy.com.