Thursday Morning Backlash on Matt Morgan’s Push vs. Jeff Hardy and a Batista Comparison

Columns, Top Story

It has been noted elsewhere, just how good and important a story that takes concussions seriously can be for the wrestling world. This isn’t another article about that, although every word of it is true: this angle can be important. I’d rather examine if this is a good move for Matt Morgan’s career.

When Matt Morgan got to TNA, it was with much hoopla. Here was a guy the WWE never really gave a chance, reportedly do to his athleticism, that none other than Jim Cornette was drooling over. In TNA, he had to learn; he was still fairly green and not at all a finished product. So, he was put into numerous feuds, most notably with Kurt Angle, at which point he began to get it in the ring. It’s been quite awhile since that feud and, while he isn’t working with a talent the likes of Angle to make it noticed, he’s improving greatly as a personality and a worker.

But why did he need to improve so much from his WWE days? This is an important note. Batista, a far older talent, came into the WWE just as green, and became a huge star with, seemingly, fewer physical tools to do so. Was Batista just a better wrestling talent? Did Morgan just not get it?

It turns out, niether of those is the case. While Batista clearly worked hard, he was given a far greater opportunity to succeed. Morgan was barely in the ring in the WWE, mostly a member of Team Lesnar with the abysmal Nathan Jones, that was short lived before Brock was sent down. When he was brought back up, it was as a jobber with a speech impediment, and by the time it looked like he might be taken seriously with Carlito, the pairing was broken up and Morgan fired. Compare this to Batista.

Batista, although less than stellar in his debut with D-Von, was made to look great constantly. He began by constantly defeating Randy Orton in tag matches, a guy the WWE always saw as a future star. He was then moved to Raw, where he immediately aligned with and got to learn from Ric Flair. This lead to Evolution, where, in addition to Flair, he got to work with Triple H, one of the best at that point, and Randy Orton, who may be the best today. Of course, working with these top talents not only meant picking their brains, but also the ability to work against top opponents, an opportunity Morgan arguably never really recieved consistently until TNA.

So, here we are in TNA today, with the hugely talented Morgan having a mostly wasted career to this point, and now he gets his first major face run. It is less than ideal. While Batista’s first face run was against Triple H (great), the breakup of Evolution (huge) and looking dominant in winning (putting him over the top), Matt Morgan’s is against Jeff Hardy (great), is at the very start of the Immortals feud and dealing mostly with Eric Bischoff, and must lose to continue the storyline (bad). Morgan has waited his whole career for an opportunity like this against a top guy, but no matter how good he looks, the title isn’t coming off Jeff Hardy yet with this story just kicking off and Morgan is forced to come down the card if and when he loses to Hardy.

At this point, the best bet for Morgan is for this to be a swerve. Due to the positive press for the concussion angle, that is seemingly unlikely, but Morgan, in order to not become just another face on the TNA card, really shouldn’t be turning face in this manner, at this time. Batista got far better booking and became a star. Morgan deserves the same shot.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.