Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Matt Morgan Almost Went Back To WWE, Now He's Mayor Of A City in Florida

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

Matt Morgan (@BPMattMorgan) is the current Mayor of Longwood, FL, and a former professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and TNA Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about why he decided to run for mayor of the town he lives in, how he met Vince McMahon before he became a wrestler, appeared on Tough Enough, what could have been with his wrestling career in TNA, and WWE, a potential storyline where he was going to be Kane's brother named Abel, using Brock Lesnar's F5 finisher, his plans to return to WWE in 2014 and why it didn't happen and much more! For more information about Chris Van Vliet and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleleet. Greetings and salutations, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet, and thanks for being with us. Whether this is your first episode or whether you listen to every episode, no matter who the guest is. I appreciate you. You know, the last time that we had Matt Morgan on the show was when the podcast was just starting.

back in 2019. Of course, the YouTube channel's been around for, you know, 12 years now, which is crazy. But the podcast kicked off in the summer of 2019. And that was such a great conversation. If you haven't listened to it, go back. It was July of 2019. Give it a listen or watch on YouTube. He's now the mayor of Longwood, Florida.

It's the city he lives in, and he just wants to make a difference in his community. So it's amazing to hear him talk about the passion that he has for that. And when you look at his pro wrestling career, before his political career, although he'd be very upset if he heard me calling him a politician. He says he hates that word. He's a public servant. But if you look at his pro wrestling career,

another P word there, he's one of the big what ifs in both TNA and WWE. We get into that a lot. And what happened with both of those and his plans to return to WWE and what happened there. So he reached out to me about two weeks ago and said, hey, man, I'd love to come back on the show. Let's just catch up.

So here we are. And I love this guy. Honestly, he could come on the show every single month, and it would always be a new and fresh and great conversation. And I especially love the stuff that we talk about towards the end of the interview, about working hard, about paving your own way. And I hope that that really, really resonates with you. If it does, snap a screenshot.

Let us know that you're listening. Tag us so we can share it. Matt is at BP, Matt Morgan. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. And hey, Nate Tyre, thank you for leaving this review on Apple Podcasts. It says, Chris is one of a kind. Always enjoy listening to his podcast. His interviews also on his YouTube channel are amazing and awesome stuff.

Keep doing what you're doing. Well, thank you, Nate. I will keep doing what I'm doing with these reviews. So keep leaving them. I'll read one on every single episode as my way to shout you out for free. of course, and my way to say, thank you for being on this journey with me. So let's do this.

Ladies and gentlemen, the DNA of TNA, the blueprint. Matt Morgan. Oh, it's so good to see you, my friend. You as well, man. You're a real politician. Look at this.

You may look that way. I just came from a meeting, but don't call me that word. That's an evil, nasty word. Are you, are you just, is a business up top only? Like, are you wearing just like boxer shorts? If I find my mind's just up right now. Oh, no.

I'm rocking like tidy whitey. Um, but public serving, that's a big difference. That's another P word. Okay. Public servant. You got to remember politicians are in this for life. And that's their, you know, main, that's going to be their main job. for their majority of their life.

That's not the high plane. That's never been my plan or my intention. I hate politics and politicians. I've said that for five years ago. But, you know, it's very different on a city level, in my opinion, in your own hometown. And doing something that you have absolutely, you know, in the beginning, no experience with.

You just want to, it all happen if you remember, because my son Jackson was born in 2014, that changed my prism on. every from I'm retiring earlier and I expect me from wrestling and what can I do to leave my thumbprint in the community that this little non-verbal autistic boy is going to grow up in and that's what started me pulling the curtain back further and farther and see who the decision makers on here and then you start to realize what I'm sure where you live they all think the same think the same thing.

You want to elect people in office. That's unique, people that down to earth and have the will of the people behind every decision they make up on their diets at every meet. I feel like your campaign could have just been like knocking on doors

and like they open the door and they're like, oh, whatever you said, I'll vote for you. So in real life, I learned very quickly I'd have to knock

because I have nobody outdoors needs me but that's I love doing I do because that's another way you get

a judge on how well are you doing or how crappy are you doing right? Like you get your instant feedback whenever time it's time

to a campaign for re-election anyways so I learned very quickly because of my size it'd be much smarter if I'd door knocks immediately took

10 step back because who would open the door to Neanderthal man here, right? Right? Were you always this big?

Yeah. Like, weren't it? Like, were you 12 pounds when you were born or something? No, I was tall. I was tall and skinny. Until I got to college and then got absolutely obsessed with the weight room. Still to this day, my wife and I are very addicted to it. Love working out.

The interesting thing is, like, when you're this tall in high school, even if you're not athletic and you were. But even if you're not athletic, you're tall. So they're like, well, you're going to play basketball. That's just how this is going to work. And that is the path I took originally. You know, I thought, well, I love basketball, love wrestling, but it ended up getting me a Division I, you know,

basketball scholarship at Mom at University. We made the NCAA tournament my freshman year. First time in our school history, that was amazing. And that's what my freshman year. That was cool. My coach was then going to be retiring, I'm sorry, retiring. And they had like two six-foot-ten kids there and we bring it in the next class after my sophomore season. And I was just like, no, I had not worked this hard to sit on the bench and come in behind two freshmen that, you know, they're very good.

I've paid my dues. And so anyways, long story, sure, I transferred to Shamanad University in Hawaii. That's where I met my beautiful. at Marissa. My first day on campus. And play basketball there, finished out my basketball career, wherever you want to call it, there. How close were you to playing in the NBA?

Because I know that you had tryouts for NBA. So how close was this to being a reality? Being a space eater and being a bruiser, but that can also shoot from the outside. My strength was definitely shooting. but this was before at a time where the NBA in college today is very different

right now you have stretched forward that's an actual position that would have been my position but back then I would be brought in as a power forward and technically height-wise small forward really but get guys like

Boston Crocier that had been drafted by the Pacers that year he was the number of draft choice in Providence he was an all-American he was absolutely amazing and anyway so he's a three-point shooter handle the ball things like that

and he had me as a very big like I said bruising and rebound their shot blocker and the NBA was not where it's at today as far as he's wanting their fours and five to be able to shoot you know so no never it was a drink of the goal

obviously but I was in very realistic about it too and by then I already met Vince McMahon. I already met Vince McMahon by the point in my lifetime as well. So he was the one that told me, you know, you'll hold this to your family. Please go try it. You know, we'll always be your kind of thing. And then tough enough came about and that's what I said.

How did the first meeting with Vince come about? So I was in the summertime. In the summertime, I would work for our Burrough, Connecticut Highway Department. because when you're an NCAA student athlete, you couldn't work during the school year back when I was in college to earn money. You could only work in the summertime. So I'd have to work jobs to make as much money as I can.

And then that following school year, I'd have some spending money and things like that. You know, take my wife's over on a gate or something like that, right? So I worked for the highway department in Fairfield, Connecticut. That's two towns over, three towns over, or three towns over from Stanford where Titan Towers is right now. They're headquarters for WWE. Yeah.

And it's my hometown in Fairfield. And I also found out a nightclub there. God, it was public secret. And in Wattis, WWF Raw Magazine writer, like that. And I was work in the door. And his name was Marco Terrell. And he goes, the other thing about wrestling. Like, funny you should ask, you know?

Like, is it something I've always wanted to do? and he's like well Vince McMahon works out every Friday night at Titan Towers meet me there and then we had shared phone numbers

and every Friday night for the next six months I went there every single week hopefully to bump into it right well finally it happened he was walking out of the men's room as I was walking

into the men's locker room at their gym there they were beautiful gym and this was back when that was much more safer ground. To work out in that gym, they would very rarely even do photo shoots there back in the day, let alone that, you know, big lumpkin over here walking, right? So because Marco was really well respected,

they just came out with his friend or whatever, so I was able to come there. So I'm walking into the lockering, and Vince is walking out, and slam basically right into my chest. And ironically, that's the same way I'm in my life. Same scenario. Just Captain Gufal out over here, not being anywhere whatsoever of my surroundings.

Anyway, so he bumps into me, looks up at me, look, I'll tell already, son, and I told him. And he said, how much away? And I told him. And this time I was huge. I was like 3802. I was enormous at this point, because I wanted to be arrested. and I didn't talk about being on Mark. I didn't know wrestlers were using gimmick heights and gimmick weight.

Like I knew there's a little exaggeration here and there, but I never met one of the big, huge pro wrestlers, like a big show, or an Undertaker, you know, I always met like Scott, Paul Romer or somebody like that, like not a skyscraper, right? So I just assumed maybe a couple inches where he was being exaggerated at worst, you know what I mean? But so I thought I'd get as big as humanly possible, right? To impress everybody and maybe get a job.

That's the truth. Yeah. And so long story short, he, that's when we had the conversation about, you know, I had an NFL combine coming up and also going to be a trial. And he had told me, you know, that to my family to try those, you know, options first. And that they'll always be there. And that they have this reality show that's going to be coming out. in the future. And so

some time goes by and I ended up you know, being told to send my tape in for MTV WWF Tough enough. Part 2. And that's kind of how it went. Are you a legit 7 feet tall? No, 6.11

3 quarters. I won't tell anyone. Don't worry. Nobody. Like, but does that sound? So how far are you? 611 and 3 quarters. Like that's, there's no rings of that. That just sounds corny. Look, if anyone was 5.11 and 3 quarters, they are 1,000% calling themselves 6 feet tall. And bear for that.

So there we go. So with boots on, you're like 7.3, 7.2? No, especially the first frigging spice girl boots I was rocking in OWW. My first year, because, again, Mark Matt over here, had like these huge lifts, huge lifts on my first pair of boots because I was told so to the other guys. The other big men, many of them. So yeah, legit, probably 72 in those, you know, tell me what you want, what you really want, boots.

You really, really, really, really want to zig-a-zag-a-a. Yes. What's your day-to-day look like right now being the mayor of Longwood? Whatever, number one, obviously, whatever our residents need. I'm a in-person type of, you know, guy as far as, wanting to meet with them. They have an issue with anything that likes to meet with them in person about it because we have a small city. We're only

16,000 residents here. And that's actually grown from where it was when I first started in 2017 very my first time. So we've grown, but that's a big part of it, is meeting with our folks, you know,

that questions or ideas. Another big thing I like to do is I like to get many people incorporated into our city as possible as far as joining boards and other committees and things like that because I'm as far from the outside as you can come

and be involved in something like this, right? So it sets a precedent for many, many others that have no background with this. Don't like it like it like it. And once I said don't like it, meaning didn't pay attention to politics could tell you really what party,

I don't know, nothing like that, right? And maybe I should be ashamed of that, but that's really the truth growing. I didn't really pay close attention in any of that. Busy. A wrestler and just being dialed in.

You're a ref, a ref, ref, that's all you're a real. Right. So, anyways, more day-to-day stuff

is I also work so the city alongwood in many cities in our campus, for that matter, the elected official is almost

considered a part-time position. So many of us, in fact, all five of my commissioners and I all have

another job in which they perform to because I make $942 after taxes for a month being paid. So you do this because you legit. You're not doing it to get rich. You do it because you want to make a difference in your darn community. You know, that's just for your own children, for everyone's kids.

$940 a month after taxes? But what is it? About $9.42 after taxes each month? How much? My bad. 928. Oh, man. You're trying to give yourself a race.

but so I see that because something I'm very passionate about and I'm trying to cram everything in the one sentence here but I'm you know I'm a 17 year almost 17 year now recovered opioid cancer so one of my biggest pensions is getting people so getting them help and getting them clean so my other job is I work with a treatment facility here in central Florida that I get Alcoholics help and those struggling with drug addiction and other mental health issues help just the same. And I love it. I love that. What was the thing that helped you get clean the most? I got to be honest. And this is where addicts, you always share them going through rehab and sometimes it doesn't work the first couple of times. Because mistakenly, we think we're being good people by trying to get help because I want my wife over there.

you know, to think higher with me and to see me being willing to take this on and do anything it takes for her. Or maybe you try to get sober for your child. It will not work. You have to do want to get clean for yourself. It's the one thing I've ever experienced in my life that it is okay to be selfish about, meaning you have to think you're important enough in this world that overdosing should scare your life is that important

it is that meaningful and unbeknownst to me in the beginning I didn't know I was just clouted into that house but in the reality that's really what I'm doing

I overdosed seven times you know along my journey so I love doing that I love helping people you know find their sobriety that's

ultimately I do think that's my biggest call I'm just not going to make a older than now, isn't it. But I do think that's my biggest company. I think that's why Lord made me a wrestler. Why? I became a big of gladiator.

Why? Seven feet tall, six and three quarters. All that good stuff, all that sizzle. Because the stake behind in, in my opinion, was meant to help my community

and also help out. Yeah, I feel like it's such a slippery slope. Like, you know, I'm sure when it started for you, it was uphill. Yeah. Then it turned in. the two pills. At what point

did you realize, oh, this is maybe getting out of control of that? I want to hear something crazy, Chris? The crazy thing is, I was a fully functioning act. So anything you see of me in a WWRing, WWE ring on YouTube,

right? I'm out. You can't tell. I'm glossy eyes. I'm throwing up. I'm not showing up late to work. I'm not working hard. My body wasn't great shape, right? So that made an easy rationalization for me that, you know, okay, all these guys with

time abuse and steroids and more hard for a drug and taking prescription paincodes. What's the big deal? Yeah, doctors giving it to me. It can't be that bad. That's the obvious, right? So as we know, 80% of opioid addiction starts with a prescription. But I want to be clear, I still don't think it's okay to put one of the, of the Senate of the onus on those doctors

because I still would work the gimmick, meaning I go with my MRI showing I don't have an L5 in anymore. What the hell? How are you even walking? You know, that kind of reaction. And sure, I'd get whatever painkiller they wanted to give me. But that's still me working an angle to get my fix. So if you're going to really, really be sober,

you have to own every bit of it, every single millimeter of it own up to it and you know openness I mean not to get old biblical people but turn yourself over to whatever your higher power is that you're helpless

that you're absolutely helpless with without getting that well then we hear the slippery slope ends up going into you know once you can't get painkillers anymore so string into heroin and that sounds very scary it does it does and there was a bodybuilder designer

drug at the time called Eubing that a lot of the boys would use where you can just put it in a gun, I think it's called insulin syringe or something like that. And you could, you can inject it and you would get the same

high that you would from the painkiller high, same thing. And so, yeah, man, you're not wrong. It does open up other Pandora boxes to potentially on the drugs. You're not wrong. Do you think about

like what your WWB run could have looked like had you been sober the entire time i would have had that chance when i was supposed to go back and re-debue with them 2014 january to 2014 in the royal year the blue i was going to be the blueprint finally and on w w tv not t and a but w w tn a And my son Jackson was born January 7th. And that was something that my wife and I had been praying on for 12 straight years. We went to eight bouts of ideas. It's been none of them worked.

And by the grace of God, she naturally got pregnant. The biggest thing for me in my life ever. And so when he was born and I held him for the first time, this switch went off in my head. done. Again, I'm not going back on the road. I need to be a dad. 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 a nonverbal autistic. So, again,

it's a tag team between me and my wife. being able to take care and do the litany and myriad of things we have to do every single, you know, day before he goes to school, actually he goes to school, all the therapy needs, you know, getting one in the right charter school, that all those different things that are very important. But let's say that never happened. I was on track to be Ray Dea Meelein for Royal Rumble 2014 that January. And so I called them up. I told them what happened. You told me what happened. You told me your father now. Yeah, yeah.

Told them the great news, obviously. Now, they didn't know as, they were happy for them, but they didn't know as much about the story as, let's say, Dixie Carter and TNA did. Dixie Carter was over the book because she tried to help me in my life a couple of times. My mind is doctor into TNA tapings in Orlando at Universal Studios to help me and my wife. because she had a similar issue

trying to have children as well and so I just thought that was amazing or amazing and anyway SWE they got it they understood I'm like it's not like from trick I'm not trying to get out of this deal just you know because I'm going to go over here

or something like that yeah you know this is something that my people talk about their dreams that's my biggest dreams since I was a little kid would be a dad be married, have a home, and be a dad. I swear to God, and had the first two, just waiting on, you know, that third that took us about 12 years, finally had a child.

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And look at your WWB career. Obviously, your NEPUR has been broken up into a bunch of different sectors, I would say. Like your WWE run, then you were a TNA, probably the best time you could possibly be in TNA. I thought so, yeah. And then kind of everything after that, but look at your WWE run.

And like I feel like you just got jerked around a lot. Like, you had so many possibilities to turn something into gold and it was just like taken away from you. What do you think was the biggest opportunity? Say it again? What do you think was the biggest opportunity in WWW? Oh, really?

For sure, the Studdering character, right? No, I'm being very precise. But definitely the first time, even though it was still, they called me up prematurely. I'd only been in OVW for maybe, I think, under a year. Like, I got called up very quickly. Yeah. I got put on that team, Lesnar, team with Brock, Lesnar. and everybody else bigger than him,

like Big Show, A-Train, Nathan Jones, and myself. Still the biggest team of Survivor Series. Anyways, but that I thought would have been the best because, number one, I'm being brought into a main event setting by being, you know, associated with Brock Lesnar, who was the world champion at the time. All my house show matches were with, like, majority were like, oh, God, Benoit, Kurt Engel,

Eddie, JBL, who was still doing, I believe, the APA stuff at the time. Bob Polly, like, you know, really good talents that helped me improve quickly. But anyways, I think I say that time because me and Nathan were supposed to win the titles of WrestleMania Point. That was supposed to be the plane. And Nathan quit on, you know, when we went on tour to Australia, months before WrestleMania 20 was coming. and it is what it is. You know, when you're a tag team like that,

sometimes you're, you know, associated with what happened with your partner. So I knew something would happen to me once he quit, but they instead,

instead of just sending me down back to developmental right away, they kept me with Brock a little bit longer and they had you come out and be its heater and things like that. Not that he needs a heater, but they're in lies with heat, right? He's Brock's right on his one man on me.

Yeah. But anyway, so I'd come in the ring side. I'd wrestle my own matches as well versus smaller opponents to make me look bigger, right? But that I thought was the best time, the best time for them to do something with me. But I got some back down to Louisville, a OVW, and I finally got a chance to learn how to work as a heel. Because my entire run in OVW, my first time, I was only a baby race on television. Yeah. So this did do me a great deal of justice of improving, getting my timing down better, working on body language, working on playing to the people up in the nosebleed sections, things like that.

That I really wasn't aware of just yet because I was so green still, my first call. So when I called the second time, I jumped on the opportunity because it was an idea and studying character that Vince McMahon came up with. And if Vince gets behind something, not gets behind something, but he's the one that creates it. You assume it's going to go to the top because he does, especially at that time, I don't recall him coming up with Carlito's character at that time. And you saw what he did with that character. Carleo, right? Yeah, Carlito, huge. Absolutely.

So you assume like the same will happen for you because Vince doesn't do it every day where he comes up with his. character and then standing behind the camera every time you're cutting a promo there and giving me all that attention. So stuttering or not, the guy told me to put a, you know, pink jockstrap on my face and walked a ring backwards. I would have done it. That's how it was training, you know? Yeah. You tell me the, you say jump, I'm supposed to say how high, you know. Yeah.

It was so interesting seeing you do the F5. And I'm curious what I like the first time you did it, like did, did Brock? walk you through it, just like to see it and go, I can do that thing. No. Coming from seven feet up is very different from anyone else doing it. I'm surprised you guys saw that. I noticed that.

So, funny story. I always felt like Vince Coleman's office to tell me that was going to be my new finisher. And it was right. I always felt it was kind of like as a shot to Brock. to Brock at this point, I'm now, I get called back up to Smackdown, black died there, pirate beard looking, stuttering Matt Morrig, right, with the black trunks. And anyways, he, uh, closing his office tells me, he wants me to be doing the F5 as a finisher, what the guy can do, and I said, sure, no problem.

But in back my head, I always kind of thought that it 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. Yeah. 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, like I rode with him a couple 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 connection together.

But anyways, my first time doing the F5 was it's a big show. That was the very first time I was, brother, that's the first time I've ever tried the fine. 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, you know, get his big butt up, you know, 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'm pretty sure I was only a third person to lift Big Show up on their shoulders, at least in a WWE rate. I know Cina did and I know Brock did. That was different. Yeah, and in WCW it was Goldberg. Oh, my God. He did.

He did it. He did you. Can you believe that? Yeah. I would argue that's even harder. I would agree with that. I mean, versus the firearm Perry, for sure. Okay.

Yes and no. Because Big Show was freaking an amazing. He's always been a great athlete, but he was really an amazing athlete with WCW. You remember how Jack Big Show was? So, Jack. He moved so quickly. Right? Yeah.

throwing missile drop kicks off the top of the phrase. Yeah. With your size, you should be part of these conversations. Like when people talk about the big men in wrestling, your name doesn't come up nearly as often as it should. Oh, geez, thank you. Very flattering. And maybe it's because people don't consider you a big man

because you don't work like a traditional big man. We just happen to be tall and really athletic. Yeah. I mean, things like Shooting Star Press, I mean, moonsault easily, but things that they would never allow me to do when I was coming up. And as a big guy, we all have this inherent thing in our heads that we want to show everybody. We're not to some big, clutchy goof. But we're way more athletic than we look and this and that. But I had a 41-inch perk.

You know what I mean? at over 330 pounds. Like, that's a shoot, seriously. So, like, I could do things athletically, but I'd always get yelled at for it. Whereas today's wrestling, oh, my God, oh, my God. If I could just, you know, if I could be dropped in today's wrestling

with them letting the big guys do some of these more athletic maneuvers, I would have made out. Well, I mean, you kind of have been dropped, back into today's wrestling. We saw you on Impact recently. Yes. They were here locally. I was very excited to go see some old friends there.

I'll never dump on Impact. I'll never dump on TNA either. I know a lot of people like to do that. I don't. I'll take my TNA roster from 2007, 2008, 2009 against WWE at that time any day of the week. That roster was stacked. And not a

talk about this. Stacked. And I know the television ratings were very different. from 15 years ago, but 3 million people were watching Impact back then. And people always ready to go, T&A, LOL. I'm like, no LOL. Go back in time and watch those matches, watch the storylines.

More importantly, the ratings. Yeah. Especially versus, I know it's different today, right? Yeah, I get it. Like 3 million people were watching Impact, maybe 6 or 7 million were watching Raw. I don't know the numbers exactly, but still, it's a lot of eyeballs to watch you guys. We get out.

On Spike TV, man. That was a Huge network, huge network at the time. Yeah, huge networks that used to have Raw. Like, that's a, you know, it's people who are used to watching wrestling. Yeah, yeah, man. So I think when people saw you an impact recently, they went, oh, this is going to be something. Like, this can't just be a one-off. Of course it could.

I'm a mayor of a city. I can't just start. All right, see you later, folks. I'm going to go, you don't start throwing drop kicks in body. Shane is a mayor of a county and he shows up every year. Those are one-off. Those are one-off appearances. This is a demanding as hell job.

Trust me. Plus, I'm on Chuo, 13 other boards and committees. I sit on our Seminole County Opioid Council. All these different boards and committees on top of everything. My wife does too now. I'm very proud of the wife. You're one of the very few wrestlers that has been very successful in the second phase of your life. And this is no disrespect to other wrestlers, but there's a lot of them that hang

on to those glory years in their 20s and 30s, and, you know, they don't have a second job they can go into. They don't have another skill that they've honed. And you can be successful as a public servant, and a lot of people don't have that. Thank you. And I'd be lying to you, though, if I told you like, this was planned. Because we always, I always try to tell younger wrestlers have a backup plan and don't be embarrassed about it. The wrestling doesn't work out. That's our biggest enemy is we get embarrassed at first. that maybe we didn't make it to where we wanted to make it, et cetera. It's that ego that makes you a successful professor to begin by the way, right?

It's a very important contribution to have to have. But it also will hurt you when that spotlight has been and you're not on TV anymore. And I went through it too. But looking at that little boy, Sarah as hell cheered me out very quickly because I knew this was a right decision. I knew it was right decision. But I didn't know I'd get into the world. I haven't seen politics, but elected official now public service.

Public service. I'll take it even one step further. I think there's a lot of people who are successful in whatever avenue of life it happens to be, whether it's wrestling or it's sports, whatever. Then they get into this next phase of their life and they're not immediately good at it. And they go, oh, I can't let people see me failing at this because I've been so successful doing this other thing for so long. 100% yes yes yes

you got to remember the other aspect of this I stick out like a sore thumb right so even like you as a wrestler you're used to people coming up to you and say hey aren't you so-and-so from so-and-same right

so when that starts to fade a little bit that messes with people's heads a little bit or they think they have to be that character not character on television that wrestler has their identity you have to be that identity all the time No, no, you don't. Kevin Thorne is doing a very good job as you speak as a real estate region, right?

He's crushing it out there. There's Nova, it's running a bank somewhere in Louisville. There's tons of wrestlers that are doing very good things with their lives after pro wrestling. I think we're going to see it continue to crescendo with more and more pro wrestling that you hear these cool stories about of what they're doing after pro wrestling. And to be fair, the wrestlers were passed, they didn't have the benefit of the world. we have to social media. The only reason the rest of the person even knows I'm a mayor of the city is because they

follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Right? So I'm not the mayor of their city, right? So how would they know? So that's another thing we've got to point out, too. But like I said earlier, brother, this was not in the plans. And it's not going to continue to stay in the plans. Don't get me because I passed term limits

when I first got elected. You only served three, four year terms and got to get out. Then you're going to run for government. right? Oh, you wish. No. Lord, no. Senate?

No. I don't know. Because the one thing I have learned is this, is that everything I do, I decided to talk to my wife, first, my mom even still, first as well, with my wife, and make those assistance to the team,

because you're bringing them into this arena. Once you become an elected, you're bringing everything you're going to be in a world in which you get to get lied about, exaggerated about, told have truths about, on purpose, and you have a super and take it. And you have, that's just how

it works. And you have to have the thick skin to be able to take it. So it's your family. People always forget that part. So to do that, the ends have to justify the means as far as I feel I can have an impact on whatever that community is in whatever elected role that one day may be.

That's not here. But I don't know. Here's my reason why. I don't think I'll get to saying, Atta boy, pat on the back. Thank you, Matt, for doing what you've done for RC that I get here at the gas station or at the Publix or at any of these community events that I'm upset up. I'm fundraise.

I don't think I get that. And that's the high I chase. It's not just $928,000 obviously. It's the, I'm changing this, helping change this community from, you know, as an historic city that we're very proud of our historic district, but also by progressing it into the future and attracting younger families finally to our city.

What kind of conversations have you had with Glenn Jacobs with Kane about doing what you guys do? Early on, I had saw that he had, I had been elected, my first term I got elected in 2017, and I saw about, like, people, you know, were always in your year telling you stuff, right? and there's one guy said, hey, do you know Glenn Jacobs?

I'm like, freaking King? Yeah, of course. And they're like, did you know he's running for mayor of Knox County? I'm like, no, I did not know this. So I picked up the phone, called him, wished him luck. He didn't know that I, that I'm doing what I'm doing at the time. So we kind of laughed over that, right? And ironically, he was always my favorite wrestler.

I'd say from college years on him and Undertaker, both very athletic big, right? So I just, you know, shot the brief with him over the phone a little bit. And anytime he's up for, you know, re-election or anything like that, I give him, you know, hey, good luck, you know, and congratulations if he wins, you know, and vice versa. But I did, I remember talking to him about one initiative I was very proud of. He first got elected here in Longwood of 2017. If you're going to be an elected official for your people, how many people do you think come to your city council or commissioning? think it's like 30 people.

Right. And if they're there, they're usually there. To complain. To complain, right? Okay. Well, my biggest thing, when I knocked doors, when I first got it went to 2017, I told the folks, I'm going to be brand new at this. Okay. I have no political background.

I think that's a good thing. And because of that, I need you all to come to these meetings. The way this should work is I should be nothing more than your conduit. That seat that I'm sitting in up on that commission diets ain't my. It's yours. I'm just your megaphone for four years until you find somebody you want to do this instead. That's the way I legitimately really do see that. I swear I got on there, Chris. And so with that, I came up with being the first city in the southeast region to be able to start streamlining Facebook Live commission. So everything we do as a city commission, even just our negotiations for our police contracts, firefire, our city managers, our city manager,

contracts. All of that. That is all on Facebook live. You're sitting along with Facebook page. You can look them all up, dating back to 2018 to when I first made this initiative happen.

And I'm bringing that up because that is a conversation I had with Glenn. And I called him up and I told him about it that you really want to get, like, I'm nobody to get him advice on this. I'm not trying to say that. But the whole intent of being elected official is you

want your feedback from your residents. Sure. Right. Because it's there. steep. Like I said earlier. And if they're not involved, paying attention to what's happening, how are you supposed to get a fair gauge on? What are the things they want and don't want? Right. Like legit. That's how

it's supposed to be. So Facebook Live has been a godsend to our city. And to be personally, to be able to get constant, instant feedback. Like, no, Matt, why would you do that? Right? Fine. Give it to me. We need to know. And I was talking about that a little bit.

as he, it just won his election the first time in 2018, I think. But, you know, part of the work he was doing. It's not easy. He's the mayor of a county. County. A county. Yeah. How close?

Like, I heard this angle about you being Kane's other brother. I told you. So you were the first person I told that to. I've never shared that story before. That was crazy. So, no. Johnny A. Stephanie wanted me to wear a mask to work on my body.

And so I remember Jim Cornett just being like, what the, what are you doing? He's like our top baby face, a champion. Why is you got to wear him? This is stupid. He'll totally put me over and I'll always be grateful to Jimmy for that. I love Jimmy. And anyway, so they put me into stupidhood and Jimmy found a way to make it work because he's bringing me from me. Are there photos of this mask character we can find online?

Definitely. Sadly, yes. I'm sure you are. Yes. Was it just, was it the same name? Was it just Matt Morgan with a mask? Yes. I lost the Loser Leaves Town match at a Wii W.

Right? And then they put me in a hood. And I came back and said, I'm not, Matt Morgan. I'm the blueprint. There you are. Like a black and white mask? Yeah. Like, kind of like, Bain.

If I remember right, that's the one. That's one. Wow. Yeah. 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, blah. But you might, we have an idea for you with this if you do like it, you know, and you would be brought up to television and to work with Kings. Yeah. Now, I've seen somewhere where, like, oh, plans for this were abandoned and then, what's his name?

my boy, good brother. Carl Anderson? We used to be fastest. Gallows, yeah. Gallows would then brought in to, no, two different time periods.

When he was brought in to be fake king, that was at a very different time. I mean, I wasn't even with W. I was already with TNA by this point. But anyways, so that never materialized

of me being brought up to the roster as able would have been pretty cool though but I didn't like wearing the hood if I'm being on the Saheed. Sure. You know, so. It changed your whole career trajectory about having.

I know. Yeah. Yeah. But look, I guess wrestling is often this whole thing of like if this thing happened, then this thing happens. If this thing doesn't happen, then, you know, I feel like it could go that either way. Butterfly back, yeah.

Yes. I talk about this all the time. I talk about this at stupid great length about how Back to the Future is my favorite movie because of that exact reason. Yeah. Yeah, it was great, great. All the shit, the whole, all of them are great black.

But it's the idea that if this thing doesn't happen, it doesn't lead to this thing, which then leads to that thing. Like, who knows? If all those things hadn't come together, maybe you wouldn't be sitting here right now as the mayor of Longwood. Maybe you wouldn't be a father. Who knows? There you go. That's what I was about to say. I'll give you one bigger.

I watch all your shows. I really do. I watch every single one because I think you do a, you're who I watch my new car. Wow. Very kind. Thank you. And you and you do a great job with all your guests. You have a great collection of not just pro wrestling, but you have a meeting. It's a freaking rock. You have major, major stars coming up in your show. And I'm going to tell you something. this for all you know could still just be something else that sets up something bigger as big as big deal i'm not saying it's blow smoke up here you know what i'm being honest with you you're a very big deal with what you do and especially in the space you're in you're one of the very best of what you do with that in mind it's still for all we know could still just be that first domino for you

of what could end up being something just enormous. Like, who knows what can. Well, thank you. It's so kind of you to watch my show. Very nice of me to say that. And look, I,

and whatever people are like, well, what do you want to do this year? What are your goals? I just say I want more. Like, without this turning into a therapy session here, like, I just want more.

I want to do more of all of this. Like, hell yeah. Hey, I interviewed Reese, Swintern, Ashton, Cutcher. That's awesome. What can turn into?

I got Anthony Mackey this Friday. Like I've got big celebrity interviews. And it's so funny because I, you know, I've been doing celebrity interviews for like 17 years now. Right. Funny because a lot of people just know me for my YouTube content. A lot of that's just pro wrestling interviews, which obviously I love pro wrestling. I wanted to be a pro wrestling when I was growing up. But there's people that are like, did I see you doing an interview with George Clooney?

I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. They're like, you're doing big things. I'm like, well, yeah, I'm also just doing my job as an entertainment. There's nothing corny about that. It's called a living and being with purpose. And I'm a very big believer of love attraction. I'm a huge, huge believer in it. In fact, we just found our own vision boards to go back and go through them.

Like, we do it all the time. Oh, wow. You should have seen what we're trying to get pregnant. We had vision boards all over this house. It probably looked like blue and tics. People came to visit us with babies everywhere. Pregnant bellies, diapers, bottles, everything to get inside our head. We're going to be freaking parents.

How do you one step further? When we purchased this home, I built the nursery. We're not pregnant. Wow. Because, again, I really put my money where I'm out of it. I believe in it wholeheartedly. You have to get. cheesy here, but to our

This isn't cheesy at all. And listen, I swear God is my witness. If you can put it in your head, don't just put it in your head of things you want to do with your life. You have to taste it. You have to smell what it's smell like, hear what it would sound like. Everything, no matter what that is. It's going to be a pro raster. Don't just imagine what it will feel like to be in the ring.

Imagine what the smell of the hot dogs and popcorn will smell like in the arena. What the sweat will feel like falling off your body, walking back up the ramp, pulling up your championship title belt you have to get detailed oriented with the senses of having those things next you have to pretend you have them now and it's hard to do with money it's it's not easy to do with money i struggle with that myself yeah okay i'm going to be a million you know um okay you have to they say for it to really work for you to really make this stuff happen you have to really act like you have this stuff where you are that stuff now. Yeah. I love this stuff so much. I love talking to any of my guests about this. And I always see the negative feedback from people that are like, well, that's easy for you to say. You know, that's easy for you to say because you're successful or look at everything you've got. That's easy

for your guest to say. And the crazy thing about that for me is that you're only seeing a snapshot of someone's life in their most successful phase of their life. You know, it's a stumbles along the way to get there. Like, I was telling people like, well, just go read anything about Oprah. Like Oprah should not have been Oprah. No. Just had this goal in mind and just didn't stop until it happens. That's exactly right.

And you got to remember social media. What are we doing on social media? We are showing our best selves in that situation, that minute of that day, right? So we all see each other at our highest that day. And that's another thing that people get in their head to be. of it. They don't know. I got kicked out of a four grand score before first grade, struggled with a speech pediment, idiot,

things like that, or I'm sure thousands of your struggles coming up in the beginning too. Yeah, I had my dream job when I was 23 years old and moved my entire life from Toronto to Vancouver, 47-hour drive in my 1995 Toyota Corolla, got there,

did the show for a year, it was unbelievable, it was amazing, and then our show got canceled. and I had to pack up my entire life, drive those 47 hours back, moved back in with my parents, and I was unemployed for seven months. And I was like, what am I going to do? I just had the job where I was interviewing actors and musicians and celebrities. Now I'm looking for jobs on the internet. My parents' spare bedroom.

Yeah, yeah. Because guess what? I don't care who the famous person is. Every single person has done this. Has done that, has been in that situation. And the difference is, you don't have many people that become successful that are willing to share that part. That's important. I wish they would.

I wish they would. Like LeBron. LeBron will share his struggles growing up with a single mom, et cetera, et cetera, of how he stays driven to being what he can. You know, he still is right now. There's this weird thing that happens in our society where, like, there's a, certain sector of people that like to watch successful people fail. And it's just like, huge. We're all just people at the end of the day.

And it's just sad that someone's like, oh, well, finally, the Rock's movie didn't open as well as it should have. It's like, well, why would you root for that? Why would you root for that? Why would you want to? What does that do for you? That's what I don't get. And can I just add one thing in? Please.

Going back to law of attraction. when you're somebody that's constantly throwing out hate and want nothing but negative things for maybe your worst enemy or other people all right i swear to god is my witness it all it does is it snowballs right back to you boomerangs back to you rather a hundred percent true guys i swear that's how it works that's why you see people but how could they get over you know there were just enemies with this guy the other day how they shaking his hand and you know accepting their apology or whatever, why, because they want to move on and get back into the right channel and the right

frequency again of receiving and living in abundance. That's why. I love that so much. And I think that's a good note to kind of wrap things up on because I wasn't doing this last time that we did the interview, which was, I think that was almost four years ago, three and a half years ago. I know. So, you know, I ended up a conversation with gratitude because that's such an important part of my life. And I think it's an important part of what we're just talking about with like abundance. If you can focus on those that you do have in your life, you're going to get more of those things in your life.

So that's what you're grateful for right now? Oh, my God. Number one, where I saw a bullet. My wife and my son. How many did you say? Three. Three. The program we have my son set up for at the moment.

I told you he's not verbal autistic. So we got him to an amazing charter school. I'm very, very exciting about Warren. very detailed I know but this is the world I live in and these are important things too and number three my mom

the fact that I still have her the fact that she moved down here to Florida to be with us I love that other than my wife my best friend right I love that Matt it's always a great conversation with you

we need to do this far more often we can't wait three and a half years to do another one well and it's weird is because in our city like the way the mayoral ship works each year in the month of May, and one of the five of the commissioners get choose and elected as mayor. So last time I did this, I was mayor,

and then I got re-elected to my commission in 2020, he got re-elected, and then I was named mayor was past May. So you're good luck, Chris, man, please. Matt, always such a pleasure. Thank you so much. I love you, my brother. I mean that.

I love you and I'm proud of you. I love you too, man. Thank you so much. There we go. I just, I love those kinds of conversations. I love how we wrap things up there at the end. I feel like we could go four hours talking about that kind of stuff. I hope that you enjoyed it as well.

And it's so great seeing what Matt is doing in his community. And it sounds like he's left pro wrestling behind him, but like I said, like I said, we saw him in impact. And anything in pro wrestling is possible. So I guess we'll see. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this one. tag us so we can share this. Matt is at BP, Matt Morgan. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Let us know what the most interesting part of this conversation was for you. And I think that this quote from

Thomas Jefferson really sums up the last 20 minutes of what we were talking about there. Thomas Jefferson said, I'm a great believer in luck. I find the harder I work, the more of it I have. So good. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next. one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band

that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

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