Former WWE Star Was Meant To Be Third Brother Of Destruction
Undertaker, Kane... and Abel?
Having been a long-standing rumour of the wrestling business, Matt Morgan has confirmed that, yes, he was at one point intended to be the brother of the Undertaker and Kane.
Speaking on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet (as per Inside the Ropes), Morgan noted how there were plans to introduce him under as mask as Abel, the third Brother of Destruction.
As the Blueprint explained, he was tasked with working under a mask in Ohio Valley Wrestling - where he had previously held the OVW Heavyweight Title twice - ahead of returning to main WWE programming.
"Johnny Ace and Stephanie [McMahon] 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."
On being told that the reason for this mask was to line Morgan up as Abel, the star added:
"So then eventually, you know, Stephanie once told me, 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."
While some wrestling fans have speculated that Matt Morgan had at one point been earmarked to play the Fake Kane role that went to Luke Gallows, Morgan reiterated that was never the case.
"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, rather than brought in to... No, two different time periods. When he was brought in to be Fake Kane, that was 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."
It's worth noting, "hood" is a wrestling term often used to refer to a mask.
Matt Morgan's time with WWE began back with the second season of Tough Enough, where he had to depart the show due to injury. Despite that, the powerhouse would formally sign with the market leader in 2002 and be assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling.
The seven-foot-tall talent would debut on the main roster towards the end of 2003, immediately being a part of Brock Lesnar's team at that year's Survivor Series. Morgan would remain on the SmackDown brand until being released by the company midway through 2007.
Following that WWE spell, the nowadays District 4 City Commissioner of Longwood, Florida spent some time working in Japan and across Europe before joining TNA in 2007. That tenure would last through until 2013, with Morgan winning the company's Tag Team Titles on two occasions during that time.
Matt would later make a couple of returns to TNA/IMPACT and work on the independent scene, and his last match of this writing is a 2019 tag bout for Southern Championship Wrestling out of Florida. As alluded to, the 46-year-old is these days involved in politics, with him having previously served as the Mayor of Longwood from May 2019 until September 2020.