Newsday has an interview up with TNA star Matt Morgan. Here are some highlights from the interview.
On being looked at as an ex-WWE guy in TNA:
” I know what you?re going to say. But look at it this way, Alfonso. When I first came, look at what they could have done. Test came in the first day I did. They could have done the same thing with me that they did with him. They could have put me in a match ? said I?m a former WWE wrestler and put me in a mid-card match in the next pay per view, and blah blah blah. I probably would have wrote myself out of there in a few months for all I know. But they decided to take their time with me. And now I?m very lucky. I could almost be considered a home grown TNA talent at this point. They put the time and energy into rebranding me, rebuilding me and now I?m at where I am now. And I do believe they will put ? what I told you before to answer your question ? they will definitely put that pressure on me.”
On wrestling fans measuring success with ratings and buyrates:
“Everybody talks about ratings and draws and buy rates and all this kind of stuff. Everybody still acts like it’s 1998. Guys, wake up. It’s not 98. People get so caught up with, “Oh, well they did a 1.5 this week, which is down from the 1.3. Who was in the main event?” No. That just means that there’s a select amount of people who were not tuning in for that particular moment or for that night. It’s not that big of number in the big scheme of things like it used to be back when the wrestling business was getting these huge, booming ratings. Those were telling numbers then ? if they were to drop three whole ratings points. ? not .2 or .26. Not things like that. I don?t want to blame it on the Internet people, but they get way out of hand with trying to conform the Internet fan on who they want to get over, whether it’s that article, that TV recap, whatever have you. They get way too conformist of the guys they want to establish as their fan favorites, so they?ll make it work for them. “Well the rating went up 600,000 viewers for this match” or “The Knockouts drew the highest rating this week.” That’s great and all, but it’s not like it’s a four point difference or anything.”
On huge amounts of negativity on the internet about wrestling:
“People love to play like it’s circa ?98 because they weren?t around in the heat of it or they weren?t old enough to understand. And now were in a day and age where they?re so ? and I don?t know why ? they?re so into negativity. It’s like, you read Star Magazine or you read People Magazine. Negativity on the magazine rack, it may sell. But on the Internet, it’s almost like they follow suit too much. There’s never a positive story. Very rarely do you see a positive story. That’s why I never read the Internet and I never will. Cornette taught me that my first year in the business. And I said, “Why?” Because it’s so darn negative. If you?re a young kid ? I have 17-year-olds who have talked to me about ratings. Now, I?m sorry, but when I was 17 I was nothing thinking about ratings as a wrestling fan. I was thinking about going to see my favorite wrestler. I was thinking about things like that. I think the NWO was about to get hot at that time. That’s what I was thinking about ? not about the ratings crap, and not about like being overly negative. Now everything is under this huge, huge microscope. And as soon as a blip of negativity comes out of product, they love to jump down its throat and spread it everywhere. And that’s another thing, like I was saying before. It’s conforming young kids who don?t know any better.”
To check out the full interview, click here.
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