Matt Morgan

 ( 1976 Births ) 

On the April 3, 2008, edition of TNA Impact!, it was revealed that Morgan allowed Team Tomko to add James Storm to their team, giving them a five-to-four advantage heading into Lockdown; however, at the end of the program, it was revealed that Morgan himself had joined Team Cage. The next week, Jim Cornette relieved Morgan of his assistant duties to become a full-time wrestler. With Morgan joining Team Cage, he established himself as a face, and went back to his old OVW nickname, "The Blueprint". Morgan teamed up with Billy Gunn at Sacrifice on May 11 as a result of the Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament draw. They failed to win the tag titles as James and Morgan could not get along long enough. He then began to feud with The Rock 'n Rave Infection after defeating Jimmy Rave in less than two minutes on July 17. Lance Archer immediately challenged Morgan to a match right there, and Morgan squashed him.

On the following Impact!, the team fought against Lethal and Creed in a number one contenders match for the tag team championship, which ended with Morgan once again being pinned because of Abyss. On the January 23 episode of Impact!, Morgan and Abyss battled Beer Money, Inc. in a non-title first blood match. Towards the end of the match, Morgan turned on Abyss after hitting him with a steel chair, causing him to bleed, giving Storm and Roode the win and turning heel in the process. Morgan was defeated at Against All Odds on February 8 in a standard match, but defeated Abyss in a Match of 10,000 Tacks at Destination X on March 15. The feud ended at Lockdown on April 19, in a Doomsday Chamber of Blood Match, in which neither wrestler could be legally pinned were he not bleeding. Morgan won after interference by Abyss' psychiatrist, Dr. Stevie, by hitting Abyss with a back low blow and then a chokebomb onto a pile of tacks.

The following weeks Morgan began a campaign to convince the heel stable The Main Event Mafia to allow him to join them and become a member. He was aware that the current members of the Mafia were all former World Champions, but realizing that Team 3D, Billy Gunn and Al Snow had been invited into the Mafia (Team 3D refused, and James and Snow were rejected), Morgan felt he should have been invited too. He faced Sting at Slammiversary on June 21, but was unable to defeat him and was thus barred from joining the Mafia. At Victory Road on July 19 he defeated Daniels to regain the Mafia's favor. On the August 13 episode of Impact!, Morgan defeated A.J. Styles in the deciding match of a "Best of Three Series" to secure his place in a triple threat match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Hard Justice on August 16 also involving Sting and Kurt Angle. He lost at Hard Justice after Angle hit him with a steel chair. At No Surrender on September 20, Morgan competed in a re-match that also featured A.J. Styles and Hernandez, who used his "Feast or Fired" contract to include himself in the match, but was removed after a few minutes when he sustained an injury at the hands of Eric Young. During the match, Styles attempted a front flip senton from the apron onto Morgan outside of the ring, at the same moment Angle attempted to attack Morgan, but accidentally got struck by Styles instead. Morgan seemingly took this as a friendly gesture and agreed to assist Angle for the remainder of the match. But when Angle seemed set to win, Morgan turned on Angle and cost him the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, turning into a face in the process. On the September 24 episode of Impact!, Morgan cemented his newfound disinterest in the Main Event Mafia when he teamed with Hernandez to defeat Kurt Angle and Eric Young, which also solidified his status as a face. Later that night, Morgan teamed with former rival Abyss to defeat Kurt Angle and Mick Foley. Another week later, on the October 1 episode of Impact!, Matt Morgan defeated Eric Young. On October 5 Morgan announced on his Twitter page that he had signed a new 5-year deal with TNA. Morgan's feud with Angle culminated in a singles match at Bound for Glory on October 18, where despite Morgan's loss, he managed to gain Angle's respect. This match practically ended the Main Event Mafia.

Morgan then teamed up with Hernandez and Elijah Burke and moved on to feuding with Rhyno and Team 3D, who accused TNA of favoring the younger talent of the company. At Turning Point on November 15, Rhino and Team 3D defeated Morgan, Hernandez and Dinero in a street fight. The next night, the two teams had a re-match which ended the same way after Jesse Neal returned and attacked Hernandez with a steel chair. It was announced that the two teams would face of at Final Resolution on December 20 in an elimination match, but both teams were required to have four members. Team 3D immediately enlisted Neal, while Dinero pursued Suicide's help. Both teams fought in a regular tag match to determine an additional stipulation on the forthcoming match at Final Resolution. The match at Final Resolution would begin as a 4-on-1 handicap match, but if the disadvantaged wrestler survived the first 5 minutes his partners would then join the match, turning it into an eight-man elimination tag team match. Neal pinned Hernandez, meaning that Hernandez and his team would be disadvantaged at Final Resolution. At the pay-per-view Morgan, Hernandez (who survived), Dinero and Suicide defeated Jesse Neal, Team 3D and Rhino, with Morgan scoring the deciding fall on Brother Ray.

On the January 4, 2010, live, three-hour, Monday night episode of Impact! Morgan and Hernandez defeated Dr. Stevie and Raven to become the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Champions British Invasion (Nick Aldis and Doug Williams) at Genesis on January 17. At Genesis, Morgan and Hernandez defeated the British Invasion to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship, his first major championship. At Against All Odds on February 14, as part of the 8 Card Stud Tournament, Morgan and Hernandez were forced to face each other in the first round. Morgan defeated Hernandez by taking advantage of his injured shoulder and pinning him, while grabbing a hold of his trunks. However, in the semifinals Morgan was defeated by the eventual winner of the entire tournament, D'Angelo Dinero. At Destination X on March 21, Morgan and Hernandez retained the Tag Team Titles in a match against Beer Money despite plenty of miscommunication between the two champions. After the match Morgan nailed Hernandez with the Carbon Footprint and left with both title belts, turning heel in the process. The following day on Impact! Morgan defeated Hernandez via referee stoppage after sandwiching his head between his boot and the ring post, putting him out of action indefinitely. With Hernandez scheduled to miss months of action, Morgan declared himself the sole World Tag Team Champion on the edition of April 5 of Impact! and TNA went along with this and recognized him as the sole Champion. Morgan then went on to successfully defend the World Tag Team Title while teaming with the likes of Amazing Red, Shark Boy and Jesse Neal as his substitute partners, attacking each of them after the matches. On the May 3 episode of Impact! it was announced that Morgan would defend the World Tag Team Championship at Sacrifice on May 16 against Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore, both of whom he had attacked in the two previous weeks, and that Hulk Hogan would decide his partner for the match. On the May 13 episode of Impact! Morgan demanded to find out who his partner would be and when he did not get an answer, threatened to turn his match against Generation Me (Jeremy and Max Buck) into a bloodbath. However, Samoa Joe came to the ring to put a stop to this and hit Morgan with a Muscle Buster. This led to The Band coming out and Kevin Nash cashing in his "Feast or Fired" contract, after which he pinned Morgan to make himself and Scott Hall the new World Tag Team Champions. On the June 3 episode of Impact!, Morgan was distracted by somebody in the crowd which cost him a four-way match with Samoa Joe, Sting, and the winner of the match, TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam. The camera's immediately showed what was distracting Morgan, but nobody could clearly see who it was, although Taz and Mike Tenay believed it to be Hernandez. The following week, Hernandez made his official return by attacking Morgan. After the attack The Band gave the injured Morgan the rematch he had wanted for the World Tag Team Championship and easily defeated him to retain the title. At Slammiversary VIII on June 13, Morgan defeated Hernandez via disqualification, when Hernandez was disqualified for shoving the referee, when he had gotten enough of him reprimanding him for going after Morgan. The following month at Victory Road on July 11, Morgan was defeated by Hernandez in a Steel Cage match.

At Genesis on January 9, 2011, Morgan was defeated by Mr. Anderson in a number one contender's match. On the February 10 episode of Impact!, Morgan received a shot at Anderson's TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated following interference from the returning Hernandez, who made his first TNA appearance in over six months. On the March 3 episode of Impact! Morgan defeated Hernandez via disqualification. On March 13 at Victory Road, Hernandez defeated Morgan in a First Blood match, after using fake blood on him, following a distraction from a planted fan, later identified as Matt Barela, the newest member of Hernandez's Mexican America stable. On April 17 at Lockdown, Morgan defeated Hernandez in a steel cage match to win the feud. With his feud with Hernandez behind him, Morgan announced his intention of going for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on the following edition of Impact!, but was interrupted by Scott Steiner who claimed to be next in line for the shot, before laying Morgan out with a low blow. On June 12 at Slammiversary IX, Morgan defeated Steiner in a singles match. Later that month, Morgan entered the Bound for Glory Series to determine a number one contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the July 21 episode of Impact Wrestling, Morgan won a four-man ladder match to climb to number three spot in the tournament's rankings, however, just four days later it was reported that Morgan had torn his pectoral muscle, which would sideline him for six weeks, ending his participation in the tournament. Over the following weeks, Morgan was on commentary for the Bound for Glory Series matches. On August 29 it was reported that Morgan had been cleared to return to the ring.