WWE had an interesting pitch for Matt Morgan upon his main roster debut in 2003, but evidently, those plans fell through.
Upon his entry into professional wrestling, Morgan quickly earned a developmental contract with WWE in 2002. Soon, he worked his way through the farm system in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Amidst his ventures in OVW, he adopted the moniker of “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan. After losing the OVW Heavyweight Championship in a “Loser Leaves Town” match to Chris Cage (Caylen Croft), though, Morgan made a tweak to his presentation.
Performing under just “The Blueprint,” Morgan began sporting a mask to conceal his face, per the instruction of John Laurinaitis and Stephanie McMahon. “Johnny Ace and Stephanie wanted me to wear a mask to work on my body language, right?” Morgan told Insight with Chris Van Vliet. “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.’ [He] totally put me over. I’ll always be grateful to Jimmy for that. I love Jimmy.”
Morgan admitted he developed a disdain for the concept at first, but Jim Cornette “found a way to make it work” for him, as Stephanie McMahon soon informed Morgan of a new direction for his character. “But listen, so then eventually, Stephanie once told me, ‘if you don’t like it, tell us … but we have an idea for you with this if you do like it. You would be brought on to television to work with Kane.'” he recalled.
More specifically, creative plans called for Morgan to portray an on-screen brother to “The Big Red Monster.” Morgan’s proposed character change included a new name — Abel — perhaps in reference to the biblical story of “Cain and Abel.” Ultimately, Morgan never fulfilled that prophecy, as it later morphed into the idea of “imposter” Kane and was carried out by Luke Gallows in 2006.
“It would have been pretty cool [to Kane’s brother], though,” Morgan said. “But I didn’t like wearing the hood if I’m being honest. I hated it.”
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