Morgan talks tag teams and Victory Road

With one line, Matt Morgan swears he is committed to his tag team with Crimson, which challenges for TNA’s tag belts at Victory Road on Sunday. With another, he swears he will be a world champion one day.

“While winning the tag team championship is ultra-important and when wearing those titles, you should have pride in wearing them,” Morgan told journalists in a TNA conference call on Wednesday. “But at the same time, I got into pro wrestling for one reason — that was to be the top dog and to be the world champion. I know that sounds like a saying or a catchphrase, but that’s what I truly believe in. I came out of my mom’s womb a future world champion, and I’m sick of waiting.”

Morgan’s time is now, at least if you live in India and are a fan of the Ring ka King promotion there, where he was the World champ, having just lost it to Brutus Magnus.

But in North America, he has been frustratingly close on a few occasions, only to have the ultimate goal elude him.

So for now, he’s accepting of the fact that he and Crimson will regain the tag belts from Samoa Joe and Brutus Magnus at the pay-per-view in Orlando at Universal Studios.

“There’s no reason in hell why the two of us should not be the most dominant tag team in pro wrestling today,” he said, admitting that each of them have egos that have to be set aside for the good of the team.

“The way we started, I think we tried to outshine each other,” he said. “What we need to do is put our competitive natures aside and put them in the right direction, which is at Joe and Magnus, do what we do best, and go out there and dominate.”

Morgan does not think that Samoa Joe and Magnus are committed to being a long-lasting unit.

“What makes us think we can beat those two?” he asked. “Because we’ve done it before and to be perfectly honest, we’re bigger, we’re stronger, we’re way more athletic and at the end of the day, if we are on the same page — I like us being on the same page better than those two being on the same page.”

“The Blueprint” got journalists from as far away as Israel, New Zealand, Scotland and Australia laughing when he referred to “Joe and his boyfriend Magnus.”

When asked to explain, he retorted: “Would you rather me refer to him as girlfriend? Would that be more appropriate?”

Morgan did admit that Magnus has improved since he wrestled him in England during Magnus’ first TNA bout. It was billed as a Gladiator versus Gladiator match, since both had appeared on a version of American Gladiators, Morgan’s Stateside, and Magnus’ in the United Kingdom.

“Magnus has gotten a lot better. In my opinion, this is nothing that he wasn’t been capable of doing since he started,” praised Morgan. “He’s very young, he’s got great aptitude and he’s very intelligent, and he’s a good promo. In the meantime, I think he’s stepped up in terms of his in-ring abilities.”

It has been a challenge coming up with new things to do with someone like Samoa Joe, with whom he has worked countless times now, Morgan admitted. And in India, Magnus has been a thorn in his side.

“When we put together these matches, we try to do the best thing we could to basically showcase each of our talents, hide our weaknesses, play to our strengths … and go out there and try to put on the best match possible,” he said. “When you have four guys, like the four of us, that don’t put ourselves first, but put the match first, put the story first, that’s what you’re going to get as your conclusion or as your result is the match we had last pay-per-view.”

At Against All Odds, Samoa Joe and Magnus won the tag titles when Crimson accidentally speared Morgan, allowing Joe and Magnus to take advantage of the confusion.

It was also at Against All Odds where Jesse Sorensen was seriously injured during his bout with Zema Ion. TNA President Dixie Carter kept fans in the loop, saying at Sorensen “sustained a C1 vertebrae fracture with spinal cord edema. He is slowly regaining feeling and movement in his arms and legs.”

Morgan said they all know the risks with what they do in the ring.

“Obviously, accidents, like what happened with Jesse, happen. No matter how good you are, there are things that are out of your reach that you can’t control sometimes, unfortunately. That’s obviously what happened with poor Jesse,” he said.

In the dressing room, Morgan said jaws hit the floor. “I know speaking for myself, it felt like your heart stopped for a minute. You get numb, you just feel numb for the person. Then when you see him get carted off, you start thinking about the poor kid’s family; What’s his mom and dad thinking about this? They must be freakin’ petrified — I know my parents would be. But at the end of the day, we are pros at what we do. It’s an unfortunate risk of what we do. It just shows people what we do is very real.”

The TNA team was hurt by the accident, but they are still there pulling together for success in and out of the ring, and the common goal of a successful company.

One of Morgan’s current favorites is Austin Aries, who has an X-Division title match against Zema Ion at Victory Road,

“I like that he goes out there as a villain and God forbid, he goes out there and makes those fans boo him. I’ve got respect for a guy that does that. No matter how many times these fans might cheer for him, or might be impressed with his moves and things that he can do, at the end of the day, the guy still goes out there and he makes sure he performs his job. No matter who he’s wrestling against will end up getting cheered as a result. That’s a heel’s job at the end of the day. So I respect Austin from that standpoint alone, but his in-ring ability is ridiculous. I like his storytelling. I like everything about him, his promos. I’m very much looking forward to his match on the pay-per-view.”