Matt Morgan is TRASH. TNA should be building around Roode and Pope.

Speaking of Hogan, I wonder if he'll call the Ultimate Warrior on Thursday to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY?

Considering how often and how long you've gone on about Matt Morgan's potential, the headline should have read "Hulk Hogan agrees with me". ;)

I wholesomely agree. This is probably the smartest thing you said about TNA for a while. Morgan's quest needs to be hyped though. The best way to do that is the semi-kayfabe vignettes that focus on athleticism but at the same time plug Morgan's emotional journey.

But I don't think this will happen. It seems that they are dead set on Gunner and Angle is training for the olympics.

The other problem is Robert Roode. I don't think they'll really invest in him as a singles wrestler unless he gets over quick in a big way. TNA seem reluctant to break up Beer Money and rightly so. The other thing with Roode is that he will need to turn Heel to have a feud with Morgan, otherwise there is a lack of dynamic in the build up to the PPVs.

But I agree TNA need to be brave and let two homegrown guys at it for the top prize. But there is being brave then there is being stupid, thus I wouldn't cut all the older wrestlers, they can draw casual fans to the product. I would therefore reinstate the Legends championship and have it occupy the semi-main event slot or the mid card slot. Just imagine if you had Flair, Sting, Steiner, Hogan, Angle et al challenging for the Legends belt.

This would make the Global/TV/Legends championship mean something. But more importantly it could be used as a vehicle to put other upcomers over and make them main event ready. Take someone like Crimson for example. I know a lot of people questioned Gunner going over Sting before the PPV, but what I'm hearing there is momentum behind him. That's what a Legends division can do.

The final thing I would stay away from is super factions. Small groups such as Fortune are fine, but TNA needs to keep away from the NWO style stable wars for now. The longer they wait the more the next faction war will mean.

P.S I think Impact needs to be longer or there needs to be another show.

Kev, C'Mon now, that's too logical....Not a Vince Russo trait particularly.
It's going to wind up being Eric Young having all those belts wrapped around him all the way to his neck, and some lame program that hands the belt to "The Blueprint", in some Russo-esque manner.
Your logical thinking is anti-Impact....

Wishful thinking I fear, Kevin.

Plus, I can't help but feel that ship has sailed. Surely if a guy has been active in major promotions from 2003 - so on TV in some form for the majority of the last 8 years - if he was going to catch fire, he would have done so a long long time ago?

I wonder how much this has to do with three things:
1.) Peaking television ratings at a fairly low number
2.) A 7,000 buy rate for the last PPV
3.) Some of TNA creative may actually be starting to read things like Ring Posts to figure out what they're doing wrong, as they have proven over time to be incapable of doing it themselves.

I do disagree with Mr. Eck on the Angle angle however, (that was cheap, but fun). I really don't think the changes that need to be made will be properly effectuated without more dynamism and fresh blood--and Angle, though he is to be respected, has been around too long. I would rather see Anderson, through whatever storyline means, be allowed to recapture the trash-talking a##hole character that the fans loved in the first place. He and Morgan worked great together before, and I feel that spending the time getting Anderson over again with the title around his waist between now and a Morgan win at Bound For Glory wil be better for the future of the company.
TNA needs to trim the old and stick with the new. Morgan, Anderson, Styles, Roode and Samoa Joe have been ready for awhile to carry a company and to switch off as either top heel or top face respectively, with no more need for using established stars for help. These guys are all ready to be truly established themselves.

I couldn't agree more with your comments,Morgan is the man to push and the way you suggest doing it would work very well....but this is TNA were talking about.

That is brilliant booking... which means there is no chance it will happen since this is TNA after all. :)

Kev,

Not to be a suck up, but you should be booking TNA. Great scenario in elevating Morgan and would love to see what Roode could do by himself.

I may be in the minority here as there is alot of love on this site for Morgan, but to me there is someting missing. I think it may have to do with the fact that in his feud with Abyss a couple years ago he never did the thumbtack or broken glass spot. I waited through 3 PPV matches with these two and all I saw was Abyss doing all the bloody, dangerous stuff like he had 1,000 times before.
Don't get me wrong there are better ways to get over but I think about what Mick Foley did for the carrers of Edge and Randy Orton after he put them over in hardcore matches, and it wasn't just the fact that they beat Mick in his kind of match, which Morgan did to Abyss, but it was the fact that they were willing to sacrifice a piece of themselves to get over.
I'll never forget Orton getting backdropped onto a pile of thumbtacks, barebacked mind you, or Edge spearing Foley through a flamming table. Thats when I stood up and took notice of those guys, and it was no coincidence they were winning world titles not long after.
As far as Bobby Roode goes, Im all for that. The sooner the better. My only gripe is if he's gonna be a main event player then why did they change his name back Bobby? Robert makes him sound legit. Bobby makes him sound like he's in 3rd grade.
However if they do decide to build around Morgan I'll be ok with it as they need some fresh blood at the top and your scenario would be a great way to get that done.

Great booking! I would love to watch that story develop. Although, I am not sure if Roode will be able to generate enough heat needed to balance out Morgan's super face attitude. Who is the most hated guy in TNA (that can still wrestle)? Would love to see Morgan keep the belt for at least a year and bring some weight back to the title. Sting just feels like a fill in champion until they figure out what to do with it. Although if CM Punk were to travel over ....would be a great draw with Punk challenging Morgan for the belt.

RESPONSE FROM KE: If they turn Roode, I think he can generate enough heat. He was an awesome heel during the Traci Brooks story line a few years ago.

@ Andre the Midget
Actually, now that you mention it, you do make a valid point. It's become an established part of wrestling that to really enforce a good push, a wrestler should throw some martyrdom on the line, almost to prove their dedication to giving their all for the fans.
I didn't think of Morgan's apparent aversion to doing a more dangerous spot in his matches with Abyss, and I think your observation that he didn't puts you in a minority of folks only insofar as being one who pays attention to important details that some of the rest of us miss sometimes.
I would hope that if TNA does make the move to push Morgan that it will be taken into consideration that some fan-pleasing spots will really create a legitimacy to his push and get fans behind him. Whether it's Snuka flying, Mick Foley getting thrown off a cage, or anything less or more dangerous and/or skillful and athletic in and between, it's true that this cements a wrestler as someone to root for in the perception of most fans.
Who knows though, given TNA's spotty creative dept. and management whether or not they'll take this track. Or they may even screw it up if they do. They're pretty notorious at this point for taking elements that could really, if used in a solid way, make a wrestler over, and then squandering it with inexplicable swerves, bad writing, and general creative failure.
Anyway, good look, and you've just been joined in the minority.

Dont get me wrong Matt Morgan is a Main-Eventer and should one day get a run with the world title,however I think the next big thing in TNA is Bobby Roode. He has it all, in the ring and on the mic if I was the booker in TNA Roode would win the title at BFG and hold the title for the whole year. Kev how about a survey on your blog so the fans can vote who they want and think the future of TNA is.

I hope Hogan is sincere about pushing Morgan, but I'll have to see it to believe it. I have been very critical of Hogan and Bischoff since their TNA run began, but looking at things from their perspective It's not hard to see why they are doing what they've been doing.

From their perspective they probably believe Dixie Carter brought them in to fix TNA and take it to a new level. They probably didn't know a whole lot about TNA before they actually took over power. So it makes sense that they didn't really know too much about guys like Matt Morgan and Bobby Roode. It's possible that it may have taken them this long to discover what a lot of us already knew, that Morgan and Roode were ready for big time pushes when they got there, and it took some time for that to become solidified in their minds. If you were thinking that you were brought in the fix TNA, you would probably be thinking that they guys who were already there weren't that good, so maybe Hogan and Bischoff deserve the benefit of the doubt in this regard.

However, it's becoome obsvious that Hogan and Bischoff have not made that much of an "impact" on TNA since they have arrived. Ratings aren't much better than they were before, and PPV buy rates are in the toilet. Maybe Hogan and Bischoff are beginning to realize that they need to take a different approach if they are to really take TNA to another level.

Part of doing that is emphasizing and promoting your strengths. Matt Morgan is probably the best "giant / big man" in Pro Wrestling right now. Most of WWE's big men are past their primes or used for comedy, while Morgan is just entering his prime. Now is the time to heavily promote Morgan as being the best Big Man in the business. WWE has no equal to Morgan right now and this should be emphasized.

Hogan and Bischoff also need to realize that the X-Division if handled properly with it's high flying cruiserweights is a tremendous asset because again, WWE has nothing to compare to it or rival it. You can't beat WWE at it own game, but you can compete with them by presenting an alternative to what they do. TNA must play to their strengths and build around the concepts and talents that they had all along.

Also, get your brand name straightened out. Is is Impact Wrestling or TNA? It seems Hogan and some others are refering to the company as Impact Wrestling but Jeff Jarrett is still insisting the company is still called TNA. I'ma ll for calling it Impact Wrestling, but they need to finally get this once and for all so there is no confusion. People need to know for sure what your brand is.

In closing, yes I have been very hard on Hogan and Bischoff, but maybe I've been a little too hard on them. And if Hogan really does believe what he said about Matt Morgan, then maybe they are beginning to see things as they should be and will make the right decisions moving forward. One can only hope this is the case.

Give me a break. Morgan is terrible. He isn't any better at all now compared to when he was with WWE 6 years ago.

With the WWE's fetish of giant guys, if Morgan was remotely talented, do you really think they would have ever let him go?

@Elevation

WWE let Kurt angle go