I love hearing Cornette's response to an emailer criticizing Morgan and not getting what Cornette saw in him because he looked like a boring goof on television all the time. Corny was like "Of course he did! WWE and TNA fucked it up so bad!"
I mean, Cornette was under no obligation to love the guy. He could have seen the criticisms everyone else did, or disapproved of him because he came from Tough Enough. But he made a difference to the bottom line and won over Jim Cornette.
It really is bizarre. Like, even if you fell on the side that he isn't very good -- the guy should have gotten way more chances just based on his size and that he came from Tough Enough, given that they wanted to push the show so much. Even if he was awful (which I don't think anyone would objectively say he was), why wouldn't he get more shots? Why wouldn't they bring him back for a Royal Rumble spot to stand above everyone else and then get tossed out by the Braun Strowman of the time or whatever? He looked cool as shit putting Big Show through the table with the F5.
Vince has a history of needing to change guys when they come up. Cornette thought Cena was going to be a Ric Flair-style heel, so he's got to be the blue-chip babyface. Orton was going to be a babyface; let's push him as a cocky heel. Rico was going to be the all-American babyface, well, say hello to your gay stylist. Doug Basham, The Damaja, Rob Conway and Nick Dinsmore -- four staples of your mid-card? Nah, say hello to twin gimps, a "French sympathizer" and your mentally challenged person. Very few guys actually came up from OVW as is. I think the only ones were MNM, thinking about it. I wonder if the need to change Morgan was something too overpowering for Vince, and Morgan was only going to work within a certain context?
The stuttering thing was just fucking stupid though. Why would you purposely give
anyone a gimmick designed to give them such a laughable weakness? It'd be like giving someone a narcoleptic gimmick. It kind of symbolizes all the things I legitimately hate about the WWF/E, lol. They will actively go out of their way to make things bad sometimes. Why?
I'll start on that podcast though. Thanks for the recommendation.
