Former WWE star Matt Morgan recently sat down for an interview with Jonathan Coachman, where he discussed Vince McMahon’s decision to give him a stuttering gimmick in 2005. Morgan recalled McMahon’s pitch, emphasizing the contrast between his imposing size and an unexpected verbal imperfection.
“He goes, ‘Could you imagine? You, six feet, whatever you are, six ten, six eleven, you’ve all these physical, body perfections, and you have that Achilles’ heel to you that nobody sees coming. And you start to stutter.’”
Despite Morgan’s background in public speaking, he questioned the logic behind the gimmick, but McMahon was adamant about the concept.
“And I’m like, ‘With respect sir, I graduated top of my class in college with a public speaking degree. Are you sure?”
In a surprising revelation, Morgan also claimed that McMahon originally wanted to give the stuttering gimmick to Brock Lesnar before ultimately using it on him.
“Vince trying to sell the stuttering character, he actually wanted to put this on Brock Lesnar as God as my witness. He wanted to find somebody that’s jacked and has all these great physical attributes. That looks like a warrior as he put it. But that when they opened their mouth there was this verbal imperfection. Coach, we could have had ‘The next Big Stutterer.’”
McMahon has long been known for experimenting with over-the-top gimmicks, sometimes with mixed results. The idea of Lesnar—a dominant athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion—being saddled with a stuttering gimmick is almost unthinkable in hindsight.
Ultimately, the gimmick did not work for Morgan, and he was released from WWE in 2005 before finding success in TNA Wrestling. While Lesnar would go on to become one of WWE’s biggest box-office attractions, it’s fascinating to think about how different his career might have been had he been given the same gimmick.
