In early 2002, Webber was contacted by
Jeremy Borash, who had given him a great deal of exposure on his
Wrestling Radio show. Borash was in the midst of forming Total Nonstop Action along with
Jeff Jarrett,
Jerry Jarrett, and
Bob Ryder. After Borash had previewed a videotape of Webber for the Jarretts from years earlier, the Jarretts immediately showed interest in signing the manager to his first national contract. Webber appeared as
Mortimer Plumtree for NWA TNA on its first worldwide broadcast on June 19, 2002, from
Huntsville, Alabama, managing the masked Johnson Brothers, Richard and Rod (aka the
Shane Twins). After only two shows, the Johnsons were released from their contracts and Plumtree appeared only infrequently. During this time, Webber became a full-time staff member for the fledgling promotion, traveling between his home in
Minnesota, where his family continued to live, and
Nashville, Tennessee, where the TNA offices are located. In October 2002, Plumtree was paired with his old friend from the SDW days, Ace Steel. Again, TNA dropped Steel from his contract after only a few shows, and realigned Plumtree with standout
A.J. Styles. Over the next few months, Plumtree aided Styles in wars against two fellow Minnesotans,
Sean Waltman and
Jerry Lynn. In January 2003, TNA
booker Vince Russo allegedly wrote the Plumtree character out of all future TNA programming due to his feeling that Webber was aligned with Jerry Jarrett in office politics. He remained on staff full-time until June, when he moved back to Minnesota. He would appear only a handful of times after that, both for the failed Force 1 Wrestling promotion he assisted with booking and with another short-lived group, the American Wrestling League. ==Wrestlers managed by Plumtree==