Ricky Morton

Ricky Morton
Morton in 2014
Birth name Richard Wendell Morton
Born (1956-09-21) September 21, 1956
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Residence Bristol, Tennessee
Children 7
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Richard Morton
Rick Morton
Ricky Morton
Billed height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Billed weight 227 lb (103 kg)
Billed from Nashville, Tennessee
Trained by Paul Morton
Ken Lucas
Debut 1978

Richard Wendell Morton (born September 21, 1956) is an American professional wrestler who has worked for such wrestling organizations as Jim Crockett Promotions, the American Wrestling Association, Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Morton had seventy-nine championship reigns throughout his career, and is best known for his appearances with Robert Gibson, with whom he has been a four time NWA/WCW World Tag Team champion as one-half of the tag team The Rock 'n' Roll Express.

On March 31, 2017 in Orlando, Florida, the Rock 'n' Roll Express were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on the Friday before Wrestlemania 33.

Career

Mid-South Wrestling (1978 - 1984)

Morton was trained by his father, Paul, and Ken Lucas before starting wrestling in 1978. His first match was against Ken Wayne. He wrestled primarily for Mid-Southern Wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee, often teaming with Lucas and Eddie Gilbert. The Rock n Roll Express was formed by booker Jerry Lawler. He & Robert Gibson went on to Mid-South Wrestling in 1983, The Rock 'n' Roll Express. They won the Mid-South Tag Team Title three times and feuded with the team that would become their archrivals, The Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey. Because of his small stature and good looks, he was usually made the "Face in Peril", meaning he would be the one to take most of the punishment in the matches to get the fans behind the team. He was also the one that always suffered a humiliation or "injury" to further the storyline the team would be involved in. Nowadays, this is sometimes referred to as "Playing Ricky Morton". In the early 80s Ricky formed a successful tag team with Robert Gibson in Joe Blanchards South West wrestling territory feuding with The Grapplers.

NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions (1985 - 1988)

In 1985, both teams moved on to the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions and became famous due to the national television exposure of TBS. Ricky and Robert had a major feud with the "Russians", Ivan and Nikita Koloff and won the NWA World Tag Team Title. They traded the title again with the Russians and lost them to their hated rivals the Midnight Express on February 2, 1986 due to their manager, Jim Cornette. Cornette used his tennis racket on Robert to help his team win.

In the spring of 1986, Morton was having an interview when NWA Champion Ric Flair came out and insulted his fans (who were made up of mostly tween girls) by calling them "teenyboppers in their training bras." He gave Morton a training bra as a "gift from one of Flair's girlfriends" and told Morton that he couldn't handle real, grown-up women. In response, Morton stomped on Flair's sunglasses. This led to a fight and then a series of matches, the most notable being their Steel Cage match at the 1986 Great American Bash. To help build Morton as a serious title contender, it was pointed out that he once went to a one-hour draw with then-AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel. Morton never won the title but he proved that he was of the same caliber as Flair was in the ring. At one point in the feud with Flair, the Four Horsemen attacked him and rubbed his face on the dressing room floor, causing a grotesque looking facial injury. They also broke his nose in another attack. Arn Anderson would make fun of Morton, calling him "Punky Morton," which was a play on the popular 1980s sitcom Punky Brewster. The term used to belittle Morton backfired when fans began to use it as a term of endearment. Morton and Gibson won the title back from the Midnight Express and feuded with Ole and Arn Anderson for the rest of the year. They culminated this feud with a win over the Andersons in a cage match at Starrcade on November 28. This victory started the Horsemen's dissatisfaction with Ole who was kicked out just months later. Morton and Gibson then lost the title to Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez on December 6, 1986, who they feuded with from December 1986 to June 1987. When Rude left for the World Wrestling Federation, the title was given back to the Rock & Roll Express, with the explanation that they won the title accompanied by footage of a prior non-title match won by the Rock & Roll Express where they pinned the champions.

Morton and Gibson then feuded briefly with the New Breed, Sean Royal and Chris Champion, but this feud ended when the New Breed were injured in an auto accident. Their next feud was with Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, who won the title from them on September 29, 1987 after Jim Cornette's new Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane attacked them and injured Morton's arm and shoulder. Morton came out in the middle of the match and blindly tagged Gibson and courageously tried to wrestle but the Horsemen soon took advantage and Gibson gave up the match to save Morton more pain. They feuded for a few months with the Horsemen keeping the titles by getting themselves disqualified, and injuring Gibson's ribs.

The Rock & Roll Express.

Championship Wrestling Association / NWA World Championship Wrestling (1989–1992)

Morton and Gibson then left the NWA and wrestled for the Continental Wrestling Association until they returned to World Championship Wrestling in 1990. Gibson injured his knee and Morton teamed with Big Josh and Junkyard Dog to win the WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

Heel turn

On June 12, 1991, at the Clash of the Champions XV: Knocksville USA, Morton was in the ring to accept an invitation by Alexandra York to join her York Foundation. Gibson appeared and said he was healthy and ready to go and to everybody's shock, Morton turned on Gibson and beat him down before leaving with York, Mr. Hughes and Terrence Taylor. He changed his name to Richard Morton and they soon added Tommy Rich, who became Thomas Rich. They feuded with Gibson, Dustin Rhodes and Bobby Eaton and won the WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Title. They disbanded in early 1992, however, and Morton was used as a preliminary heel jobber where he teamed with various heels like Diamond Dallas Page. Morton made his last WCW TV appearance in a match against Barry Windham on July 18, 1992[1].

United States Wrestling Association / Smoky Mountain Wrestling and a brief WCW return (1992-1996)

By July, Morton was in the United States Wrestling Association where he won the title and feuded with his former partner, Eddie Gilbert. He left the USWA for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and reformed the Rock & Roll Express with Gibson on August 8, 1992 in a match at Johnson City Tennessee[2]. They feuded with two versions of The Heavenly Bodies for the next year and a half, Stan Lane and Tom Prichard, and Prichard and Jim Del Ray. They feuded with The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed) in 1994 and went to the NWA to win the Tag Title again in 1995. During 1995 he also teamed briefly with David Jericho. In 1996, they were back in WCW as jobbers to major heels. They left WCW by 1997 for the independent circuit.

WWE/TNA/Independent circuits

In 1998, both Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson were briefly in the WWF as part of the "NWA" angle as the NWA Tag Team Champions, but did nothing to be remembered for other than losing the titles to The Headbangers. In 2002, they briefly were part of Vince Russo's S.E.X. group in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Since leaving TNA, Morton wrestles all over the independent circuit in the Southeast and on the East Coast and often wins regional titles. Occasionally, he teams with Gibson as the Rock 'N Roll Express. In 2003/2004, he, along with Robert Gibson, joined the All World Wrestling league/Big Time Wrestling. On March 31, 2007 in Logan, West Virginia, Morton defeated Bobby Eaton in an NWA Legends Match during ASW's Rumble In The Jungle show.[3] On April 27, 2007 in Memphis, Tennessee at the PMG Clash of Legends event put on by Memphis Wrestling, Morton and Kid Kash captured the MW Southern Tag Team Championship, defeating Too Cool II. On June 30, 2007 The Rock & Roll Express (Ricky and Todd Morton) beat Big and Tasty (Sweet William Valentine and Playboy Mike Trusty) to win the AWA Supreme Tag Team titles. On October 24, 2007 The Rock & Roll Express lost the AWA Supreme Tag Team Titles to Chaos Theory (Khris Kaliber and Karma). On January 4, 2014, Morton defeated Chase Owens to win the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He re-lost the title to Owens on March 7.[4]

In 2014 Ricky Morton opened a wrestling school (The School of Morton) in Chuckey, Tennessee.

In 2016, The Rock N' Roll Express made a special appearance as part of TNA's weekly televised program Impact Wrestling's Total Nonstop Deletion episode, where they took part in the Tag Team Apocalypto match along with other tag teams.

On the February 6th 2017 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw it was announced that The Rock N' Roll Express would be inducted into the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Ricky Morton's father, longtime pro wrestling referee Paul Morton, died December 19, 2010.[5] His cousin, Todd Morton, is also a professional wrestler, and teamed with Ricky as another version of the Rock 'n' Roll Express to win the AWA Supreme Tag Team title and the Continental Wrestling Association's tag team title.

He had greatly diminished over the past decade (after release from World Championship Wrestling) and he was forced to tour the Indy circuit.[6]

At least two benefit shows were put together in February 2006 to raise money towards his legal fees. A United Wrestling Association show in Alcoa, Tennessee on February 2, 2006, raised $2,475 for this cause. On February 15, 2006, after four months behind bars, Ricky was released under the condition that he continue working and making efforts to catch up on the delinquent payments owed to his ex-wife. He returned to the ring the next night for the United Wrestling Association.[7]

He made his WWE video game debut as DLC for WWE 2K18 along with Robert Gibson.

In September 2007, while camping with his children at a Tennessee park, Morton was rearrested on the same charges. It was estimated he owed a remaining balance of $63,000. A website was established, and raised enough funds to secure his bail.

He currently lends his name to James Strange who owns and operates School of Morton in Chuckey, Tennessee, where he lends his ring experience to all his students. He also still works the independent circuit and cameos in several films and videos.

Championships and accomplishments

1One of their reigns with the title began in Memphis, Tennessee, though the records are unclear as to which promotion hosted the card. During another reign, the championship was awarded to them, though there's no indication of where the titles were awarded nor which promotion they were wrestling for at the time.

References

  1. ↑ "WCW Power Hour". Youtube. WCW. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  2. ↑ "Smokey Mountain Wrestling". Youtube. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  3. ↑ ASW (2007). "2007 Results". ASW Official website. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  4. ↑ "PWTorch.com - NEWSWIRE: Hero returning to Japan with Cabana, new NWA Jr. Hvt. champ, CWE expands TV offering, Video - WWE signee on new "Joey & Candice" YouTube series". pwtorch.com.
  5. ↑ "Former pro wrestling referee Paul Morton dead, father of Ricky Morton". www.prowrestling.net.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 "Ricky Morton".
  7. ↑ Mike Mooneyham (2006). "Efforts continue to get Morton out of jail". The Post and Courier (Charleston). Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  8. ↑ "Gerweck.net - Rock N Roll Express Continue to Win Tag Team Titles". www.gerweck.net.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  10. ↑ "Independent Wrestling Results - July 2005". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  11. ↑ "Independent Wrestling Results - April 2004". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  12. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "MACW « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  13. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "NWA Smoky Mountain Cup 2013 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.de.
  14. ↑ "Independent Wrestling Results - March 2003". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  15. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 500 Wrestlers of the PWI Years". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on June 16, 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  16. ↑ "Hall of Fame - SCW ProWrestling". Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  17. ↑ "Traditional Championship Wrestling Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
  18. ↑ "Independent Wrestling Results - March 2005". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  19. ↑ https://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=3434
  20. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (November 24, 2014). "Nov. 24, 2014 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Annual Hall of Fame issue! Plus tons of news from all over the world including MMA triple-header Saturday". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Campbell, California: 1. ISSN 1083-9593.
  21. ↑ "The Rock 'n' Roll Express to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame". WWE. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
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