Ricky Morton
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| Ricky Morton | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Ricky Morton |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
| Billed weight | 226 lb (102 kg) |
| Born | September 21, 1956 Nashville, Tennessee |
| Trained by | Paul Morton |
| Debut | 1978 |
Ricky Morton, (born September 21, 1956) is an American professional wrestler famous for competing in tag team matches as one half of The Rock 'N Roll Express in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Ricky Morton was trained by his father, Paul, and started wrestling in 1978. He wrestled primarily for Mid-Southern Wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee, often teaming with Ken Lucas and Eddie Gilbert.
He went on to Mid-Southern Wrestling in 1983 and formed the team that made him famous, The Rock 'N Roll Express, with Robert Gibson. They won the Mid-South Tag Team Titles three times and feuded with the team that would become their arch rivals, 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.
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 Titles. They traded the titles again with the Russians and lost them to their hated rivals the Midnight Express in February 1986 due to their manager, Jim Cornette. Cornette used his tennis racket on Robert to help his team win.
In the spring of 1986, Ricky was having an interview when NWA Champion Ric Flair came out and insulted his fans by calling them "teenyboppers". He said Ricky couldn't handle real women and Ricky stomped Flair's sunglasses. This led to a fight and then a series of matches as the Great American Bash toured the country. To help build Ricky as a serious title contender, it was pointed out that he once went to a one hour draw with then-AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel. Ricky 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 Ricky, 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. Ricky and Robert won the titles 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 Anderson's in a cage at Starrcade on November 28, 1986. This victory started the Horsemen's dissatisfaction with Ole who was kicked out just months later.
Ricky and Robert then lost the titles to Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez, who they feuded with from December 1986 to June 1987. When Rude left for the WWF, the titles were given back to the Rock 'n Roll Express, with the explanation that they won the titles accompanied by footage of a prior non-title match won by the Rock 'n Rolls where they pinned the champions. Ricky and Robert 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 titles from them after Jim Cornette's new Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane attacked them and injured Ricky's arm and shoulder. Ricky came out in the middle of the match and blindly tagged Robert and courageously tried to wrestle but the Horsemen soon took advantage and Robert gave up the match to save Ricky more pain. They feuded for a few months with the Horsemen keeping the titles and injuring Robert's ribs.
Ricky and Robert then left the NWA and wrestled for the CWA until they returned to WCW in 1990. Robert injured his knee and Ricky teamed with Big Josh and Junkyard Dog to win the WCW Six-Man Tag Team Titles.
On June 12, 1991, at the Clash of Champions, Ricky was in the ring to accept an invitation by Alexandra York to join her York Foundation. Robert appeared and said he was healthy and ready to go and to everybody's shock, Ricky turned on Robert 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 Robert, Dustin Rhodes and Bobby Eaton and won the WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Titles. But, they disbanded in early 1992 and Ricky was used as a preliminary heel jobber where he teamed with various heels like Diamond Dallas Page.
By July, Ricky was in the USWA where he won the title and feuded with his former partner, Eddie Gilbert. He left USWA for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and reformed the Rock 'N Roll Express with Robert. They feuded with two versions of the "Heavenly Bodies" for the next year and a half, Stan Lane & Tom Prichard, and Prichard & Jim Del Ray.
They feuded with The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed), in 1994 and went to the NWA to win the tag titles 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.
In 1998, they 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.
Since leaving TNA, Ricky wrestles all over the independent circuit in the Southeast and on the East Coast and often wins regional titles. Occasionally, he teams with Robert as the Rock 'N Roll Express.
Ricky Morton was jailed in October 2005 in Tennessee for delinquent child support. [1] A website (now defunct) dedicated to collecting donations, selling donated memorabilia, and telling his side of the story was soon established by friends and family. 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.[2] 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.[3]
[edit] Managers
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
- All-Star Wrestling
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- ASW Heavyweight Championshp (1 time)
- ASW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Robert Gibson
-
- AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Ken Lucas, (1), Eddie Gilbert, (1), and Robert Gibson
-
- CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- CWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Robert Gibson (1) and Todd Morton (1)
- CWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - With Robert Gibson
-
- Mid-South Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Robert Gibson
- Regional
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- NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (1 time) - Ken Lucas
- NWA Rocky Top Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Brad Armstrong
- NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Robert Gibson
- NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) (4 times) - with Robert Gibson
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- PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1986 with Robert Gibson.
- PWI ranked him # 95 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
- PWI ranked him # 4 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Robert Gibson.
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- SMW Tag Team Championship (10 times) - with Robert Gibson
-
- SWCW Southwest Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Ken Lucas (2) and Eddie Bilbert (1)
-
- USWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Robert Gibson
- USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
- UWA United States Championship (1 time)
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- WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Big Josh & Junkyard Dog (1) and Terrence Taylor & Thomas Rich (1)
- World Organization of Wrestling
-
- WOW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Robert Gibson
- Other Titles
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- ACW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- AIWF United States Championship (1 time)
- AMW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Championship Wrestling Triple Crown Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Wayne Adkins
- EWA Heavyweight Championship (5 times)
- EWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- EWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Chris Hamrick
- GAWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with David Jericho
- PWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- SMCW United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- SSW Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bobby Fulton (1), Beau James (1), and Ricky Harrison (1)
- Tri-State Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ken Lucas
- UCW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- VCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- VWA/CCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
[edit] Trivia
- Ricky trained Kid Kash, Rick Michaels, Chris Hamrick & Rockin' Rebel.
- Ricky has a lookalike cousin who wrestled named Todd Morton. Todd never made it past jobber status in WCW.
[edit] References
1.Mike Mooneyham (2005). Luger, Morton among jailed pro wrestlers. The Post and Courier (Charleston). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
2.Mike Mooneyham (2006). Efforts continue to get Morton out of jail. The Post and Courier (Charleston). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
3.UWA (2007). 2006 Best Guest Competitor. UWA official site. Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
