WCW: Ricky Morton

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
Pro wrestling 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.

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. 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. 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 and they won the titles back. 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 ribs. 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 Said), in 1994 and went to the NWA to win the tag titles again in 1995.

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.