Richard Wendell Morton (born September 21, 1956) is an American professional wrestler who currently performs on the independent circuit. For most of his career, Morton has teamed with Robert Gibson as part of the Rock 'n' Roll Express, widely regarded as "the consummate babyface tag team". Morton has known for his time with numerous promotions in the United States including the Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He also known for his time in the Japanese promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Wrestle Association R (WAR).
Morton has held dozens of championships throughout his career, including the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Tag Team Championship, USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship, USWA World Tag Team Championship, and WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. He has been inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame, Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, and WWE Hall of Fame. Known for his ability to elicit sympathy from audiences by convincingly selling pain, Morton's technique gave rise to the expression "playing Ricky Morton".
Professional wrestling career
Continental Wrestling Association (1977–1985) Morton was trained by veteran wrestler Ken Lucas. He made his professional debut in 1977, facing Ken Wayne. He wrestled primarily for the Continental Wrestling Association in Memphis, Tennessee, often teaming with Lucas or Eddie Gilbert. Morton quickly became a popular performer due to his athleticism, charismatic appearance, and distinctive spiky blond mullet. His appeal to female fans earned him the label of "teen idol".
In early 1983, promoters Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler paired Morton with Robert Gibson to form The Rock 'n' Roll Express, intended to replicate the success of The Fabulous Ones. The team won the Mid-South Tag Team Championship three times and began a feude with the team that would become their arch-rivals, The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey). Due to his small stature and appealing look, Morton was often designated the "face in peril", taking the majority of punishment in matches to elicit sympathy from fans. He also frequently endured humiliations or scripted injuries to advance storylines, a technique now sometimes as "Playing Ricky Morton". At this time, Morton and Gibson also competed in Joe Blanchard's Southwest Wrestling territory, feuding with The Grapplers.
In 1984, Morton participated in an angle with Randy Savage, in which Savage piledrove him through a table at ringside.
NWA Tri-State / Mid-South Wrestling (1981, 1984–1986, 1987) In 1981, Morton began wrestling for NWA Tri-State, where he formed a successful tag team with Eddie Gilbert. The duo captured the NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship on two occasions; Morton's second reign concluded in August 1981 upon his departure from the promotion.
By 1984, Morton had partnered with Gibson, and the pair began wrestling regularly for Mid-South Wrestling (the successor to NWA Tri-State). Known as the Rock 'n' Roll Express, they held the Mid-South Tag Team Championship three times that year, engaging in a high-profile rivalry with The Midnight Express. Their third and final reign ended in March 1985 following a loss to Steve Williams and Ted DiBiase. They remained with the promotion until June 1985.
Morton and Gibson returned to the promotion, by then renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), in 1986. During the "Superdome Extravaganza" supercard held at the Louisiana Superdome in June 1986, Morton transitioned to singles competition for a marquee match, unsuccessfully challenging Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Jim Crockett Promotions (1985–1988)
In 1985, both teams moved on to the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions and received the national television exposure of TBS. Ricky and Robert had a major feud with the "Russians", Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff, and won the NWA World Tag Team Title on July 9. They traded the title back and forth with the Russians before losing it to their rivals, the Midnight Express, on February 1, 1986, during Superstars on the Superstation. Their manager, Jim Cornette, had used his tennis racket on Robert to help his team win.
Fearing that his self-proclaimed sex appeal with women was being threatened by Morton, NWA Champion Ric Flair began a feud with Morton in 1986. In the spring of that year, Morton was having an interview at ringside when Flair came onto the set and insulted Morton's fans (who consisted mostly of 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 said 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. Horsemen member Arn Anderson would also 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 later won the title back from the Midnight Express and feuded with Ole Anderson 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 '86: The Skywalkers on November 28. This victory started the Horsemen's dissatisfaction with Ole, who was kicked out of the stable just months later. Morton and Gibson then lost the title to Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez on December 6, 1986, whom 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.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1988) In May 1988, Morton and Gibson toured Japan with All Japan Pro Wrestling, competing in the Super Power Series and facing teams including Samson Fuyuki and Toshiaki Kawada, Shinichi Nakano and Tiger Mask, and Isamu Teranishi and Masanobu Fuchi. They returned for a second tour in October 1988, this time competing in the October Giant Series. In the final match of their tour they unsuccessfully challenged Fuyuki and Kawada for the All Asia Tag Team Championship.
United States Wrestling Association (1989) In 1989, Morton and Gibson went to United States Wrestling Association where they feuded with Wildside (Chris Champion and Mark Starr) and The Blackbirds, Iceman Parsons and Action Jackson. Later that year he teamed with his cousin, Todd Morton and won the CWA Tag team titles.
World Championship Wrestling (1990–1993) 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.
On June 12, 1991, at Clash of the Champions XV, 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 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 Championship. At The Great American Bash in July 1991, Morton defeated Gibson. In October 1991 at Halloween Havoc, Morton lost to Flyin' Brian in a bout for the newly created WCW Light Heavyweight Championship.
They disbanded in early 1992 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.
Morton and Gibson returned to World Championship Wrestling in January 1993 feuding with The Heavenly Bodies. They appeared at SuperBrawl III and defeated the Heavenly Bodies.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1992–1995) In 1992, Morton joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling and reformed the Rock & Roll Express with Gibson on August 8, 1992, during a match in Johnson City, Tennessee. They went back and forth to the two promotions. They feuded with two versions of The Heavenly Bodies for the next year and a half, Stan Lane and Tom Prichard, and Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray. They feuded with The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed) in 1994 and went to the NWA to win the Tag Team Championship again in 1995. During 1995 he also teamed briefly with David Jericho. Later that year, he reunited with Gibson and they feuded with PG-13. Both Morton and Gibson left USWA in 1996.
World Wrestling Federation (1993, 1994) In 1993, Morton and Gibson debuted in the World Wrestling Federation on the September 27, 1993, episode of Monday Night Raw, defeating Barry Hardy and Duane Gill. Recognized on WWF television as the SMW Tag Team Champions, they went on to defend the championship in bouts on WWF All American Wrestling and WWF Superstars. At Survivor Series on November 24, 1993, they lost the championship to The Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray), leaving the WWF thereafter.
Morton and Gibson briefly returned to the WWF in July 1994, joining the WWF Summer Fest tour of Germany and losing a series of matches to The Smoking Gunns.
Wrestle Association R (1993, 1994) In July 1993, Morton and Gibson toured Japan with Wrestle Association R, facing Último Dragón and Yuji Yasuraoka in a series of bouts. They returned for a second tour in November 1994 as part of the WAR-ISM 1994 event, facing members of Fuyuki-Gun on several occasions.
Return to WCW (1996) Morton and Gibson returned to World Championship Wrestling on the June 3, 1996, episode of WCW Monday Nitro. They briefly feuded with The Four Horsemen. They remained with the promotion until October 1996.
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (1996, 1997) In May 1996, Morton and Gibson wrestled four bouts for the Japanese promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). At the FMW 7th Anniversary Show in Kawasaki Stadium, Morton, Gibson and Ricky Fuji defeated Boogie Man, Crypt Keeper, and Freddy Krueger in a six-man tag team bout.