Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guests: Ricky Morton and Lance Hoyt
Date: September 28, 2005
Your Hosts: Chuck D, James Walsh, and Francine
Recap By: James Walsh
This week’s guest on the Wrestling Epicenter is truly an icon of tag team wrestling. Him and his partner Robert Gibson were the exact example of what baby face tag teams should be in this business. And, their rock and roll gimmick was borrowed by some of the most successful wrestlers of our time. He’s one half of the Rock and Roll Express, he’s Ricky Morton.
Also on this show, Francine joins us to discuss everything from her crazy weekend at the Hardcore Homecoming event and chat with Chuck and James. Francine really has become a welcomed change to the Wrestling Epicenter and her input gets better and better each and every week. This week is,without question, her best performance to date with a lot of fun had between herself, Chuck, and James live on “The Blaze” 1260 AM. Be sure to check her hot new pictures out at http://www.MissyHyattandFrancineTV.com.There are also brand new hot pictures of WCW’s Daffney. Ever seen her without the gothic garb on? You have no idea what you’re missing.
RICK MORTON:
— Ricky joins the show and appreciates the intro where he’s described as a “tag team wrestling icon.” The conversation then breaks down into a talk about local Arizona wrestling and how starved this area is for a territory.
— “I grew up in the wrestling business. My dad used to haul the ring. I was always with him to put the ring up, I grew up in it.,” says Ricky. He goes on to say he wrestled some before he really got into it. But, at his work, the employees went on strike and he happened to go to a wrestling event with his dad and brought his gear. He ended up wrestling and was amazed how the business had changed. Instead of wrestling in front of a few hundred, there were 10,000 people in attendance. From that, he stayed. “Once I had that one match, Jerry Jarrett hired me and I went from there.”
— “Jerry Lawler, at the time, was booking for Memphis. They had a tag team there called the Fabulous Ones. To tell you the truth, Lawler didn’t like them worth a shit… Excuse my language. So, he brought me and Robert Gibson together and called us the Rock and Roll Express. He and Jimmy Hart put it together.”
— What version of the Midnight Express was most impressive to him? “I can’t answer that question. I’ll put it like this. Dennis and Bobby were a Super Bowl team. Say Dennis was quarterback, when Joe Montana left, Steve Young came in and took his place… You see what I’m saying? We packed arenas with all 3 of them.”
— Why are tag teams not used heavily in the WWE today? “It’s not all WWE. I just don’t think guys want to tag anymore. The reason why is everybody’s jealous of everybody. Nobody wants to compliment anybody. I knew my job. My job was to get beat up and give Robert the hot tag. Guys don’t want to do that today.”
— “I don’t even watch WWE. But, I wish I could book it. I’d turn it around for them, I can tell you that. You’ve got to have a situation where it’s my way or the highway.”
— Ricky doesn’t like the idea of having Hollywood writers writing wrestling. “It’s stupid, man. Stupid. You’ve got to try out for this part. That’s why their ratings are so low. They’ve lost the reality of wrestling. Every match is one high spot. They start the match out with a high spot and they end with one. You’ve got to learn how to work. ”
— “Look at the people that are in charge over there at the WWE. Who? Johnny Ace? When did he ever draw anything?” James and Ricky then mock the Dynamic Dudes tag team.
— Ricky continues, “As a matter of fact, they’ve fired everybody that’s from the wrestling business… Anybody that knows anything about wrestling. He don’t want anybody around that will jeopardize his job. Personally, if I were in charge, I’d fire his ass,” speaking about Johnny Ace. “Okay, everybody sit down except for you, Johnny Ace. Your ass is fired. He’s a control freak and I know that for a fact. You’ve got to know something about this business before you can do something with it.”
— “Often immatated, never duplicated,” says Ricky Morton about the various “Rock and Roll” gimmicks that followed the Rock and Roll Express. “Shawn Michaels, I met him when he was a kid. We were in our first run with the Midnight Express. He leaves, calls himself the Midnight Rockers, look where it got him today… Just wish he could help me get a job,” says Ricky laughing.
— What did Ricky think of turning heel and joining Terri Runnels and the “York Foundation.” “To tell you the truth, I can still go. I just turned 49 years old last Wednesday. I wrestled Stan Lane the other night… We went 30 minutes. In fact, 30 minutes went by before we even realized it. We finished the match because we all had to get out of the building. We could’ve gone all night. You see, I still had it in me. But, at the time, you had Sting, Lex Luger, and all these other people… They can’t get over you so they have to do something to try and get you out of the way… And the York Foundation, that’s why that came about. To get me out of the way.”
— Why was the Rock and Roll Express’ push in WCW in 1996 and early 1997 not too big? “Because I wouldn’t kiss Bischoff’s ass,” says Ricky plain and simple.
— “Go into a fight and have someone give you a knee. If you go into the rope and I give you a knee, are you going to do a forward flip? Sell it like it actually happened to you. Tracy Smothers asked me once how long I could sell a punch. I said until you come back and get me. That’s what the lost art is today. And, nobody wants to listen.”
— “I love Kurt Angle. He’s one of the best… He’s great for our business. Chris Benoit is real good. You ever work Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit work? With that, you can make money. But, I watch some of their stuff on there and it blows my mind. I’m embarassed. Even these independent shows, I go out but a lot of them, I hide because I’m embarassed. I worked so hard in this business to get it where it is today and this is what its turned into? It embarrasses the shit out of me.”
— Ricky misses the days where people didn’t know if it was all fake or not. And, even though he sees all the inside talk on TV today, he knows there are a select few that don’t know.
— “You look at people like Johnny Ace or Eric Bischoff, they don’t know shit about the wrestling business. I’m not trying to pat myself on the back but I can turn it around. I would need help… But, I could turn it around. But they’d have to listen. But, you have to re-educate the people to this business and the way it used to be.”
— “Brother, he died in my match,” says Ricky bout Moondog Spot. “He started bucking and jerking in the ring and I got freaked out. If you watch the tape, I roll out of the ring. I ran back to Lawler’s office, his door was locked. I kicked the damn door off its hinges and told him to call an ambulance because Spot was having a heart attack or stroke or something. I’m a very superstitious guy, I still get the chills when I go back there…”
— In 1999, Kevin Nash wrote an article about people complaining about adult content in wrestling and pointed Ricky Morton out from an interview he had done and basically trashed him for saying what he said. Ricky remarks on this, “Look at Kevin Nash. Everything he ever got was given to him. I’ve only seen him in one good match and that was with Shawn Michaels and that was because of Shawn. Another guy, what did he do? He damn near killed TNA. They killed every damn territory they ever went to, or he did anyway. So, he don’t have a right to talk about anybody.”
— Speaking of TNA, the Rock and Roll Express feuded with America’s Most Wanted a few years back. Ricky thinks America’s Most Wanted are a great tag team and they’d be as good as anybody from the 80’s if they could just get away from the high spots a little bit.
— What does Ricky think of TNA’s chances on Spike? “If Jeff would get out of the way, they would do business,” says Ricky. Ricky feels it is insane that he keeps himself as champion, beats everybody, and never puts anybody over. He doesn’t dislike Jeff but he thinks what he’s currently doing is bad business.
— Ricky thinks AJ Styles could carry TNA but even AJ needs to back away from doing too many high spots.
— Speaking of high spots, Ricky will be doing a special Week in the Life of Ricky Morton video for our sponsors at HighSpots. Be sure and click the Highspots link at http://www.WrestlingEpicenter.com to check that out.
— All this plus the real reason why their 1992 WWF stay was so short and what the future holds for Ricky Morton as he approaches the half century mark.
— Be sure and tune in to the Wrestling Epicenter this Wednesday night as JJ Dillon and the producer of 101 Reasons Not to be a Professional Wrestler stops by. You can listen live at http://www.WrestlingEpicenter.com or check out the entire show archives at that same URL. Show goes live at 11:30 EST. Just click the “Listen to us Live” link to do exactly that in glorious digital audio.
