Ricky Morton

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[KrisZ]

Probably the greatest babyface tag team wrestler of all-time which says a lot about how great he was in his role.

 

I will say though that if Morton didn't have his series with Flair for the NWA Title in 1986 which drew extremely well his praise might be a little different because unlike other guys that are known as tag wrestlers Morton actually proved he could work as a singles main eventer and draw money.

[Matt D]

How do you feel about his 91 heel run, Kris? There were a metric ton of TV tags and six mans and he has two fairly big singles matches that got time with Gibson and Pillman.

[KrisZ]

I thought Morton was a great heel but the problem was he was stuck in the York Foundation which all the fans I ran with hated at that time....if they Morton & Rich work as Memphis style heels they would've been so awesome.

[goodhelmet]

I had Morton really high in the Smarkschoice poll. He'll be really high again in this one. Not Memphis high, but high.

[Timbo Slice]

He'll be up there on the list for me. Not sure how high, but he'll be up there. Forget baby face tag wrestler. Not sure there was a better tag wrestler ever than Morton.

[Childs]

We've talked about this in the year-by-year threads, but Ricky Morton got pro wrestling in a way very few have. He deserves all the praise for his classic babyface tag work and his great series with Flair (one of Ric's five best opponents for my money), but I was impressed by how seamlessly he made the transition to heel with the York Foundation. He delivered a fantastic heel performance in his match with Robert Gibson from Bash '91, even if shitty booking and a stale promotion made it feel meaningless. The guy just knew what he was doing.

 

Morton vs. Eaton ranks right up there with Choshu vs. Fujinami among my most vexing questions of the poll. They'll both do really well.

[Shining Wiz]

I missed there peak in real time, but I was just never into the Rock n Rolls that much. Not saying they were awful by any means, but I don't drool over them like others.

 

As for comparing Morton to Eaton, with the exception of having a personality reminiscent of a wet towel, Eaton is ahead of Morton in every way imaginable.

[Childs]

Really? He's ahead of him in selling a terrible beating? If you prize great offense above all else in wrestling, I could see having Eaton well above Morton overall. But saying he's ahead in every area seems like pure hyperbole.

[Shining Wiz]

Really? He's ahead of him in selling a terrible beating? If you prize great offense above all else in wrestling, I could see having Eaton well above Morton overall. But saying he's ahead in every area seems like pure hyperbole.

Fair. I'm prone to such things.

 

He's ahead of him in every category save selling a beating like death. Everything else though. I'll stand by that, and say I've rectified the hyperbole.

[DR Ackermann]

I think i lot of younger people, myself included don't have as much of an appreciation for the R n R because we didn't see them when theywere wrestling and later on the WWE didn't put a lot of their stuff on dvd. A lot of their stuff isn't super easy to find. At the same time you hear about the midnights from guys like cornette so they're more on your radar, even though they actually broke up first. People like to cheer heels more nowadays too and so the R n R come off as goofs for being likable clean cut baby faces and not 'cool' enough. Plus the Midnights are in the WON HoF and the R n R aren't, so people dismiss them.

[Dylan Waco]

I love Eaton, and think you could make a case that Eaton was potentially a better wrestler than Morton, but I don't vote on potential. Morton is the best sympathy babyface of all time, to the point where "playing Ricky Morton" is an established part of the wrestling vernacular. I would actually listen to an argument for Morton in someones top ten. He was that good at what he did. Eaton was also outstanding, but he wasn't a role defining wrestler. Having said that I could watch those two put on their show at Halloween Havoc 90 a thousand times and never get sick of it. In a way it's a shame they never had a prolonged singles feud

[BillThompson]

A definite yes, probably very high as well. The all time best face-in-peril certainly deserves a spot.

[El-P]

Watching post-prime Morton both in WCW and SMW in the last few years convinced me that he was one of the best worker ever indeed when you add it to the Rock'n Roll Express prime in the 80's. Should have saved some money though.

[JerryvonKramer]

This is a bit random but I happened to see a Rock n Rolls match against the jobber duo of Thunderfoot and Jim Jeffers earlier.

 

I thought it was faintly ridiculous to see the NWA World Tagteam champions giving a lengthy FIP segment to such lowly opposition.

 

We praise Morton a lot for playing Ricky Morton but is it a legitimate knock against him that he sometimes played that role regardless of the context?

 

I mean what is the point in making Jim Jeffers look good? Doesn't stuff like this make Morton a bit one dimensional?

[thebrainfollower]

In much the same way Flair should have squashed George South like a bug in 2 minutes, yes it's a problem. Unless we know he was specifically ordered HOW to work the match (which I really really doubt) it's definitely a dumb thing to do.

 

Whether or not doing it once on a random weekly TV show in your career is a big deal is up to you. Not sure it makes him look one dimensional but it makes him look like a wimp if every other team is taking Jeffers out with no problem.

[JerryvonKramer]

I had a line about Flair vs. South in my post originally but then took it out and made a bet with myself that whoever posted next would mention it. Sometimes it's the small things in life.

[thebrainfollower]

If there's one guy who gets mad at Ric Flair for giving too much it's me.

 

I am going to end up sent Quantum Leap style into a match with Flair one day and just refuse to do a single piece of offense he calls.

[elliott]

Not sure what there is left to say about Ricky Morton in 2021 but I really hope he makes a run to the top 35 again. I don't think he'd be out of place in the top 20. 

[Boss Rock]

Morton's another one I'd like to see a case made for. The Flair cage match is terrific and there some perfectly good Rn'R-MX tags I've seen, but apart from that I don't really know where to start. It also doesn't help that, like I said in the Eaton thread, the Rn'R-MX series has never really knocked my socks off.

[elliott]

Morton was awesome before the RnR's formed and were having very good matches well into the 90s so he's got great longevity. But he's the quintessential 80s Babyface & tag worker and that's going to be the bulk of his case. Unlike most tag team specialists, he actually backs it up with high end singles matches when given an opportunity. Incredible bumper & athlete. His hand eye coordination & body control are extraordinary. These things combined to make him one of the all time sellers. Wasn't just a guy who got beat up though. Was awesome on the hot tag and underrated offensively. He'd do topes and hurricanranas when those were mind blowing spots hardly anybody else in the territories was doing. Great puncher. Incredibly consistent in the 80s with a high floor. Ricky Morton didn't have bad matches in the 80s (this continued well into the 90s). Played his role so well decades after his prime, the role is named after him. What other roles are literally named after wrestlers? When someone is brawling around the crowd we don't say they're "Playing Bruiser Brody"  or "playing Terry Funk." When he finally got the chance to be a heel, he was good at that. Childs mentioned this back in the 2016 project. Ricky Morton just understood pro wrestling better than most.

In terms of matches excluding the Midnights, I would recommend:

the trio of matches against the Arn & Ole Anderson from 86. THere's a Worldwide, GAB and Starrcade match. If you don't like these matches or the Midnights rivalry, you can probably just skip 80s US Tag Team Wrestling altogether

The 7/9/85 match against the Russians is probably the best RnR's match and funnily enough its Gibson in the Ricky Morton role for much of it, but its still awesome. 

Matches against Rick Rude & Manny Fernandez

vs Dirty White Boys 5/11/85

vs Savage & Lanny Poffo 

vs  Nightmares 1/85 Memphis

[Boss Rock]

Thanks!

[elliott]

Of course! 

[Graham Crackers]

For something completely different check out the 1980 Ricky Morton vs Sonny King match from the Memphis set. It's from the time period where Memphis presented a lot of matwork.

[Boss Rock]

Thanks!