Underrated: Ricky Morton

Most people know Ricky Morton as one-half of "The Rock 'N' Roll Express, one of the most popular tag-teams in the history of wrestling. The combination of Robert Gibson's power and Ricky Morton's athleticism was very entertaining. They had epic rivalries between "The Midnight Express", "The Legion Of Doom", and every other headline tag-team to go through NWA & early-WCW during the 80's. This "Underrated" column isn't about his tag-team career, but it is about his career as a singles wrestler.

During Morton's career, he won a total of 79 championships, 25 of them as a singles wrestler. He spent most of his early career as a singles wrestler and how he spent moments during his peak in the NWA & WCW. He was forced into many of those matches, due to Robert Gibson's injuries. One of the first matches that I can remember watching live on TV, was steel cage match during the 1986 "Great American Bash" between Ricky Morton & Ric Flair. The action was incredible and they worked the crowd throughout the match. I found the complete match on YouTube, which split the match into two parts.

Today In Wrestling

From friend of the site, Jose Roque AKA @Knwres:

Former WCW wrestler David Flair is 33 today. He was born on March 6, 1979.


Former WWE wrestler Killer Khan is 65 today. He was born on March 6, 1947. He owns a restaurant in Toyko, Japan.

Ding Dong Vince Russo's Gone

The Prince of Something On a Pole Match, The Pulverizer of Wrestling Promotions, The Bastard of Booking,  and The Dean of Unnecessary Dance-offs, all nicknames for Vince Russo that I made up in the last 10 seconds to convey exactly how I feel about the guy. Granted, I have never met Vince Russo, for who may be the nicest guy to walk the earth. However, I do know that there isn't one person who has failed upward in the wrestling world as much as him and while doing so has done more damage to my favorite entertainment source than possibly anyone.

There are some people who will read this and say, "HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTITUDE ERA!", those people refuse to realize that while he may have something to do with the Attitude Era, he wasn't a major player in making guys like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, and many others stars. Those guys would have become what they are with or without Vince Russo's ideas being filtered by Vince McMahon.

Just Listen: Killer Mike's Ric Flair(Updated)

I may be a little late to this track but finally the rap industry recognizes wrestling's greatest mack in Ric Flair. A nice jam from Killer Mike, there is soundbites from the greatest wrestler to strut down the aisle. While this is a great track, it has a long way to go for it to be Macho Man's "Be A Man Hogan". Enjoy

Should Have Been Huge: Bam Bam Bigelow

Imagine if Curly from the Three Stooges, Chris Farley,and a Hell's Angel had a child and you would possibly come close to visualizing Bam Bam Bigelow. While Bigelow was indeed a star, if you look at his size, agility, and image you can't help but think that in an era with outsized personalities that Bigelow should have been bigger, or more famous than what he was. In an era of wrestling that featured slow moving big men, Bigelow exploded on the scene doing cartwheels with ease and top rope headbutts with the ease of a man half his size. One could even say that Bigelow paved the way for..husky athletic wrestlers like Samoa Joe, Umaga, Hernandez, and many other big guys who have become stars on the scene and have shown no fear in letting people know they can do more than a chokeslam and big boot.

Debuting in 1985, Bigelow quickly shot up the ranks of professional wrestling, arriving in the WWF(That used to be the name of the WWE if you happened to find this blog by accident.) with much fanfare as he was paired with Oliver Humperdink as his manager. Bigelow was mainly a midcard performer who was used to elevate guys to main event status all the way until an injury sidelined him and he lost to One Man Gang in the first round of the a title tournament leading into Wrestlemania IV.

Note To Wrestlers: Quit Telling Me What You're Bad At

Imagine you're trying to sell something to someone. Now, you're not going to tell the potential customer "Well, this product isn't the best. It doesn't do this and it  doesn't do that, but it does this really well." because if you draw attention to perceived negatives the potential customer isn't going to fork over their hard earned money to buy your product. No, you're going to focus on what the product does really well, and even kinda stretch the truth about just how good it is at what it does to get the potential customer to put money in your pocket.  Common sense stuff, right?
Apparently, the next generation of wrestlers skipped wrestling school the day they were teaching that. I say that because, and he isn't the first nor will he be the last, Daniel Bryan cut a promo that made me think "Why the hell did they put a title on this guy?" instead of "Damn, I want to see more of this guy!" Now, I know that Bryan is on a short list of guys who can have a great match with a mop so, of course, when a match between him and Dolph Ziggler(AKA The Guy Who Makes Everyone Look Fantastic) is announced I'm going to watch because I know I am going to get a great match.