For Kerry and Ricky Morton, pro wrestling is a family business
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Ricky Morton is a professional wrestling legend. As half of the Rock n’ Roll Express, Morton won the National Wrestling Alliance world tag-team titles nine times in the 1980s and ’90s. But he’s also the midpoint of a legacy that has touched all parts of the sport for decades.
Ricky’s father, Paul Morton, learned the wrestling business as a longtime referee in Memphis and West Tennessee. And just as he taught Ricky the ropes (so to speak), now Ricky is passing his knowledge on to his son Kerry.
Kerry and Ricky Morton are fortunate in one way, though — they get to perform together in the ring as a team. They’ll do that this weekend, when the National Wrestling Alliance brings the Crockett Cup to the Fairgrounds Annex in Winston-Salem, N.C.
“It runs in the family,” said Ricky Morton, 66. “This is a hard business. Myself and Kerry are lucky that we had someone (Paul Morton) to make us understand it, because wrestling is not what people think it is. Kerry had a little bit of an edge on that, and I hope it takes him through his whole career.”
The 26-team tournament, which has a legacy going back to 1985 and Jim Crockett Promotions, will stream live on FITE TV both Saturday and Sunday nights, June 3 and 4. For more information, visit nationalwrestlingalliance.com.
Kerry Morton, 22, is a rising senior at King University in Bristol, Tenn., and a varsity cheerleader, but he said there was never a doubt he would end up in wrestling in some form or fashion.
“I loved wrestling since the day I can remember,” Kerry said. “My whole life, there was wrestling every weekend as a little boy, riding through the independents, in the back of the car with Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey, Jim Cornette. You’d think after all this time I’d be burned out, but I love it even more.”
Seeing the Mortons together on a Zoom call, it’s also obvious that wrestling gives him an extra chance to bond with his dad.
“I’m very fortunate and very blessed, to say the least, especially doing it with my father,” Kerry said. “I can’t always do this with him as he’s winding down his career in the ring. Every moment is a blessing, whether it’s being on the road traveling, going to the airport, sitting in the airport for 8 hours if we’re delayed, it doesn’t matter, it’s still a blessing.”
Kerry debuted a little less than three years ago, joining the NWA in the fall of 2021. Ricky can usually be found nearby, either as a ringside manager or a tag-team partner, but since Kerry won the NWA world junior heavyweight title in November, he has worked more as a singles wrestler.
Just a few minutes with Ricky Morton will let you know that he is “old school” and proud of it — a product of the days when wrestlers didn’t need glitz, glamour and pyrotechnics to get noticed; they just needed to look ready to fight. He and Rock-n-Roll Express partner Robert Gibson stayed in the WWF (now WWE) through the late ’90s, but that brand of “sports entertainment” wasn’t a good fit.
The recent renaissance of the NWA, under the management of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, has been built around that “old school” mentality. As Corgan told the Sentinel last year, “We represent … a toughness and a sense of appealing to the working class. There’s something about that that rings past the pretty stuff.”
So as you can imagine, the Mortons feel right at home in the NWA.
“For us, it’s legitimate,” Kerry said. “For us, it’s authentic.”
Ricky added: “Professional wrestling to me is not entertainment. It’s professional wrestling, and that’s what it’s about.”
Ricky started wrestling in 1978 at age 22, and even though he hasn’t worked regularly for a televised promotion since the late ’90s, he’s been a constant presence in the ring. He’s just never stopped wrestling, and that work ethic carries through to his son today. The pride both feel for each other should be obvious when you watch them tag this weekend in Winston-Salem.
“Some of these guys (in today’s major leagues) make more in one night than I made in 40 years in this business,” Ricky said. “I love getting in front of people. I go to the gym every day, constantly thinking, watching matches. Even when I stop going in the ring and taking bumps, I’m going to be outside of it watching and demonstrating, trying to help guys working in the back, putting matches together, making them better, making wrestling better.
“I’m never going to stop.”
