The Rock n' Roll Express: The Most Prolific Tag Team of All Time

A week ago my buddy texted me and said "Name the team that wrestled for the WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, and Smoky Mountain Wrestling"  I responded The Rock n' Roll Express, turns out he was talking about the Insane Clown Posse.  This lead to a conversation about where the Rock n Rolls had wrestled and he said, "This was less fun than I anticipated"  I disagreed because I thought it was a fantastic conversation, we both learned something new and I got me thinking.

While the Rock N' Rolls didn't wrestle as a team in ECW, Ricky Morton did wrestle for the promotion.

Recently my friends and I were discussing how Sting and Jeff Jarrett are the law two active wrestlers on national television in a major company that really came from the territory system.  I remember the territory days when wrestlers traveled around from promotion to promotion, and my friends and I always kept track of wrestlers that succeed collecting championships along the way.

While I feel like FTR is the best tag team today, and there is an argument to be made that they are the best tag team of all time.  There is no doubt no one has had the run as a tag team like the Rock n' Roll Express.  They even wrestled once on a Big Time Wrestling Show.

The first time Ricky and Robert teamed together was not as the Rock n' Roll Express.  On April 21, 1980 for the CWA: Continental Wrestling Association, at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee Ricky Morton & The Gibson Brothers: Ricky and Robert teamed to defeat Danny Davis and The Blonde Bombers: Larry Latham & Wayne Ferris.  They did wrestler a few tag team matches through the rest of 1980.

In 1983 Jerry "The King" Lawler officially teamed them together anointing them The Rock n' Roll Express in the CWA, who knew 41 years later they would still be rocking and rolling together.

The Rock n' Rolls were a product of the territory system wrestling all around the NWA territories from 1983 - 1988, including CWA, Mid-South Wrestling, Houston Wrestling, Central States Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, Jim Crockett Promotions / Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and the Universal Wrestling Federation. 

 

In JCP they help the NWA World Tag Team Championships 4 times and were embroiled with high profile matches and feuds all through those hot 1985 - 1988 years.  

On December 13, 1988 they main evented the the AWA: American Wrestling Association's on PPV: Super Clash III battling the Stud Stable to a double count-out.  The most memorable match from that show is Jerry Lawler defeated Kerry Von Erich to unify the AWA and World Class World Championships by referee stoppage, but that was not the main event of the card, the Rock N' Rolls were.

Other independent promotions they competed in included the USWA sporadically from 1989 -1996, SMW: Smoky Mountain Wrestling From 1992 - 1995 where they captured the tag team championships 8 times and OVW: Ohio Valley Wrestling in 1999.  

In 1993 while representing Smoky Mountain Wrestling they challenged for the SMW Tag Team Championships wrestling The Heavenly Bodies at WCW SuperBrawl III on February 21st in Asheville, NC.  A few months later they lost the SMW Tag Team Championships to The Heavenly Bodies at the WWF Survivor Series November 24, 1993 at the Boston Garden.

They wrestled several house show matches for the WWF in 1993 & 1994, returning in 1998 for the NWA invasion angle competing at WrestleMania 14.  In 2017 they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.  Their only matches in Germany and Austria we in 1994 with the WWF. 

They joined WCW: World Championship Wrestling in 1990, Gibson was injured keeping him out of action for a couple years and Morton stayed on Wrestling heel for a spell in WCW.  The returned to the promotion in 1996 wrestling the Horsemen and challenging Harlem Heat for the Tag Team Championships.

Since the year 2000 they have competed for multiple promotions with stand outs being NWA TNA in 2003, several New Japan Pro Wrestling US shows in 2019 & 2020, Ring of Honor, GCW: Game Changer Wrestling, and the Billy Corgan promoted NWA where they captured the World Tag Team Championships for a 9th time. 

While they have not had matches in AEW: All Elite Wrestling, they have appeared on multiple occasions were attacked by FTR on Dynamite and got involved in the Young Bucks vs. Proud and Powerful match from Full Gear 2019. 

In Japan 

In 1988 they wrestled for All Japan they competed in the Super Power Series in May and returned for the Giant Series tour in October.  In the AWA the challenged Bad Company for the companies Tag Team Championships.

In July of 1993 and November of 1994 they toured the Japanese promotion WAR: Wrestling and Romance. 

In May 1996 toured FMW: Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling. 

There is no other team that has teamed longer than the Rock n' Rolls, appeared in more major promotions, and no other team has had the staying power that Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson have had.

I've had the pleasure of seeing the Rock n' Roll Express wrestle live twice.  In 1998 at WrestleMania 14 and in 2019 in Lowell, MA at New Japan Pro Wrestling.  In I've seen Ricky Morton wrestle live twice at shows here in Maine with his son Kerry Morton.  In 2006 I met the Rock N' Rolls at Carson's Pro Wrestling World in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

I'm extremely excited to see the Rock n' Rolls Wrestle once again at Joey Janela's Spring Break 8 in Philadelphia this year!

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book Limitless Wrestling: The First Five Years, or any of my other books as well.  

Until next time!