The Rock 'n' Roll Express

**The Rock 'n' Roll Express** (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) debuted in World Championship Wrestling in 1985 and won four WCW World Tag Team Championships over the next couple of years. On July 9, 1985, the team had their debut match in WCW against the team of Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khrushchev, whom they defeated to begin their first reign as champions. The reign lasted until October 13 of that same year. At Starrcade in 1985, they recaptured the titles, only to lose them on a prime time special to the Midnight Express, *Superstars on the Superstation*, on February 7, 1986. They won the titles back in Philadelphia on August 16, 1986, and held them until an episode of *World Championship Wrestling* against Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez. The Rock 'n' Roll Express won the belts back when Rude, still a champion, left the promotion. Ivan Koloff would substitute for an 'injured' Rude, and the Express won the belts for what proved to be the final time.

In November 1986 at Starrcade, The Rock 'n' Roll Express defeated Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson in a steel cage match to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship. After a series of matches running from late August through early October, they lost their titles for a fourth and final time in the fall of 1987 to Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, thanks to a pre-match attack by their longtime rivals The Midnight Express. Morton suffered an injured arm in the attack which led to Gibson beginning the match alone. Eventually, Morton would join the match in a sling, but the match ended when Gibson told the referee to stop the match due to Morton's injury. They feuded heavily with The Four Horsemen members Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, who constantly mocked them and attacked them outside of the ring.

During late 1987, the Rock 'n' Roll Express feud with the Midnight Express heated up again which led to a historic scaffold match on November 26, 1987 at Starrcade in Chicago. Morton and Gibson defeated Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane eight minutes into the match. As 1988 began, they entered into a brief feud with the Sheepherders. On January 23, 1988 in Cincinnati, Ivan Koloff and the Warlord defeated The Rock 'n' Roll Express in twelve seconds, with Morton and Gibson leaving the company after the match. After a several month absence, Ricky and Robert did an interview at *Clash of the Champions II*, where they discussed returning to WCW. On June 26 at the start of The Great American Bash tour, Ricky and Robert defeated the Sheepherders in their return match. Rock 'n' Roll Express won several more matches with the Sheepherders as well as a few others until Gibson left WCW. Ricky Morton stayed on and wrestled singles matches, as well as tag team and six-man matches with a variety of partners such as Nikita Koloff, Brad Armstrong, and Steve Williams. Morton had his last match on September 23, 1988 before leaving WCW again.

In 1988, The Rock 'n' Roll Express went to the AWA. In all, the Rock 'n' Roll Express spent April to May, and October to December 1988 in the AWA having short runs with Verne Gagne.

On January 3, 1990, Morton and Gibson made their return to WCW. During the early part of the return, they had television matches with the Midnight Express, the Horsemen, and The Fabulous Freebirds. On July 7, 1990, they challenged Doom for the WCW World Tag Team Championship at The Great American Bash in the semi-main event, but lost. On September 22, 1990, in a match against Doom at a house show in Jacksonville, Florida, Robert Gibson suffered a torn ACL when Butch Reed came off the top rope on his extended knee while Ron Simmons was holding it. Gibson was forced to miss a considerable amount of time throughout the rest of 1990 and the first half of 1991 while recovering from surgery. On June 12, 1991, at *Clash of the Champions XV* in Knoxville, Tennessee, Morton turned on a returning Gibson to join the York Foundation, which led to a match between Morton and Gibson at The Great American Bash on July 14, 1991. Richard Morton (alongside Alexandra York) pinned Robert Gibson after Morton came off the top and hit Gibson in the back with the computer as York distracted referee Bill Alfonso on the apron. The former partners had more matches over the next several weeks, mostly won by Morton. Morton and Gibson continued their singles careers until Robert was released by WCW in November 1991. Morton stayed on in WCW as a heel until the summer of 1992.

The Rock 'n' Roll Express returned to WCW and defeated the Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard) at SuperBrawl III and the Bodies (this time Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray) defeated the Express at the World Wrestling Federation's Survivor Series.

On June 3, 1996, Morton and Gibson made their return to World Championship Wrestling on *Monday Nitro*, facing and losing to Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, and preliminarily reigniting an old WCW rivalry. They made their second appearance on *Monday Nitro* on August 5, 1996, losing to WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat. Their third appearance came three weeks later, where they faced Ric Flair and Arn Anderson again on *Nitro* in Lakeland, Florida. They lost to Flair and Anderson, but three days later in Orlando, Florida at a *WCW WorldWide* taping, the Rock 'n' Roll Express gained their first victory in their comeback, defeating High Voltage. Their next appearance came on *WCW Saturday Night* on September 30, where they fell to The Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian). Morton and Gibson appeared sparingly going forward on *Saturday Night* and *WCW Pro*; they left in 1997.

A year later, they were in the WWF for a brief stint, managed by former rival James E. Cornette. Their first appearance came on *Monday Night Raw*, when they faced Skull and 8-Ball on January 12, 1998 in State College, Pennsylvania and lost via disqualification. During their time in the company, they appeared at WrestleMania XIV in March 1998 in a tag team battle royal, which was won by the Legion of Doom 2000. They also had feuds with L.O.D. 2000 and The New Midnight Express, facing the latter at Unforgiven against the New Midnight Express.

On February 6, 2017, the WWE announced it would be honoring the Rock 'n' Roll Express by inducting the team into the WWE Hall of Fame at the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on March 31, 2017. On March 20, WWE officially announced that the team would be inducted by Jim Cornette.