Ricky Morton: "Locker rooms use to be sacred"

[jason1980s]

I was actually in a locker room with Ricky in 2016. I wonder if I'm the only member here who was. I may have been the only fan there that night though he probably thought I was a wrestler since most of the local indys were my same body type (as in looking nothing like a WWF/WWE/WCW/JCP famed wrestler). He was super awesome as was Robert who taught two wrestlers how to lock up when they said they didn't know how. Ricky made a comment about body types about the difference between his body and EC3 who was eating a George big salad. IIRC EC3 seemed to not give a damn and ignored Ricky. Screw EC3.

Ricky literally worked the room talking to everyone in the locker that night. He was a great guy. I actually talked to him by phone many years ago trying to work out a time to meet him in person but it didn't work out. He's a great man, so don't put him down based on the "old man/cloud" thing. He's probably one of the few guys who doesn't see fans as dollar bills. Part of me wonders the origin of this quote because I'm sure Ricky's done decades of shows with friends and family members in locker rooms that he should be used to it but also, I'm sure he's one of the nicest guys to those people in said locker room.

[flowercity]

Bringing your family to work is weird.

[The Ichi]

Oct 2, 2022 21:41:43 GMT -5 flowercity said:

Bringing your family to work is weird.

A bit less weird when you're away from them 95% of the year.

[Jindrak Mark]

Well he comes from an era when half of the wrestlers were doing coke and banging borderline underage fans in every town so I don't imagine most guys wanted their family to be around any of that.

[salz4life]

Oct 1, 2022 12:34:18 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

Says the man who has his son in the same locker room and tags with him on occasion

Um... isn't his son a professional wrestler? That seems a bit different.

[salz4life]

I think he's right... but at the same time, Kayfabe is pretty much dead. You have MJF, but he is one of the very few people that keeps kayfabe. For that reason, I don't think its a big deal anymore.

[Deleted]

"I miss the days when me and my work friends could have our very own Sodom and Gomorrah with minimal oversight because being a big fish in the relatively small pond of entertainment that is professional-wrestling completely warped our value system" is probably just too much of a mouthful for ol' Ricky.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

Oct 3, 2022 12:33:34 GMT -5 salz4life said:

Oct 1, 2022 12:34:18 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

Says the man who has his son in the same locker room and tags with him on occasion

Um... isn't his son a professional wrestler? That seems a bit different.

That’s why I said “tags with him”….sorry brother, I should have been a bit more specific rather than also sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud. LOL

[salz4life]

Oct 3, 2022 12:36:07 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

Oct 3, 2022 12:33:34 GMT -5 salz4life said:

Um... isn't his son a professional wrestler? That seems a bit different.

That’s why I said “tags with him”….sorry brother, I should have been a bit more specific rather than also sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud. LOL

No worries... I thought I might've missed something. LOL

[Kevin Hamilton]

Honestly at 66 years old it's a little sad that Ricky is still in locker rooms outside of maybe visiting himself.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Oct 2, 2022 21:41:43 GMT -5 flowercity said:

Bringing your family to work is weird.

I mean, not for musicians, actors, dancers, stage hands, sports people?

[thegame415]

Jim Cornette is smiling somewhere.

[flowercity]

Oct 3, 2022 17:25:11 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Oct 2, 2022 21:41:43 GMT -5 flowercity said:

Bringing your family to work is weird.

I mean, not for musicians, actors, dancers, stage hands, sports people?

I don’t think that’s true. There was a player on the Chicago White Sox somewhat recently (last 5 years?) that caused major friction with teammates for having his children around.

[jason1980s]

I've been in a few indy locker rooms and didn't see many non wrestlers. Most family and friends were already out in the seats or at the gimmick tables.

It's common place for family and friends to be at indy shows. A lot of times at the real lowly attended ones, family and friends make up the crowd. I've been to a few where talent had to be paid by check or was not paid at all. The promoter claimed no ticket sales or low ticket sales but there was a decent crowd at ringside-those were family and friends.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Oct 3, 2022 22:31:02 GMT -5 flowercity said:

Oct 3, 2022 17:25:11 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

I mean, not for musicians, actors, dancers, stage hands, sports people?

I don’t think that’s true. There was a player on the Chicago White Sox somewhat recently (last 5 years?) that caused major friction with teammates for having his children around.

We don't really have enough information to distinguish this

Wrestling is a performance industry. While it might be a bit much to have your family around all the time, like anything else I listed it's perfectly normal to have your family around to see you perform and thusly hang around backstage before or after the show

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Oct 3, 2022 23:25:00 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

I've been in a few indy locker rooms and didn't see many non wrestlers. Most family and friends were already out in the seats or at the gimmick tables.

It's common place for family and friends to be at indy shows. A lot of times at the real lowly attended ones, family and friends make up the crowd. I've been to a few where talent had to be paid by check or was not paid at all. The promoter claimed no ticket sales or low ticket sales but there was a decent crowd at ringside-those were family and friends.

I'm thinking it's more like this, like they're not going to be literally in the changing rooms and showers, but generally backstage somewhere, hanging out with the performer, seeing others they know, stuff like that.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Oct 4, 2022 1:43:28 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Oct 3, 2022 22:31:02 GMT -5 flowercity said:

I don’t think that’s true. There was a player on the Chicago White Sox somewhat recently (last 5 years?) that caused major friction with teammates for having his children around.

We don't really have enough information to distinguish this

Wrestling is a performance industry. While it might be a bit much to have your family around all the time, like anything else I listed it's perfectly normal to have your family around to see you perform and thusly hang around backstage before or after the show

The Rock talked about it countless of times being in the locker room as a a kid. As have others who had family wrestle. The Usos with Rikishi. Randy with his dad and ext., But in this situation. Ricky son is 20 something year old wrestler. Who often Ricky does team with. Ricky also runs a wrestling school and its not that strange to see your students getting a shot at a big company that the trainer may come with. Last year Jimmy Yang had students from his school wrestling NWA 73. So he was there backstage.

[celtics543]

I think this is the same as when other guys pine for the "good ol days" in that what Ricky misses is being a young man. He misses the way it was because he misses the way he used to be. It sucks getting old and people tend to talk about how things were better in their day because they felt better about themselves back then.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

I don't know, when you're preparing to perform, getting in the zone (Hello, Ken Shamrock!), so to speak, I don't know if it's a good idea to have the added distraction of family and friends?
That goes for any sport, concert, acting etc.
Hanging out backstage earlier and after the show is another matter. Can't see any real problems with that.

[tirtefaa]

Not sure if Ricky was going to the arena with his family, but here's an old (possibly false) story that mentions it;

This is a story about Ricky Morton and Kid Kash known then as Dave Jericho when they first started teaming together. They did a show together but were riding in separate cars,since Ricky had his wife and kids with him.Well,Dave is following Ricky and they are speeding down the road.A cop pulls Dave over. Somehow the topic gets to about wrestling.Dave tells the cop that he teamed with Ricky as the new Rock and Roll Express.The cop,who must have been a fan,tells Dave that Ricky and Robert are the Rock and Roll Express.Well,when Dave got pulled over,Ricky stopped in front of him.So,Dave tells the cop that Ricky Morton is in the car in front of him.The cop goes up to Ricky's car.Dave is watching Ricky give the cop pictures and autographs,so,he figured he was going to get out of the ticket.So,Ricky and the cop both come back to Daves car,and Ricky hands Dave the ticket and tells him to slow down.