November 24, 2025 • 50 mins
#shanemorton #prowrestling #middletnwrestling #gmbmpw
Welcome to Episode 26 of the Best Of jamesrockstreet Productions! Home to the Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling and Live and In Color with Wolfie D podcasts, Sheik's Shorts and more! So, sit back and enjoy as we bring you some of the very best stories, you'll never hear anywhere else! @GMBMPW @livewolfied @jamesrockstreet Everywhere!
Today we bring you the first half of episode 32 of Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling with Shane Morton! We talk his start in the business, his early days, Columbia TN wrestling, Gypsy Joe, Wild Boys, Dante & Mephisto and so much more! Enjoy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, this is Shane Morton. You're listening to Give Me Back
My Pro Wrestling. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
Give Me Back My Pro. Wrestling.
(00:42):
Hello, Sir. Don't know.
Now you know. Baby, this is Hot Rod Bigs,
Jared, Jimmy St. We're going to take them to the
limit One more time, baby. Right here.
Oh, give me back my pro wrestling.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Give Me back my pro
wrestling podcast. And today we got an awesome
show, but first I want to introduce my brother from the
(01:03):
same father and mother. What's up Judd?
How you doing today? Plastic chic I'm.
Good brother, good to be on herewith you and excited to get this
interview. Yeah, man, we got Shane Morton
on the show today. Shane is an old buddy of mine.
He's actually a mentor of mine, but he was a great friend to me
out in the Nashville wrestling scene.
He booked me a lot had a promotion in Columbia, TN called
(01:25):
the CWA that he had run off and on for years and actually had
some ties to Jerry Jarrett, which was awesome.
He always had, you know, good stories to tell me about Jerry.
And but Shane and I actually worked together for the first
time in the saw Southern All Star Wrestling in Millersville,
TN. And there was this gimmick that
I learned where I would casuallyhave my hand just under the
(01:49):
ropes, just laying on the sitting on the, you know, ring.
And I would turn around and likejaw at the crowd.
And what that would do is that would allow Lawler, or in this
case, Shane Morton, to come up and do a little stomp on my
fingers. You would have thought he'd
killed me, you know, And it was just like a subtle little thing.
And I almost feel like that thatset me and Shane up for for life
(02:13):
there because it was some littletrick that he knew that I was
smart to. And he took advantage of that.
And, you know, honestly, he's got such a great mind for the
business. He's definitely one of my
favorite people to talk to and get a hold of, you know, Anyway,
that was just such a cool littledeal.
And it was small, but the crowd ate it up.
It was so fun. Yeah, man, sometimes it's little
things and wrestling that she could really set you apart.
(02:36):
You know, you think sometimes these big dives people do to the
outside or. We know how I feel about those.
But yeah, or just the spot wherethey where everybody has to make
sure they're places stand there like their days for 20 seconds.
That's that's considered a big spot.
(02:56):
Well, you know, sometimes those big spots don't get over to me,
but the little details sometimesmean more to me.
I mean, yeah, exactly. The little details.
That's what it's all about. It's all in the details.
If you get all those details across, then it truly turns into
something big. And that, you know, he truly
taught me so much. But he honestly vouched for me.
I remember sitting there and he was talking with the guy in the
(03:19):
back, and actually it was HammerJack and Hammer Jack and I
barely knew each other at the time.
And Shane is sitting there and Shane and Hammer Jack about to
work a match. And Shane was like, here's my
manager, Jimmy, and talking and he's putting all these little
things, these little spots in for me.
And Hammerjack was like, your boy pretty good.
Is he smart? Does he know what he's doing?
(03:39):
And Shane was like, oh, yeah, heknows what he's doing.
And after that, Hammerjack and Iclicked and there were just so
many other guys, Boogie Woogie, you know, so many other guys
that I got to know that respected me because I worked
with Shane. So it was like, Shane knows what
he's doing. Then it turned.
Jimmy knows what he's doing and man, he really helped me out a
(03:59):
lot with that. You know, a lot of people
respect Shane. Shane's done a lot for the
business, especially in that area.
He also does a lot for the old timers and man, he, I mean
seriously, he is so respectful and so mindful of the guys from
out there that came before him. And he actually runs a right way
reunion that is out there in Middle Tennessee, sometimes
(04:20):
Columbia, sometimes Lynchburg. I think this year it's in
Lynchburg. Definitely going to ask him
about that. You know, Shane also is always
one step away from opening up a new promotion, so hopefully we
get to talk to him about that. He's always one step away from
running his own promotion again.And whenever he does that, he is
automatically 350 people in the building.
(04:42):
It's a guarantee. Because the Morton name, I mean,
not only being Ricky Morton, butalso Shane, Steve, his brother,
Bubba, his younger brother, Cody, his son.
You know, David is Steve's son, Jerry Lynn's his daughter, that
troublemaker. So many, many people out there
respect the Morton name. That Morton name really carries
a lot of respect, and I think that's something you'll see
(05:04):
coming up in this interview withhim.
He's honestly just such a great guy and I can't wait for you to
meet him officially, You know what I mean?
Yeah, man, I'm excited. Anybody that's good to my
brother and I'm good with man so.
Well, Ditto. You know, he's always bugging me
to come out there to the right way.
Reunion. It is a hall, you know, so it
would be something that we wouldhave to make happen, but we
(05:25):
definitely need to go out there and if we we ever do, when we
make it out there, we got to take a microphone with us and we
got to take. A.
A recorder. Because I'm sure we would be
plenty of interviews that we could get there that day and
that would that would be huge for the podcast too.
So whenever we can make that happen, you and me will jump in
a car and we'll make it out there sometime.
We'll see old Cash Ross down thestreet, Cash Ross down the
(05:49):
street while we're out there, old Colossus himself.
So but anyway, so you know the previous week's episode we had
we did a quick one. It was just called the Mount
Rushmore of wrestling feuds. Y'all really appreciate y'all
responding so well with that. The numbers are great.
Definitely appreciate that. Can't wait to, you know, do some
(06:10):
more Mount Rushmore episodes. But we'll be right back with Mr.
TNT my buddy and very good friend of the show Mr. Shane
Morton after these messages. Are you a pro wrestling fan?
We'll stop by Captain's Corner, where you can get autographed
photos, cards, magazines, and figures from all of your
(06:31):
favorite wrestling superstars ofthe past, present, and future.
You'll also be able to participate in live signings in
the weeks and months to come. Make sure to stop by Captain's
Corner on Facebook and give us aholler.
Remember, cheers to the working man.
All right, we are back with morefrom Give Me Back My Pro
(06:52):
Wrestling and today y'all man, Iam so excited about today's
guest. This guy, I've texted him back
and forth honestly saying when you want to come on the show and
you he would say anytime and I would say when you want to come
on the show and he would say anytime.
And then it finally I'm getting my old friend, honestly a mentor
(07:13):
to me, one of my favorite pro wrestlers that I've ever known
and honestly just a really greatdude, my favorite Morton, Mr.
TNT, Shane Morton. How you doing brother?
I'm doing good Jimmy. It's good to hear from you.
Glad to come on here man. I've listened to your podcast in
the past man. Y'all throw out good tons of
information to the people you'rebringing back, the progress on
(07:35):
the way it should be brought back.
And man, I commend both of you and Jared both on that.
Y'all do an awesome job man. It's my pleasure to be here.
Thank you, Shane. That means a lot dude.
That really does. I mean every word I just said to
Buddy, it really means a lot. So, Jared, I'm gonna let you
take it off from the start here.Hey, Shane, this is Jared.
(07:55):
And I always have a question I like to ask every progressor and
it's kind of a question that it's been asked of several
people, but I always like to know it lets me know where
you're where you're at as far ashow you view like wrestlers and
everything like that. What is your like Mount Rushmore
of pro wrestlers? Like the pro wrestlers that you
(08:17):
just said, you know, they eitherinspired you, mentored you or
whatever that you just you have such reverence for that They're
like, these are these are the top four guys.
And I even give a fifth one to all the people.
So you can have a fifth one if you need to.
Well, one of my top that I just,I was always a hill fan growing
up. I always liked the hills, you
(08:38):
know. So, you know, it was just to me,
Ric Flair back in the day, I mean, he was just, you know,
that man, you know it, He said it many times to be the man.
You got to beat the man. He was the man for me when I was
a when I was a kid coming up, you know, it was like, you
didn't get much better than RickFlair.
(08:59):
Another one. And I know everybody's going to
say, oh, he said that because he's kin to a Ricky Morton man
to be a baby face. If you wanted to learn to be a
baby face, watch Ricky. Watch Ricky.
And this is probably a surprise to a lot of people.
Lawler, Lawler man. To me, Lawler, you didn't get
(09:20):
much better than Lawler and Memphis man back in the day.
And and I guess my favorite, youknow, flair.
Flair was really good back in the day, but my favorite per SE,
local, regional kind of person. But he went on to be worldwide
too. Eddie Gilbert.
Man, I love Eddie Gilbert. Yeah.
(09:44):
He just, he was so way ahead of his time and man, he just had a
mind and and it just some of thestuff, you know, they did in
Memphis. I know they took turns sharing
the books or whatever, but a lotof that great stuff, the feud
with Lawler, Eddie come up with most of that, you know, it was
just, he was an awesome, awesome, awesome individual.
(10:08):
We do a series on our our show here randomly that will be like
what if? And we want to do a deep dive of
what if, you know, Eddie had notpassed and where he would have
landed and what he would have ended up.
I mean, honestly, I would see him being a big time executive
at one of the major companies today, you know, if he can stand
it, you know? Yeah, yeah.
(10:30):
My wild card fifth one would be Barry Windham.
I thought he was always underrated.
Barry Windham was. He was great, you know, Very,
very. Underrated.
Yeah, very underrated and very talented.
And just so it looks so easy to him, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, everything he did just
(10:51):
looked so smooth. And, you know, he was, you know,
some people may say differently that worked him.
I never had the opportunity to work it.
But man, he just looked so smooth in the ring.
Everything he did just looked like it was just spot on.
And it's like, wow, you know, sohe was in.
He would be my wild card or my fifth person, you know?
(11:13):
Yeah, yeah. That's that's awesome.
I love those pics, man. It's, you know, Eddie Gilbert,
you know, as as little as I remember, but I do remember
watching him when I was growing up.
But I was was, you know, thoughthe was a great talent out there.
And Barry Windham, he's, he's just great.
And the, the, the first three you had, they're, they're
legendary in my mind. So if anybody doesn't like those
(11:36):
three, they need to tune into a different show.
People may disagree with you on flair right now, you know, But
back in the day, flair, late 70s, eighties, even early 90s,
you couldn't get much better than flair, you know?
He drew money. He drew big money.
(11:57):
Yeah, that. That's the goal, right?
Drawing money. I mean, that's the goal, yeah.
That's right. I mean.
I had, I had Flair and Hogan in my list.
So people want to disagree with that.
I mean, but Hogan was so instrumental when I was, I was a
kid of the 80s. So, you know, Hogan's not the
greatest worker of all time, buthe just was.
If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, like, I wouldn't have been the
(12:17):
fan I am of wrestling. I mean, yeah, that's why I have
my list. But you know, people disagree
with that for reasons, but that's OK too.
Hogan was not the great worker that you know, by no means Hogan
knew how to market himself. Sometimes you just got to know
how to market yourself and make yourself look better and the
(12:38):
people that you're in the ring with make you look better.
And Hogan was a mastermind, a mastermind of of marketing
himself and making himself look good and doing all the right
things. And, and you're right, as far as
money, he was one of the biggeststraws for money wise, you know,
because, well, it was just to take say your prayers, eat your
(12:59):
vitamins and all that and just spelling the mainstream.
And, you know, Cyndi Lauper comes along.
And then he really helped bring wrestling into the mainstream
that it is today. You know, without Hogan, I
don't, I don't think you would have.
I think it would still be big, but I don't think it would have
been mainstream. You know, like it like it was in
the 80s. Totally agree with that.
(13:23):
Well, enough about all them. I want to talk about Shane
Morton now. So with Shane Morton, I want to
know where were you born? Where you from Shane?
Actually, I'm born in Columbia, TN, just, you know, about 40
miles South of Nashville. Yeah, and what school did you go
to? Where'd you graduate high school
and all that? Well, actually my mom and dad
(13:44):
divorced when I was young and mymom moved to Murfreesboro and I
moved to Murfreesboro and I graduated, waited from Laverne
High School. OK, yeah.
Did you play any sports at all in high school?
Oh, yeah, yeah. A funny story about that.
You know, my junior high school football coach, you know, I
played football, basketball, rantrack, baseball, you name it.
(14:06):
I mean, I played just anything Icould do just to, you know, to
get into extracurricular activities after school and
things, you know, and but my junior high school football
coach still stays in contact with me and a few of the guys.
Texas every day, man. And he was just second.
Yeah. He was a great mentor, man.
(14:27):
And he, he's the one that told us, you know, when we were we,
he was a big wrestling fan too. And everybody had a wrestling
name, you know. You know, of course they called
my brother and I the Rock'n'rollExpress.
We was on the Rock'n'roll Express.
And then we had the British Bulldog that was on the team.
And, you know, we, we just had different ones that was all on
(14:48):
the team. And that's what the coach always
called us. But yeah, he was a great mentor.
He said, man, what do you want to do?
What do you see yourself doing when you get out of school?
Not without us hesitation. I I want to be a professional
wrestler. That's what I'm going to do.
He said, well, you better work hard at it and you can't give
up. Always push yourself and just
never give up. Keep working, keep working.
(15:10):
And that's why I took the mentality, you know, I'm, I'm
going to do this regardless. You know, we had career days in
school and everything. There was a few people I went to
school with and yeah, I want to be a wrestler.
I want to be a wrestler. Well, the only ones that ever
became a wrestler that went school with was was funny Story.
And you may know him. Well, my brother did.
(15:31):
And myself, me and Mike Woods went to school with me and Mike
Woods back in, yeah, back in theday, went to school with him.
You know, he's a former N.W.A Mid America champion.
You know, I went to school with him and a couple of guys you may
not know, stunning Steve Lane and Chris Gatlin.
I went to school with those guys.
(15:52):
I'm familiar with Chris Gatlin. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. You know, that's awesome.
And you got a crew of guys therefor that's like a four horsemen
at your high school basically. Well, you count your brother, so
that's a 5 horsemen. So obviously you, you, you're
talking like you're being calledThe Rock'n'roll Express.
There's a British Bulldog on your football team and stuff.
When did you become a wrestling fan?
(16:14):
Do you? When do you remember becoming a
fan? Man, ever since I was a kid,
they used to hold weekly matchesin Columbia.
Oh yeah, Christine. Legendary Yep.
The Jarrett saw the Maxes down there, had an old Kwanzaa Hut.
And believe it or not, I've talked to Jerry Jarrett before
he passed. We, we, we talked about the, the
(16:35):
old Kwanzaa Hut. You know, I said I'd really like
to get in there because there was some old wrestling stuff
still left in the Kwanzaa Hut. But when they were holding
matches, old man, and they wouldbreak for intermission.
My brother and I've been three and four years old.
We'd go getting a ring and wrestle.
You know, they wouldn't run you out of the ring.
We'd be running. We'd keep resting until the guys
started coming to the ring. They start playing music.
(16:57):
Boy, we take off running in because we knew the bad guys.
So we got out, got out of the way.
But yeah, I just grew up around the wrestling business, you
know, with Ricky Ben and and wrestling.
And I had another uncle that wrestled.
His name was Jerry Morton and hewrestled back in the 60s and
70s. My wife now, her father, which
(17:19):
is my father-in-law, he was a wrestler back in the 70s.
So yeah, I kind of grew up around it, you know, and knew
that that was something I was very passionate about and loved
the sport of wrestling and always wanted to do that.
Well, you can tell. I mean, you, you guys have it
naturally. So, yeah, talk a little bit
about that. You know, Virginia, your wife,
her father, his name was Steve, correct?
(17:42):
Steve. And then talk about it.
So did he only wrestle in the 70s?
Because I've seen pictures that look like he was even back in
the 60s maybe too. He, he signed a big major
contract with the Jarretts back in the 70s and it was a big
ordeal, you know, and for Colombia guy from Colombia and
he was larger than life, man. He was, he was what you would
(18:03):
see today as far as bodybuilder,you know, the bodybuilder type
guys. And man, he, he really didn't
work out a whole lot, believe itor not.
And but he was just, yeah, he was just a, a natural, you know,
just big guy. And, you know, he, he, he
wrestled for till 1975 and then Virginia, right after Virginia
(18:28):
was born, he stopped wrestling and went into law enforcement.
But yeah, he Eddie Marlin started training him back in the
day. And but yeah, so like I said, I
I grew up around wrestling, you know, my whole life with, with,
with Ricky and Jerry and my cousin Freddie and, you know,
(18:49):
and then Steve and myself and then Bubba, and then our sons
Cody and David and Jerry Land, you know, my daughter Jerry Land
got into. How are you related to Ricky
exactly? We are second cousins.
Ricky and my dad are first cousins.
Yeah, OK, so that's the Morton name.
That's how the Morton. You're both men.
(19:10):
So your dad's took the name and then brought it to y'all.
That makes total sense. And then of course, we know
Freddie Morton, long time promoter down in Columbia.
You know, talk about him a little bit.
Well, Freddie started wrestling.Freddie was always a big guy.
You know, Freddy was, was prettygood boy when he was in high
school. He was about 6 foot one and
about 245 lbs at 15 years old. So he started wrestling when he
(19:34):
was 15 years old and he traveledaround quite a bit and he rested
a lot in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Man, he did that probably about 10 years.
And I figured out that you know what, I think I want to promote
more than I want to wrestle. So he got into the promoting
side of it. And so when he got into the
(19:55):
promoting side, Long story short, I started training with
Dutchman Tail and the Undertakerand I started training with
those and those guys in Nashville and they left, went to
WCW and then I. Started training with Dundee a
little bit and he left and just went to different schools, the
(20:17):
Jarrett school quite a bit and ended up shutting down.
And a guy named Chris Kern brokeme into the business and was
training me a little bit. And Freddie started promoting a
little bit in the 90s like 90911991.
(20:37):
He was helping somebody else promote in 90s and they needed a
referee and want to know if I would ref.
But I started out refereeing andthen I progressed into wrestling
and started with Freddie Morton wrestling and then had a break
up with some promoters and one went one way and one went the
(20:59):
other way. And I ended up leaving with some
other guys, Tommy Higgin and those guys, I went with them and
started working with them on a regular basis.
And man, the rest is history. And and you know, Tommy Higgy
was the was a great, great, mostunderrated wrestler that I
(21:21):
believe I know. And he was such a great, great,
great guy. And then he could.
Yeah, he, he, he made a lot of people in this area look like
1,000,000 bucks and I was one ofthem.
You know, he was just, he deserves so much credit that he
never gets, if that makes sense.But I went with them.
(21:43):
And next, you know, they had theWild boys, Ben Jordan and Steve
Neely coming along and they wereabout to do their thing and
finish, you know, go different ways.
And Ben was leaving to go to Global and, you know, ended up
becoming the global heavyweight,light heavyweight champion.
Sorry, they needed somebody to fill in that tag team.
(22:04):
So it kind of went to my brotherand I and we took off and man,
it's been a one heck of a rocketship.
That's awesome. Shane, what was your?
Who was? Who was your first match with?
Well, the first match, it was kind of, it was kind of a, a
gimmick match. It was, it was Mike Samples,
(22:25):
Flash Flanagan and Misty Lane. They were taking on, yeah,
taking on Brady Morton and the Chic, Jordan Weingroff and
myself. And I was, I was a referee doing
it as a referee that night. That was the very first night
match that I worked as a wrestler.
(22:47):
And they said just they said we want you to wrestle on your
referee stuff. I said, OK, that's fine.
And I did. And then it just took off from
there and and so many people, itcaused the riot because they
they got heat on me, beat the crap out of me.
And it ended up calling the wallet and they said, oh, we
can't just put him back referee.And now we got, we got to use
(23:10):
another. So that's kind of how I started
out. Well, that's pretty good.
Your first try, you get a riot. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, there's guys that never
get riots, you know? It was, it was wild.
It got wild that night. So that that was your you, you
were referee and that was technically your first match and
(23:30):
your first gimmick essentially, right?
I mean. Well, the well, I've been
refereeing some and that was thefirst they put me into it as a
wrestler. I was wrestling that night, but
they wanted they wanted me to wrestle as a referee, you know,
kind of like Danny Davis for theWWE did had a, you know, the
strike it outfit made and all, but they just wanted me to
(23:51):
wrestle wrestle that one night in in the referee outfit and I
did and it like I said, it calls.
That's a commotion that they like we can't we just going to
have to put him out there as a wrestler now.
So. You just named some awesome
names. I just interviewed George
Winegrove on the Wolfie D show. What a great dude and what a
interesting show. He he actually told us a funny
(24:14):
story about it. Was Gypsy Joe and Freddie Morton
in a match? Gypsy got a little hot in that
one. Were you there?
Do you remember that match at all?
Oh yeah, yeah, it got it got wild.
Gypsy. I thought Jet she was going to
kill for. Yeah, well, yeah, it was brutal,
I heard. And George is, you know, George
(24:34):
is no, no, no one to turn your back on there either.
You know George can hurt you andtie you up quickly if he wanted
to. Yeah, very, very much a shooter.
One of the one of the real shooters, you know.
Yes. What was that first promotion
called that you worked for? Mid South Wrestling Alliance.
OK, OK, gotcha. And again, you said who was
(24:56):
running that one? Well, Freddie was running that
show at the time. Freddie, Freddie Morton and
Thurman Dolan. Got it.
Got it. OK.
And now a word from our sponsor.Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
(25:23):
Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling, the podcast that's based on the
old school but can still help you find the good stuff from
today. Jimmy St. and the Plastic Sheet
Jared are the undisputed tag team champions of the wrestling
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the superstar interviews to action figure expertise, this
(25:44):
team does it all. And all they ask is give me Back
my Pro wrestling. Every other Thursday, wherever
you listen to podcasts. So and then talk about you and
Steve, I mean you and Steve, if you were like me and Jared, my
(26:05):
brother here, he and I have essentially been A tag team
since we were kids. You know what I mean?
And I can imagine that you and Steve and that's what makes
brother tag team so good when you know, of course, my brother
and I are not trained as professional wrestlers.
And you and Steve obviously havethat training.
And it's I've seen many matches where y'all worked well and
(26:27):
awesome together. But talk about that process of,
OK, look, we're now, you know, Atag team together.
It's an official tag team. We're not just rolling in the
ring during intermission and stuff.
Talk about that and how that worked out.
Was it just an automatic gel experience there or were there
some bumps in the road? No, we jailed well together
(26:48):
because, you know, we grew up together and pretty much raised
each other. You know, we had a kind of rough
upbringing there and stuck it out together and and you know,
of course we played sports together and everything we did,
we did together. And so we kind of looked out for
each other. So that he and I, Chris Champion
(27:09):
was the one that put us together, put us together,
wanted us to wrestle because therefore, when the 1st when I
first started wrestling, I wrestled Steve quite a bit, you
know, because they like, well, let's get you used to wrestling
somebody who you would feel comfortable with.
So they just stuck me to Steve and and we wrestled each other
quite a bit. And man, they was christened
(27:32):
right now we're going to put youtogether.
We're going to call you all the marvelous Mortons.
OK, That's what you want to do. And so he, he, so we kind of
dropped the marvelous name and just became the mortal brothers.
And, you know, and, but we always gelled really well
together. I guess, you know, just been
that brotherly instinct. Bubba and I gelled real well
(27:54):
together too. Bubba was Bubba, you know, and
my younger brother there. And we gelled really good
together. We, we did real well together
too, but not as good as Steve and I did Steve and I was this
more, more natural than Bubba. Bubba is a little younger, a
little, a little bit, you know, things outside the box, a little
more than, hey, I want to try this and he might want to get
(28:15):
into, you know, the crazy stuff.And I'm like, no, I'm not.
I'm not into that, you know. You just described.
Bubba very well, actually. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, we, we gelled really well together.
You know, towards the end of my career that when I was finishing
up, I did a lot more with Bubba than I did Steve because Steve
(28:35):
was got really heavy, heavily involved in baseball and stuff
with his kids and ended up running the league in
Murfreesboro and stuff. So he was taking a lot of time
off and Bubba and I were doing alot of stuff together.
So, you know, you know, Bubba, Bubba was with me when I, when I
ran into one of our mutual friends, you know, oh, Chica
(28:58):
Omar there. Bubba was with me when I was
having dealings with Omar, you know?
I know. Here's the thing, he actually
tried to send me a PayPal to notdo this interview.
Shane, did you know that he saidhe heard that I was trying to
interview you and he actually tried to send me money.
It was actually 10 camels, 3 pretty wives and two of his ugly
(29:21):
wives and he was going to send them all to me.
Yeah, to get. Rid of that camel that he gave
me. It took me forever to get rid of
a camel with two humps. I know that was the weirdest
camel ever. I don't, I don't get it.
But anyway, nobody's ever looking for a camel with two
humps, are they? That's just, you know.
So, you know, we've been talkinga little bit about like Bubba
(29:42):
Steve. We brought up your daughter,
Jerry Lynn, Cody, everybody. How many Mortons are there?
Not counting Ricky. I'm talking just directly close
to you. Now, I know Ricky's related to
you, but you know what I'm saying.
Right, with just related to me close proximity, there's Jerry,
which is we call him Bud. That was Freddy's daddy, then
(30:05):
Freddy, then me, Steve, Jerry Lynn, Cody, my oldest son,
Justin, Bubba, Brandon, David, my sister Jennifer, Jerry Lynn.
Think I've got them all. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure every timeI go.
(30:27):
Not including Ricky and Carrie's.
Because that adds another 20 or 30, right?
With Ricky, Yeah. Yeah, I'm just.
But anyway, yeah, I always jokedthat the Mortons are multiplying
because, you know, Shane would work in a promotion and then
here would come Steve and then here would come Cody your day.
And I was out there working when, you know, when Cody was
just coming in the business and David was just coming in the
(30:50):
business. But it, it was always something
that you clearly looked out for family.
And that's something that reallyI respect about you is that you
really did your best. So like if you saw opportunities
that you could bring in your family to work, I mean, there's
nothing. I think that's genius because
not only is that show that you've got people you can trust
around you, but also that you are a good family person.
(31:13):
And I think that shows a lot about a person whenever they
have their family near. Thus why my brother and I do
this podcast together. We're not close in in mileage
right now, but we're close through this Internet that we're
on. You know, it's all about family
to me. Yeah, that's me.
You know, it's all all about family.
You know, I try to help. I try to help anybody that's
(31:35):
willing to help themselves, if that makes sense.
And I see a lot of pencil and people sometimes, you know, a
lot of people might, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to say
I'm, you know, brag on myself ornothing.
But like when I was promoting, promoting full time, I would use
(31:55):
somebody, see potential of somebody that nobody else really
wanted to use. Then I started doing something
with them. The next thing you know,
everybody's using them. It's like, well, wait a minute,
you just didn't want to use thisguy, you know?
You know, I I tell you that somebody and Jimmy, you know the
guy as well as I do, had a lot of potential and a lot of people
(32:15):
really didn't see it at first. Was Diamond Flan.
Yeah, great hand, great, great hand man.
A lot of people really didn't see that at first.
But look at him now, you know, doing a wonderful things, you
know. But I remember you introduced.
Doug Markham to the scene up there.
He did. He's doing things with MLW and
all kinds of Conrad Thompson brings up Doug Markham on his
(32:37):
podcasts. I'm just saying.
So you entered. I remember you introducing him.
You know that. Anyway, keep going.
I'm sorry. Yeah, You know, I just try to
help people that were willing tohelp themselves or, or had
potential, you know, or I thought that they had potential
and, and, and all they needed was a little help, you know,
every once in a while we all at the bottom and trying to get our
(32:59):
way up. And if it wasn't for people
helping me along the way, I wouldn't have got to be where I
was at and got to do the things I got to do.
And, you know, and I never forgot that.
And I said if I ever got in a situation where I could help
somebody else out, I'd sure try to help them any way I could.
You know, and I and I tried to do that, you know, as as often
as I could. And, you know, and with Cody and
(33:22):
David coming up, Jerry Land and you can talk to them and they
tell you I never gave them anything.
I made them work for it and I made them earn it, you know, and
I I didn't just hand that spot. Hey, here you go.
I'm going to get you a spot. You know, I made them earn it
and made them keep earning it tokeep it, you know, and, and I
(33:44):
think it made them better. I mean, David and Cody were
traveling quite a bit. They both kind of gotten out not
really doing a whole lot anymore.
You know, Cody had a had a little girl, my granddaughter
Presley Ray, and you know, so he's not doing much since he's
had her. David's not doing a whole lot
(34:04):
now. And you know, the ironic thing
is they said, man, wrestling just ain't what it used to be.
And I said, you got that right. Think about 30 years ago when I
got into it. Yeah, yeah.
No kidding. I mean it it's it's it's almost
to the point now that, you know,I could even go out here in
North Carolina and get some bookings.
I know people that come down here and stuff, but honestly, I
(34:25):
just don't have the drive for itbecause I look and see it the
current product. That's why we named this show
Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling. You know what I mean?
I mean, it's it's not a it's notjust a it's not just a saying.
It's actually something we feel,you know, so.
Yeah, You know, the biggest problem with wrestling today is,
is a lot of people's not worriedabout next week, next month, six
(34:46):
months down the road. They're worried about today,
today, today, tonight, tonight, tonight.
Yeah. And then you.
Know that, that, you know, I knew where I was going when I
was looking. I knew where I was going and I
was 3-4 months out and I knew where I was going three to four
months down the road. A lot of people don't do that,
you know, or to me because you think, and I think you know this
(35:09):
story here, Jimmy firing somebody because they have too
much heat. Why would you fire somebody
because they have too much heat?That is the most often on thing
I've ever heard. You know, that means you need to
fire the rest of your guys and make them step it up.
I can understand that they got too much cheap heat.
You know, there's such a thing as heat and cheap heat.
(35:30):
But you know, make the other guys step up to the level this
person got. I mean, make your babies make
this step up to the level this baby face, you know, and people
don't want to do that, you know.And now today people worried
about hey man, I can sell 5 tickets.
Oh, I'm going to book you. I'm going to book you.
I'm going to put you on the showtonight because you will sell 5
(35:52):
tickets next week. That's crazy.
When we were talking ball ago, you know, talking about Freddie
and Ricky, and even with them being related to me, it was, I
didn't just walk in the door andhey, everything was handed to
me. I mean, it was hard for me to
get in, you know, I had to provethat I was willing to, I, I was
(36:14):
willing to give what it takes tomake it in this business.
And that's what I've kept proving time and time again that
I, I was willing to do. I remember driving to Dallas, TX
one time to Scandal or Ackbar and I got a hot dog, a cold
drink, and $10. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, 10 1/2 hour drive and he
says you want to come back. I said I'd absolutely love to,
(36:36):
but I can't come back from this.We'll have to talk about price,
right? Seriously, it wasn't too long
after that he had passed and youknow, unfortunately I didn't get
to go back and but you know, I've, I've paid a lot of dues
and did a lot of shows where there was hardly no money
involved or time. You paid gas and trans or
whatever and food and you were, you didn't make anything.
(37:00):
You went in the hole, but you got your name out there.
Right. Yeah.
You're listening to Give Me BackMy Pro Wrestling, and we'll be
right back after these messages.Gideon's Warriors, a night of
(37:25):
pro wrestling stories and testimony of God's grace and
mercy. Come here Pastor Rick Reynolds
who you may know as Damian or Forsaken, Shane Morton, Ben
Jordan and Tommy Phillips AKA Sean Schultz as they share their
experiences in pro wrestling andtheir personal walks with God.
It's all going to be on Sunday, January 18th, 2026 at 7:00 PM at
(37:46):
his House Ministries, 49 O 9, Highway 43, Summertown,
Tennessee. Everyone is welcome, do not miss
this one time event. Hey, this is Pastor Rick
Reynolds of his House Ministriesin Summertown, Tennessee.
I'd like to do a personal invitation to everyone to come
see us on January 18th, 2026 at 7:00.
(38:13):
Shane, what's the what's your favorite promotion you've ever
worked for? Well, I guess the I did a little
bit for the USWA and I guess growing up watching that and
able to work, work the fairgrounds and I didn't work
the fairgrounds for the USWA, but doing a little bit for them.
(38:33):
But you know, I guess that was afavorite thing there, you know,
promotion because you know, a lot of people's ambitions or
whatever. My dream is to go to Madison
Square Garden. My dream was to go to the
National Fairgrounds. That's where I grew up watching
wrestling or to the Mid South Coliseum or something.
(38:58):
I got to work the gardens and got to work at Evansville, at
the Coliseum and different places, you know, and really
enjoyed what I got to do it. And I worked some dark shows for
WWE and WCW in different places and, and some house shows for
them. And you know, I enjoyed what I
got to do and was thankful for what I got to do.
(39:19):
Where did you work for them at then?
Was it in the gardens? Is that where you work?
No, I work spot shows for wherever.
I mean, I remember one time driving with Debbie Combs and
Robbie Raids. We went to a place that you may
know a Golly Bridges, West Virginia.
Or something like that. I've heard of that place, yeah.
(39:40):
Yeah, it was a it was a it was afor AWWWF show.
And then man, Tom Brandy was theBooker for it.
He was booking the shows and andit was a fair show.
So they've got on the month of these sending crews down to do
these fair shows. And it wasn't a big huge thing,
but they were getting paid big buku bucks to do it.
(40:02):
And I got on a bunch of those shows like that got me booked on
a lot of stuff with me out a lot, you know, the women did.
So that's. Awesome.
So OK, so you got your favorite promotion then obviously.
So, you know, what was your favorite promotion that you got
to run? Well, the CBAI ran that for
years, you know, that was mine and and I really enjoyed that.
(40:27):
Had a lot of huge success there.You know, we, we ran out of an
Armory in Columbia every other week for, for quite a long time.
And you know, back in, back thenit was, we were thinking about
canceling if we drew 300 people.You know, it was like, oh, we
might, you know, but I had put 1100 people in there for a show
(40:53):
that was just local talent, no big, huge name on it, local
talent and drew 1100 people. Yeah.
Well, you always drew well in Columbia.
I know that because I work thoseshows, especially now.
It may have been a different era, obviously, but at the same
same time I remember you packingthe buildings out wherever you
did it, so always impressed by that.
(41:13):
Yeah, you know, and like I said,that goes back to the I know you
know who I'm talking about. Jimmy the devil's disciples.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. We had a long ongoing.
We feuded with those guys for 27years, believe it or not.
They're like your midnight Express basically.
I mean if you think of. Right, right, right.
(41:34):
Every year Mule Day, you know, that's a big thing around
Columbia, was meal day and therewould be 3 to 400,000 people in
this town for a meal gatherings,you know, and we would always
run a big show there and always would have the Mortons and the
Devils on it. And it was nothing but a fight.
It was a street fight, some kindof fighting going on and it drew
(41:55):
every month. And I remember we ran head to
head against another show and they were trying to dog the show
out, my show out, you know, oh, why would you want to go see
that? That was the same main event
you've seen 20 years ago. You need to be over here.
And they were trying to use fakeMortons and all kinds of stuff.
And that night, they drew maybe 75 people there.
(42:18):
I drew 550 people. And you know, with that same,
that same main event that they said wasn't going to draw, I
drew 550 people with that. That's awesome.
Did you have like a worst? Promotion you ever worked for or
like? Worst promotion I ever worked
for? Maybe there's quite a few of
(42:40):
them that I, you know, that I hated working for, you know,
because of dumb stuff, you know,sure, you know, you know, and a
good one. Could turn into a bad one,
right? I mean, that's just how it goes.
Good one could because I think Imay know one that you're talking
about right in the mind right now, but.
(43:00):
Yeah, I mean, there's several man that that just were I I can
give you one good one. They called me want to know if
I'd come and wrestle for this time.
Yes. And I knew who the company was.
And I was like, no, because theyreally didn't have any talent in
the earning thing. And I was like, no, I don't want
to come there. And I said, oh please, we need
your help. We need your help.
(43:20):
And anyway, I decided to go to work for them and it was RTW.
And they asked me some if if youloaned this, what would you do
with this company? I said I'd fire everybody you
had and hire new talent because you don't have talent.
And they said, oh, OK, so they fired everybody.
(43:41):
And they said, yeah, so they fired everybody except for one
person, and that was the promoter's son.
And they killed him. And they said, can you hire some
guys? So I hired some guys to come in
and turned it into a decent, halfway decent place.
And then they think when, when Igot it up and going, oh, we're
(44:03):
drawing now we can fire Shane. So they fired me to get rid of
me. And I, that's not what that's
not why I'm mad at them, but it just they never deserved to be
in the business. Let me just put it that way.
They was not willing to work at anything to to make the business
better. They were all about doing
(44:24):
everything they could to destroythe business.
And, you know, somebody come up and say, hey, I want to be a
wrestler. OK, give me $100 and, and you
can be a wrestler like, and they'd stick them right in the
ring. No training, no nothing.
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I've seen guys do that
and they claim they were trainedby Chase Stevens or they're
(44:46):
trained by this guy. And, you know, wrestling can be
very dangerous. Absolutely.
But I don't know that there's anything more dangerous than an
untrained wrestler, honestly. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, I agree with you 100%. That's what you talking about,
that Jimmy? One night I was sitting in
Tullahoma, TN at a National Guard Armory and this guy was
(45:06):
talking about he was trained andall this and that.
The other and I don't know if you know Rick Reynolds or not,
Forsaken. Oh yeah, of.
Course he was telling. He was telling, Forsaken said.
Oh yeah, man, I was trained by Shane Morton and I'm sitting
right beside this thing. Oh my goodness.
And I looked at him and him. So Rick says so Shane Morton
(45:27):
training. Yeah, man, he, you know, you
know who he is. He's Kendall.
Ricky Morton said, Oh yeah, I know who he.
I've heard of him. He kicks on and he goes on with
this conversation for about fouror five minutes.
And I looked at him. I said, so Shane Morton trained
you. He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, I don't
like you, man. He goes, oh, I wouldn't tell him
(45:48):
that. He, he he might whoop you.
I said, I don't think he can whoop me.
And he, oh, yeah, he might. I said no.
I said he got a phone number. He said, well, yeah, but I don't
have it with me. I said, I'd sure like to talk to
him. And he goes, why you won't talk
to him for? I said, because he's an idiot if
(46:08):
he trained you. And he goes, I don't know, I
don't know. He ain't no he man.
He's been around. I said, oh really?
I said, wow. I said no, what's your name
again? He told me who he was and I
don't even remember what his name is.
And I said, well that's funny, Idon't ever recall training you.
And he goes, do what? And I said, I don't ever recall
training you. And I'm going to give you about
(46:29):
5 seconds to get out of this breath room because if you don't
get out of this restroom, I'm fixing to hurt you.
Who who, who do you think you are?
I said, well let me introduce myself.
My name is Shane Morton. And he goes and he started
botting puddling and he left andnever come back.
I was going to say have has anyone ever seen this man again
(46:50):
because I can't imagine he wouldever even show his face at a
show. I bet he don't even watch
wrestling anymore because of that.
He. Probably.
He probably does it. He probably does it.
Oh my. God.
Yeah, that is amazing story. We'll be right.
Back with more. Give me back my pro wrestling.
(47:18):
This is your Rockstar ring announcer, Aaron Camaro.
I'm a man who believes the 2 greatest art forms ever created
are professional wrestling and heavy rock music.
So when I'm not hosting the bestparties that also happen to be
live professional wrestling shows, I'm hosting the Decibel
(47:42):
Geek Podcast. Decibel Geek is a weekly podcast
that features discussions of allthings rock.
We're talking The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi
Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Ozzie, Mötley Crüe, Guns N'
Roses, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Pantera, and everything
(48:04):
in between. Plus, we'll turn you on to new
bands from today that have the same spirit and style that the
legends do. Decibel Geek is hosted by myself
along with Rock and Pod founder Chris Sinczak, and each week
you'll get interviews with famous musicians and industry
(48:24):
insiders, along with informative, entertaining,
humorous and insightful discussions, and most
importantly, a passion for the music.
So if you love to rock out as much as I do, then this is your
invitation to the greatest rock'n'roll party in all of
podcasting. It's Decibel Geek, and it's
(48:46):
available right now on all majorpodcast platforms.
Oh yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this is
(49:12):
Jimmy St. and that was episode 26 of the Best of James Rock St.
productions with the first half of episode 32 of Shane Morton on
Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling. Shane is a great friend and a
mentor and has done a lot to help me and this podcast.
Honestly, this episode put our show on the map and we can't
thank him enough for it. You can hear the full episode
and more over on at GMBMPW or Give Me Back My By Pro Wrestling
(49:35):
wherever you listen to podcasts or simply click the link in the
notes below. We hope you've enjoyed a look
back in the archives of James Rock St.
Productions. Check us out next week to see
what else we have in store. Until then, follow at G, MB, MPW
and at James Rock St. everywhere.
Peace with a tear in my eye. This is the greatest moment in
(49:58):
my life. This has been a James Rock St.
(50:29):
production.
Hey, this is Shane Morton. You're listening to Give Me Back
My Pro Wrestling. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
Give Me Back My Pro. Wrestling.
(00:42):
Hello, Sir. Don't know.
Now you know. Baby, this is Hot Rod Bigs,
Jared, Jimmy St. We're going to take them to the
limit One more time, baby. Right here.
Oh, give me back my pro wrestling.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Give Me back my pro
wrestling podcast. And today we got an awesome
show, but first I want to introduce my brother from the
(01:03):
same father and mother. What's up Judd?
How you doing today? Plastic chic I'm.
Good brother, good to be on herewith you and excited to get this
interview. Yeah, man, we got Shane Morton
on the show today. Shane is an old buddy of mine.
He's actually a mentor of mine, but he was a great friend to me
out in the Nashville wrestling scene.
He booked me a lot had a promotion in Columbia, TN called
(01:25):
the CWA that he had run off and on for years and actually had
some ties to Jerry Jarrett, which was awesome.
He always had, you know, good stories to tell me about Jerry.
And but Shane and I actually worked together for the first
time in the saw Southern All Star Wrestling in Millersville,
TN. And there was this gimmick that
I learned where I would casuallyhave my hand just under the
(01:49):
ropes, just laying on the sitting on the, you know, ring.
And I would turn around and likejaw at the crowd.
And what that would do is that would allow Lawler, or in this
case, Shane Morton, to come up and do a little stomp on my
fingers. You would have thought he'd
killed me, you know, And it was just like a subtle little thing.
And I almost feel like that thatset me and Shane up for for life
(02:13):
there because it was some littletrick that he knew that I was
smart to. And he took advantage of that.
And, you know, honestly, he's got such a great mind for the
business. He's definitely one of my
favorite people to talk to and get a hold of, you know, Anyway,
that was just such a cool littledeal.
And it was small, but the crowd ate it up.
It was so fun. Yeah, man, sometimes it's little
things and wrestling that she could really set you apart.
(02:36):
You know, you think sometimes these big dives people do to the
outside or. We know how I feel about those.
But yeah, or just the spot wherethey where everybody has to make
sure they're places stand there like their days for 20 seconds.
That's that's considered a big spot.
(02:56):
Well, you know, sometimes those big spots don't get over to me,
but the little details sometimesmean more to me.
I mean, yeah, exactly. The little details.
That's what it's all about. It's all in the details.
If you get all those details across, then it truly turns into
something big. And that, you know, he truly
taught me so much. But he honestly vouched for me.
I remember sitting there and he was talking with the guy in the
(03:19):
back, and actually it was HammerJack and Hammer Jack and I
barely knew each other at the time.
And Shane is sitting there and Shane and Hammer Jack about to
work a match. And Shane was like, here's my
manager, Jimmy, and talking and he's putting all these little
things, these little spots in for me.
And Hammerjack was like, your boy pretty good.
Is he smart? Does he know what he's doing?
(03:39):
And Shane was like, oh, yeah, heknows what he's doing.
And after that, Hammerjack and Iclicked and there were just so
many other guys, Boogie Woogie, you know, so many other guys
that I got to know that respected me because I worked
with Shane. So it was like, Shane knows what
he's doing. Then it turned.
Jimmy knows what he's doing and man, he really helped me out a
(03:59):
lot with that. You know, a lot of people
respect Shane. Shane's done a lot for the
business, especially in that area.
He also does a lot for the old timers and man, he, I mean
seriously, he is so respectful and so mindful of the guys from
out there that came before him. And he actually runs a right way
reunion that is out there in Middle Tennessee, sometimes
(04:20):
Columbia, sometimes Lynchburg. I think this year it's in
Lynchburg. Definitely going to ask him
about that. You know, Shane also is always
one step away from opening up a new promotion, so hopefully we
get to talk to him about that. He's always one step away from
running his own promotion again.And whenever he does that, he is
automatically 350 people in the building.
(04:42):
It's a guarantee. Because the Morton name, I mean,
not only being Ricky Morton, butalso Shane, Steve, his brother,
Bubba, his younger brother, Cody, his son.
You know, David is Steve's son, Jerry Lynn's his daughter, that
troublemaker. So many, many people out there
respect the Morton name. That Morton name really carries
a lot of respect, and I think that's something you'll see
(05:04):
coming up in this interview withhim.
He's honestly just such a great guy and I can't wait for you to
meet him officially, You know what I mean?
Yeah, man, I'm excited. Anybody that's good to my
brother and I'm good with man so.
Well, Ditto. You know, he's always bugging me
to come out there to the right way.
Reunion. It is a hall, you know, so it
would be something that we wouldhave to make happen, but we
(05:25):
definitely need to go out there and if we we ever do, when we
make it out there, we got to take a microphone with us and we
got to take. A.
A recorder. Because I'm sure we would be
plenty of interviews that we could get there that day and
that would that would be huge for the podcast too.
So whenever we can make that happen, you and me will jump in
a car and we'll make it out there sometime.
We'll see old Cash Ross down thestreet, Cash Ross down the
(05:49):
street while we're out there, old Colossus himself.
So but anyway, so you know the previous week's episode we had
we did a quick one. It was just called the Mount
Rushmore of wrestling feuds. Y'all really appreciate y'all
responding so well with that. The numbers are great.
Definitely appreciate that. Can't wait to, you know, do some
(06:10):
more Mount Rushmore episodes. But we'll be right back with Mr.
TNT my buddy and very good friend of the show Mr. Shane
Morton after these messages. Are you a pro wrestling fan?
We'll stop by Captain's Corner, where you can get autographed
photos, cards, magazines, and figures from all of your
(06:31):
favorite wrestling superstars ofthe past, present, and future.
You'll also be able to participate in live signings in
the weeks and months to come. Make sure to stop by Captain's
Corner on Facebook and give us aholler.
Remember, cheers to the working man.
All right, we are back with morefrom Give Me Back My Pro
(06:52):
Wrestling and today y'all man, Iam so excited about today's
guest. This guy, I've texted him back
and forth honestly saying when you want to come on the show and
you he would say anytime and I would say when you want to come
on the show and he would say anytime.
And then it finally I'm getting my old friend, honestly a mentor
(07:13):
to me, one of my favorite pro wrestlers that I've ever known
and honestly just a really greatdude, my favorite Morton, Mr.
TNT, Shane Morton. How you doing brother?
I'm doing good Jimmy. It's good to hear from you.
Glad to come on here man. I've listened to your podcast in
the past man. Y'all throw out good tons of
information to the people you'rebringing back, the progress on
(07:35):
the way it should be brought back.
And man, I commend both of you and Jared both on that.
Y'all do an awesome job man. It's my pleasure to be here.
Thank you, Shane. That means a lot dude.
That really does. I mean every word I just said to
Buddy, it really means a lot. So, Jared, I'm gonna let you
take it off from the start here.Hey, Shane, this is Jared.
(07:55):
And I always have a question I like to ask every progressor and
it's kind of a question that it's been asked of several
people, but I always like to know it lets me know where
you're where you're at as far ashow you view like wrestlers and
everything like that. What is your like Mount Rushmore
of pro wrestlers? Like the pro wrestlers that you
(08:17):
just said, you know, they eitherinspired you, mentored you or
whatever that you just you have such reverence for that They're
like, these are these are the top four guys.
And I even give a fifth one to all the people.
So you can have a fifth one if you need to.
Well, one of my top that I just,I was always a hill fan growing
up. I always liked the hills, you
(08:38):
know. So, you know, it was just to me,
Ric Flair back in the day, I mean, he was just, you know,
that man, you know it, He said it many times to be the man.
You got to beat the man. He was the man for me when I was
a when I was a kid coming up, you know, it was like, you
didn't get much better than RickFlair.
(08:59):
Another one. And I know everybody's going to
say, oh, he said that because he's kin to a Ricky Morton man
to be a baby face. If you wanted to learn to be a
baby face, watch Ricky. Watch Ricky.
And this is probably a surprise to a lot of people.
Lawler, Lawler man. To me, Lawler, you didn't get
(09:20):
much better than Lawler and Memphis man back in the day.
And and I guess my favorite, youknow, flair.
Flair was really good back in the day, but my favorite per SE,
local, regional kind of person. But he went on to be worldwide
too. Eddie Gilbert.
Man, I love Eddie Gilbert. Yeah.
(09:44):
He just, he was so way ahead of his time and man, he just had a
mind and and it just some of thestuff, you know, they did in
Memphis. I know they took turns sharing
the books or whatever, but a lotof that great stuff, the feud
with Lawler, Eddie come up with most of that, you know, it was
just, he was an awesome, awesome, awesome individual.
(10:08):
We do a series on our our show here randomly that will be like
what if? And we want to do a deep dive of
what if, you know, Eddie had notpassed and where he would have
landed and what he would have ended up.
I mean, honestly, I would see him being a big time executive
at one of the major companies today, you know, if he can stand
it, you know? Yeah, yeah.
(10:30):
My wild card fifth one would be Barry Windham.
I thought he was always underrated.
Barry Windham was. He was great, you know, Very,
very. Underrated.
Yeah, very underrated and very talented.
And just so it looks so easy to him, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, everything he did just
(10:51):
looked so smooth. And, you know, he was, you know,
some people may say differently that worked him.
I never had the opportunity to work it.
But man, he just looked so smooth in the ring.
Everything he did just looked like it was just spot on.
And it's like, wow, you know, sohe was in.
He would be my wild card or my fifth person, you know?
(11:13):
Yeah, yeah. That's that's awesome.
I love those pics, man. It's, you know, Eddie Gilbert,
you know, as as little as I remember, but I do remember
watching him when I was growing up.
But I was was, you know, thoughthe was a great talent out there.
And Barry Windham, he's, he's just great.
And the, the, the first three you had, they're, they're
legendary in my mind. So if anybody doesn't like those
(11:36):
three, they need to tune into a different show.
People may disagree with you on flair right now, you know, But
back in the day, flair, late 70s, eighties, even early 90s,
you couldn't get much better than flair, you know?
He drew money. He drew big money.
(11:57):
Yeah, that. That's the goal, right?
Drawing money. I mean, that's the goal, yeah.
That's right. I mean.
I had, I had Flair and Hogan in my list.
So people want to disagree with that.
I mean, but Hogan was so instrumental when I was, I was a
kid of the 80s. So, you know, Hogan's not the
greatest worker of all time, buthe just was.
If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, like, I wouldn't have been the
(12:17):
fan I am of wrestling. I mean, yeah, that's why I have
my list. But you know, people disagree
with that for reasons, but that's OK too.
Hogan was not the great worker that you know, by no means Hogan
knew how to market himself. Sometimes you just got to know
how to market yourself and make yourself look better and the
(12:38):
people that you're in the ring with make you look better.
And Hogan was a mastermind, a mastermind of of marketing
himself and making himself look good and doing all the right
things. And, and you're right, as far as
money, he was one of the biggeststraws for money wise, you know,
because, well, it was just to take say your prayers, eat your
(12:59):
vitamins and all that and just spelling the mainstream.
And, you know, Cyndi Lauper comes along.
And then he really helped bring wrestling into the mainstream
that it is today. You know, without Hogan, I
don't, I don't think you would have.
I think it would still be big, but I don't think it would have
been mainstream. You know, like it like it was in
the 80s. Totally agree with that.
(13:23):
Well, enough about all them. I want to talk about Shane
Morton now. So with Shane Morton, I want to
know where were you born? Where you from Shane?
Actually, I'm born in Columbia, TN, just, you know, about 40
miles South of Nashville. Yeah, and what school did you go
to? Where'd you graduate high school
and all that? Well, actually my mom and dad
(13:44):
divorced when I was young and mymom moved to Murfreesboro and I
moved to Murfreesboro and I graduated, waited from Laverne
High School. OK, yeah.
Did you play any sports at all in high school?
Oh, yeah, yeah. A funny story about that.
You know, my junior high school football coach, you know, I
played football, basketball, rantrack, baseball, you name it.
(14:06):
I mean, I played just anything Icould do just to, you know, to
get into extracurricular activities after school and
things, you know, and but my junior high school football
coach still stays in contact with me and a few of the guys.
Texas every day, man. And he was just second.
Yeah. He was a great mentor, man.
(14:27):
And he, he's the one that told us, you know, when we were we,
he was a big wrestling fan too. And everybody had a wrestling
name, you know. You know, of course they called
my brother and I the Rock'n'rollExpress.
We was on the Rock'n'roll Express.
And then we had the British Bulldog that was on the team.
And, you know, we, we just had different ones that was all on
(14:48):
the team. And that's what the coach always
called us. But yeah, he was a great mentor.
He said, man, what do you want to do?
What do you see yourself doing when you get out of school?
Not without us hesitation. I I want to be a professional
wrestler. That's what I'm going to do.
He said, well, you better work hard at it and you can't give
up. Always push yourself and just
never give up. Keep working, keep working.
(15:10):
And that's why I took the mentality, you know, I'm, I'm
going to do this regardless. You know, we had career days in
school and everything. There was a few people I went to
school with and yeah, I want to be a wrestler.
I want to be a wrestler. Well, the only ones that ever
became a wrestler that went school with was was funny Story.
And you may know him. Well, my brother did.
(15:31):
And myself, me and Mike Woods went to school with me and Mike
Woods back in, yeah, back in theday, went to school with him.
You know, he's a former N.W.A Mid America champion.
You know, I went to school with him and a couple of guys you may
not know, stunning Steve Lane and Chris Gatlin.
I went to school with those guys.
(15:52):
I'm familiar with Chris Gatlin. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. You know, that's awesome.
And you got a crew of guys therefor that's like a four horsemen
at your high school basically. Well, you count your brother, so
that's a 5 horsemen. So obviously you, you, you're
talking like you're being calledThe Rock'n'roll Express.
There's a British Bulldog on your football team and stuff.
When did you become a wrestling fan?
(16:14):
Do you? When do you remember becoming a
fan? Man, ever since I was a kid,
they used to hold weekly matchesin Columbia.
Oh yeah, Christine. Legendary Yep.
The Jarrett saw the Maxes down there, had an old Kwanzaa Hut.
And believe it or not, I've talked to Jerry Jarrett before
he passed. We, we, we talked about the, the
(16:35):
old Kwanzaa Hut. You know, I said I'd really like
to get in there because there was some old wrestling stuff
still left in the Kwanzaa Hut. But when they were holding
matches, old man, and they wouldbreak for intermission.
My brother and I've been three and four years old.
We'd go getting a ring and wrestle.
You know, they wouldn't run you out of the ring.
We'd be running. We'd keep resting until the guys
started coming to the ring. They start playing music.
(16:57):
Boy, we take off running in because we knew the bad guys.
So we got out, got out of the way.
But yeah, I just grew up around the wrestling business, you
know, with Ricky Ben and and wrestling.
And I had another uncle that wrestled.
His name was Jerry Morton and hewrestled back in the 60s and
70s. My wife now, her father, which
(17:19):
is my father-in-law, he was a wrestler back in the 70s.
So yeah, I kind of grew up around it, you know, and knew
that that was something I was very passionate about and loved
the sport of wrestling and always wanted to do that.
Well, you can tell. I mean, you, you guys have it
naturally. So, yeah, talk a little bit
about that. You know, Virginia, your wife,
her father, his name was Steve, correct?
(17:42):
Steve. And then talk about it.
So did he only wrestle in the 70s?
Because I've seen pictures that look like he was even back in
the 60s maybe too. He, he signed a big major
contract with the Jarretts back in the 70s and it was a big
ordeal, you know, and for Colombia guy from Colombia and
he was larger than life, man. He was, he was what you would
(18:03):
see today as far as bodybuilder,you know, the bodybuilder type
guys. And man, he, he really didn't
work out a whole lot, believe itor not.
And but he was just, yeah, he was just a, a natural, you know,
just big guy. And, you know, he, he, he
wrestled for till 1975 and then Virginia, right after Virginia
(18:28):
was born, he stopped wrestling and went into law enforcement.
But yeah, he Eddie Marlin started training him back in the
day. And but yeah, so like I said, I
I grew up around wrestling, you know, my whole life with, with,
with Ricky and Jerry and my cousin Freddie and, you know,
(18:49):
and then Steve and myself and then Bubba, and then our sons
Cody and David and Jerry Land, you know, my daughter Jerry Land
got into. How are you related to Ricky
exactly? We are second cousins.
Ricky and my dad are first cousins.
Yeah, OK, so that's the Morton name.
That's how the Morton. You're both men.
(19:10):
So your dad's took the name and then brought it to y'all.
That makes total sense. And then of course, we know
Freddie Morton, long time promoter down in Columbia.
You know, talk about him a little bit.
Well, Freddie started wrestling.Freddie was always a big guy.
You know, Freddy was, was prettygood boy when he was in high
school. He was about 6 foot one and
about 245 lbs at 15 years old. So he started wrestling when he
(19:34):
was 15 years old and he traveledaround quite a bit and he rested
a lot in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Man, he did that probably about 10 years.
And I figured out that you know what, I think I want to promote
more than I want to wrestle. So he got into the promoting
side of it. And so when he got into the
(19:55):
promoting side, Long story short, I started training with
Dutchman Tail and the Undertakerand I started training with
those and those guys in Nashville and they left, went to
WCW and then I. Started training with Dundee a
little bit and he left and just went to different schools, the
(20:17):
Jarrett school quite a bit and ended up shutting down.
And a guy named Chris Kern brokeme into the business and was
training me a little bit. And Freddie started promoting a
little bit in the 90s like 90911991.
(20:37):
He was helping somebody else promote in 90s and they needed a
referee and want to know if I would ref.
But I started out refereeing andthen I progressed into wrestling
and started with Freddie Morton wrestling and then had a break
up with some promoters and one went one way and one went the
(20:59):
other way. And I ended up leaving with some
other guys, Tommy Higgin and those guys, I went with them and
started working with them on a regular basis.
And man, the rest is history. And and you know, Tommy Higgy
was the was a great, great, mostunderrated wrestler that I
(21:21):
believe I know. And he was such a great, great,
great guy. And then he could.
Yeah, he, he, he made a lot of people in this area look like
1,000,000 bucks and I was one ofthem.
You know, he was just, he deserves so much credit that he
never gets, if that makes sense.But I went with them.
(21:43):
And next, you know, they had theWild boys, Ben Jordan and Steve
Neely coming along and they wereabout to do their thing and
finish, you know, go different ways.
And Ben was leaving to go to Global and, you know, ended up
becoming the global heavyweight,light heavyweight champion.
Sorry, they needed somebody to fill in that tag team.
(22:04):
So it kind of went to my brotherand I and we took off and man,
it's been a one heck of a rocketship.
That's awesome. Shane, what was your?
Who was? Who was your first match with?
Well, the first match, it was kind of, it was kind of a, a
gimmick match. It was, it was Mike Samples,
(22:25):
Flash Flanagan and Misty Lane. They were taking on, yeah,
taking on Brady Morton and the Chic, Jordan Weingroff and
myself. And I was, I was a referee doing
it as a referee that night. That was the very first night
match that I worked as a wrestler.
(22:47):
And they said just they said we want you to wrestle on your
referee stuff. I said, OK, that's fine.
And I did. And then it just took off from
there and and so many people, itcaused the riot because they
they got heat on me, beat the crap out of me.
And it ended up calling the wallet and they said, oh, we
can't just put him back referee.And now we got, we got to use
(23:10):
another. So that's kind of how I started
out. Well, that's pretty good.
Your first try, you get a riot. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, there's guys that never
get riots, you know? It was, it was wild.
It got wild that night. So that that was your you, you
were referee and that was technically your first match and
(23:30):
your first gimmick essentially, right?
I mean. Well, the well, I've been
refereeing some and that was thefirst they put me into it as a
wrestler. I was wrestling that night, but
they wanted they wanted me to wrestle as a referee, you know,
kind of like Danny Davis for theWWE did had a, you know, the
strike it outfit made and all, but they just wanted me to
(23:51):
wrestle wrestle that one night in in the referee outfit and I
did and it like I said, it calls.
That's a commotion that they like we can't we just going to
have to put him out there as a wrestler now.
So. You just named some awesome
names. I just interviewed George
Winegrove on the Wolfie D show. What a great dude and what a
interesting show. He he actually told us a funny
(24:14):
story about it. Was Gypsy Joe and Freddie Morton
in a match? Gypsy got a little hot in that
one. Were you there?
Do you remember that match at all?
Oh yeah, yeah, it got it got wild.
Gypsy. I thought Jet she was going to
kill for. Yeah, well, yeah, it was brutal,
I heard. And George is, you know, George
(24:34):
is no, no, no one to turn your back on there either.
You know George can hurt you andtie you up quickly if he wanted
to. Yeah, very, very much a shooter.
One of the one of the real shooters, you know.
Yes. What was that first promotion
called that you worked for? Mid South Wrestling Alliance.
OK, OK, gotcha. And again, you said who was
(24:56):
running that one? Well, Freddie was running that
show at the time. Freddie, Freddie Morton and
Thurman Dolan. Got it.
Got it. OK.
And now a word from our sponsor.Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
(25:23):
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(25:44):
team does it all. And all they ask is give me Back
my Pro wrestling. Every other Thursday, wherever
you listen to podcasts. So and then talk about you and
Steve, I mean you and Steve, if you were like me and Jared, my
(26:05):
brother here, he and I have essentially been A tag team
since we were kids. You know what I mean?
And I can imagine that you and Steve and that's what makes
brother tag team so good when you know, of course, my brother
and I are not trained as professional wrestlers.
And you and Steve obviously havethat training.
And it's I've seen many matches where y'all worked well and
(26:27):
awesome together. But talk about that process of,
OK, look, we're now, you know, Atag team together.
It's an official tag team. We're not just rolling in the
ring during intermission and stuff.
Talk about that and how that worked out.
Was it just an automatic gel experience there or were there
some bumps in the road? No, we jailed well together
(26:48):
because, you know, we grew up together and pretty much raised
each other. You know, we had a kind of rough
upbringing there and stuck it out together and and you know,
of course we played sports together and everything we did,
we did together. And so we kind of looked out for
each other. So that he and I, Chris Champion
(27:09):
was the one that put us together, put us together,
wanted us to wrestle because therefore, when the 1st when I
first started wrestling, I wrestled Steve quite a bit, you
know, because they like, well, let's get you used to wrestling
somebody who you would feel comfortable with.
So they just stuck me to Steve and and we wrestled each other
quite a bit. And man, they was christened
(27:32):
right now we're going to put youtogether.
We're going to call you all the marvelous Mortons.
OK, That's what you want to do. And so he, he, so we kind of
dropped the marvelous name and just became the mortal brothers.
And, you know, and, but we always gelled really well
together. I guess, you know, just been
that brotherly instinct. Bubba and I gelled real well
(27:54):
together too. Bubba was Bubba, you know, and
my younger brother there. And we gelled really good
together. We, we did real well together
too, but not as good as Steve and I did Steve and I was this
more, more natural than Bubba. Bubba is a little younger, a
little, a little bit, you know, things outside the box, a little
more than, hey, I want to try this and he might want to get
(28:15):
into, you know, the crazy stuff.And I'm like, no, I'm not.
I'm not into that, you know. You just described.
Bubba very well, actually. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, we, we gelled really well together.
You know, towards the end of my career that when I was finishing
up, I did a lot more with Bubba than I did Steve because Steve
(28:35):
was got really heavy, heavily involved in baseball and stuff
with his kids and ended up running the league in
Murfreesboro and stuff. So he was taking a lot of time
off and Bubba and I were doing alot of stuff together.
So, you know, you know, Bubba, Bubba was with me when I, when I
ran into one of our mutual friends, you know, oh, Chica
(28:58):
Omar there. Bubba was with me when I was
having dealings with Omar, you know?
I know. Here's the thing, he actually
tried to send me a PayPal to notdo this interview.
Shane, did you know that he saidhe heard that I was trying to
interview you and he actually tried to send me money.
It was actually 10 camels, 3 pretty wives and two of his ugly
(29:21):
wives and he was going to send them all to me.
Yeah, to get. Rid of that camel that he gave
me. It took me forever to get rid of
a camel with two humps. I know that was the weirdest
camel ever. I don't, I don't get it.
But anyway, nobody's ever looking for a camel with two
humps, are they? That's just, you know.
So, you know, we've been talkinga little bit about like Bubba
(29:42):
Steve. We brought up your daughter,
Jerry Lynn, Cody, everybody. How many Mortons are there?
Not counting Ricky. I'm talking just directly close
to you. Now, I know Ricky's related to
you, but you know what I'm saying.
Right, with just related to me close proximity, there's Jerry,
which is we call him Bud. That was Freddy's daddy, then
(30:05):
Freddy, then me, Steve, Jerry Lynn, Cody, my oldest son,
Justin, Bubba, Brandon, David, my sister Jennifer, Jerry Lynn.
Think I've got them all. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure every timeI go.
(30:27):
Not including Ricky and Carrie's.
Because that adds another 20 or 30, right?
With Ricky, Yeah. Yeah, I'm just.
But anyway, yeah, I always jokedthat the Mortons are multiplying
because, you know, Shane would work in a promotion and then
here would come Steve and then here would come Cody your day.
And I was out there working when, you know, when Cody was
just coming in the business and David was just coming in the
(30:50):
business. But it, it was always something
that you clearly looked out for family.
And that's something that reallyI respect about you is that you
really did your best. So like if you saw opportunities
that you could bring in your family to work, I mean, there's
nothing. I think that's genius because
not only is that show that you've got people you can trust
around you, but also that you are a good family person.
(31:13):
And I think that shows a lot about a person whenever they
have their family near. Thus why my brother and I do
this podcast together. We're not close in in mileage
right now, but we're close through this Internet that we're
on. You know, it's all about family
to me. Yeah, that's me.
You know, it's all all about family.
You know, I try to help. I try to help anybody that's
(31:35):
willing to help themselves, if that makes sense.
And I see a lot of pencil and people sometimes, you know, a
lot of people might, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to say
I'm, you know, brag on myself ornothing.
But like when I was promoting, promoting full time, I would use
(31:55):
somebody, see potential of somebody that nobody else really
wanted to use. Then I started doing something
with them. The next thing you know,
everybody's using them. It's like, well, wait a minute,
you just didn't want to use thisguy, you know?
You know, I I tell you that somebody and Jimmy, you know the
guy as well as I do, had a lot of potential and a lot of people
(32:15):
really didn't see it at first. Was Diamond Flan.
Yeah, great hand, great, great hand man.
A lot of people really didn't see that at first.
But look at him now, you know, doing a wonderful things, you
know. But I remember you introduced.
Doug Markham to the scene up there.
He did. He's doing things with MLW and
all kinds of Conrad Thompson brings up Doug Markham on his
(32:37):
podcasts. I'm just saying.
So you entered. I remember you introducing him.
You know that. Anyway, keep going.
I'm sorry. Yeah, You know, I just try to
help people that were willing tohelp themselves or, or had
potential, you know, or I thought that they had potential
and, and, and all they needed was a little help, you know,
every once in a while we all at the bottom and trying to get our
(32:59):
way up. And if it wasn't for people
helping me along the way, I wouldn't have got to be where I
was at and got to do the things I got to do.
And, you know, and I never forgot that.
And I said if I ever got in a situation where I could help
somebody else out, I'd sure try to help them any way I could.
You know, and I and I tried to do that, you know, as as often
as I could. And, you know, and with Cody and
(33:22):
David coming up, Jerry Land and you can talk to them and they
tell you I never gave them anything.
I made them work for it and I made them earn it, you know, and
I I didn't just hand that spot. Hey, here you go.
I'm going to get you a spot. You know, I made them earn it
and made them keep earning it tokeep it, you know, and, and I
(33:44):
think it made them better. I mean, David and Cody were
traveling quite a bit. They both kind of gotten out not
really doing a whole lot anymore.
You know, Cody had a had a little girl, my granddaughter
Presley Ray, and you know, so he's not doing much since he's
had her. David's not doing a whole lot
(34:04):
now. And you know, the ironic thing
is they said, man, wrestling just ain't what it used to be.
And I said, you got that right. Think about 30 years ago when I
got into it. Yeah, yeah.
No kidding. I mean it it's it's it's almost
to the point now that, you know,I could even go out here in
North Carolina and get some bookings.
I know people that come down here and stuff, but honestly, I
(34:25):
just don't have the drive for itbecause I look and see it the
current product. That's why we named this show
Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling. You know what I mean?
I mean, it's it's not a it's notjust a it's not just a saying.
It's actually something we feel,you know, so.
Yeah, You know, the biggest problem with wrestling today is,
is a lot of people's not worriedabout next week, next month, six
(34:46):
months down the road. They're worried about today,
today, today, tonight, tonight, tonight.
Yeah. And then you.
Know that, that, you know, I knew where I was going when I
was looking. I knew where I was going and I
was 3-4 months out and I knew where I was going three to four
months down the road. A lot of people don't do that,
you know, or to me because you think, and I think you know this
(35:09):
story here, Jimmy firing somebody because they have too
much heat. Why would you fire somebody
because they have too much heat?That is the most often on thing
I've ever heard. You know, that means you need to
fire the rest of your guys and make them step it up.
I can understand that they got too much cheap heat.
You know, there's such a thing as heat and cheap heat.
(35:30):
But you know, make the other guys step up to the level this
person got. I mean, make your babies make
this step up to the level this baby face, you know, and people
don't want to do that, you know.And now today people worried
about hey man, I can sell 5 tickets.
Oh, I'm going to book you. I'm going to book you.
I'm going to put you on the showtonight because you will sell 5
(35:52):
tickets next week. That's crazy.
When we were talking ball ago, you know, talking about Freddie
and Ricky, and even with them being related to me, it was, I
didn't just walk in the door andhey, everything was handed to
me. I mean, it was hard for me to
get in, you know, I had to provethat I was willing to, I, I was
(36:14):
willing to give what it takes tomake it in this business.
And that's what I've kept proving time and time again that
I, I was willing to do. I remember driving to Dallas, TX
one time to Scandal or Ackbar and I got a hot dog, a cold
drink, and $10. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, 10 1/2 hour drive and he
says you want to come back. I said I'd absolutely love to,
(36:36):
but I can't come back from this.We'll have to talk about price,
right? Seriously, it wasn't too long
after that he had passed and youknow, unfortunately I didn't get
to go back and but you know, I've, I've paid a lot of dues
and did a lot of shows where there was hardly no money
involved or time. You paid gas and trans or
whatever and food and you were, you didn't make anything.
(37:00):
You went in the hole, but you got your name out there.
Right. Yeah.
You're listening to Give Me BackMy Pro Wrestling, and we'll be
right back after these messages.Gideon's Warriors, a night of
(37:25):
pro wrestling stories and testimony of God's grace and
mercy. Come here Pastor Rick Reynolds
who you may know as Damian or Forsaken, Shane Morton, Ben
Jordan and Tommy Phillips AKA Sean Schultz as they share their
experiences in pro wrestling andtheir personal walks with God.
It's all going to be on Sunday, January 18th, 2026 at 7:00 PM at
(37:46):
his House Ministries, 49 O 9, Highway 43, Summertown,
Tennessee. Everyone is welcome, do not miss
this one time event. Hey, this is Pastor Rick
Reynolds of his House Ministriesin Summertown, Tennessee.
I'd like to do a personal invitation to everyone to come
see us on January 18th, 2026 at 7:00.
(38:13):
Shane, what's the what's your favorite promotion you've ever
worked for? Well, I guess the I did a little
bit for the USWA and I guess growing up watching that and
able to work, work the fairgrounds and I didn't work
the fairgrounds for the USWA, but doing a little bit for them.
(38:33):
But you know, I guess that was afavorite thing there, you know,
promotion because you know, a lot of people's ambitions or
whatever. My dream is to go to Madison
Square Garden. My dream was to go to the
National Fairgrounds. That's where I grew up watching
wrestling or to the Mid South Coliseum or something.
(38:58):
I got to work the gardens and got to work at Evansville, at
the Coliseum and different places, you know, and really
enjoyed what I got to do it. And I worked some dark shows for
WWE and WCW in different places and, and some house shows for
them. And you know, I enjoyed what I
got to do and was thankful for what I got to do.
(39:19):
Where did you work for them at then?
Was it in the gardens? Is that where you work?
No, I work spot shows for wherever.
I mean, I remember one time driving with Debbie Combs and
Robbie Raids. We went to a place that you may
know a Golly Bridges, West Virginia.
Or something like that. I've heard of that place, yeah.
(39:40):
Yeah, it was a it was a it was afor AWWWF show.
And then man, Tom Brandy was theBooker for it.
He was booking the shows and andit was a fair show.
So they've got on the month of these sending crews down to do
these fair shows. And it wasn't a big huge thing,
but they were getting paid big buku bucks to do it.
(40:02):
And I got on a bunch of those shows like that got me booked on
a lot of stuff with me out a lot, you know, the women did.
So that's. Awesome.
So OK, so you got your favorite promotion then obviously.
So, you know, what was your favorite promotion that you got
to run? Well, the CBAI ran that for
years, you know, that was mine and and I really enjoyed that.
(40:27):
Had a lot of huge success there.You know, we, we ran out of an
Armory in Columbia every other week for, for quite a long time.
And you know, back in, back thenit was, we were thinking about
canceling if we drew 300 people.You know, it was like, oh, we
might, you know, but I had put 1100 people in there for a show
(40:53):
that was just local talent, no big, huge name on it, local
talent and drew 1100 people. Yeah.
Well, you always drew well in Columbia.
I know that because I work thoseshows, especially now.
It may have been a different era, obviously, but at the same
same time I remember you packingthe buildings out wherever you
did it, so always impressed by that.
(41:13):
Yeah, you know, and like I said,that goes back to the I know you
know who I'm talking about. Jimmy the devil's disciples.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. We had a long ongoing.
We feuded with those guys for 27years, believe it or not.
They're like your midnight Express basically.
I mean if you think of. Right, right, right.
(41:34):
Every year Mule Day, you know, that's a big thing around
Columbia, was meal day and therewould be 3 to 400,000 people in
this town for a meal gatherings,you know, and we would always
run a big show there and always would have the Mortons and the
Devils on it. And it was nothing but a fight.
It was a street fight, some kindof fighting going on and it drew
(41:55):
every month. And I remember we ran head to
head against another show and they were trying to dog the show
out, my show out, you know, oh, why would you want to go see
that? That was the same main event
you've seen 20 years ago. You need to be over here.
And they were trying to use fakeMortons and all kinds of stuff.
And that night, they drew maybe 75 people there.
(42:18):
I drew 550 people. And you know, with that same,
that same main event that they said wasn't going to draw, I
drew 550 people with that. That's awesome.
Did you have like a worst? Promotion you ever worked for or
like? Worst promotion I ever worked
for? Maybe there's quite a few of
(42:40):
them that I, you know, that I hated working for, you know,
because of dumb stuff, you know,sure, you know, you know, and a
good one. Could turn into a bad one,
right? I mean, that's just how it goes.
Good one could because I think Imay know one that you're talking
about right in the mind right now, but.
(43:00):
Yeah, I mean, there's several man that that just were I I can
give you one good one. They called me want to know if
I'd come and wrestle for this time.
Yes. And I knew who the company was.
And I was like, no, because theyreally didn't have any talent in
the earning thing. And I was like, no, I don't want
to come there. And I said, oh please, we need
your help. We need your help.
(43:20):
And anyway, I decided to go to work for them and it was RTW.
And they asked me some if if youloaned this, what would you do
with this company? I said I'd fire everybody you
had and hire new talent because you don't have talent.
And they said, oh, OK, so they fired everybody.
(43:41):
And they said, yeah, so they fired everybody except for one
person, and that was the promoter's son.
And they killed him. And they said, can you hire some
guys? So I hired some guys to come in
and turned it into a decent, halfway decent place.
And then they think when, when Igot it up and going, oh, we're
(44:03):
drawing now we can fire Shane. So they fired me to get rid of
me. And I, that's not what that's
not why I'm mad at them, but it just they never deserved to be
in the business. Let me just put it that way.
They was not willing to work at anything to to make the business
better. They were all about doing
(44:24):
everything they could to destroythe business.
And, you know, somebody come up and say, hey, I want to be a
wrestler. OK, give me $100 and, and you
can be a wrestler like, and they'd stick them right in the
ring. No training, no nothing.
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I've seen guys do that
and they claim they were trainedby Chase Stevens or they're
(44:46):
trained by this guy. And, you know, wrestling can be
very dangerous. Absolutely.
But I don't know that there's anything more dangerous than an
untrained wrestler, honestly. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, I agree with you 100%. That's what you talking about,
that Jimmy? One night I was sitting in
Tullahoma, TN at a National Guard Armory and this guy was
(45:06):
talking about he was trained andall this and that.
The other and I don't know if you know Rick Reynolds or not,
Forsaken. Oh yeah, of.
Course he was telling. He was telling, Forsaken said.
Oh yeah, man, I was trained by Shane Morton and I'm sitting
right beside this thing. Oh my goodness.
And I looked at him and him. So Rick says so Shane Morton
(45:27):
training. Yeah, man, he, you know, you
know who he is. He's Kendall.
Ricky Morton said, Oh yeah, I know who he.
I've heard of him. He kicks on and he goes on with
this conversation for about fouror five minutes.
And I looked at him. I said, so Shane Morton trained
you. He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, I don't
like you, man. He goes, oh, I wouldn't tell him
(45:48):
that. He, he he might whoop you.
I said, I don't think he can whoop me.
And he, oh, yeah, he might. I said no.
I said he got a phone number. He said, well, yeah, but I don't
have it with me. I said, I'd sure like to talk to
him. And he goes, why you won't talk
to him for? I said, because he's an idiot if
(46:08):
he trained you. And he goes, I don't know, I
don't know. He ain't no he man.
He's been around. I said, oh really?
I said, wow. I said no, what's your name
again? He told me who he was and I
don't even remember what his name is.
And I said, well that's funny, Idon't ever recall training you.
And he goes, do what? And I said, I don't ever recall
training you. And I'm going to give you about
(46:29):
5 seconds to get out of this breath room because if you don't
get out of this restroom, I'm fixing to hurt you.
Who who, who do you think you are?
I said, well let me introduce myself.
My name is Shane Morton. And he goes and he started
botting puddling and he left andnever come back.
I was going to say have has anyone ever seen this man again
(46:50):
because I can't imagine he wouldever even show his face at a
show. I bet he don't even watch
wrestling anymore because of that.
He. Probably.
He probably does it. He probably does it.
Oh my. God.
Yeah, that is amazing story. We'll be right.
Back with more. Give me back my pro wrestling.
(47:18):
This is your Rockstar ring announcer, Aaron Camaro.
I'm a man who believes the 2 greatest art forms ever created
are professional wrestling and heavy rock music.
So when I'm not hosting the bestparties that also happen to be
live professional wrestling shows, I'm hosting the Decibel
(47:42):
Geek Podcast. Decibel Geek is a weekly podcast
that features discussions of allthings rock.
We're talking The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi
Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Ozzie, Mötley Crüe, Guns N'
Roses, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Pantera, and everything
(48:04):
in between. Plus, we'll turn you on to new
bands from today that have the same spirit and style that the
legends do. Decibel Geek is hosted by myself
along with Rock and Pod founder Chris Sinczak, and each week
you'll get interviews with famous musicians and industry
(48:24):
insiders, along with informative, entertaining,
humorous and insightful discussions, and most
importantly, a passion for the music.
So if you love to rock out as much as I do, then this is your
invitation to the greatest rock'n'roll party in all of
podcasting. It's Decibel Geek, and it's
(48:46):
available right now on all majorpodcast platforms.
Oh yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this is
(49:12):
Jimmy St. and that was episode 26 of the Best of James Rock St.
productions with the first half of episode 32 of Shane Morton on
Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling. Shane is a great friend and a
mentor and has done a lot to help me and this podcast.
Honestly, this episode put our show on the map and we can't
thank him enough for it. You can hear the full episode
and more over on at GMBMPW or Give Me Back My By Pro Wrestling
(49:35):
wherever you listen to podcasts or simply click the link in the
notes below. We hope you've enjoyed a look
back in the archives of James Rock St.
Productions. Check us out next week to see
what else we have in store. Until then, follow at G, MB, MPW
and at James Rock St. everywhere.
Peace with a tear in my eye. This is the greatest moment in
(49:58):
my life. This has been a James Rock St.
(50:29):
production.
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