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The World According to Dutch: The Rock-N-Roll Express Are Born

Posted: Nov 10th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Have you ever wondered where some of the names wrestlers use come from? Well they can only come from two places. Either the wrestler gives himself a name or the booker/creative people do. In earlier times, a guy could get a name in 30 seconds. Now, it might take weeks to run copyright and trademark searches. The Rock-N-Roll Express didn't have to wait long. Below is the story of not only how their name was arrived at but also their gimmick as well.

Back in the early 80's, the Memphis territory was on fire. Jerry Lawler and I used to travel quite a bit together back on the Louisville and Evansville shots in those days. On this particular day, we were headed north on I-65 to to Louisville. It wasn't a hard drive and Lawler was a good guy to travel with. Easy going, very personable and hilarious. Louisville was about 2 and a half hour drive from Nashville and once you hit the Louisville city limits, the Gardens was just 4 blocks off the interstate. Basically, the entire drive was all interstate. Wrestlers loved that. I know I did.

As this particular trip started, Lawler, at the time, was booking the territory. As we talked on the way to Louisville, Lawler mentioned to me that he was bringing in Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson as a team but he needed something for them that was different. He needed them to have a gimmick. He asked did I have any suggestions. I, at first suggested that to be really different, they could wrestle naked. That would be really different I thought. But, after some thought, we decided that there were probably laws and stuff prohibiting that kind of athletic behavior. So we started slinging ideas back and forth but came up with nothing with any substance to it. I still liked the naked wrestling idea. I already had a name for the team. The Streakers.

We talked back and forth for over an hour and we still didn't have anything that we thought would work. I would throw an idea and Lawler wouldn't like it. Then he'd throw something and I wouldn't like it. Creatively, we were stumped on how to debut those guys. Matter of fact, we were stumped as to what we wanted to do that night too. But, Lawler was notoriously late for delivering finishes so I was used to it.

Finally, as we were about to stop for a stretch, I offhandedly remarked, "You know, Ricky Morton kinda looks like he could be in a rock band or something. Both of them look like they could be in a band. Why don't you just dress them up like little rock stars and call them Rock and Roll something? Ricky Morton has that mullet thing going on like all those rock stars do and and so does Robert so that might be something that you could use." Lawler looked at me and said "that's it. I have a bunch of stuff at home that I can put them in and we can call them the Rock and Roll Express."

Wow I thought. That gimmick came about quite suddenly.

We then got off at an exit where we usually stopped on every trip to Louisville . Lawler walked in and went straight to a magazine rack at the store/deli where we stopped. He bought two rock and roll magazines so that he could look at the photos and get some idea of what Ricky and Robert needed to look like. He saw a photo of Motley Crue and that gave Lawler the look he wanted.

Lawler booked them the next Monday in Memphis and told them what he wanted them to wear. They were to wear long tights with bandanas on them and go to the ring with a heavy rock and roll sound as their entrance theme. In those days, ASCAP or the music companies didn't say anything about wrestlers using their commercial music on entrances. Now, don't even think about it.

On that Monday night, I distinctly remember walking into their dressing room as they were getting ready and Ricky was all dressed with his little bandanas all tied up around his boots. Ricky was all excited. Robert, on the other hand, didn't seem as gleeful. Robert wasn't sharing the same enthusiasm for the character that Ricky was displaying. I finally asked Robert what the problem was and he told me that he thought the gimmick was "silly."

I saw now what the problem was. Robert Gibson was actually embarrassed to put the long tights and bandanas on. Ricky got on him a little and shamed him into doing it but he didn't like it. He did it but he was still embarrassed. Ricky didn't care. He was just glad to be wrestling. Robert was still embarrassed when he entered the Mid Soutth Coliseum arena for the Rock and Roll Express' first match ever.

That moment changed Ricky Morton's and Robert Gibson's lives forever.

As they say in show business, it was all in the presentation. When their music hit and the spotlight caught them coming down the aisle, they looked like stars and the people responded to them that way. The Rock and Roll Express got over in one night. Big time. They got over with the young kids and especially with the young girls in the crowd. They would have gotten over more except there was another team in Memphis at the time with a similar gimmick, the Fabulous Ones who were blocking their way.

Business was very good that year and The Rock and Roll Express stayed in Memphis for about a year learning how to work and team together. Jimmy Cornette and the Midnight Express were working in Bill Watts territory, the Mid South, and Watts was dying for a team to go against Cornette's guys. The Midnight were established as the top heel team in the territory and Cornette had advised Watts that Ricky and Robert were the team that the Midnight could do HUGE business with.

A few phone calls later between Watts and Jerry Jarrett and it was set. The Rock and Roll would leave Memphis and start in the Mid South where they would feud with the Midnight Express. Their run together set attendance and gate records in Watt's territory never seen before. Watts was a promoter who serious wrestling who loved the big guys and never pushed the smaller guys but the fan's response to the Rock and Roll Express was just so overwhelming that Watts was forced to run with it. He ran all the way to the bank.

After a couple of years in the Mid South, both teams found their way to the Carolinas and the Mid Altantic territory and with Ric Flair anchoring the territory, it was deja vu all over again. The Rock and Roll made more money than they ever dreamed of making. I heard later that Robert Gibson got over his embarrassment rather quickly after seeing how well paid he was when he got his checks.

To think that all their success came at the hands of two guys casually driving up to Louisville, Kentucky one afternoon, who accidentally hit on a right formula, shows just how simple this business can be. Maybe if Lawler and I hadn't been in that car at that precise moment, at that precise time, Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton, as the Rock and Roll Express, could very possibly never have existed and both of them could have ended up as mere blips on the wrestling radar screen instead of having a place in wrestling history. Timing is everything.

Information on the Book

If you order my upcoming book, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DUTCH, your next question might be, what will I be getting? If you've read my FREE SAMPLE CHAPTER featured below this blog, then you should have a good idea of what the book is about. If you didn't read it, learn to read.

But what else can you expect if you order my book? Listed below are some of the chapters and topics that are contained in the book. This book is a sometimes humorous, sometimes serious look at the underbelly of professional wrestling which will amuse you and shock you at the same time. I uncover some facts in the process of telling a story that you most likely have never heard before. Most all of these stories are true unless I've taken the liberty to tell you otherwise.

I've received a ton of emails asking me what would be in the book. Keep in mind that this book is not a kiss and tell. I don't like to get into what wrestler cheated on his wife or who was doing drugs or the like. That, to me, is not a book. That's gossip. If a man did cheat on his wife, then that's between him and his wife and is not something for me to dredge up. If a guy did drugs, that's his business, not mine, and certainly not for mass consumption. If a guy ran naked down the street at night...well I only did it once so it's not worth repeating.

My motivation for writing this book is to give some insight into the early days of professional wrestling and to reference what it was like starting out. It was so much different than today. The business has changed dramatically from the time that I started and in some ways, for the better but for some, for the worse. Every wrestler has a different story and a different path. This was the path I went down.

These chapters are arranged in no particular order.

1.Meeting Randy Savage for the First Time...when I first met Savage he was a trip as he isn't that much different from his on screen personna. It took awhile to get used to him but once I did and we started working, it was a great experience not only for fans but for me as well.

2.The Memphis Years and the Infamous Jerry Lawler feud...(YouTube video available)...an interesting look behind the curtain when Jerry the King Lawler and I met in a series of matches in the glory years of Memphis. The matchup between Lawler and I happened in 1982 which was just months before Lawler and Andy Kaufman had their infamous match. It was the Golden Era of Memphis wrestling and I remember that the territory started off with sell outs and ended that year with sellouts. A great era for Memphis wrestling and through the technology of YouTube, that era can still be viewed today. If you're a fan of professional wrestling, this chapter is a must read for all serious fans. Fascinating read.

3.University of Dutch Famous Alumni Series (I've already posted this one on the blog. You can read it below)

4.The Night of the Stinky Indian... a true story of an old Southern promoter and wrestler and in the way he dealt with a wrestler who refused to take a bath. Warning: graphic scenes are described.

5.The Macho Man Meets a Police Dog at a Waffle House...I always called it the Awful House... hilarious story about a night that will never be forgotten by Savage or the police dog. It's set in a Waffle House down south at around 1AM in the morning. The story is 100% true.

6.Getting Started in the Wrestling Business...a first hand account of how pro wrestling used to be before the days of Vince McMahon and TNA. In many ways, much better than today and in many ways, much worse. I've left it to the reader to decide.

7.The Night of The Curtain Call in MSG and Vince McMahon's reaction to it...the night that the Kliq, consisting of Kevin Nash, Razor Ramone, Triple H and Shawn Michaels, all gave each other the big hug in center ring in Madison Square Garden after they had all wrestled each other earlier on the card. I was standing at the curtain right next to Vince McMahon and I describe his reaction to it. Fascinating read.

8.Odd Night Out or Wrestling in Front of an Orchestra with Jeff Jarrett taped for a PBS Special...this is a story of a match that was held in a Fine Arts concert hall in Louisville, Ky. between Jeff Jarrett and myself as we wrestled each other in front of a full percussion orchestra. This was taped as a part of the Lonesome Pine Special series which aired on PBS. Don't ask me what the purpose was, all I know is that it paid great. Plus, the match is now housed for eternity within the halls of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC in the Americana section. If you need further evidence of the match...a YouTube clip is available online.

9.My Time In TNA and how TNA actually got started...a little ditty of a story that I got straight from the source.

11.How the TNA KnockOut Division Was Born...a really well documented account of how the KnockOut Division was created literally from the first step until the last. It describes the impetus for the idea and how I had to present the idea to clear its way through creative. This story contains some difficult hurdles that I had to avoid in getting the KnockOut Division up and running. The KnockOuts came very close to not being formed. Another great read.

12.Dutch's Hall of Fame...this story lists all the guys whom I consider to be the true stars of wrestling and not all the members in my Hall are wrestlers. Some of them are promoters, some of them are refs and I even name a couple of fans who are inducted as honorary members of the Dutch Hall of Fame.

13.Undertaker and I getting stopped At Gunpoint...on InterState 65 at Gunpoint...this is about a wild night that the Undertaker and I were riding peacefully back home and were stopped and detained by 3 Kentucky Highway Patrolmen and 5 county deputies on Interstate 65 North at GUNPOINT. Another true story and one that I'll never forget. Excellent read.

14.The Andy Kaufman Story...this is a story that I wrote detailing my dealings and experiences with Andy Kaufman. If there ever was a weird guy, Andy Kaufman fit the bill as I watched him up close and from a distance. I was there the night Lawler suplexed Kaufman on his head and heard stories directly from Lawler about threats that he received from Andy's friends. Did I know it was a work? Read the story to find out.

15.Riots and near Riots and being the object of one...this chapter details two riots that I was in. You know, a riot can completely wreck your day but it also makes you appreciate the safety of a dressing room. For those who have never experienced real 'heat', which should be most of you, this is a must read chapter. 'Heat' is a rarity in wrestling today. The closest thing that even comes close to describing the 'heat' that was involved in these riots can only be seen at soccer games in Europe when the English rowdies cross the English channel to watch a soccer game. Believe me, you don't want to be in one.

16.Famous Dutchisms...this chapter lists some famous sayings that have been attributed to me over the years. Please do not steal my lines. I've trademarked them all.

17.Wrestling Bears or I Didn't Sign Up for This....just when you thought it was safe to go back into the woods, a wrestling promoter has an idea of booking a wrestling bear, which would be OK, except I was the one chosen to wrestle her. Yes, she was a female bear and it covers a week in the mid-80's when the female bear and I got really acquainted. Very good read.

19.Never Before Done in Wrestling...Quit One Booking Job, Walk Two Blocks, Get Another One...another story about competing wrestling companies in Puerto Rico as I worked for one and then worked for the other one on the same day. Great story.

20.Starting Out in the Wrestling Biz...the early days of my wrestling career and how the business has changed. This chapter should be required reading by all rookies and first year wrestlers. Wrestlers of today know very little about the history of the sport that they are attempting to enter. All they know is what they've seen which for the last 20 years has basically been WWE. Hopefully, this chapter will give them and everybody who is curious a look at how wrestling territories and promotions worked in the early days.

21.Vince Russo Behind the Scenes...a eye witness account of the man that the InterNet has dubbed Satan. LOL. No, he's not that bad. This chapter details how I met Vince and how our paths has crossed over the years. It is a riveting look at the creative process and how ideas get made and get dumped. Creative sessions is where careers can be made or not made.

22.Now That's the Way to Throw a Chair Shot...another true story of an actual match held in Shreveport, Louisiana between the Dirty Dutchman and the Snowman where I literally knock the Snowman off his feet with a well placed chairshot. It is the story behind the story. Again, thanks to the technology of YouTube, the actual match is there for all to see. Spoiler Alert: The chair actually is indented after I hit the Snowman the first time. Great story.

23.Puerto Rico, the Early Years...this story details my first experience with Puerto Rico and how dangerous is was then not only for me but for all foreigners who wrestled there as bad guys. I also describe how I was a virtual prisoner in my own room as I was so disliked by the fans of Puerto Rico that I couldn't walk the streets without fear of confrontation. Hard to believe but true.

24.The Birth of TNA and other assorted Fishing Stories...how TNA was first conceived and who it was conceived by.

25.So You Want to be a Wrestling Writer or How Hard Is It to Write a Wrestling Show?...this story is for all those who think just writing a wrestling show shouldn't be that hard. Is it hard?

26.The Real Story of the Heat Between Jimmy Cornette and Vince Russo...I know people have read about the real life controversy between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo but I tell the story from a place in the middle. This heat is as real as it gets folks. I learned a long time ago not to take sides but I tell this story completely from the middle. It's not funny nor do I commentate. I also describe the feelings between Jimmy and Vince. It's not pretty.

27.Introduction to Dutch...here's a short introduction to myself for those who have no idea who I am. I also discuss who, what, where, how and why as to my desire to pursue a career in the wrestling profession.

28.Dirty Dutch's Venture into eBay...true story about a time my daughter rooked me into auctioning some Dirty Dutch items on ebay. Good read.

29.The Ballad of Dirty Dutch ...an off the cuff parody of the Dirty Dutch character and his early days in the fictional Texas town of Oil Trough

30.My Time in the WWF...including my only appearance on a WrestleMania. It was WrestleMania 11 when I made my first appearance as the manager of the Blu Brothers as Jacob and Eli Blu faced off against Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith. I relate how long it took to put the match together and how I finally ended up giving them their finish. When I first entered WWF, I was Uncle Zebekiah as the uncle and manager of Eli and Jacob Blu who were supposed to be akin to the mountain folk that we all saw in Deliverance. I was Uncle Zeb going in but Ron and Don bailed on me and left me with nobody to manage. I ended up with Justin Hawk Bradshaw and some of his antics are classic.

31.Jokes Collected Over a Career in Wrestling Dressing Rooms...well that chapter pretty well describes itself. These are jokes that I've collected over years because when I used to hear a good joke, eventually, I always forgot it a week later. I finally decided that the best way to remember a good joke is to write it down. Here are some of the best of the best or the creme de la creme collected over a 20 year period. All of them can be told in mixed company too.

32.Wrestling in a Maximum Security Prison...true story. I've never been in a prison before and most people, who visit, only see the visiting room. Not me. I actually wrestled, half naked I might add, in front of a 1,000 convicted murderers, attempted murderers, rapists, felons, child molesters, thieves and various other scum of the earth without guards of any sort surrounding me. Would I do it today? Not no but hell no. After seeing that bunch of psychos, thank God for prisons. Hilarious story now but it wasn't so funny then.

33.The Wildest, Craziest Places and Matches That I've Ever Been In...Wrestling 25 feet in the air on a scaffold...true story again about a match I had in Memphis where I actually climbed a scaffold and had a match and some more places that will shock you.

34.Real Dressing Room Fights...or Fights That Started in the Ring and Spilled over into the Dressing Room...fights in wrestling dressing rooms used to be the norm instead of the rarity. I've had a few that started in the ring and got settled in the back. True story.

As you can tell, there's a lot of information contained in this book and it's quite possible that not every chapter will make the book. My editor has told me that I have probably written too much so he will be involved in editing my book down to a readable size. I am asking all readers of the blog to email me and tell me what chapters they would like to read.

Later...THE MAN THEY STILL CALL DIRTY...DUTCH

Tags: Dutch Mantel, Rock-N-Roll Express, Jerry Lawler, Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Jim Cornette, Midnight Express, Bill Watts, MSW, Ric Flair, TNA, Jeff Jarrett, WWE, The Snowman, WWF