The following is from Lance Storm on “Champagne” Gerry Morrow who passed away on Monday at 75 years old.
“I’m struggling to find the words. He was a mentor and a friend. He taught me more about wrestling than any other. He taught me how to work, and he taught me how to have fun in the ring. So many incredible memories. While I am crying now, I take comfort in knowing he knew how much he meant to me. I told him every time I saw him.
RIP Champagne Gerry Morrow.”
Originally written on July 12, 2000 on Lance’s old website
“Champagne Gerry Morrow: Teacher to Calgary Greats”
Don Callis has inspired many of my commentaries.
Usually, they are amusing stories about how much of a pain in the a$$ he is. This week, he inspired me with his weekly column which was about a mutual friend of ours, Gerry Morrow.
I get a lot of mail from people asking me “Why are Canadian workers so talented?” I usually credit Calgary and the training provided by the Hart Family. As much truth as there is in that statement, after reading Callis’ article, I can’t help but think I’ve over looked an even bigger factor, “Champagne” Gerry Morrow.
“Who?” you probably ask. Most Americans won’t know who I am talking about, but believe me that Calgary and Japanese fans sure will. Gerry is one of the best and most talented workers I have ever had the pleasure of being in the ring with. He has taught me more in this business than any other individual, and I suspect he’s done the same for many others.
Gerry was a perennial heel in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling. If you’ve ever worked in Stampede, chances are you’ve worked with Gerry Morrow. As a heel for Stampede, he worked with all the Harts, Dynamite, Davey, Johnny, Benoit, Jericho, and myself — a lot of really talented workers and I believe he is much of the reason why.
I know for a fact he was a huge influence on Jericho and I, and that Benoit was one of his favourites. In addition to being the hardest worker I have ever met, (keep in mind that I know Rob Van Dam), Gerry is a master of in-ring psychology. He is an incredible heel who knows how to run a match. Ring psychology and having a match make sense is what, in my opinion, separates great workers from good wrestlers.
A lot of great workers have come out of Calgary. When you have a smart graduating class, chances are you have a great teacher. As great as the Hart training is, no one ever comes out of camp as a great worker. One becomes a great worker by working with great workers and learning from them.
What makes Gerry so good? More than anything, it is his work ethic and love for this business. I have never seen Gerry do anything selfish in the ring. Whether you were the top babyface in the company or as green as grass, he bumped his a$$ off to get you and the match over. He always accomplished both.
He taught me and many others how to break a match down into its most basic elements, and build it from the ground up, something that is becoming a lost art, and something I will always be grateful for. Ask any one of the boys who have come out of Calgary and I’ll bet they all put over “Champagne” Gerry Morrow.
Gerry is probably best known by fans for being almost impossible to understand during promos. It’s not that he is a bad talker; it’s just English isn’t his first language. His first language is French, his second Japanese, and English is his third. I have seen him converse fluently in both French and Japanese and his English, quite honestly, just takes time to adjust to his accent. If we had to converse in my third language, we would be in much more dire straights, believe me. Other than counting to ten, ordering a Big Mac, and saying enough to get myself slapped, I’d be pretty much out of luck.
I bring this up because, I think, it’s the key to why he is a good teacher.
When you first work with Gerry, he lays out the majority of the match ahead of time. I think he does this to avoid having to call the whole match in there and risk you misunderstanding him. When you lay matches out with Gerry, you really learn how logical and basic a match can be. Then, when you wrestle that same match, you realize how great and easy it can be as well. Once Gerry and I got to work together enough, I could understand him perfectly and he started just calling the match out there, but it was in those beginning matches that he showed me the light.
I remember the year I trained Justin Credible (1992) and we were working in Calgary in what I think was Justin’s second match. He was booked to wrestle Gerry and Justin was scared to death because in addition to being the best worker I know, Gerry is also probably the toughest. I knew Justin could have a great match with Gerry, so I told Gerry that I had trained Justin and that he was pretty good. Gerry pinned Justin clean in the middle of the ring, and at the same time, he made him look like a million dollars. They had a great match which Justin still talks about today. Another great worker trained in Calgary who learned from Gerry Morrow.
In addition to being a great worker and teacher, Gerry was also a lot of fun. I spent countless hours on the road with him in my first few years in the business and could tell Gerry Morrow stories from now until Christmas. I will leave you with just one.
We were doing a 10-day loop in Manitoba, and Gerry and I were working on top. Gerry was calling the matches in the ring and for the first four or five nights, we were starting the matches with me working his arm (all spots would lead back into an armdrag or armbar of some kind). The next night as Gerry headed through the curtain, I asked what I thought to be a rhetorical question: “Working the arm again, Gerry?”
To my surprise, he said “No, the head” and through the curtain he went. After our first spot, I took Gerry down to the mat in a headlock, and was startled by a weird feeling on my chest. I looked down and saw Gerry biting and chewing on my nipple. This is, in addition to being disturbing, quite painful. All through the match as I took Gerry down, he started biting me. After the match, in the back, he was laughing hysterically at me. After that night, it was back to the arm, thank goodness.
The last night of the trip, before heading to the ring, Gerry called out to me, “Tonight, we work the head!” As Gerry headed to the ring with a smirk on his face, I headed for my bag looking for some heat rub to coat my chest. After our first spot, I took Gerry down by the head. He reached up and grabbed my nipple in his teeth, and started screaming and spitting from the horrible taste in his mouth. Now, the match became a battle between the ref and I to keep from laughing out loud in the ring. After the match, Gerry was again laughing, saying “You got me!”
Gerry taught me how to work, and more importantly, how to have fun while working. If you want to know why everyone from Calgary…….Alberta, Canada, are such good workers, It’s because we were all lucky enough to know and work with Champagne Gerry Morrow.
Thank you, Gerry.
