Dax Harwood had a hand in bringing Rock ‘n’ Roll to North Carolina this weekend.
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express is one of the greatest tag teams of all time. They have appeared in AEW on multiple occasions before, and they will make their return at Saturday’s episode of Collision. AEW is advertising that fans can also meet the legendary team ahead of the show.
FTR’s Dax Harwood spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express’ influence on the wrestling business. During the conversation, he also shared that he pitched bringing the team in for AEW’s shows in North Carolina this week.
“I pitched to Tony to bring Rock N Roll [out for AEW Collision in Charlotte]. I wanted to bring them to Asheville and Charlotte, but we could only get them for Charlotte, which is great,” Harwood explained. “But having Ricky and Robert there — they could be so easily forgotten about. Because WWE doesn’t — or haven’t, I don’t want to say ‘doesn’t’ because I don’t know the current regime. But they haven’t liked to promote and show what wasn’t a ‘WWE product.’ And Ricky and Robert, aside from a few months in ’92 and again in ’98, aside from [that time], they weren’t part of the WWE. So it’s easy to forget about how great they were.
“But they were, in my opinion, obviously the greatest babyface team of all time. I would put them 1 and 2 in the [conversation] for greatest tag team of all time with the Midnight Express, Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton. They are the greatest tag team of all time, but Ricky Morton is the greatest babyface. I know that sounds cliché but if you watch him, he is the greatest babyface.”
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express appeared on the October 30, 2019 episode of Dynamite to crown the inaugural AEW World Tag Team Champions. They were attacked by Proud n Powerful (Santana and Ortiz) that night but returned at Full Gear 2019, where Morton hit a Canadian Destroyer on Santana and followed up with a suicide dive onto Sammy Guevara and Ortiz.
Their next appearance came on the August 12, 2020 episode of Dynamite, which was advertised as Tag Team Appreciation Night. They ended up getting in a scuffle with Tully Blanchard and FTR, who attacked the Express and hit a tandem piledriver to close the segment.
After their appearance in Charlotte, The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express is also scheduled to appear at AEW’s Dynamite taping in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 22.
Tito Santana has a new perspective on WWE’s view of Legends.
WWE Hall of Famer Tito Santana appeared on VOC Nation’s Wrestling with History podcast. The appearance came after he attended WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event in December. Santana recently signed a Legends contract and said WWE told him they want to use Legends more. He said it’s a different company without Vince McMahon running things.
“They wanted us to be part of restarting Saturday Night’s Main Event. Me and Koko (B Ware) just recently signed a (Legends) contract with the WWE and from what I understand, they want to start using the Legends (more often). I appreciate this because, you know, they’re giving us credit for being the pioneers (and for helping to get) the business where it is right now… I (initially) said, ‘you guys have treated me like crap all these years and you have done nothing with Tito Santana for years, and I’m ok, I don’t really need it, I don’t need you guys.’
“The person that I talked to said, ‘Look, we’re not Vince anymore. We’re a different organization. We hold the legends (in high regard). We respect the legends and we want to do something with you guys. Finally, they offered me a (Legends) contract and I signed the contract about three weeks ago. Everything has been happening pretty fast.”
