RIP Champagne Gerry Morrow – The Best Wrestler You’ve Never Heard Of

Talk Is Jericho

Chris Jericho

Tv & Film, Sports, Wrestling

4.8 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gerry Morrow was one of the all-time great territory wrestlers, a master heel, a world traveler, and one of the toughest (and funniest) guys to ever step in the ring! He was also a mentor and great friend to Jericho, Lance Storm, AEW’s Don Callis, and Paul Lazenby. Hear about Gerry’s legendary giant-hand slaps (and the poor referee who took six in a row), his love for bumping and selling backdrops, and the time he sang Prince’s “Scandalous” at the top of his lungs during a 3am road trip. Don remembers touring South Africa with Gerry, and how his toughness made dangerous situations feel safe. Lance talks about wrestling in Beirut with Gerry, learning to call matches despite Gerry’s thick accent, and one specific crazy “steel can” spot! Paul shares the story of Gerry boxing his ears in his very first tag match, and how Gerry later pulled him aside with calm, constructive advice instead of ripping him a new one. They also cover Gerry’s days in Japan, his Stampede Wrestling legacy, why Vince McMahon & WWF never called him, and the immense respect Gerry earned from Bret Hart and every peer who ever worked with him. Plus, ribs, road stories, and lots of locker room laughs! Thank you for supporting our sponsors! Rula: Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/jericho #ad Watch this episode on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/ChrisJerichoFozzy 👍 Don’t forget to Like, Subscribe, and hit the 🔔 to stay updated on new episodes! More from Talk Is Jericho: 📸 Instagram: @chrisjerichofozzy | @talkisjericho 🐦 Twitter/X: @IAmJericho | @TalkIsJericho 🌐 Website: https://www.webisjericho.com/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Talk is Jericho, baby. Talk is Jericho.
0:08.3	Talk is Jericho, Mama, talk is me.
0:13.4	Been a crazy week, 10 days with so many people passing away, Ozzie and Hulk Hogan and Malcolm Jamal Warner and Lonnie
0:22.5	Anderson, somebody that also passed away is someone that that means a lot to us, Jerry Morrow,
0:28.2	champagne Jerry Morrow. It's one of those things, if you know, you know. Anybody from the
0:33.2	Calgary territory and, you know, Canada-wide and Japan would know Jerry Morrill, especially for us as guys who started in the Calgary territory, one of the all-time great territory workers who probably didn't get his due in a lot of ways.
0:51.2	Do you agree with that, Lance?
0:52.6	Oh, absolutely. I think he was the backbone of why a lot of
0:58.0	Calgary workers ended up so good. Like he was that heel that worked with so many of the famous baby
1:05.7	faces that succeeded and got out of Calgary. No, that's true. And we've got Lance Storm, Paul
1:10.3	Lazenby, and Don Callis, who's agreed, that's true. And we've got Lance Storm, Paul Lazenby,
1:11.0	and Don Callis, who's agreed to be civil here. Was Jerry kind of a mentor for you, Don?
1:16.6	Yeah, I guess I've been fortunate to have a few, but he was, I guess the first one I had was
1:22.4	Brunzel, but Jerry was much more hands-on in the sense that, you know, the first time he saw me wrestle, Brunzel had got me booked in all Japan as a junior, which, thank God, that that didn't happen because I probably would have quit the business after about a day. But Jerry was like, came up to me and said, like, you're not ready to go to Japan. He was right. It sucked to hear that. And I thought he was a dick. But then he started watching my matches and then I would often tag with him, sometimes
1:50.3	against you with Lance actually.
1:53.4	And he was very blunt with his assessment of your work, my work.
1:59.8	And the first time I ever was in a match with him, I think was me and him against you and Lance. And the finish was, Lance, what was the finish? You remember the finish. So you're going to do some bullshit.
2:13.1	I did a splash off the top on Jerry. And you were going to attempt to make the save with your knee drop off the top rope.
2:21.5	I was going to move.
2:23.5	You were going to knee drop Jerry in the head.
2:26.3	And then I would pick up the cover.
2:29.2	Right.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Chris Jericho, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Chris Jericho and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.