Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
PWInsider.com is extremely saddened to report the passing of one of the all-time greatest tag team wrestlers and in-ring performers of all time, Beautiful Bobby Eaton, who was the heart and soul of The Midnight Express.
Eaton passed away yesterday at the age of 62, according to his sister Deborah, who announced Bobby's passing on her Facebook page:
"I never wanted to have to post this ,but my Little Brother Beautiful Bobby Eaton passed away last night. When i find out all the details i will post them. Bobby was the kindest,loving person you would ever meet . I loved him so much and going to miss him, Please say a prayer for my Niece Taryn she found him. And she just lost her Mom a little over a Month ago."
As noted by Deborah, Eaton's wife Donna passed away in June. Bobby had been hospitalized for at least several weeks, recently missing the T-Mart Promotions' The Gathering II convention in Charlotte that would have seen him reunite with other members of The Midnight Express.
Over the course of his career, Eaton was well known as a tag team specialist. It would take hours upon hours to recount everything he did in pro wrestling, but he'll be forever known as the nucleus of The Midnight Express tag team, initially teaming with Dennis Condrey and managed by Jim Cornette for Mid-South Wrestling. Their feud with The Rock N' Roll Express helped revive the territory and continued on, in some capacity, through multiple promotions all the way through different legends conventions and gatherings that saw the teams reprise their rivalry.
Growing up (and billed from) Huntsville, Alabama, Eaton grew up a fan of professional wrestling, first discovering Nick Gulas’ NWA Mid-America Wrestling. When an event came to his school when Eaton was 13 years old, he asked to help out and from that point on, began putting up rings at different events.
Eaton broke into the business under legendary Memphis Wrestling personality Tojo Yamamoto. He debuted at just 17 years old and became a regular for Gulas’ promotion. Initially, he was in an undercard role but his work in the ring led to him being utilized more as he feuded with The Hollywood Blonds, Buddy Roberts and Jerry Brown, teaming with a number of partners.
Lanny Poffo would be the answer to the trivia question of who was Eaton’s first-ever Championship partner as he and Bobby won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team titles from Leroy Rochester and Gypsy Joe. Eaton would later team with George Gulas, feuding with Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy.
Eaton remained a regular for Gulas’ promotion until it closed in the late 1970s, working as both a heel (as part of Tojo Yamamoto’s group) and babyface (against Chris Colt, including an angle where he nearly broke Bobby’s neck with the banned piledriver), during which he would also wrestle against the man who would become perhaps his most famous partner, Dennis Condrey.
Eaton moved to Jarrett Promotions’ CWA in Memphis, initially teaming as one half of The New Wave with Sweet Brown Sugar and managed by Jimmy Hart. During the run, Eaton would end up working against The Fabulous Ones, Steve Keirn and future MX partner Stan Lane.
Eaton and Sugar split with Eaton, the heel, running Sugar out of the territory. This would lead to the masked Stagger Lee appearing, with Eaton and the rest of Jimmy Hart’s First Family being unable to prove that Lee and Sugar were one in the same, despite it being obvious that was the case. Eaton ended up turning babyface when the Moondogs and Hart turned on him, leading to Stagger Lee making the save, reuniting the team.
Eaton and Cornette were shifted to Mid-South as part of an agreement with Jarrett Promotions and The Midnight Express with Dennis Condrey was born. Condrey, Norvell Austin and Randy Rose had previously used the name in Memphis but from that Mid-South combination on, the majority of fans would remember the Midnights as Cornette, Bobby, Dennis and later Stan Lane. Every version of the team was magic with Cornette handling all the talking to enrage the crowd and get the heat while Condrey and Eaton’s backhanded tactics meshed perfectly with their double-team maneuvers.
It was as if the stars all aligned at the perfect time for the perfect team with the perfect members. It’s probably impossible to convey how tremendously interconnected all three were as they each enhanced the other. Condrey was the grizzled veteran who was so adept at getting heat on his opponents and knowing where to be and when at just the right, precise moment to get the most out of everything. Eaton was the silent but deadly master of finesse with great bumps, some of the best punches in wrestling history and the ability to give the best damned flying legdrop (The Alabama Jam) that has ever existed. Cornette took them both and enhanced them with his incredible vocabulary, believable characterization as a sissy momma’s boy and his spot-on ability to jab anyone and everyone in the most vicious, timely way possible.
The first major angle saw The Midnights tar and feather Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II during a feud for the Mid-South Tag Team Titles. II later turned on Magnum, giving the Midnights their first Tag Team gold. From there, the Midnights moved on to face Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, who were easily their greatest babyface opposition with only The Fantastics, Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton coming close - with that feud going from Texas to Jim Crockett Promotions and beyond.
When The Midnight Express and Cornette came to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985, they were immediately programmed as one of the most important teams in the promotion, including a headline Night of the Skywalkers (Scaffold) match against The Road Warriors, battles with the Rock N’ Roll Express, The Garvins and others. As heels, they were second only to The Four Horsemen in terms of importance. There was WWF interest at the time but Cornette and The Midnights opted to stay with Crockett.
One day, Dennis Condrey didn’t show up for work and no one saw him for years after. Condrey would later say he had “business he needed to take care of” personally. In what can only be described as a bit of booking genius from Dusty Rhodes, Stan Lane was brought in to team with Bobby and Cornette and somehow, an even greater tag team duo was created. Lane excelled in the heel role and brought a different energy to the team, which shined even brighter with some of the best tag team work of that or any era.
They became the precursor to all the cool, synchronized tag team double-team signature maneuvers but did so in a way that they always made sense and enhanced the story of the matches they were in. Even their squash matches in the legendary Techwood Drive studios were ridiculously entertaining, with the team making mince-meat of their hapless opponents with their maneuvers while Cornette gave his signature promos, topped off with Bobby standing on the top rope, LITERALLY up there with the lights in the studio, before dropping the Alabama Jam. It was the perfect mix of cool and cocky with just enough cool to respect The MX but too cocky not to want to boo them.
The duo won the United States Tag Team Titles and had one of the most heated and entertaining series of brawls one could imagine with The Fantastics, especially at Clash of Champions I and then at Great American Bash ‘88. Their matches are an eternal testament to how great, how vivid tag team wrestling can and should be.
The MX ended up becoming somewhat unlikely but not really babyfaces with the idea that Eaton and Arn Anderson, who were storyline best friends, ended up on opposite sides when the question of whether Arn and Tully Blanchard or the MX were the better team. While obviously primed for a long run, the feud was over far too soon as The legendary original run of the Four Horsemen ended abruptly with Arn and Tully signing to go to the WWF. They quickly dropped the belts to the MX at a house show in Philadelphia.
There was talk of Eaton and Lane becoming Horsemen but it ended up not happening. They dropped the belts to The Road Warriors and then closed out 1988 with another great Clash of Champions IV main event against Ric Flair and Barry Windham with all four in their prime putting on an incredible bout. It's must see viewing.
The Midnights were then officially made babyfaces when Paul Heyman, Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose, as the Original Midnight Express attacked Lane, Cornette and Eaton in a brilliant TV angle. The MX were, as they usually did, having an entertaining squash match on TV, showing off all their great double-team maneuvers. Cornette got a “phone call” at the podium where the TV announcers were calling the action. He took the call and ended up in a huge verbal argument with someone. Minutes later, Heyman and company hit the scene and attacked Cornette, busting him open big-time, forever staining a while suit ensemble scarlet red forever. They were off to the races with a great feud that unfortunately didn’t get to play out as needed due to silly politics.
The Midnights, now rooted as babyfaces, were a big part of an excellent 1989 for WCW, now owned by Turner Broadcasting after Jim Crockett Promotions could not sustain itself. They feuded with the Freebirds and The Samoan SWAT Team before leading into another storyline where Cornette was consulting with The Dynamic Dudes, Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace (yes, that John Laurinaitis) That obviously didn’t sit well with the MX, eventually building to a match at Clash of Champions IX. The problem was the fans in Troy, NY loved the MX so much and hated the Dudes that when Cornette turned heel with his tennis racquet, the place erupted with glee.
Back on the Dark Side (where they were always billed from anyway), The Midnight feuded with the Dudes before having a new program with Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk and The Southern Boys, Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers. The MX against the Southern Boys from Great American Bash 1990 is yet another milestone tag team bout that is the epitome of what tag team excellence truly is. The Midnights had their problems with WCW management, especially Jim Herd who Cornette absolutely hated. They were looking to get out with Cornette and Lane finally quitting as Cornette wanted to get away from the stress and go form Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
Eaton, who had a family to support, remained, and it was the end of the Midnight Express as a national act, forever.
Now alone, Eaton challenged Ric Flair for the WCW World title at Clash of Champions XV but with barely enough time to do a Best of Three Falls bout, they basically fast forwarded through what should have been a long classic. Eaton floated around, holding the WCW World Television title for a time but wasn’t truly utilized in a major way. After all, if Eaton had any weakness as a performer, it was that he wasn't a comfortable talker on camera, thus he certainly wasn't going to be able to cut promos at the level of top stars of the era.
Then Paul Heyman returned to WCW towards the end of 1991, creating the Dangerous Alliance. It was a group that even today sounds so amazingly insane, it must have been too good to be true - Heyman leading Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko with Madusa by their side.- but it wasn't. The WCW version of a super-villains club feuded with every babyface, Sting, Nikita Koloff, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham and more, eventually building to one of the all time best Wargames matches at Wrestlewar ‘92.
When the Dangerous Alliance ran its course, Eaton and Anderson continued to team, now led by Michael Hayes in a trinity of tag team royalty. When Bill Watts opened a relationship with Smoky Mountain Wrestling, owned by Jim Cornette, Eaton and Arn migrated there, allowing for Eaton, Lane and Cornette to reunite while Lane and Dr. Tom Prichard headlined SMW as The Heavenly Bodies. This led to Cornette and Lane returning to WCW for a moment, until Watts was fired, at which point the SMW relationship immediately dissipated, but it at least gave everyone a chance to see Cornette and Eaton reunited for their last national TV work together.
Back in WCW, Eaton was teamed for a time with a young Chris Benoit and then as Bad Attitude with Steve Keirn, but neither team seemed to click - or at least was never given the time to truly click.
Eaton continued to feud with Arn Anderson well into 1994, leading to a surprise angle at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. Terry Funk was slated to face Mr. Hughes in the main event but Hughes and Shane Douglas ended up in a fracas with The Bruise Brothers and brawled out of the building. Paul Heyman came out and challenged Funk to face Sabu. Funk agreed and lost after the interference of several of Sabu’s handlers. Heyman removed the mask from one after he came off the top rope on Funk, revealing Eaton.
To say the Arena had an orgasm would be an understatement, given Eaton and the MX were always massive stars in the eyes of the Philadelphia audience, which at that time was way ahead of the curve in terms of being “smart” to the business. Seconds later, those fans completely, utterly lost their minds again when Arn Anderson hit the ring to save Funk. It was a magnificent angle that not one person in that dilapidated, lovable building saw coming.
This was all a deal put together by WCW and ECW to help promote the WCW Slammiversary PPV in Philly. On ECW's end, it meant the one time dream match of Bobby Eaton & Sabu vs. Terry Funk & Arn Anderson at When Worlds Collide 1994. With my right hand on an infinite stack of bibles, I can tell you now that had this match not happened, none of you would have read any of my writing. That was the match that led to me going to see ECW for the first time and setting me on the stage to do what I have done for a living. Without Bobby and Arn showing up in ECW and that match happening, my entire life goes in an entirely different direction. The match was fantastic. Sabu and Bobby won, by the way.
Eaton and Lord Steven Regal (WWE NXT's William Regal today) end up as a tag team in WCW with the idea being that the aristocratic Regal will take the rough around the edges Southerner and make him a proper upperclassman. With Regal as the primary personality and Eaton rechristened "Earl Robert Eaton", it worked as an undercard gimmick and attraction. While the gimmick sounds silly in 2021 for sure, as a team they were great, working with the likes of Harlem Heat, The Nasty Boys and The Stud Stable. Oddly enough, Eaton never had an action figure until this character, although WWE would later release Eaton and Lane as part of the Jakks Classic Superstars toy line.
When the Blue Bloods team ran its course, Eaton never again received a major push in WCW, mostly working on secondary TV shows or being used to give credibility to stars that were being pushed. Part of that may have been that while Eaton was phenomenal in the ring, he was an unassuming personality publicly. He was a blue collar worker who did his job and was appreciated by the discerning fan to the nth degree but did not carry himself with a larger than life persona in any regard and he was also getting older.
Then, In one of the stupidest stories in WCW history, Eaton, who had been with the company since the day Turner Broadcasting purchased it, called to let them know his check hadn’t shown up. He was then informed he had been released. It was a classless and disgusting way for his WCW end to have happened. It would have been classless for anyone, but for Bobby Eaton, who never ever caused a problem, always did what was asked of him and always put in a great performance, it was utter bullshit and whoever was responsible for that should be ashamed of themselves.
Eaton returned to ECW for a short run and then began working the independents, sometimes reuniting with Condrey and Lane. He appeared for TNA, losing to Kid Kash. He had a small run working in WWE developmental. The Midnights were brought to Ring of Honor, where they were paid tribute to and treated like kings by both wrestlers and fans in Philly.
Eaton last wrestled in 2015 and 2016 and in some of his final matches, teamed with Condrey to lose, fittingly to The Rock N’ Roll Express. He and the Midnights reunited numerous times on the convention scene, including an incredibly ridiculously cool bout where all three members of the Midnight Express teamed with Cornette in a Bunkhouse match against The Rock N' Express and The Fantastics, who were managed by Bobby Heenan at the first WrestleReunion in January 2005.
The last time all the core MX members and Cornette were together was The Gathering in 2019 in Charlotte, where they were all paid tribute to during a banquet dinner in what was an amazing, emotional evening. After being lauded for everything they accomplished in the business, Cornette, Eaton, Lane, Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose quietly slipped into a side room where they all posed for photos together and with invited guests. I was lucky enough to be in that room and a photo from that night hangs proudly on my office wall. That night, I never would have guessed I'd have been witness to the final Midnight Express gathering.
There were plans for a Bobby Eaton biography to be written in conjunction with his good friend and manager Brian Thompson, but circumstances and time never allowed the book to be come to pass. What exists instead is an endless multitude of great performances and more than that, endless memories of a man with a tremendous work ethic that was outshined only by his kindness.
Which leads me to this. One cannot speak about Bobby Eaton without bringing up his kindness and greatness as a person. It’s easy to say, “Oh this person is a great guy” but with Eaton, that was understating it. Mick Foley wrote about Eaton’s character in his first autobiography Have A Nice Day!, pointing that it wasn’t unlikely for them to stop for gas while traveling on the road and for Eaton to meet someone, give them money and even the shirt off his own back in order to help them.
In a world where wrestlers can be sharks, Eaton was anything but. No one has a story that begins or ends with something negative about Bobby Eaton. No one.
Think about this: when Bobby and his future wife Donna began dating, they initially kept their relationship a secret as her father, Memphis wrestling legend Bill Dundee would have never approved of his daughter having a relationship with a wrestler. When he learned of the couple being together, Dundee changed his mind because, if it had to be someone, Bobby Eaton was the one person he could approve of, because Eaton was such a nice person.
There will never be another Beautiful Bobby Eaton. There can’t be. Perfection only comes along once in a lifetime. We were just lucky enough to witness it.
On behalf of everyone at PWInsider.com, I express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Bobby Eaton.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated, obviously, in the hours to come.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
