Bobby Eaton: “As Good As Anyone of His Era”
Bobby Eaton’s most endearing trait was his giving nature.
Friends of the former NWA and WCW Tag Team Champion, and NWA/WCW TV Champion, Eaton was known for carrying bags of extras on the road in case he or any of his fellow wrestlers needed them. He would donate gas money and groceries while on the road to people that needed them, even as a member of one of the most hated tag teams in pro wrestling history.
“As a human being, Bobby was just like his namesake,” Les Thatcher said. “He was beautiful.”
Eaton died on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 at the age of 62. The Huntsville, Ala., native was married to Donna Dundee, the daughter of wrestling legend Bill Dundee, who died in June.
Thatcher knew Eaton for 40 years, since the Huntsville, Ala., native began appearing in the southern NWA territories in his mid-teens.
“As a worker he was as good as anyone of that era. He was so smooth, so dead-on with how he worked. Everything just flowed with him he was so good, but he was also an innovator.” – Bruce Mitchell, wrestling writer and historian.
Eaton was one of the most influential wrestlers of his time, both as a tag team and singles wrestler. His work with Dennis Condrey, Stan Lane and Jim Cornette as part of the Midnight Express is considered by many to be the greatest tag team work ever and stands out 40 years later. He was a headliner with the Midnight Express with two different partners, and its feuds with the Rock and Roll Express, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA and the Road Warriors were a key in the high-drawing era of Jim Crockett Promotions in the mid to late 1980s.
“He was consistently as great of wrestler as I’ve ever saw,” Bruce Mitchell, pro wrestling writer, columnist and podcaster told SEScoops on Thursday. “He was always very friendly, just a nice human being. He was always giving things and money to people who needed it. As a worker he was as good as anyone of that era. He was so smooth, so dead-on with how he worked. Everything just flowed with him he was so good, but he was also an innovator.”
Starting in NWA Mid-America in his mid-teens, Eaton was a member of the Jet Set tag team with George Gulas, the son of promoter Nick Gulas. Mitchell said Eaton was by far the more talented of the two wrestlers and carried the team early, even while a teenager.
Eaton briefly held the National TV Title in Georgia Championship wrestling after he left Mid-America around 1980. He later teamed with Koko B. Ware when he moved to Memphis in 1980 as part of Jerry Jarrett’s Continental Wrestling Association. He was with the promotion for three years before moving to Bill Watts’ Mid-South territory, where he first encountered Condrey and Cornette, and reforming a pre-existing stable into a new tag team, one that would change wrestling.
The threesome immediately became three of the hottest heels in the country, feuding with Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II for the Mid-South Tag Team titles. Mid-South is where they began their feud with the Rock and Roll Express – which would run for decades across several territories. The Midnight Express headlined numerous shows at the Superdome and Crockett’s Starrcade event.
Eaton was part of several top PPV main events and national TV main events on TBS. He was in the War Games cage match several times as both a heel and face, and in a “champions vs. champions” match on TBS, headlined Clash of the Champions as the US and World Tag Team champs against US champ Barry Windham and World champ Ric Flair in a two-out-of-three falls match. Eaton headlined the Clash again when he was a singles wrestler and TV champion, losing a two-out-of-three falls match to Ric Flair in the main event.
Eaton worked a short period for Jim Cornette and producer Ric Rubin in Smokey Mountain Wrestling. He spent the most of the 1990s in WCW as tag team partners with Arn Anderson and Lord Steven (William) Regal.
Eaton’s good nature and excellent work continued to earn him admirers later in his career. Bill Goldberg, who was WCW’s biggest star in 1998 and in the middle of his 173-match win streak, wanted to lose to Eaton in the middle of the streak when WCW made a tour stop near Eaton’s hometown in Alabama. Goldberg told Steve Austin during an interview on Austin’s “Broken Skull Sessions” podcast in 2019, he went to WCW agent Arn Anderson to ask he if could drop the match to Eaton, but the idea was nixed.
Eaton worked on the indie circuit after 2000 and was often a trainer at camps, teaching up and coming wrestlers. He had three daughters.
From Scaffolds to Masterpieces, Beautiful Bobby’s Must-See Matches
1. Superstars on the Superstation: Midnight Express vs. Rock and Roll Express, Feb. 1986
Superstars on the Superstation was a special primetime show Crockett ran on TBS in February 1986. The first match on the show, Jim Cornette’s tennis racket came into play and helped the Midnights win their first NWA World Tag Team title. One highlight was Eaton, who recorded the pinfall, being held up on a chair afterward half unconscious on a chair as Cornette cut a promo afterward celebrating their win.
2. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express – NWA World Wide, April 1988
The Rock and Roll Express and the Midnight Express had one of the best-drawing feuds in tag team history, but The Fantastics matched up just as well against the Midnight Express as anyone. The Midnight Express were the longest-reigning US Tag Team champs in NWA history, but lost in this classic that was taped for NWA Worldwide in April 1988.The Wrestling Observer rated the match 5 stars.
3. Clash of Champions IV: Midnight Express vs. Barry Windham/Ric Flair, best 2-out-of-3 falls, Dec. 1988
The Midnight Express were babyfaces for a short period, and also held the NWA World and US tag team titles at the same time. They had won the titles from Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson in a rushed feud and match in Philadelphia earlier that year. Blanchard and Anderson had signed with the WWF and were on their way out of town. Fans have long lamented never getting what would have been an amazing long-term feud. One small consolation was a 2-out-of-3 falls match to see who the best champions were in the NWA. Barry Windham (US Champion) and Ric Flair (World Champion) were all that remained of the Horsemen (Windham and manager JJ Dillon would leave for the WWF soon after this match). The Horsemen won with some nefarious tactics, which earned the ire of Jim Cornette as the show was going off the air. The match was a feature of six masters of their craft, and Eaton was front and center.
4. Clash of Champions XV: Ric Flair (World Champion) vs. Bobby Eaton (TV Champion), June 1991
After Stan Lane and Jim Cornette left WCW in 1990, Bobby Eaton remained as a tag specialist and singles wrestler. He had a very solid run as WCW TV Champion as a babyface, and main evented the 15th Clash of Champions in June 1991 against Ric Flair. WWE had made the match available on YouTube.
5. Starrcade 1986: Midnight Express vs. Road Warriors Scaffold Match, Nov. 1986
Night of the Skywalkers was the theme for Starrcade 1986, and the scaffold match between the Road Warriors and Midnight Express was the single match most associated with Bobby Eaton. The Midnights had a similar scaffold match against the Rock and Roll Express in Mid-South. The match is famous for Animal and Hawk throwing watermelons off the top of the scaffold to show how dangerous the height was, the “training” video of Cornette screaming at Eaton and Condrey for not standing on the scaffold due to their fear of heights, and Cornette blowing out both of his knees when he landed bad after falling from the bottom of the scaffold with his knees straight.