Jim Cornette and The Midnight Express

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Keith

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Back when Tag Team Wrestling was at its peak, and managers really counted, this was a match made it heaven.

The colorful, and passionite James E. Cornette, who was a meval on the mic, and had a genuis mind for wrestling, combined areial dyenmics, wrestling abillity and mentrial arts of Bobby Eaton and Sweet Stane Lane or Dennis Condrey as the tag team specialists. They had the look, the gimmick, the know how and all the write moves.

The legendary clashes with The Rock 'N' Roll Express (who were the classic babyface team of the time), started in the early eighties in the highly praised Mid-South territory, and moved onto to the NWA in the late part of that decade into 1990, with superchanged matches on PPV, television and all over the country. The Midnight were so good at what they did than the hardcore fan base in certain areas couldn't help but cheer them, and go against the faces. Jim Cornette and the ME had the fans in the pelms of their hands, weather they cheered or booed them.

Other classic desputes and matches included ones against The Steiner Brothers, The Fantastic, The Freebirds, The Dynimetic Dudes, The Z-Man and Flyin' Brian and the Southen Boys. It is fair to say than along with Ric Flair, The Midnight Express were the hardest working, and most consistant in-ring performers of the era in the NWA.
 

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The Midnight Express were the quintessential tag team in the late 80's early 90's. Their matches with the Rock N Roll Express were phenomenal and were some others. Cornette was great for them and they jelled as a team( both editions). Eaton is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever as he was brilliant in the tag environment.

In my rankings they were responsible for the following classics.

7's Starrcade 87 Skywalkers match vs Rock N Roll Express (only good skywalker match ever.), Crockett Cup 86 vs Road Warriors, Great American Bash Tour 1986 with Cornette vs Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA and Baby Doll Cage Match, Crockett Cup 1987 vs Road Warriors, Great American Bash 1989 with Road Warriors and Steve Williams vs Freebirds+ Samoan Swat Team War Games,
Clash of The Champions IV vs Ric Flair and Barry Windham, Clash of The Champions VI vs Samoan Swat Team, Chi Town Rumble 1989 vs Original Midnight Express (Condrey and Randy Rose),

8's Halloween Havoc 1990 vs Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton
9's Great American Bash 1987 vs Rock N' Roll Express , Clash Of The Champions vs Fantastics, Wrestlewar 1990 vs Rock N 'Roll Express, Capital Combat 1990 vs Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk,

10 Great Anerican Bash 1990 vs Southern Boys
 
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I was groomed off WWF style, and when I got WCW through illegal satelite signals, I thought Bobby Eaton was fat and looked out of shape. Bare in mind the only wrestlers I've seen up to that point were roiders and looked like superheroes. I remember the Midnight Express as a high flying team, which wouldn't work for them now. And Jim Cornette's promos were the only thing that kept them heel.
 

Keith

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It is not fair to say that Cornette is the only reason they got heel heat, yes he carried the interviews, but they too had the right gimmick and knew how to get carry it in the ring, and when entering the ring. Maybe they wouldn't work out today in the same why, but it is hard to tell for sure, thing is they were a lot more than just high flyers.

Yeah Scott the Skywalker match is certainly one of the most talked about from around that time. Have you seen the Cornette shoot when he describes in vivid detail how he was practising at home on his bed the fall, and that Big Bubba (Big Bossman) was suposed to catch him, but Cornette slip right through his figures? Great stuff! I still haven't seen the match yet will have to put it on the list.
 

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Yes I have seen the shoot and have read many things about Bubba supposedly told to catch him and I believe it. If you watch the match Bubba was way late trying to catch him and had no shot at all. Eaton went on to have some good tag matches with Arn Anderson and Steven Regal as partners as well.
 

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It is not fair to say that Cornette is the only reason they got heel heat, yes he carried the interviews, but they too had the right gimmick and knew how to get carry it in the ring, and when entering the ring. Maybe they wouldn't work out today in the same why, but it is hard to tell for sure, thing is they were a lot more than just high flyers.

They never talked, Cornette carried the interviews their entire run. Not much to say other than that. In the ring, sure they were good. Damn good. Not denyingn that, I juist don't think they would be heels in todays market. The thing about today's market is no matter what you doi in a storyline, if you can jump from high altitueds and do flips you will no be booed.
 

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But they were wrestlers deezy, not spot morkey's. Yes they did dare devil like moves, but they did them at the right times, after building up to them, also they made high flying an art form. But if you watch the matches, they did mat wrestling and martial arts too, and were able to mix up the tempo or style of the match depending on what was required. No they never spoke, but they looked like heels, and were able to give that aura without needing too.

I really liked the Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton, they just seemed to fit perfectly. Didn't see so much of Eaton and Regal. They were the Blue Bloods right?
 

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I said they were damn good in the ring, I'm not saying they weren't talented. All I said was, I don't think they would be heels in todays market. Cornette's promos would also get them over more than the high flying would. The 80s were a totally different time, and the 90s killed kayfabe so any dastardly deed done in the ring would be moot, and people would admire them for their movesets and manager's promos.
 

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I really liked the Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton, they just seemed to fit perfectly. Didn't see so much of Eaton and Regal. They were the Blue Bloods right?

AA may be my 2nd favorite wrestler of all time (Steamboat #1) so I loved that team, seeing that I mentioned I always felt Eaton was underrated, The Blue Bloods is correct and theywere a good cowardly heel tag team. Bill Dundee as Sir William was entertaining as well.

Best matches of those teams
Eaton with Anderson

7 vs Steiners Super Brawl II

Eaton with Benoit in a short lived team
vs 2 Cold Scorpio and Marcus Bagwell Slamboree 1993

Blue Bloods has a decent short feud with Harlem Heat.
 

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Have to say I always liked Anderson more in tag team than singles, he just didn't have enough in his all round game to be a great singles wrestler. On the other hand I think Eaton could have had a much better run in singles than he got. I liked when WCW tried pushing him as a solo star in late 90/early 91, and the touch of annoncing him as being from the Darkside. His matches with the Z-Man, Brad Armstrong and Anderson himself at SuperBrawl were very good.
 

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Eaton was way too doughy for me to take him serious, and that mullet was wow, just wow. I remember wondering why he was the TV champ when Steve Austin beat him for it. He had that southern style that never appealled to me, mainly because the punches looked so phony. Jeff Jarrett punches the same way too.

Guess I'm just a stickler for realism, since I grew up on watching dying days of Stampede and Bret Hart not being cartoonish like Hogan and Warrior.
 

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That is very harsh, are you telling me Eaton's punches in the midnight Express matches weren't convincing, they used to echo throughout that arena!

And I don't remember him that fat except for when his career was coming towards the end.
 

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That is very harsh, are you telling me Eaton's punches in the midnight Express matches weren't convincing, they used to echo throughout that arena!

And I don't remember him that fat except for when his career was coming towards the end.
I was bred on WWF steroid junkies, so the southern wrestlers looked like fat slobs compared to them. I didn't know better than so he just never appealed to me.

Plus his punches were those "up yours" gestured uppercuts, which looked completely phony, since you could see him slapping his bicep. I used to do that when I was 7 since I realized some of the moves didn't work when I tried them. I'm not taking anything away from him, I'm just saying he didn't appeal to me.