Bobby Eaton, one half of the iconic tag team The Midnight Express, has sadly passed away at the age of just 62.
Bobby Eaton, famed for his time as one half of The Midnight Express, has passed away at the age of 62.
The wrestling world is waking up to the loss of another legend this morning. Bobby Eaton, one half of the iconic tag team The Midnight Express, has passed away at the age of just 62. Eaton’s sister confirmed the news on Facebook in the early hours of Thursday morning. What caused Eaton’s death is currently unknown.
“My Little Brother Beautiful Bobby Eaton passed away last night,” Eaton’s sister Debbie revealed on Facebook. Debbie posted a tribute to her late brother, also revealing Eaton’s daughter Taryn was the one who found him. A particularly tough time for the family as Taryn’s mom, Eaton’s wife Donna, only passed away a month ago, also aged 62.
While Eaton was also an incredibly talented singles wrestler, his most famous run in the business was as one half of The Midnight Express. Commonly referred to as one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history, Eaton was the tandem’s mainstay throughout the team’s run. First alongside Dennis Condrey, and then partnered with Stan Lane after Eaton’s first partner departed JCP.
While Eaton’s stellar tag team work will always overshadow what he did as a part of The Midnight Express, it cannot be ignored. He may have never been a World Champion, but he did defeat Arn Anderson for the WCW TV Title in the early ’90s. Eaton even had the chance to be the one to break Goldberg’s legendary undefeated streak in WCW. Goldberg revealed that he pitched the idea to higher-ups, suggesting it happen off TV in Eaton’s hometown. They didn’t like the idea so it never happened.
While it is unclear what caused Eaton to pass away at this time, the former Tag Team Champion has reportedly been in poor health as of late. The wrestler suffered a bad fall last month which resulted in him being hospitalized. He was also hospitalized with heart issues back in 2019. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this time.
WWE issued a statement on Eaton’s passing:
WWE is saddened to learn that Bobby Eaton passed away at the age of 62.
A Huntsville, Alabama native, Eaton built a reputation as one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all time during his nearly 40-year career. Eaton broke in at the age of 17 with NWA Mid-America and in just two years captured his first championship by teaming with Leapin’ Lanny Poffo to claim the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Titles.
After a stint with the Continental Wrestling Association, Eaton joined forces with Dennis Condrey to carry the torch for the memorable Midnight Express. “Beautiful” Bobby & “Lover Boy” Dennis quickly rose to prominence in Jim Crockett Promotions and won the NWA World Tag Team Titles from The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. Following Condrey’s departure, Midnight Express carried on with “Sweet” Stan Lane teaming with Eaton for memorable rivalries against The Samoan S.W.A.T. Team, The Fabulous Freebirds, The Steiner Brothers and more on their way to a United States Tag Team Title reign.
Eaton would make a strong singles run following the departure of Lane and defeated Arn Anderson to win the World Television Championship at SuperBrawl I. An ensuing run with Rick Rude, Larry Zbyszko, Steve Austin and Anderson of The Dangerous Alliance culminated with a legendary double-ring War Games Match at WrestleWar 1992 against Sting’s Squadron. After stops with Smoky Mountain Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Eaton would return to WCW before competing on the independent circuit up until 2015.
Eaton amassed countless accolades during his career but perhaps none more meaningful than the impact he left on his peers with Mick Foley, Steve Austin and others having praised Eaton as one of the most underrated and nicest Superstars in the business.
WWE extends its condolences to Eaton’s family, friends and fans.
Two weeks away from the Two Man Power Trip’s HUGE TMPT Con 3 in Richmond, VA they welcome in a member of the legendary Midnight Express tag team, “Sweet” Stan Lane. Stan Lane will be appearing at the TMPT Con 3 extravaganza on May 18th alongside Dennis Condrey, Bobby Eaton and Jim Cornette as part of a very special 35th Anniversary celebration of The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette. Tickets for this show snd the VIP Jim Cornette Experience are available at this link. In this excerpt from the very rare podcast interview, Lane looks back at memories of the Richmond, VA territory as well as breaking into the business under the eye of Ric Flair. Full episode download link.
CREDIT TO CHAD & JP OF THE TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING FOR THIS TRANSCRIPTION
Upcoming Midnight Express reunion in Richmond, VA:
“We are certainly looking forward to it. Any time you get the Jim Cornette Experience that in itself is worth buying a ticket but the fact that you are going to have myself, Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey for a change along with Jim Cornette makes it the complete four course meal and we are all looking forward to it and can’t wait to get to Richmond on May the 18th.”
The rare opportunity to meet two versions of The Midnights together:
“It is very rare. I was trying to think about it earlier and I can’t even recall at all when Dennis, myself and Bobby did one of these kind of shows. Dennis for many years sort of like disappeared and nobody saw him but now he’s back and I’m looking forward to seeing him and hanging out with him and I’m sure all of the fans are going to have a great time seeing us and talking to us as well. Even though the Midnight Express were heels for most of our career, I think we are also in kind of a strange and twisted way kind of fan favorites too and we love meeting the fans and certainly looking forward to May 18th.”
Any standout memories of the Richmond stops on the booking sheet:
“I sure do but I am married now so I can’t talk about them on air. All of those Virginia towns were great because we loved Richmond, we loved Norfolk, Virginia, Virginia Beach is where we used to go to all of these clubs with the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair but I can’t think of any one particular instance because we just had so much fun back in the day in Jim Crockett Promotions. We were flying around in the Falcon nine passenger jet, the G-18 (the big 30 seater) and we were living large and it was just a great time and I miss it but times goes on and you can’t be young forever.”
Breaking into the wrestling business under Ric Flair:
“Ric and I just hit it off. I was living in Myrtle Beach and bouncing at one of the hottest clubs on the beach at a club called Mother Fletchers and I also worked part time at the Myrtle Beach Hilton doing room service and he and I just happened to bump into each other. I was sort of living Ric Flair’s gimmick on the beach and I was all jacked up and tanned, had long hair and I knew all of the prettiest local girls so I invited Ric, Greg Valentine and Blackjack Mulligan to a pool party at the Landmark Hotel. When they showed up there with about three of my female friends they all loved that kind of stuff. I was putting them over and we were all buying drinks so I invited them over to Mother Fletchers as the guest judges for the wet t-shirt contests so I kind of worked it and got myself over with them and got his (Flair) phone number and stuff and the rest is history.”
“We had a great time. I used to travel to the matches riding with Ric from Charleston and we’d go up to Richmond or wherever and he had me doing these hindu squats where on the first day it just about killed me but I worked up to where I could do about 500 without even breaking a sweat. So he and I would do the hindu squats before matches and all the old timers were loving that and would say that he’s getting me trained right. They’d also go over holds and I remember Johnny Weaver giving me a seminar on how to crank the arm and also Swede Hansen was great to me and I remember working with him in the dressing room a lot. I didn’t have a whole lot of ring workouts, maybe three of four but it was a great experience with Ric and Ric was like my idol and I idolized him.”
For this and every other episode of The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling and The Triple Threat Podcast featuring “The Franchise” Shane Douglas subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Podomatic, and Player FM. Also follow on Twitter @TwoManPowerTrip
Wrestling News Blog 