Eaton and the Midnight Express helped define tag team wrestling in the ’80s.
“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all time, has died at the age of 62.
Eaton’s death was announced by his sister Debbie in a Facebook post early Thursday morning.
“I never wanted to have to post this, but my Little Brother Beautiful Bobby Eaton passed away last night,” Debbie wrote. “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.”
In June, Eaton’s wife Donna died at 57 years old. She was the daughter of pro wrestler Bill Dundee.
Eaton was among the standout in-ring performers of his era. As one-half of the Midnight Express, Eaton teamed with Dennis Condrey before later being paired with Stan Lane. In both of those iterations, the Midnight Express was managed by Jim Cornette. Eaton and Condrey began teaming together in Mid-South Wrestling in 1983. They spent some time in World Class Championship Wrestling before joining Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985. The Midnight Express had tag team title reigns in all three of those promotions.
In one of tag team wrestling’s most iconic feuds, the Midnight Express played the heels against their longtime rivals the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson). The feud helped define tag team wrestling in the 1980s and influenced the style of tag team wrestling going forward.
As a singles wrestler, Eaton held the WCW television title in 1991. Eaton headlined Clash of the Champions XV that year, losing to WCW world champion Ric Flair in a two-out-of-three falls match.
Eaton, who was a member of Paul Heyman’s Dangerous Alliance in WCW, won the WCW tag team championship with Arn Anderson in 1992.
The Midnight Express were inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2009. Eaton and Condrey were voted as tag team of the year in the 1986 Wrestling Observer awards, while Eaton and Lane won the award in 1987 and 1988.
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