The Midnight Express remains one of the greatest tag teams in professional wrestling history that still hasn't entered the WWE Hall of Fame. While they never wrestled in WWE, in their more successful iterations, the team remains influential to countless heel tag teams working today.

Whether they will finally get into the Hall of Fame likely rests on the shoulders of the new WWE leaders in Stephanie McMahon, Nick Kahn, and Triple H. However, even if they never make it into the Hall of Fame, they still hold a place in wrestling history as the team that revolutionized tag team wrestling.

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The Midnight Express Had An Inauspicious Start

Jim Cornette with his first Midnight Express

Most old-school wrestling fans remember the Midnight Express showing up with Jim Cornette as the manager, introducing Loverboy Dennis Condrey and Beautiful Bobby Eaton. However, while Eaton was the one constant to the team's career, he wasn't an original member of the Midnight Express. This version started out as the tag team of Condrey and Randy Rose, and then became the Midnight Express stable when they added Norvell Austin. They wrestled in Southeast Championship Wrestling as their version of a Freebirds-style faction, winning the tag team titles there. This version lasted for three years before they broke up and ended the Midnight Express. However, the same year that they broke up, a new version formed.

Jim Cornette Creates His Own Midnight Express

As good as the Midnight Express stable was, the tag team formed in Mid-South Wrestling eclipsed everything the originals ever dreamed they could accomplish. In a talent trade, Bill Watts acquired Bobby Eaton and wanted to form a new version of the Midnight Express with original member, Dennis Condrey. Watts made the brilliant choice of teaming them with manager Jim Cornette and the rest is history. Cornette had only been in wrestling for one year, and in an episode of the Jim Cornette Experience, Cornette said, "All of us, and Bobby in particular, knew this was a big experience." He said Dennis told them this was the first time any promoter of that level said they would build around him as a tag team.

It was well worth it. Cornette said Condrey was the reason the team was so good. Loverboy Dennis had the experience, and Cornette said that while he wasn't "flashy" or "big," he was a master of "always being in the right place, never being lost, never making a mistake, the timing, and the psychology. He was the one telling both of us how to think." As for Eaton, Cornette said that he had always watched him have great matches in Memphis, but never on this big of a stage, where he said Beautiful Bobby was on every night. Cornette said that the team was pulling off moves that had fans thinking they were seeing something real, and the planned moves looked like they really hurt. With such a hot start, the Midnight Express then struck gold when they matched up with the Rock 'n' Roll Express.

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The Midnight Express Vs The Rock 'N' Roll Express Was A Perfect Feud

Jim Cornette and Midnight Express on Crockett television

Cornette said that the Midnight Express thrived because the better promoters protected them and ensured they always had heat. This was another Condrey lesson, as he knew that they first had to get the match over with the fans, and then they had to end the match with heat. They either had to win and screw over the babyfaces, they had to lose and then get heat after the match, or they had to lose and then have Cornette get them their heat back with his mouth. When they fought the ultimate babyface tag team in the Rock 'n' Roll Express, they had the perfect dance partners. They began their feud in Mid-South Wrestling and then moved on to Jim Crockett Promotions, where they competed for the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

Cornette said on an episode of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru that Dusty Rhodes kept the two tag teams apart, the Rock 'n' Roll Express in the Carolinas and the Midnight Express in Georgia, so the Rock 'n' Roll Express could get over while the Midnight Express waited for their time to strike. After the Rock 'n' Roll Express won the titles from the Russians, it was time for the Midnight Express to show up, and they made magic, winning the tag team titles from the Rock 'n' Roll Express and taking the biggest triumph of their careers. Cornette said that the Midnight Express wrestled the Rock 'n' Roll Express at the start of the feud in Richmond, and the gate drew $13,000. Two months later, after their feud started on TV, they went back and made $88,000, a record for the arena. The biggest babyface tag team and the best heel tag team became the best main event in the NWA outside of Ric Flair. Cornette said it was perfect booking to make money, saying, "we beat them for the belts, hold them long enough until the people think they will never get them back, and then put the belts back on them."

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Dennis Condrey Leaves The Midnight Express

Midnight Express as tag team of the year

Loverboy Dennis and Beautiful Bobby only won the NWA World Tag Team Championships one time. The Midnight Express was still the highest profile heel tag team in Crockett Promotions, and they even had a big feud with the Road Warriors, which culminated in the scaffold match at Starrcade 1986 where Cornette fell into the ring and legitimately injured his knee. However, four months later, Dennis Condrey suddenly left Jim Crockett Promotions and left Eaton without a tag team partner. That is when Dusty Rhodes stepped in and brought in Stan Lane, formerly one-half of the Fabulous Ones tag team. From that point on, the Midnight Express was Beautiful Bobby and Sweet Stan.

In an episode of the Jim Crockett Experience, Cornette talked about cutting the promo where he buried Condrey as the weak link that needed to be replaced. Cornette said that he couldn't find Condrey to talk about it, so he just went with the promo to could get Stan Lane over with the fans as the newest member. He said they didn't want to bury Dennis, and they didn't know what was going on until 15 years later, although the real reason was something no one needs to know. Condrey came back in 1988 with Randy Rose as the Original Midnight Express, managed by Paul E. Dangerously, but Beautiful Bobby and Sweet Stan won the feud. They won three NWA United States tag team titles and another NWA World Tag Team Championship as a team. The Midnight Express continued working as a team until 1990, when Cornette and Lane both quit WCW because of Ole Anderson's booking of the team, and that was the end of the Midnight Express, other than a failed attempt to reform the team in WWE with Bob Holly and Bart Gunn.

The Midnight Express Legacy

FTR

The Midnight Express left a legacy that heel tag teams follow today, many with a great level of success. Tag teams like Beer Money, Edge & Christian, and The World's Greatest Tag Team owe a lot to the Midnight Express. However, if there is one team that has paid homage to the Midnight Express more than any other, it is FTR in AEW. While many fans compare them to the Brain Busters, especially since they used Tully Blanchard as a manager, they have done everything they can to make sure people will always connect them with the Midnight Express, with much of their look being a direct homage to the tag team specialists. In an episode of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru, Cornette, who hates AEW, said he was honored by FTR using the tights and the Midnight Express-themed entrance theme. "It's the thought that counts, it's a nice little homage, and I appreciate it."