R.I.P. "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton

[C.S.]

This one is hard.

Only 62, just a few months after his wife's passing.

 

[Coffey]

Devastating. One of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all-time & by all accounts, a pretty damn good man too. Rest in Peace.

[C.S.]

My favorite Bobby Eaton story. My favorite story about any wrestler:

 

[Coffey]

If someone were to make the case for Bobby Eaton being the greatest tag wrestler of all-time, they wouldn't get any argument from me. He's definitely in top contention. 

[Tenese Sarwieh]

This one hits hard. One of my favorite workers of all time and I'll go there he's the greatest tag team wrestler of all time. 

[Blehschmidt]

Damn. That's awful. An all time great, gone way too young.

Rest in Peace.

[KawadaSmile]

One of the greatest ever, really.

This news suck hard, man. May he rest in peace.

[NintendoLogic]

His wife (who I didn't know was Bill Dundee's daughter until today) died a little over a month ago. He had been in poor health for some time, and that kind of heartbreak can be the last straw for someone in his condition. Terrible news all around.

[Superstar Sleeze]

A very tough one. Even though I missed Bobby's heyday, going back and watching all his stuff has brought me such joy. Best right hand there ever was. Thanks for all the entertainment, brutha. Rest in Peace, Beautiful Bobby. 

[Migs]

6 hours ago, Coffey said:

If someone were to make the case for Bobby Eaton being the greatest tag wrestler of all-time, they wouldn't get any argument from me. He's definitely in top contention. 

I would gladly make that argument.

My deepest consistent joy as a wrestling fan has been Midnight Express matches. Put one on, any one, and I'm good. Classic wars, athletic spotfests, heck, they even had the best squashes. And the best guy on the team was always Bobby. 

I got to meet him very briefly at Wrestlecon a couple of years ago, just to say thank you. Didn't need a long conversation - it's Bobby Eaton, loquacious he was not - but I'm glad I got to let the man know in person. 

[Timbo Slice]

Just a true natural for the business. Everything he did looked great, and every move in his arsenal, from a simple punch to his stuff off the top, is in the running for the best version of the move ever done. He just absolutely got pro wrestling in a way few others did, and he was someone I grew to admire even more as I got older. The health issues he had recently were sad to hear, and now that he’s gone, it’s gonna linger for me a while. A true joy to watch, as he was such a fixture in my childhood when I got into wrestling. Gonna miss him terribly. 

[Sweet Brown Koko]

This one really sucks.

He was a tremendous wrestler and a great person away from the camera per others. I got to see him live when he was in The Midnight Express vs Ronnie Garvin and Barry Windham for the U.S. tag titles. Amazing match that had to go home early because Bobby was so good he almost started a riot! Cornette had to swing his racket to beat off fans all the way to the back and then Garvin grabbed the back of Eaton’s tights as he was going up the steps to the stage and had him moon the audience.

My Mom showed off her vertical when that happened and is one of my favorite memories!

RIP to a criminally underrated wrestler. He was in top form for as long as I can remember.

One last thing: LOVED the matches with The Fantastics! That Clash I match was my favorite match for years.

[SirEdger]

I first was exposed to the NWA & Jim Crockett Promotions when I was 5 years old. And other than the Four Horsemen, the one act that drew my attention was the Midnight Express. As I grew older and my knowledge of the business expanded as well, I learned to truly appreciate the worker that was Beautiful Bobby Eaton. When you were that successful as a tag team wrestler with so many different partners (Dennis Condrey, Stan Lane, Arn Anderson & Lord Steven Regal), it tells the whole story about how great you were in your profession. To me, no one will exemplify tag team wrestlers more than Bobby Eaton.

Might watch a Rock N Roll Express/Midnight Express match or two over the weekend.

[MoS]

3 hours ago, Migs said:

I would gladly make that argument.

My deepest consistent joy as a wrestling fan has been Midnight Express matches. Put one on, any one, and I'm good. Classic wars, athletic spotfests, heck, they even had the best squashes. And the best guy on the team was always Bobby. 

I got to meet him very briefly at Wrestlecon a couple of years ago, just to say thank you. Didn't need a long conversation - it's Bobby Eaton, loquacious he was not - but I'm glad I got to let the man know in person. 

Yeah he def has an argument for best tag wrestler ever. It's not just the two Midnight Express versions, he had an excellent team with Arn and also an extremely fun team with Regal, all of whom are different teams with different appeals. He was a perfect marriage of great input and great output. Everything he did in the ring looked so smooth and so impactful, and he also has a litany of excellent matches on his resume. Truly an all-time great. Rest in peace 

[Graham Crackers]

1 hour ago, MoS said:

Yeah he def has an argument for best tag wrestler ever. It's not just the two Midnight Express versions, he had an excellent team with Arn and also an extremely fun team with Regal, all of whom are different teams with different appeals. He was a perfect marriage of great input and great output. Everything he did in the ring looked so smooth and so impactful, and he also has a litany of excellent matches on his resume. Truly an all-time great. Rest in peace 

Not to mention his Memphis team with Koko.

[sek69]

1 hour ago, Sweet Brown Koko said:

RIP to a criminally underrated wrestler. He was in top form for as long as I can remember.

Isn't it amazing that he is pretty much recognized universally as one of (if not the) greatest tag team wrestler ever and this is still true?

Also he's on the short list of people in wrestling no one ever had a bad thing to say about, that's as impressive to me as any of his matches. 

[PhilTLL]

Oh no! I loved everything about Beautiful Bobby. He'll always be one of my all-time favorites. I'm thinking of poor ol' Jim Cornette today, whatever you might say or think about him he loves his friends deeply, and they stayed very close. And he sure wasn't the only one, if you go through the legends' socials today, be prepared to get teary-eyed.

Bobby could barely cut a promo to save his life and there are quite a few funny stories about that, but with someone like Cornette or Regal to bounce off of, he could be hilarious. It's a shame the Blue Bloods didn't get more to work with in the ring; I've been slowly rewatching WCW and just finished their run, with virtually no memorable matches.

He was also a quietly great singles wrestler--start with his three Flair matches.

[C.S.]

The Anderson-Eaton team with Michael Hayes as their manager (essentially combining The Horsemen, The Midnight Express, and The Freebirds) was one of the coolest things ever, and I absolutely loved them. I always thought they'd be the next great tag team, but the whole thing didn't last more than five minutes. I wonder what happened?

3 hours ago, PhilTLL said:

It's a shame the Blue Bloods didn't get more to work with in the ring; I've been slowly rewatching WCW and just finished their run, with virtually no memorable matches.

One of the rare (only?) instances of WCW doing WWF-style vignettes and succeeding at them. Regal and Eaton were just that good.

What a crying shame that Bobby Eaton was basically reduced to "enhancement talent" status in the Nitro era. Shame on Eric Bischoff for not having the knowledge or the class to realize the caliber of talent he had at his disposal in Eaton.

"Beautiful" Bobby deserved a better send-off than that. Hopefully he at least made crazy Monday Night War money in those last few years, but I doubt it.

[Ricky Jackson]

Such a great outpouring of positive memories for Bobby on Twitter. Some of the greatest I can recall for a wrestler passing. Awesome performer. Some day I need to dig into more of his deep cuts

RIP

[PhilTLL]

1 hour ago, C.S. said:

One of the rare (only?) instances of WCW doing WWF-style vignettes and succeeding at them. Regal and Eaton were just that good.

They were on quite a kick there, 1995 was also the year of Orndorff's rebirth and Jim Duggan's family taped fist legend. Heck, one might even say they were better at it than WWF was at the same time.

[Memphis Mark]

Bobby started with Nick Gulas after the split with Jarrett and Lawler . Needless to say Gulas 's promotion was devoid of talent. Bobby was a rookie but he was a prodigy . Eaton shot up the card . Nick teamed Bobby with his son , George  . I think anyone one this board knows that George was one of the worst wrestlers every . However Bobby was so great at an early age he was able to  carry George.

Gulas bought in all three Poffo's. Randy was the heel Mid- American champion , Angelo was the masked Carpetbagger and Leaping  Lanny was a baby face . Randy and Bobby worked of a program over control of the Mid- American belt . Much of Randy's top rope offense was  either developed or refined working with Eaton. Bobby Eaton was the perfect  opponent for Savage.  To my knowledge none of the footage survived . I did watch  Gulas TV program in 77 and 78 , so I saw some of the matches . Too bad Eaton and Savage never worked on a bigger stage .

Bobby had a short run in Georgia. He never had got a major push in Atlanta  despite having great matches. Then Bobby went to Memphis and business began to picked up .

Gulas was out of business and Jarrett purchased the remains of the  Gulas promotion . Bobby was now the  Mid- America  champion . Booby joined Jimmy Hart 's  First Family . I want to correct many people  who said Bobby could do mic work. Bobby talked on Memphis  TV every week . Hart  did 90 % of the mic work , then Booby would come in at end. Bobby did have a heavy southern accent , but he was clear and concise with his promo's 

Later KoKo Ware turned heel and and joined the First Family  . Bobby and Koko were both super athletic  and had near perfect timing . This was when Koko was in great shape , long before his " Birdman " days . They had a great run  AWA Southern tag belts  . Of course  Jimmy and Bobby turned on Koko. So then Bobby and Koko feuded of the Mid- America title. Then Hart turned on Bobby . The end result was a bloody feud between Bobby & Koko  and Jimmy Hart's Moondogs .

Then Jarrett send Eaton  to Bill Watts . Along with Dennis  , Jimmy Cornette , Taylor and Morton & Gibson. Jarrett got Rick Rude, Jim Neidhart , Masa Ito and the Dirty white Boys. Anyway the rest is history . I wanted to share some of the great memories of this great talent that we lost today . I met Bobby Eaton at the premiere of  Memphis Heat .  He was a very nice man. 

 Rest in peace Bobby Eaton . You were an outstanding wrestler and even a better person.

 

[Hawkeye12]

RIP.  Best tag team wrestler ever and with a wide variety of guys, but I'll admit I enjoyed his brief single's babyface run, TV title win over Arn, and Clash main event against Flair as much, if not more, than his tag team exploits.

[Ricky Jackson]

2 hours ago, Memphis Mark said:

Randy and Bobby worked of a program over control of the Mid- American belt . Much of Randy's top rope offense was  either developed or refined working with Eaton. Bobby Eaton was the perfect  opponent for Savage.  To my knowledge none of the footage survived .

I've mentioned this several times over the years--I would love to see some of the Savage vs Eaton matches from the late 70s. Apparently they worked 60 and 90 minute Broadway's.

Great info on Eaton's early career 

[MichaelZ]

Very sad news. Midnight Express squashes on TBS with Beautiful Bobby leaping out of the sky were such a big part of my childhood. Some all-time great offense and of course an all-time great tag team wrestler. On top of the classics with the RnRs and the Fantastics, I love the matches the Midnights had vs Watts/JYD, Valiant/Garvin, Morton/Rich, and the list goes on.

 

The feud vs Windham and Garvin is kind of forgotten but I remember it being intense with good action and memorable angles. That might be worth a revisit. 
 

I second the love for that babyface singles run in 1991, just some cool memories. And when he moved down the card he was still entertaining and gave you something memorable. 
 

I appreciate the comments here and the info on his early career. RIP Beautiful Bobby

[Coffey]

I remember watching a WCW B-show in the late 90's during the Nitro era. I want to say it was WCW Saturday Night. Beautiful Bobby Eaton Vs. Alex Wright. Bobby Eaton not only did the job for Wright but Wright got to kick out of the Alabama Jam too. Even then I remember thinking "no way someone kicks out of that."

I also remember a short stint Eaton had in ECW where they were trying to get over his "Eaton" punch against C.W. Anderson's "Anderson" punch. 

The next Jim Cornette podcast is going to be must-listen for me. Like Phil mentioned above, love him or hate him, there's no question how much Eaton meant to Cornette, so I foresee a really somber & sad show but with some great stories & reminiscing. I'm sure Dave Meltzer's obituary will be great too.

Also wanted to put the GoFundMe in here too: https://gofund.me/9ae0ba09 

Jericho & Janela are two of the top donators. Would be such a Bobby Eaton thing if some how in his passing, it brought Cornette back to speaking terms with people like Meltzer again. Would also love to see ProWrestlingTees do a charity shirt sale in his honor.