Beautiful Bobby and...

[JMFabianoRPL]

Just read this in a review on 411 for the Crockett Cup:

 

 

This is the debut of the third incarnation of the Midnight Express as Stan Lane replaces Dennis Condrey who left without explanation. Lane had just had a falling out with his regular tag partner in the Fabulous Ones, Steve Keirn (Skinner to all you WWF fans) and needed something to do. Cornette already had a replacement for Condrey lined up named – Tim Horner. They even broke up the Lightning Express to make it happen, which is why you see Armstrong and Horner wrestling with different partners. Anyway, as the story goes, Horner was practically trying on the Midnight Express threads when Lane called JCP and asked if they had anything for him. Corny jumped at the chance and dumped Horner in favor of Lane. The rest is history. So Horner went from possibly being a member of one of the most over tag teams in history and a perennial tag title contender to jobbing in the opening round. Horner and Armstrong would reform and jump to the Universal Wrestling Federation and then become jobbers once JCP gobbled up that territory too.

 

Well this is the first I ever heard of this. Any validity?

[Bix]

Not true. Cornette has said that he had picked Tom Prichard (working in Continental at the time, IIRC) for the spot, but Crockett wanted to bring Lane up from Florida (after having either bought the territory or just working out a talent sharing agreement depending on who you ask) and decided that he'd be a good replacement.

[MikeCampbell]

I'd never heard anything about Horner being part of the MX. I didn't even thinking the Lightning Express were teaming up at this point. I thought it was still Brad and Bob, and the Express came later on.

[Tim Cooke]

Express started teaming in late 84 and went until at least 12/87

[kjh]

This story is mentioned on the Wikipedia page for the Midnight Express and seems to stem from a Tim Horner shoot interview. From the Wikipedia page in question:

 

"In the early parts of 1987 Dennis Condrey left JCP from one day to the next, and no reason has ever been given by Dennis Condrey with only speculations from those who were not directly involved. Regardless of the explanation, the problem was still that Bobby Eaton was without a partner. Enter a man from Eaton’s past, another former opponent turned tag team partner: “Sweet" Stan Lane. Lane and Eaton knew each other well from working against each other in the past and this showed as the new version of the Midnight Express gelled from the beginning. Tim Horner was having problems with his tag team partner, Brad Armstrong, and was actually considered to replace Dennis Condrey, but according to Horner, Stan Lane just happened to call the office at the right time. The facts are that J.J. Dillon approached Stan Lane in Florida telling him that Dusty wanted to talk to him. He was told to give Dusty a call so when Stan called Dusty he was given the details. At the time business was down in Florida so Stan Lane made the jump to Jim Crockett Promotions after meeting with Dusty and Bobby Eaton in Charlotte. In reality Steve Keirn, Lane's long time partner in The Fabulous Ones had already quit wrestling since business was so dead in Florida. This made it a no brainer for Stan to step in and take over the spot that Dennis Condrey previously had and worked flawlessly."