Bobby Eaton Shoot Interview Page 2
World Class - Bill Watts sent them to work for
Fritz Von Erich in a talent exchange against their will. They had actually cut a
deal with Dusty Rhodes and Jim Crockett to come in to Mid-Atlantic
before they found out what Watts had in mind, so they were VERY pissed. As a
result, they gave their notice the first night they were in World Class so they
could move on to greener pastures in Mid-Atlantic soon thereafter.
Georgia - Because they’d had to cancel their earlier start date for
Mid-Atlantic, Crockett sent them to the Atlanta territory (which was also owned
by Crockett but run separately at the time) before they could come to
Mid-Atlantic. Once Crockett decided to move everyone from Atlanta to Charlotte,
Bobby decided he had enough of moving and bought a nice house there.
How did he meet his wife? One night, he was calling up Bill Dundee, his booker
in the Jarrett’s Memphis promotion, and ended up talking to Bill’s daughter.
Eventually, they started dating on the sly because Bill had forbade his daughter
to date wrestlers. Once Bill found out, he told her "Well, if you have to
date or marry a wrestler, at least it’s Bobby." (As a rule, EVERYONE in
the business loves Bobby because he’s an incredibly nice and humble guy in
addition to being a good worker.)
How was Charlotte different than Louisiana? The Rock and Roll Express, their
eternal nemesis, had come into the territory earlier than they had and had won
the belts from the Russians (Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff) after
a hot feud. Once they came in, they rekindled their feud from Louisiana and they
all ended up making BIG money.
Did they ever get bored by being programmed against the same guys, in the same
position, for so long? No, because it was easy and the fans loved it. He starts
talking about how part of the tension between Condrey and Cornette was over how
Cornette got a lot of the heat out of the three of them.
The Skywalker match against the Road Warriors at Starrcade 86 - He’d
been in a scaffold match in Tennessee before so he wasn’t freaking out too
bad, but it was a higher scaffold than normal for the Skywalker match. He says
that particular match probably killed off a lot of towns because you’d think
that a guy would be dead after falling from so high, but they got up and
wrestled again the next night. He talks about how he knew he and Dennis were
going to fall off but that the office had decided late in the game to have the
Road Warriors grab Cornette by his arms and legs and throw him off, hoping that Big
Bubba Rogers (The Big Bossman) could catch him. As it turned out,
Cornette just grabbed onto the edge of the scaffold and fell straight down,
Bubba missed catching him, and Cornette SERIOUSLY screwed up his knees as a
result. "He fell like one of those dummies on the Three Stooges", so
if the Road Warriors had tossed him off they’d have probably killed him.
They take a break here to show that Skywalkers match from Starrcade 86. They
also show the Road Warriors pre-taped promo in which they go old-school David
Letterman and toss pumpkins bearing the names of the Midnight Express off a
building to show what will happen to them. The actual match is several minutes
of stalling, both Midnights falling off, Paul Ellering chasing Cornette up, the
Road Warriors tossing him off, then Cornette limping off into the sunset yelling
in falsetto at Bubba. (In his own interview, Cornette says that Bubba, who had
little experience in the business, misinterpreted "I’m shooting, I’m
shooting" as "I’m shitting, I’m shitting." He didn’t
realize that Cornette was really hurt until Cornette was able to muster up the
strength to say "Bubba… CARRYMYGODDAMNASSOUTTAHERE!")
Why did Dennis Condrey leave in late 1986? "Dennis let me out of the car
one night and said ‘See you tomorrow’, then I didn’t see him for two
years." He says that Dennis never talked about why he left, so he figures
that Dennis doesn’t think it’s any of his business. Stan Lane had been
working in Florida around that time and Crockett had just bought the territory,
so he was able to come in and be plugged in the spot Dennis left behind.
What are his memories of teaming with Arn Anderson and Steven Regal
(William Regal)? He and Arn were a good team together and actually won
the tag belts, but they never won a match after that. He and Regal had a lot of
fun with the Bluebloods gimmick, as they brought them down to Florida and
filmed a lot of vignettes where Lord Steven had to turn a redneck Bobby Eaton
into Earl Robert Eaton. When they were in Los Angeles for Bash at the Beach
1995, they had a vignette exploring the city where they pointed out such
landmarks as the Viper Club (where River Phoenix OD’ed), the corner where Hugh
Grant got busted with a prostitute, and the late Nicole Simpson’s house. When
they went to the Simpson house, there was still police tape up from the murder
so, while Regal was talking, Bobby went up to a bush and pulled a knife out of
it, got HUGE eyes, and put it back.
Smokey Mountain Wrestling - Stan and Cornette left WCW abruptly in 1990 and
Cornette went on to found SMW. Once Bill Watts took over WCW in 1992, he started
a talent exchange agreement with Cornette and sent Bobby over for a few months.
He puts over Cornette for running a territory in an area where wrestling isn’t
seen as "sports entertainment" but rather as life. "There was a
lot of fightin’ going on" due to the rabid nature of the fans.
Working in WCW as long as he had - He was one of the trainers at the Power
Plant, but "Sarge" Dwayne Bruce was the guy who did most of the
work. He mostly just worked tryout matches with guys they were interested in,
including Bill Goldberg. Something happened and he’s not sure what, but
he got released and figures that they were telling him in their own way that he
wasn’t doing as good a job as he should.
Next is a break where they show a Lane and Eaton era Midnight Express video
package to the tune of "The Boys are Back In Town" and Led Zeppelin’s
"Immigrant Song" amongst other songs.
Does he think his release was a surprise? Yes, it was a big shock because he’d
been a company man and he’d been told that he’d have a job as long as he
wanted one. It hurt his feelings more than anything, especially since it didn’t
really hurt his budget.
Does he think that today’s top guys feel the business owes them a living? Yes,
and he feels that’s the wrong attitude because, if anything, they should owe
the business for giving them a living.
He’s having a lot of fun on the indy circuit because he’s allowed to go out
and work a match with a young kid who’s into it rather than being given two or
three minutes to make some green kid look good on TBS or TNT.
Had he heard about how Paul Heyman had wanted him to come to ECW badly
but WCW hadn’t let them? Yes, and he’d worked there a few times but he doesn’t
know why he was never allowed to. He’s tried talking to him lately but has
never gotten a call back, and figures it may have to do with his current
troubles. He has a bunch of Paul E stories, including one where Paul cussed out
Ric Flair and was throwing around trash cans and so forth. Paul E even bit the
head off of a squeegee guy while taking him to the hospital one night. He says
that Paul E. had a short fuse and that Cornette was the same way. He says that
Cornette talks a good fight but can’t do crap… he just gets HIM into fights.
Injuries - He’s fractured his fibia and tibia, torn up the joints around his
collar bone, tore up his knees, etc.
They then cut to a US Tag Title match from Capital Combat 90, pitting the Lane
and Eaton era Midnight Express against Brian Pillman and Z-Man (current
Internet columnist Tom Zenk). Cornette is put into a cage at ringside.
This is a good match but, due to time constraints and the low video quality of
the match, I’m not going too in-depth on it. The finish comes as Stan gives
Zenk an enziguri and Eaton rolls him up for the pin.
Name association:
Ric Flair - What you see on TV is him. Nice guy. He IS the Nature Boy.
One night, Flair actually took a dive into a Whirlpool like it was a 12-foot
swimming pool. He also threw great parties.
Dusty Rhodes - He was all right. They’re good friends, and he’s worked for
him in Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling recently. One night, Dusty was
wrestling Tully Blanchard and had him in the figure four when the
Midnights rushed the ring. He threw BOTH Midnights and Cornette out of the ring
while he was on the ground keeping Tully in the figure four.
Magnum TA - His car accident was a true tragedy.
The wrestlers in World Class - Kerry Von Erich was a good wrestler but
did some weird stuff.
Road Warriors - Very stiff in the ring. You looked forward to wrestling them as
much as you would to the Steiner Brothers.
Junkyard Dog - He just did what he could do, which was pretty limited, but he
was successful.
Why do you think that WCW business hit a wall in the late 80s / early 90s? The
storylines were terrible and when you combine that with business already being
down, it wasn’t pretty. He can’t even remember many storylines from that
time, so that shows how memorable they were.
The nWo - Got along with them.
Eric Bischoff - He got along with him fine when he was just a peon
calling the worst WCW show, so he didn’t have problems with him when he became
his boss.
They then cut to another Midnight Express video package, although this one
includes both Eaton and Condrey footage as well as Lane and Eaton footage. It’s
to the tune of "Money for Nothing" amongst other songs. I wouldn’t
have a problem with these being on here if there was just one of them, but THREE
of them taking up about 10 minutes each is a bit much. Also, as Cornette says in
his own interview, these videos which were cutting edge then are now "GAY
AS S**T."
The WWF vs. WCW - Everyone knows what’s going to happen in WCW but ANYONE can
win in the WWF. For example, if they put him in there with Lex Luger,
people may know they’ll get a good match but they already know the outcome.
Midnight Express (Lane and Eaton, with Cornette) vs. Barry Windham and
Ric Flair, with JJ Dillon. This is from Clash of the Champions 4: Seasons
Beatings. Windham comes in as the US champion and Flair is the NWA champion.
This is a GREAT match but, like in the case of the Midnights vs. Z-Man and
Pillman, I’m not going to do an extended play by play. During mid-match, Paul
E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman) starts cutting a promo on Cornette and his
"fake" Midnight Express to build the match between them and Paul E’s
Original Midnight Express (Randy Rose and Dennis Condrey) at Starrcade 88.
Eventually, Windham picks up the pin on Eaton after Flair waffles Eaton with one
of JJ Dillon’s shoes.
Do any of the young guys out there impress him? He likes all of him, but he
especially likes Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko,
"Pretty much all the guys WCW got rid of." He knew that Benoit was
going to be a big star because he’s great in the ring and people will like him
no matter what he does. He feels that Eddy is a natural heel and will do well in
the WWF.
Working with the Luchadores - They paired him up with Rey Misterio and
the other ones after they got tired of wrestling each other all the time. He
said it scared him a bit wrestling with Misterio because it was like trying to
wrestle his 17-year old kid. He feels that Rey was over more while he was still
under the mask, which the WWF definitely felt when they brought him into the
company about six months ago.
Tag matches vs. singles matches - "I can come up with good ideas in a tag
match, but I suck at singles matches." I think it’s a product of him
being a tag guy for so long that he’s become great at it, while he’s only
had a few abortive singles pushes.
The WWF - He’s never wrestled there, although he had a few chances to go
there. He enjoyed being at home to see his kids grow up as well as getting
guaranteed money from WCW, so he never took them up on their offers. He
understands why WCW would want to release him but wishes they’d given him some
notice that he was going to be leaving. He agreed to be enhancement talent
because he was under the impression that he guaranteed a job and that, if he put
over guys that the company was going to use to draw money, it would be
beneficial for the company as a whole for him to do it. Unfortunately, being a
good company man ended up getting him released.
Does he have anything he wants to say to the fans? He just wants to say he
appreciates the support he’s gotten from the fans over the years and that he’d
like to continue entertaining them.
We then get a final video package to Pat Benatar’s "Heartbreaker"
and the Rolling Stones’ "Gimmie Shelter". I will say this much…
whoever made these videos for Crockett and/or Turner sure knew how to pick
music. I just wish they’d done one of these to the Stones’ "Sympathy
for the Devil."
Thoughts -
Unfortunately, this shoot is just like everything people have said about Bobby
Eaton over the years… he’s a great wrestler and a nice guy, but very bland.
In addition to that, this is a pretty short tape (2:40 running time, although
probably 1:30 of that is matches and video packages).
On the plus side, though, you get some pretty good matches on here that are a
pain in the ass to find these days, as it’s hard to come by a LOT of the good
pre-nWo WCW matches. Even if you don’t get the interview, try and find copies
of the Midnights vs. Pillman and Z-Man match from Capital Combat 90 and the
Midnights vs. Flair and Windham match from Clash of the Champions 4: Seasons
Beatings.
Very slightly recommended, and that’s mostly for the matches.