WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING!

The Midnight Express 

w/Jim Cornette

1987 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Tag Team of the Year

1987 PWI Achievement Awards

1987 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Tag Team of the Year

The Midnight Express

(Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane w/Jim Cornette)

WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING

US Tag Team Champions

Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman

Won the Belts Feb 12th 1990 in a tournament final over 

The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin)

 in Rainsville, AL.    

Held the belts 96 days until May 19th 1990, lost to 

The Midnight Express (Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton) 

at the WCW PPV event Capital Combat in Washington DC.

Clash of the Champions IX - New York Knockout

Clash of the Champions IX took place on November 15, 1989 at the Houston Field House in Troy, New York. There were 4,000 fans in attendance and the show drew a 4.9 rating on TBS. This show mainly dealt with fallout from Halloween Havoc PPV and set up the Iron Man / Iron Team tournaments at Starrcade 1989.^[11]

• The Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) defeated The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) by disqualification (5:18)
  • The Road Warriors were disqualified when Hawk hit the referee.
  • The Freebirds had actually lost the NWA World Tag Team titles on November 1, but the match had not aired yet, so the Freebirds were introduced as the NWA World Tag Team champions.
• Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) (with Woman and Nitron) defeated Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich (5:15)
  • Doom #1 pins Rich after a double team Clothesline
• The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) defeated The Dynamic Dudes (Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas) (9:22)
  • Eaton pinned Douglas after Jim Cornette hits Douglas with his tennis racket.
  • Jim Cornette was in a neutral corner at the start of the match before deciding to side with the Midnight Express
• Steve Williams defeated The Super Destroyer (1:41)
  • Williams pinned the Super Destroyer with the Oklahoma Stampede
  • This is Jack Victory's 4th “Masked Mystery Man” appearance at a Clash (“Russian Assassin #2”, “The Blackmailer” and “The Terrorist”)
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) defeated The Skyscrapers (Dan Spivey and Sid Vicious) by disqualification (6:08)
  • The Steiner Brothers had actually won the NWA World Tag Team titles on November 1, but the match had not aired yet, so The Steiners were not announced as the champions.
  • The Skyscrapers were disqualified when Doom ran in and attacked the Steiner Brothers.
  • During the match Sid Vicious punctures a lung and is replaced by ”Mean” Mark Callous soon after.
  • Woman's bodyguard Nitron makes his debut during the post match brawl between the Steiners, the Skyscrapers, Doom and the Road Warriors.
• Lex Luger defeated Brian Pillman to retain the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (12:38)
  • Luger pinned Pillman after hitting him with a chair while the referee was down.
  • Sting saved Pillman from further attacks by Luger.
• NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair defeated Terry Funk (with Gary Hart) in an "I Quit" match (18:33)
  • Flair forced Funk to say “I Quit” on the microphone due to the pain of the Figure Four Leglock
  • Gary Hart attacked Funk after the match and was quickly joined by The Great Muta.
  • Sting saved Flair from the attack only to be attacked by Lex Luger.
  • This match received a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer.
  • Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship was not on the line, making it a non-title match.

Jim Cornette And Midnight Express on the Mic

NWA Superstars on the Superstation 1986

This is the NWA (Crockett Promotions) first attempt at a nationally televised supercard that was taped Feb. 2nd 1986 and aired on WTBS Feb 7th 1986.

The card stacked up like this:

World Tag Team Title Match
The Rock N Roll Express (Champions)
vs
The Midnight Express w/Jim Cornette

The Road Warriors vs The Koloffs (Ivan and Nikita) w/Baron Von Raschke

NWA National Heavyweight Title Match
Tully Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes (Champion)

NWA World Heavyweight Title Match
Ron Garvin  vs  Ric Flair (Champion)

Your Tag Team Match of The Night

Rock & Roll Express vs Midnight Express w/Jim Cornette 

The Russians Attack!

Great American Bash 1987 on Tour

25 years ago this week the NWA was holding The Great American Bash on Tour and July 18th 1987 it was in  Charlotte  North Carolina at Memorial Stadium

Here is the match lineup
What you see in the video is the edited to 1 hour presentation on NWA Pro Wrestling TV

• Kendall Windham, Jimmy Valiant and LazerTron defeated Sean Royal, Gladiator #1 and Gladiator #2

LazerTron was Hector Guerrero and the Gladiators were Gary Royal and George South.

• Chris Adams defeated Black Bart (with Skandor Akbar)  (Not Shown)
• NWA Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham defeated Big Bubba Rogers (with Skandor Akbar)
• Steve Williams and Terry Gordy defeated Eddie Gilbert and Dick Murdoch in a Bunkhouse match
• (Not Shown)
• The Fabulous Freebirds defeated NWA United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (with Jim Cornette) by disqualification.
• NWA World Tag Team Champions The Rock 'n' Roll Express def. The MOD Squad
• Road Warrior Animal (with Paul Ellering) defeated Arn Anderson (with James J. Dillon) in a Taped Fist match  (Not Shown)
• NWA United States Champion Lex Luger (with James J. Dillon) defeated Nikita Koloff  (Not Shown)
• NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair (with James J. Dillon) defeated Road Warrior Hawk (with Paul Ellering) by disqualification to retain the title  (Not Shown)
• Dusty Rhodes (with Barry Windham) defeated Tully Blanchard (with James J. Dillon and Dark Journey) in a "lights-out" Barbed Wire Ladder match for $100,000.

Match of the Day

Todays match of the day is from The Great American Bash, held July 10th 1988.
The US Tag Team Champions The Fantastics(Tommy Rogers/Bobby Fulton) defend against The Midnight Express(Bobby Eaton/Stan Lane)

The Way Back Machine

These are pictures I took around 1988 when the NWA (WCW) visited the Indiana State Fair

This is Terry Taylor in the red vs Mean Mark Callas, better known today as The Undertaker! he was unknown to everyone at the time and Taylor was making is first appearance for the NWA/WCW after leaving the WWF where he had been the "Red Rooster". He got a big ovation as he was a suprise and not listed on the program.
Here is the late Brian Pillman ready to face off against the Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane. Jim Cornette was of course at ringside in the red jacket.

Here is the Nature Boy Ric Flair in a 6 man match with Sid Vicious and Buddy Landell as his partners.

the ring introductions for the 6 man match with the team facing Flair, Vicious and Landell being Lex Luger (then U.S. Champion) Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff and the NWA World Champion Sting!

World Champion Sting getting ready to gorilla slam the Nature Boy.

The crowd was HOT for Sting's Team this night.