The Dream Match Turned Into a Nightmare: The Battle of the Midnight Express

Brian Damage

Dream matches in pro wrestling rarely turn out to be the “dream” we as fans imagined them to be. Over the years, dream match ups pitting stars like Ric Flair versus Hulk Hogan and Demolition versus The Road Warriors initially fell flat for whatever reason when finally presented to wrestling fans. Another example of a dream feud gone wrong took place in the National Wrestling Alliance between The Midnight Express (‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton and ‘Sweet’ Stan Lane) versus The Original Midnight Express (‘Lover boy’ Dennis Condrey and ‘Ravishing’ Randy Rose)

It was 1988 and one of the hottest tag teams in the NWA was the Midnight Express managed by Jim Cornette. They began a program with another red hot tag team and members of the Four Horsemen (Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson) The two heel teams were doing great business for Jim Crockett Promotions and helped sell out several venues. Then, Arn and Tully decided to jump ship to the WWF, leaving the Midnight Express without viable opponents.

Jim Cornette came up with an idea to bring in the perfect team to feud with Eaton and Lane and continue making revenue for Crockett. There was another team named the Original Midnight Express wrestling for a different promotion (The American Wrestling Association). The Original Midnight Express were managed by another boisterous manager by the name of Paul E. Dangerously. They were AWA world tag team champions and included a former member Of Cornette’s team (Dennis Condrey) They were called “Original” because Condrey and Randy Rose originally wrestled under the Midnight Express moniker years prior for several southern territories.

Cornette presented this idea of a feud between the two Midnight Express tag teams to then booker Dusty Rhodes. At first Dusty was against the idea of bringing in the Original Midnight Express because Dennis Condrey had once abruptly quit the NWA and left. Rhodes felt that Condrey was unreliable and the feud wouldn’t work. Jim Cornette completely laid out his idea for the feud to Dusty and eventually Dusty agreed to offer Paul E and The Orginal Midnight Express a contract.

The beginning of the angle took place in Atlanta, Georgia during a TV studio taping. The Midnight Express and Cornette were cutting a promo when Cornette received a phone call from someone from Cornette’s past. After which, Paul E Dangerously appeared and the Original Midnight Express attacked and brutalized Cornette and his team. Jim Cornette was supposed to bleed lightly in the segment, but since Cornette was inexperienced in blading himself…he cut himself too much and bled profusely.

The TBS TV executives were not pleased with so much blood being spilled, but the angle became instantly red hot. With two of the promotions best talkers in Paul E Dangerously and Jim Cornette hyping their respective teams and building the feud…it seemed that the Battle of the Midnight Express was going to be a surefire hit. Before the feud could go full throttle, Dusty Rhodes was fired as booker. Add to that, Jim Crockett Jr decided to sell his promotion to Ted Turner to form World Championship Wrestling.

Now, with no booker and brand new ownership, the Midnight Express feud was put into limbo. In a corporate move to save a few dollars, the decision was made not to bring managers and or valets on the road during house shows. This severely hurt the Midnight Express program, because Paul Heyman and Jim Cornette were the backbones of each tag team. Without their managers in their corners, the feud was lackluster at best. That was just the tip of the iceberg.

While WCW was searching for a suitable replacement for Dusty Rhodes as booker, Jim Crockett Jr was used as the interim booker. Crockett admittedly had no experience actually booking matches and his big idea for the Midnight feud was to have a loser leave town match. The idea was the two teams would battle on pay per view and the person who was pinned would be forced to leave WCW. According to Cornette, the reason Jim Crockett Jr booked this match was because Crockett was not a fan of Randy Rose of the Orginal Midnights. Crockett felt Rose was old and slow and a younger wrestler would be better off with Dennis Condrey.

The Loser Leaves Town match was officially booked for the Chi Town Rumble pay per view on February 20th, 1989. Before this show happened, WCW hired George Scott and old time wrestler and booker to replace Jim Crockett Jr who replaced Dusty Rhodes. Scott was not a fan of Jim Cornette or his Midnight Express and told Cornette that to his face. As the show quickly approached, Dennis Condrey found out that Randy Rose was to be fired and replaced.

When Chi Town Rumble went on air, Dennis Condrey was a no show. He decided that if WCW was going to break up his tag team, he would rather sit at home and not bother to work it. In a panic, George Scott convinced Jack Victory to replace Condrey in the match. Ultimately, the Jim Cornette version of the Midnight Express won the match. The original Midnight Express eventually were fired. The dream feud that seemed to have so much promise fizzled out.