The Midnight Express: Definition of a Tag Team

One of the most talked about tag teams of the 1980s, the original lineup of the Midnight Express came together, as Dennis Condrey, Randy Rose, and Norville Austin would join forces as a trio under the "Freebird" rule (in which any two of the men would wrestle a tag team match, creating the 'illusion' that a team never knew which combination they were facing) in Southeast Championship Wrestling in 1981. While the trio would achieve small-scale success, they would split in 1983, when Dennis Condrey left the territory. Rose and Austin would continue to team together until 1984, when they would go their separate ways.

Arriving in Mid-South Wrestling, Condrey would reform the Midnight Express as a traditional tag team, partnering with "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton and adding young manager Jim Cornette to the fold. Before long, they would feud with Magnum T.A. and Mr. Wrestling II, the Mid-South Tag Team Champions at the time. Over the course of the feud, a definite sign of the times to come, the three men would go out of their way to make life miserable for the champs, even going so far as to tar and feather Magnum T.A. during a televised Mid-South card!

Over the year 1984, the Midnight Express would engage in numerous memorable feuds beyond Magnum T.A. and Mr. Wrestling II, whom they would defeat for the Mid-South Tag Team titles in the spring. During a "celebration" for the title win, the new champs would suffer embarrassment at the hands of the Rock N Roll Express, who would crash the party, smashing the cake in Jim Cornette's face, becoming a popular highlight for weeks on Mid-South television, thanks to repeated play by "Cowboy" Bill Watts. This would lead to a confrontation between Cornette and Watts, in which the outspoken manager found himself on the business end of a hard right hand from Watts! Matches with Cornette's Midnight Express facing off with Watts and the Junkyard Dog would soon follow.