Marvez: Catching up with Dennis Condrey of Midnight Express

The Midnight Express keeps rolling.
Twenty-five years after its debut, the tag team of Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton -- with manager Jim Cornette -- remains a hot act on the independent circuit. Condrey said he is already booked every weekend through mid-July. And he honestly can't figure out why.
"I'm so amazed the fans even remember us," Condrey said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "I was in Birmingham, Alabama, last weekend on a Saturday night and the building was full. I was like, 'Wait a minute. We haven't been on TV in 20 years. I don't get it.' "
Condrey's modesty may prevent him from realizing the trio's impact in a golden era for tag teams. Condrey and Eaton were outstanding in-ring technicians with great comedic timing; Cornette provided flash with rapid-fire interviews and insults that blew away all of his peers.
An accomplished 10-year veteran at the time of his pairing with Eaton and Cornette, Condrey already was part of an earlier version of the Midnight Express with fellow grapplers Randy Rose and Norvell Austin. Condrey took the name with him when he, Eaton and Cornette were recruited from Memphis, Tenn., by Bill Watts to begin teaming in his Mid-South promotion.
The Express shined so brightly in matches throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana that they were soon booked to work for Jim Crockett Promotions, which was promoting nationally out of Charlotte, N.C. Moneymaking feuds with the Rock and Roll Express and Road Warriors soon followed.
"We had a chemistry that's hard to explain," Condrey said. "We never had to actually speak to each other in the ring like some teams. We just had to look at each other and we knew what we were doing."
But at the peak of the team's popularity in early 1987, Condrey abruptly walked away.
His departure stemmed from the refusal of Cornette and Eaton to sign one-year, $250,000 contracts with World Wrestling Entertainment after a secret meeting with promotion owner Vince McMahon. While the money was comparable to what the Midnight Express had earned the previous year, Condrey's bigger concern was that the act had become stale.
"We had gone through all the teams in Crockett," said Condrey, who was replaced in the Midnight Express by "Sweet" Stan Lane. "We needed to take a hiatus, but the other guys didn't want to do it, so I went to Colorado and bought a horse ranch.
"It wasn't hard to walk away. The only thing I would change is that I would have sat down and told them I was leaving. They didn't know where I was. I was so mad that I didn't really want to talk to them."
Condrey's anger eventually subsided enough that he returned to Crockett Promotions in late 1988. Only this time, Condrey was working against Eaton, Lane and Cornette as part of the reformed Original Midnight Express with Rose and new manager Paul Heyman (a/k/a Paul E. Dangerously).
The feud was a hit, but Condrey's comeback was short-lived. Because of disagreements with a new matchmaker (George Scott), Condrey left again and never returned to a national promotion.
Condrey continued grappling in Japan and for independent groups on weekends while running a boarding stable outside Nederland, Colo. He began training aspiring wrestlers in Denver and continues to work locally for IWF Promotions even though he has moved to Huntsville, Ala.
Condrey also reconciled with Eaton and Cornette in 2004, leading to a slew of nostalgia matches against the Rock and Roll Express. The three remain together, working around Eaton's health problems -- Condrey said his partner experienced a third heart attack last month -- and Cornette's TNA Wrestling commitments as a figurehead matchmaker.
"We still have good matches," said Condrey, 57. "Sometimes I have to pinch myself because it feels like this is a continuation from 1986. ... We're best of friends once again."
"The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette 25th Anniversary Scrapbook" -- which was recently written by Cornette and Tim Ash -- chronicles the team's origins and provides a behind-the-scenes perspective on wrestling during the 1980s. The book costs $25 and is available at www.jimcornette.com.

(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro-wrestling column for Scripps Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv(at)aol.com.)