There is no one more underappreciated, in my opinion, in the history of World Championship Wrestling than Beautiful Bobby Eaton.
Many people know Bobby for his time in Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express in the 1980s. Whether with Dennis Condrey or Sweet Stan Lane, Eaton’s state-of-the-art work and presence in between the ropes made him one of the best tag team wrestlers on the planet.
Bobby’s tag team legacy with the Midnights is virtually unmatched, holding three NWA United States Tag Team Titles and two NWA World Tag Team Championships within a five year span from 1986 to 1990. Once Cornette and Stan Lane moved on from the promotion due to issues with WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd, Eaton stayed on and went on his own.
At the inaugural SuperBrawl event on May 19, 1991, Bobby overcome his skeptics and, in his only major singles title win, defeated “the Enforcer” Arn Anderson after a picture perfect swinging neckbreaker and his patented Alabama Jam, the flying legdrop, to become the new WCW World Television Champion.
Six months later, Beautiful Bobby linked up with Paul E. Dangerously and joined the Dangerous Alliance. On January 16, 1992, during a live event at the Jacksonville Coliseum in Jacksonville, FL, Eaton and Anderson won a two-out-of-three falls classic against Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat and “the Natural” Dustin Rhodes to win the World Tag Team Titles. After four months, they lost the belts to Rick and Scott Steiner on May 3 in a steel cage match in Chicago, IL.
After being released in early 1993 due to cost-cutting measures under Bill Watts, Bobby made his return to the promotion in the Spring, forming a tag team with a young Chris Benoit. Once the future “Crippler” was let go in the Summer of ‘93, Eaton toiled around the promotion for the next few years, best known for a short lived tag team in 1994 alongside Steve Keirn as Bad Attitude.
In 1995, Beautiful Bobby reinvented himself, forming a tag team with Lord Steven Regal called the Blue Bloods. Regal, who helped the quiet and reserved Alabama native into a “distinguished” individual, rechristened him Earl Robert Eaton and began their journey towards the World Tag Team Titles. Although a successful duo, Regal and Eaton were unable to wrest the gold from various titleholders, from Harlem Heat and the Nasty Boys to Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater and Sting & Lex Luger.
After eighteen months of frustration, Eaton finally turned on Regal and Squire Dave Taylor and attempted to take Regal’s newly won World Television Title, in which he was unsuccessful.
For the next few years, Bobby began getting eased off WCW television, primarily wrestling on WCW Saturday Night and Worldwide. However, he was still a focal point behind-the-scenes, training the stars of tomorrow in the WCW Power Plant, as well as doing motion capture for the WCW Mayhem video game.
However, by the year 2000, the writing was on the wall for poor Eaton, as he was wrestling his final matches for the company.
Jimmy Hart’s attempts to make Saturday Night its own entity were beginning to take shape. In spite of the constant turnover in management, Saturday Night was keeping steady, mixing in the young performers from the Power Plant with the veterans, trying to show the way to the next generation of the industry. Beautiful Bobby was one of those men trying to be a mentor.
On the February 26, 2000 edition of Saturday Night, filmed at the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, PA, Eaton would, unbeknownst to him, wrestle his last match for WCW. His opponent: DUSTIN RHODES.
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After years in the World Wrestling Federation, “the Natural” made his official WCW return on November 8, 1999. The former World Tag Team, Six-Man Tag, and United States Champion initially was going to return as Seven, a mysterious and ominous character. It was going to be a complete 180 from his work as Goldust.
However, due to complaints from Standards and Practices, who were connected with the Powers That Be, Seven was cut short. Also, the week that he returned, Dustin’s dad “the American Dream” Dusty Rhodes was fired from WCW after a near decade with the promotion. Fueled with anger at those executives that wanted him gone, Dustin wanted revenge on those connected with the PTB.
Over the next few months, Rhodes feuded with Jeff Jarrett, culminating in a Bunkhouse Brawl at Starrcade 1999 on December 19. Dustin would lose, thanks to “the Chosen One” clubbing him with a guitar and subsequently falling off a ladder,
After a few weeks off of TV, as well as Kevin Sullivan and JJ Dillon taking over the management position of the company, Rhodes returned and began a rivalry with “the Hardcore Legend” Terry Funk. The Funks and the Rhodes family, who had been rivals since the 1970s, reconvened their war after a six-year hiatus (the last time was 1994: Dusty and Dustin teamed with the Nasty Boys to take on Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, and Col. Robert Parker of the Studd Stable).
On the Nitro before the February 26, 2000 Saturday Night, Rhodes had taken one too many insults of his old man by the Funker and decided to beat the holy Hell out of him during a tag team match against the Harris Boys. Following the assault, Funk was being prepped to be loaded in an ambulance. Dustin returned to attack him once again and, for reasons unexplained, took off in said ambulance, leaving Funk strapped to a gurney.
Rhodes was in no mood, and following a video package detailing their rivalry, stood in the ring, prepared to battle with an old rival.
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The story of the match was simple. Dustin was on the aggressive in the early going while the wily veteran Bobby was on the defensive. According to color analyst Larry Zbyszko, “too defensive, really”.
I instantly geeked out, once I saw Eaton’s vicious right hand to the top of Rhodes’ cranium. “The American Nightmare” bailed to the floor (YES - Dustin was calling himself that in the year 2000, almost two decades prior to Cody) and Bobby went right after him. However, the younger and more vicious Dustin took over and HIPTOSSED Eaton on the arena floor, away from the padded mats.
Once Dustin rolled Eaton into the ring, he split the uprights in the corner and, with the fans surprisingly behind him, shattered some dreams with a kick to the groin. Good grief.
Beautiful Bobby tried to regain his wits about him, but moments later, Eaton’s own hiptoss was countered into Rhodes’ patented Bulldog headlock. Three slaps of the mat later, and Dustin Rhodes picked up the victory.
To me, this match was very reminiscent of an old school Jim Crockett Promotions TV match. There wasn’t any flash or sizzle; it was just two men competing against one another. There wasn’t anything wild, other than the hiptoss on the arena floor. And there was a simple story: a fired-up Dustin defeated a wily veteran in Beautiful Bobby. For me, it was a throwback, and I loved it.
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Sadly, following this match, Beautiful Bobby Eaton had one more match for WCW during a house show on March 5, 2000, losing to Chuck Palumbo during a live event in Charlotte, NC, and then was subsequently released prior to yet another management change, with Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo joining forces in April 2000.
To me, there was no one more underappreciated in professional wrestling than Beautiful Bobby Eaton. From bell-to-bell, he was on point, solid, and legitimate. In many cases, he was a wrestler’s wrestler, and there is no bigger compliment than that.
Bankie Bruce
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