RIP Bobby Eaton (1958-2021)

[The Great ML]

Bob Cook is posting on Facebook that Beautiful Bobby Eaton has passed at 62 years old.

What a phenomenal worker he was, and genuinely nice man well liked by everyone.

[DreamBroken]

Damn terrible. one of the all time greats. Midnights forever. And the day before Stan Lane's birthday too. Sad. RIP Beautiful Bobby 

 

[odessasteps]

Young Bobby in Chattanooga. 

[The Natural]

Bobby Eaton was rightly well liked by all. Nobody did a top rope Leg Drop as well as Beautiful Bobby. Condolences to his family and friends at this trying time xxx.

[The Natural]

The Alabama Jam. GOAT top rope Leg Drop.

The Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys at WCW's The Great American Bash 1990 is one of the greatest tag team matches ever.

Edited August 5, 2021 by The Natural

[Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta]

RIP Bobby Eaton, a master in the ring and by all accounts a thoroughly nice bloke outside it.

[The Natural]

[odessasteps]

 

[Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta]

 

[Shartnado]

Wow, this is horrible news! Midnight Express has been one of my favorite tag teams ever since I was a teen. Bobby was the thing that held that team together. I have been aware that his health had been failing (due to the bumps he took throughout his career) for a long while now, but this is still very sad. For a guy who seemingly didn't win a match on tv since very early '92, he had a good, long run in WCW. Surely, he deserved better than he got, but he was a consummate professional when putting over who ever they wanted. Rest in Peace, Mr. Eaton.

Now, this story cannot be corroborated, since I think I read it on that fake Tom Zenk blog from almost 20 years ago, but alledgedly, Bobby had been drinking throughout the day before the US-tag title match at Capitol Combat'90. If there is any truth to that, look at his F'n performance in that match, I could not have ever guessed that to be the case! Smooth af!

Edited August 5, 2021 by Shartnado
One alleged story added

[The Natural]

[The Natural]

Bobby Eaton Wikipedia entry:

Reputation

Eaton is often regarded as one of the nicest people in the wrestling business, even though he wrestled as a heel for a majority of his career. In his 1999 book Have a Nice Day, Mick Foley praised Eaton as being one of the most underrated superstars in the business, and its nicest, commenting: "[I]t was damn near impossible to pay for anything with Bobby around, though I will confess to not trying that hard".[34] Jim Cornette and Sean Waltman noted that Eaton would regularly travel with an extra suitcase filled with toiletries, socks, and other oft-forgotten items that he would give to anyone who needed them, which Steve Austin recalled in his 2001 autobiography The Stone Cold Truth.[35] Austin added that wrestling Eaton was considered "a night off", due to Eaton's in-ring offense that looked convincing but did not hurt his opponents.[36]

Family

Eaton was married to Bill Dundee's daughter Donna. When they first started dating, they had to keep the relationship secret from her father, as her father had forbidden her from dating the wrestlers he was booking. When Dundee found out she was dating Eaton, he relented because Eaton was such a nice guy.[3] Eaton and Donna had three children: Dustin, Dylan, and Taryn; Dylan is a professional wrestler.[3]

Donna Dundee died on June 26, 2021 at the age of 62.[37]

Edited August 5, 2021 by The Natural

[cubbymark]

RIP Robert. Earl of Eaton.

[Shartnado]

5 minutes ago, cubbymark said:

RIP Robert. Earl of Eaton.

"How about a drop of wine? Do you have Boom's Farm? Ripple? What? Wine." Classic.

[The Natural]

[hammerva]

If he isn't the greatest tag team wrestler ever he is in the top 3.  Never mind the Midnights

Koko in Memphis

Everyone else in Dangerous Alliance

Regal in WCW - 

Even the team with Steve Keirn in WCW while short was damn solid on the B shows

 

[The Natural]

 

[RIPPA]

I am so not okay

[The Natural]

In Beautiful Bobby Eaton's own words.

[Firebreaker Chip]

Gutted. What a great, smooth worker he was. All of his stuff looked so, so good. That swinging neckbreaker was a work of art.

[quackhell]

His version of the Midnights with Lane really started my love of tag team wrestling as a young fan. Eaton was such an unassuming guy, but easily one of the most naturally gifted wrestlers of all time. More importantly, as so many have pointed out, he was acknowledged as one of the nicest guys ever in the business. So glad I was able to see him in person several times including an absolute banger tagging with Arn against the Steiner Brothers at a tiny house show in Indiana. Thank you Bobby. RIP.

[The Natural]

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by The Natural

[The Natural]

 

[Matt D]

Everyone's different, and I'm not going to lie to you guys: in general, when a wrestler goes, it usually only hits me hard if they are currently active somehow. I'm a huge Bret Hart fan and have been since a kid. If Bret Hart went tomorrow, it wouldn't hit me all that hard because 2021 Bret isn't part of my weekly existence. If Arn Anderson went, I'd be tremendously shook up because I listen to his podcast every week. On some level, I want these people to be happy and live healthy lives somewhere, but if they're out of the spotlight, I'm just not wired to get all that upset. Because they were already sort of out of my life, you know? There's a loss of potential, and like I said, the general sense of goodwill that I want people who brought me joy in some way, shape, or form to have good, happy lives, but it's not personal.

I'm a huge Bobby Eaton fan, a top ten favorite wrestler of all time, and despite what I said above, this one's hitting pretty hard. I think that's more about how it's hitting others because of how great a guy Bobby seemed to be than anything else, but it is what it is.

[The Natural]