RIP Bobby Eaton (1958-2021)

[The Natural]

Posted 21hrs before the sad news broke about Bobby's passing.

[Infinit]

This fucking sucks. RIP Bobby ❤

[The Natural]

 

[Gorman]

I was blessed to announce one Bobby Eaton match. He teamed with Dennis Condrey against Tracey Smothers and Chris Hamrick in November 2004 for IWC. I don't even have to tell you it was a great match.

[J.T.]

RIP Bobby Eaton.   One of the greatest WCW Television Champions ever and possessor of one of the sickest right hand punches in pro wrestling.

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by J.T.

[supremebve]

Bobby Eaton is one of those guys who you always knew was great, but even knowing that, you're always surprised about something he does in a match.  This is a strange analogy, but Bobby Eaton is Jadakiss.  I just watched the Lox vs. Dipset Verszuz the other night and it took about 10 seconds to realize that there were 6 or 7 dudes on the stage with microphones, but Jadakiss was literally better than everyone else at everything.  Then they start going from song to song and Jadakiss, who isn't someone you think of having a bunch of hit records, but you literally know all the words to every song he plays.  Then you realize, oh yeah, he has songs with everybody from DMX, Biggie Smalls, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, and pretty much every notable rapper from the late 90s through the 2010s.  That's Bobby Eaton, you know he's an all-time great tag team wrestler, but he has so many fun singles matches.  He was literally a swiss army knife, if you want to have a chain wrestling sequence, Bobby could work on the mat like the best of him.  Want to throw bombs, he has some of the best offense of all-time.  He's kind of the prototype ~MOVEZ guy, doing slingshot back suplexes, and a bunch of other fun shit you don't ever see anyone else do.  He's was also one of the best high-flyers of his era.  The Alabama Jam was fucking dope, and he was doing that shit back in 1986.  To top it all off, he's the guy in the wrestling business that I've literally never heard a negative word about.  When it's all said and done, if people respect your work and rave about what a quality human being you are, you've lived a life worth celebrating.  Seriously, we lost a legend, and one of the best workers of all-time.  

[Matt D]

I'd build off of what @supremebvejust said. When you watched Eaton in 85 or 91 or whatever, it was the flash that stood out, the Alabama Jam, the knee drop, the slingshot belly-to-back backbreaker, the neckbreaker, the double-teams, because they were light years above what most of his contemporaries were doing. Or if his contemporaries were doing one of those things, he was doing six in rotation. You never knew how the MX were going to win a squash match and you always wanted to see.

But, we live in a world where all of that went from being rare, to commonplace, to surpassed on an athletic or complexity level, and sure his execution is great and his entry points are organic (probably greater and more organic than what we see today) but that's not the point I'm trying to make.

In 85 or 91 it would be impossible not to get blown away by all of those big things he did. Watching back in 2021, we're not dazzled by the spots and we can see far more clearly all of the amazing little things he did: physical reactions, positioning, bridging segments, little conferences with Cornette or his partners, ways he interacts with the ref or the crowd, physical bits of stooging or stutter stepping, little shots he'll lay in as insult to injury or to get heat. There are wrestlers that are always on and always in the moment, and you know the best of them, guys like Bockwinkel and Funk, but Eaton had a way of stretching moments, of creating moments, so that he could actually fit more of himself into his matches, that is pretty unique in all of wrestling.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Matt D

[Rev Ray]

Man.  I knew it was not good news when a bunch of bobby pics showed up in the photo thread.  

 

I love tag team wrestling and Bobby Eaton and the midnight express are very much at the heart of it.  I mainly got into nwa around the time stan and he were the team, I know a lot of people say he and Dennis were the better team overall as the express but Stan and Bobby as a squash match team seemed so polished it isn't funny.  Remembering squash matches in techwood where Bobby would grab the lighting rig before coming off the top.

 

While not a great promo, watch Bobby in interviews in the background.   Him making little smirks, him like adjusting Tony's tie.  Tiny little things to do rather then just stand there. 

 

I loved during the horsemen feud, Bobby got so mad he actually talked.  The angle in smw where arn is under the sheet to team with rnr and Bobby goes to shake arn's hand before taking a back drop.  I was at a house show where he was teamed with the freebirds and they are fighting el Gigante and the birds keep short arming him when Gigante is beating up Bobby to the point Bobby flips them off.

 

I also remember Heyman claiming he was trying to get wcw to let him use Bobby on dark TV because they weren't using him at all and he wanted Bobby to work guys like chetti and other young guys just so they could be experience and Bobby could get some cash.

 

Sad day for a great wrestler and a greater person.

[cubbymark]

Bobby speaks in Memphis! Thanks to Kris Zellner’s YouTube channel.

 

 

[hammerva]

Yeah I never understood people that said Eaton couldn't cut a promo.   Maybe it was too "southern" for people on a national level but he more than held his own.   Now it isn't good enough the Cornette wasn't needed though.  Frankly that was with all of the Midnights. 

Edited August 5, 2021 by hammerva

[The Natural]

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by The Natural

[J.T.]

Stan wants to laugh his ass off but at no point during this epic promo does Bobby Eaton break character.

A consummate professional.

[Brandon Bones]

I remember how much I loved that 2/3 falls match with Flair in 91.  I loved that whole singles run he had post Midnights.  
 

Eaton was so good he got me to like a few Terry Taylor matches.  That’s just something I don’t do.  

[The Natural]

Everybody loves Beautiful Bobby.

[The Natural]

Still the greatest WarGames match by far. It's a ***** match. 24:45 mark.

[supremebve]

12 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'd build off of what @supremebvejust said. When you watched Eaton in 85 or 91 or whatever, it was the flash that stood out, the Alabama Jam, the knee drop, the slingshot belly-to-back backbreaker, the neckbreaker, the double-teams, because they were light years above what most of his contemporaries were doing. Or if his contemporaries were doing one of those things, he was doing six in rotation. You never knew how the MX were going to win a squash match and you always wanted to see.

But, we live in a world where all of that went from being rare, to commonplace, to surpassed on an athletic or complexity level, and sure his execution is great and his entry points are organic (probably greater and more organic than what we see today) but that's not the point I'm trying to make.

In 85 or 91 it would be impossible not to get blown away by all of those big things he did. Watching back in 2021, we're not dazzled by the spots and we can see far more clearly all of the amazing little things he did: physical reactions, positioning, bridging segments, little conferences with Cornette or his partners, ways he interacts with the ref or the crowd, physical bits of stooging or stutter stepping, little shots he'll lay in as insult to injury or to get heat. There are wrestlers that are always on and always in the moment, and you know the best of them, guys like Bockwinkel and Funk, but Eaton had a way of stretching moments, of creating moments, so that he could actually fit more of himself into his matches, that is pretty unique in all of wrestling.

Yeah, it's one of those things about art that no one really talks about.  We have the the trailblazers of an artform, who lay the tracks for others to follow.  Then you get the people who see the tracks, and branch off from there.  Then you get the people who have spent so much time studying the tracks, their branches, and how they interact and these are the innovators.  This was Bobby Eaton.  He had such a thorough understanding of all the little stuff that all his bigger stuff hit harder.  Everything was given the proper room to breathe and as you learn more about the artform you can recognize and appreciate all the added context they put into every little thing.  After the innovators come the copiers, who think they are innovators, but they studied the innovators not the trailblazers so they miss a lot of the contextual stuff.  I think my biggest issue with modern wrestling is how many great workers we have who have all of the big stuff, but miss all the little stuff.  It's kind of the lifespan that all art tends to follow.  

[Log]

I think if you're talking purely between-the-ropes ability in wrestling, you have to have Bobby in the conversation for greatest of all time.

[The Natural]

[Rev Ray]

[For Great Justice]

Bobby is like the senior sys admin for the backend database at a major corporation that has been there 30 years and quietly makes a ridiculous amount of money while managing nobody, because the entire organization knows that through all the years of changes in leadership or business strategy, the company would go totally down the shitter without him. He's the guy in the back room with the short sleeve button down with intimate knowledge the rows and columns to every database that actually drives the company. And for that reason, he's probably your favorite wrestler's (the company executives in this analogy) favorite wrestler. 

If wrestling had a tech-like notion of "fellows", Bobby would be a fellow.

Edited August 5, 2021 by For Great Justice

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

I've mentioned on this board before, but prior to my transition, I did some announcing for some indies in the Mid-Atlantic, so naturally I ran into Bobby a time or... couple of dozen.

In 2008, Bobby was booked to come wrestle on a show I was doing commentary on. I hadn't seen him since 2002, during a futile attempt to be a wrestler myself, so needless to say, I was thrilled. Problem was, I had torn the labrum in my shoulder, and two weeks before the show, I was getting surgery to get it fixed. I wasn't going to miss going to see Bobby again, though, so I made the show.

So I'm at the building with my arm in a sling, doing my prep for the show without the use of my dominant hand, when I see Bobby. I go over to greet him and introduce myself, and he not only remembered who I was from six years prior, but he showed deep concern for my shoulder. He then spent 20 minutes just talking to me about what kind of surgery I had, and how long I'd be in the sling, and what I'd need to do to recover. He then said if there was anything he could do for me, just let him know.

And in the back of my head, I'm thinking "you're Bobby Eaton, we should be doing things for you, dude..."

But that was just who he was.

A lot of people learned a lot of things from Bobby Eaton, but he taught me how to be kind when you don't have to be, and I still treasure that.

[Dolfan in NYC]

You know what... hold on a sec.  

I don't want this to be forgotten, this is getting it's own thread. 

Alright, that's better.  RIP you magnificent bastard. 

It's as good a reason as any to re-listen to "Chase", because any wrestler who comes to the ring to a song by Giorgio fuckin' Moroder gets respect in my book.

 

 

[Kang]

[The Natural]

 

[NikoBaltimore]

Quick note but if you're gonna watch Eaton gifs having the Giorgio song Dolfan posted in the background is the perfect way to do it.  Still need to check out lots more of his music.

As for Eaton he's somebody that whether in or out of wrestling we should all strive to be.  He was so caring and generous with everybody from close friends to random people he never saw before.  No ulterior motive, it was just how he was.  That's something that I always admired a ton about him.

Thank goodness on top of all that he was such an outstanding wrestler that loved what he did.  Don't need to say much since y'all have that well covered.  But man did we lose a good one today.  RIP, Bobby.