10 Wrestlers You Won’t Believe Were Once Paul Heyman Guys 8

8. The Original Midnight Express

OK, pay attention, because this one gets confusing. In the late 1980s, Paul Heyman would famously collide with a man so similar to him that they still hate each other to this day. Jim Cornette, like Heyman, was a wrestling fan who got into the business through wrestling PHOTOGRAPHY and journalism. Like Heyman, he wasn’t famed for his athletic prowess, but for his quick mind and microphone work.
In 1981, Dennis Condrey formed a stable called The Midnight Express with Norvell Austin and Randy Rose in Alabama’s Southeast Championship Wrestling. In 1984, Condrey arrived in the hugely influential Mid South Wrestling PROMOTION, where he formed a new Midnight Express team with Bobby Eaton, under the management of Jim Cornette, winning the NWA World Tag Team Championship at one point. However, Condrey literally left the promotion overnight in 1987, giving zero notice to anyone. Condrey was replaced in the Midnight Express team by Stan Lane, forming the most successful and recognisable incarnation of the Midnight Express. However, Condrey signed with the AWA shortly afterwards, and reformed The Original Midnight Express with Randy Rose, claiming the rights to the Midnight Express name. Like the new Midnight Express in the NWA, they also had a manager: Paul E Dangerously.
The temptation was too great, and the NWA eventually brought in Condrey, Rose and Dangerously to the NWA to play out the natural feud: Dangerously’s Original Midnight Express versus Cornette’s new Midnight Express. It was heated to say the least. The Original Midnights showed up in the NWA in November 1988, jumping a bloodied Cornette before Bobby Eaton could make the save. The feud was on. The two managers clashed verbally and physically, with a six man tag where both managers wrestled taking place on pay-per-view. However, a change in booker in the NWA meant that Condrey’s card was marked due to his previous disappearance. A loser leaves town match was BOOKED to end the feud, but Condrey decided to leave town again, rather than wrestle the match. The Midnights vs Midnights feud was over, but the Cornette v Dangerously feud would roll on, as you will see later….


via www.whatculture.com