CALL HIM ‘LOVERBOY.’ Former NWA World Tag Team Champion — and Member of the Legendary Midnight Express — Dennis Condrey Speaks.
By Paul E. Pratt
Securing an interview with Dennis Condrey is a miracle. Literally. Seven years ago, Condrey required extensive throat surgery as part of a life-saving treatment for cancer. Many expected he might never speak again.
“I’m the man who doesn’t have a voice box but can still talk,” said Condrey, whose in-ring legend started five decades ago in a National Wrestling Alliance ring.
What a blessing Condrey’s ability to speak is! Few have more stories or memories to share than the 75-year-old.
“Loverboy” Dennis made his greatest mark with The Midnight Express, dominating early-‘80s territories with manager Jim Cornette and late partner “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton. Long before that, though, Condrey began his career as a referee.
“I’ve got a T-shirt from 1970 with ‘NWA’ on it, and I wear it every damn where I go!” admits Condrey.“NWA gave me my start. I worked with Ole and Gene Anderson. They beat the crap out of me for a year!”
In 1980, Condrey, Randy Rose and later Norvell Austin formed The Midnight Express. With Eaton and Cornette, though, the name gained global recognition.
After collecting championships across the Southeast, the trio followed The Rock ‘n Roll Express to NWA. The Midnights defeated R’n’R for the NWA World Tag titles Feb. 2, 1986.
As tag champs, Condrey and Eaton advanced to the quarter-finals of the first ever Crockett Cup tournament. They lost by disqualification to eventual winners The Road Warriors.
NWA fans were shocked when Condrey abruptly left the unit at the height of its popularity. In his place, “Sweet” Stan Lane joined Eaton and Cornette, forming a new, some might even say better-known Express.
“We’d been in Charlotte for two-and-a-half years,” Condrey detailed behind-the-scenes elements of his exit. This was a departure, he says, from the team’s successful history of entering a company hot, winning gold, then moving on.
“We’d already gone through all the tag teams,” he said.
“We’d been through The Road Warriors, the Rock ’n Roll Express, The Fantastics,” Condrey asserted, “I said, ‘Look, we ain’t got nobody else to work with! Let’s go somewhere else — to New York — and make a lot of money. Then we can come back here to Charlotte later.’”
Condrey explains the men met with another company, which promised titles and an historic opportunity to be the first tag team to receive action figures. The triad reached a verbal agreement with the promotion, he says, but upon returning home, Eaton and Cornette changed their minds.
“If I tell you I’m going to do something, you can take that to the bank,” Condrey said. “Also, if I tell you I’m not going to do something, you can take that to the bank too!”
Frustrated by the about-face, “The Loverboy” exited. Lane replaced him in NWA, and Condrey again partnered with Rose in the the American Wrestling Association. An upstart named Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman) led The Original Midnight Express to the AWA World tag team titles.
Though those teams ultimately clashed back in NWA territory, there were no lingering hard feelings. Over the years, Condrey reunited with Eaton and Cornette, along with Lane, to revisit their past successes.
To this day, Condrey continues to follow the company which was always his home (“I love NWA — and I love what you’re doing now,” he says.)
“I love pro wrestling, and I always will,” he concluded. “If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing!”
