So, unintentionally I watched a couple of moments of Rock N' Roll Express' career back to back and it made me think how quick things change in this wrestling business.
It's January 1984 and Bill Watt's, on the advice of the two Memphis Jerry's (Lawler & Jarrett) has got a little something for the ladies in the form of Ricky and Robert. They air a promo video two weeks in a row, the lads driving a sports car, playing a jukebox and winking at the camera.Watts is foaming at the mouth on behalf of Mid South's soon to be large female fanbase. The world's their oyster and The Rock N' Roll are ready to throw it down the neck in one big gulp.....
it's June 1996 and we're midway into WCW's Monday Nitro. The two original horsemen still in the promotion, Ric Flair and And Anderson, are together in tag team action. Out of the blue, as their opponents, getting a brief run on the big show are the Rock N ' Roll Express. Looking like a pair of washed up 80's lead singers fronting their solo project, time and wrestling seem to have passed them by.
The 4 of them work a long for mid 90's tv match that wouldn't look out of place on a mid 80's big show. It's not their best by any stretch of the imagination and you're waiting for it to really kick off but it never quite does. The crowds not really with them anymore, and spots that would've popped them 10 years earlier are barely acknowledged. They've still got the same hair, same gear but the fans have moved on. And in all honesty the moves aren't as slick, but after 15 plus years of doing them you can't blame them.
You know full well if this was in an armory somewhere in the South this would be incredible, the crowd so loud you couldn't think. And the 4 of them will build on that, feel the buzz and noise of the fans. But WCW mid 90's fans don't clap and holler for the babyface to make a comeback, don't yell at the referee when nefarious heels get sneaky punches in behind his back.
Only a year or so before this in Smoky Mountain they had the old school fans eating out the palm of their hands. And maybe that's it, the moment wrestling changed pretty much for good, the death of the territories and the beginning of the Monday night wars, where Nielsen ratings are God and building a feud, heartfelt promos and selling tickets for the town's weekly show don't quite matter as much.
