Tag: The Assassin

Robert Lee Eaton, one of the nicest guys and best performers inside the ropes in pro wrestling history, passed away on 8/4 at the age of 62.

Best known as Beautiful Bobby Eaton of the Midnight Express, Eaton was noted as a tag team specialist, but he was just as adept at singles wrestling when his number was called.

Eaton was one of the most complete and versatile performers inside the ring in history. His bumps, selling and carrying a match was equal to the best world champions. His offense was flawless, with some of the best timing, flying, high spots and punches that you would ever see. The Midnight Express versions with both Dennis Condrey and Stan Lane would have to rank near the top of any reputable list of the greatest tag teams of all-time.

His weaknesses were all outside the ring. He had the long bleached blond hair and wore nice ring jackets, so he did present himself like a star. But he was otherwise normal looking. He didn’t appear to be much into weight training or steroids in an area when that was a major part of the business, so his body, while he had enough size to be credible against all but the biggest guys, was below par for the time. He was very nice, but also shy, which didn’t translate well to interviews.

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Today’s show looks at Joe “Jody” Hamilton, best known in professional wrestling as The Assassin. He and Tom Renesto were THE prototype heel tag team that traveled the country feuding with the Kentuckians, but Karl saw none of that.

He saw Hamilton as the masked Flame — a fireball-throwing heel in a bright red and yellow outfit who talked in a scary voice, the man who tortured Bob Armstrong and Lord Humongous in Karl’s childhood and scared him to death. He once even threatened to shoot Bob Armstrong on television and had a videotape to prove that he would do it.

While Karl only saw The Assassin at the end of his career when he was past his prime and had put on a lot of weight, he learned about his legendary career with The Assassins through his book and videotapes.

Later, Karl was personally involved in the WCW racial discrimination lawsuit where he worked for the plaintiffs who were suing Turner Sports.

Karl collected and compiled statistics for Bobby Walker, Ernest Miller, and the other half-dozen or so wrestlers who took part in that lawsuit. Hamilton was a trainer at the WCW Power Plant during part of that time so Karl worked exhaustively on information related to his career at that point.

So, while Karl probably knows as much about the career of The Assassin as anyone, he will always remember him as that menacing heel throwing fireballs at the good guys – The Flame.

Today’s show is all about The Assassin’s career, but focuses more on the Flame era which isn’t as well known known to most fans. Karl also talks about The Assassin’s brother and his son, both of whom were in pro wrestling too.

On today’s edition of the July Classic Wrestling Marathon, Karl looks at the career of The Assassin.

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