Guess where Dennis Condrey wrestled his last match: Right here in our backyard

I was doing some interwebs research on Dennis Condrey, the founder of the legendary tag team The Midnight Express, when I learned that Condrey, who passed away last week, at the age of 76, had his final pro wrestling match in Augusta County.

Condrey wrestled on the pre-show of the AWE “Night of Legends,” a pay-per-view broadcast out of Augusta Expo, that I was involved in, on the booking and writing teams.

We’d wanted to have a Midnight Express vs. Mulkey Brothers match, a callback to the teams’ matches on “World Championship Wrestling” from the 1980s, but Bobby Eaton, Condrey’s long-time tag partner, wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle, so we pared it down to a Dennis Condrey vs. Bill Mulkey singles match, won by Mulkey.

Condrey took a 15-year hiatus from pro wrestling beginning in 1989, in which he worked a few indy matches following his last run in Crockett, in the Midnight Express vs. Midnight Express feud that had Condrey teaming with fellow original Midnight Randy Rose against the team of Eaton and Stan Lane.

Condrey, famously, walked out on Crockett before the blow-off match to the feud, after he learned that Jim Crockett was planning to have Rose drop the fall in a loser-leave-town match, and replace Rose with another partner for Condrey.

We never did learn why Condrey walked out on Eaton and manager Jim Cornette in 1987, though Cornette said in a recent podcast that he finally told his former partners and traveling companions after returning to the wrestling business in 2002 at an autograph signing, and that the reason Condrey gave to Eaton and Cornette was completely understandable.

Condrey returned to the ring in 2004, working with Eaton in nostalgia matches against The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and The Fantastics, in addition to bookings with the likes of Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee and Bob Armstrong, rivals from his days in Crockett, Memphis and Mid-South.

Eaton and Condrey also worked a series of matches with the Steiner Brothers in AWE in 2006, including one at Waynesboro High School.

Dax Harwood, one-half of FTR, the current tag champs in AEW – not to be confused with the defunct local AWE promotion – launched a GoFundMe to benefit Theresa Condrey, Dennis’s widow, “to help with funeral expenses and bills that she now has to take on her own.”

“She allowed me to do this for Dennis & her, but is expecting absolutely nothing but love in return,” Harwood said. “If Dennis Condrey and The Midnight Express ever brought any amount of joy to your life, and you’re able to help, please do. If not, it’s absolutely ok! Please send all your thoughts and prayers to Theresa Condrey in her time of need.”