WWE issued the following:
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by one of their biggest rivals, Jim Cornette.
The tennis racket-wielding manager may have spent the better part of three decades trying to put an end to Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, but even he can’t doubt the influence they’ve had on sports-entertainment.
“By any standard, Ricky and Robert belong in the Hall of Fame,” Cornette told WWE.com in an exclusive interview. “And that’s whether its longevity as a team, the attendance records they set, or the great matches that they had, which fans can still see on WWE Network.”
Cornette was a consistent thorn in the Express’ side since they first hit the ring as a team in the early 1980s. He managed against Ricky & Robert during their first week as a team, with the enmity intensifying when Cornette brought The Midnight Express into the squared circle. The team, which consisted of “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey, “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, and later, “Sweet” Stan Lane, were the perfect dastardly villains for the fresh-faced Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. It didn’t hurt that they had Cornette on the microphone, hurling insults at Ricky & Robert at every opportunity.
“Superman needs Lex Luthor, Batman needs The Joker, and we were the antithesis of everything The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express stood for and their wrestling style. It just clicked,” Cornette said.
“I said these horrible, degrading things about these two, fine, young, upstanding examples of American boyhood,” Cornette continued, “and people, on numerous occasions, tried to kill us.”
