Norvell Austin

Norvell Austin (born March 9, 1951) is an American retired professional wrestler. Austin worked for most of his career in the Southern United States, most often in tag team competition. Norvell Austin is most famous for teaming with Sputnik Monroe in one of the first "mixed races" villainous teams seen in the south. Austin was also part of the original Midnight Express from 1981 to 1983. Later on he would team with Koko B. Ware as one half of the "Pretty Young Things".

Professional wrestling career Early career (1971–1981) Austin began his professional wrestling career in 1971 the Florida/Alabama area. At the time, African American wrestlers in the south were utilized in very specific ways. They were mainly restricted to wrestling other African Americans and if they were to wrestle white opponents, they were always fan favorites who could not cheat or use underhanded means to beat their white opponents. Together the team won the NWA Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship from the team of Bearcat Brown and Len Rossi in May 1972. They’d lose the titles to Karl and Kurt Von Brauner about a month later. Winning the tag team gold was far from the only achievement Austin and Monroe had while in Mid-America, in what was a reversal of an infamous angle that saw "The Interns" paint Bearcat Brown with white paint the heel duo dropped black paint on white wrestler Robert Fuller. This led Sputnik Monroe to state that "Black is Beautiful" to which Norvell Austin replied "White is wonderful", something that would become a catch phrase for the team. Despite wanting to wrestle more as a singles wrestler Austin was usually booked in the tag team division, teaming with for instance Butch Malone to win the NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship. In the book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams Condrey explains that the name did not stem from the movie Midnight Express (although later versions of the Midnight Express would use the film's theme as their own theme music) but from the fact that they all dressed in black, drove black cars and were out partying past midnight. Together the three men would win the AWA Southern Tag Team title in the CWA and invoke a rule that would later be referred to as the Freebird Rule, which allowed any two of the three men to defend the titles on a given night so that their opponents never knew what combination to expect. The Midnight Express would lose the AWA Southern tag team title to Bobby Eaton and Sweet Brown Sugar before returning to SECW in the spring of 1982. The two men soon began wearing red leather jackets and each had a single white glove on in an obvious imitation of Michael Jackson to further enhance their "pretty boy" image, and even used Jackson's song of the same name as their entrance music.

Late career (1985–1986, 2004) By the end of the summer of 1985 the Pretty Young Things went their separate ways with Austin returning to his old stomping grounds in Southeast Championship Wrestling. In SECW Austin was teamed up with fellow African American Brickhouse Brown to form a team called "Soul Patrol". On September 23, 1985, the Soul Patrol defeated the Nightmares to win the NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship, which was Norvell Austin's tenth reign with that particular title. The Soul Patrol lost the championship to the Nightmares only a few weeks later on.

Championships and accomplishments Championship Wrestling from Florida NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Sputnik Monroe NWA Mid-America / Continental Wrestling Association AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Bill Dundee (1), Dennis Condrey (1), Randy Rose (1), and Koko B. Ware (3) NWA Southern Tag Team Championship (Mid-America version) (2 times) – with Sputnik Monroe (1) and Pat Barrett (1)