When done right, tag team wrestling is arguably the most beautiful part of professional wrestling. An often-disrespected form, especially in big companies, has seen quite a revival in the past few years. Thanks to the efforts of teams like FTR, The New Day, The Usos and The Briscoes, tag team wrestling is arguably at the best it has been since the mid-to-late 1980s. When one thinks of the golden era of tag team wrestling, one will often think of The Midnight Express, the Rock N’ Roll Express, The Hart Foundation, Road Warriors, Demolition and The Four Horsemen. But there are always teams that may have been great running mates of these teams, but for one reason or another, they never get the same shine and end up being overlooked and, in some cases, forgotten to time. That brings us to The Fantastics, the team of Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton.

Humble beginnings would be the team's origin in the Memphis area, where Bobby Fulton would be paired with the future Red Rooster, Terry Taylor, as ‘The Fantastic Ones.’ It was not to be, and the team would dissolve quickly before Fulton would pack up his things and move to the more successful Bill Watts-run Mid-South Wrestling. Here he would befriend and become tag team partners with Tommy Rogers, shortening their tag team name to simply ‘The Fantastics.’ 

After being built up, the team would soon come up against the trio that would define their in-ring careers, that of the original Midnight Express. The duo of Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey, along with their dastardly manager James E. Cornette, would help raise the stock of The Fantastics, all while remaining the biggest thorn in their side throughout their entire run. Soon enough, The Midnight Express would depart from Mid-South Wrestling and head down to Texas to work for Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling. Seeing the tag team well drying up in Mid-South, Rogers and Fulton would do the same, chasing their former rivals.

Defeating their old rivals in their first WCCW match would lead to the opportunity to battle the WCCW American Tag Team Champions, The Long Riders, consisting of Bill and Scott Irwin, in their second match, seeing The Fantastics getting their first taste of gold. Their feud with The Midnight Express would continue to simmer as The Fantastics added Little John, a seven-foot giant, as their new bodyguard. The team would successfully continue to defend the championships until being dethroned by who else but The Midnight Express in January of 1985. The two teams would tear it up throughout the territory for months until finally, a match that saw Jim Cornette interfere in the finish resulted in the titles being vacated. A match would be set between the two teams for the 2nd Von Erich Memorial Parade Of Champions. The match would take place in a two-ring setup, and would also see Little John and Jim Cornette handcuffed together. In a somewhat controversial finish, one member of each team had the other pinned in each ring, but the pinfall would be made first in favor of The Fantastics. Their reign would be short-lived however, as they would drop the titles to the Dynamic Duo of Gentleman Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez a little over a month later, before making their departure from WCCW and returning to Mid-South.

Upon their return to Mid-South, they would immediately be matched back up with The Midnight Express, before entering into a feud with Dirty Dutch Mantell (the future Zeb Colter) and Bill Dundee, ironically the father-in-law of Bobby Eaton. This feud would culminate in a “bullwhip on a pole” match, proving that “on a pole” matches were a viable option before Vince Russo came along and beat into the ground. 

The next few years would see the team make their way through Continental Wrestling Association, the newly dubbed Universal Wrestling Federation form of Mid-South Wrestling, and another return to World Class before finally landing in Jim Crockett’s National Wrestling Alliance for arguably the most mainstream tenure of their career.

Their first match in JCP would see them going up against a familiar foe, but a different one. As The Midnight Express had evolved, with Dennis Condrey having left and being replaced by Sweet Stan Lane, it would be interesting to see how the two teams gelled, but it was much of the same, with great matches coming forth. The Fantastics would win their debut match on an episode of NWA Pro in a non-title bout as the Midnight Express held the NWA United States Tag Team Titles. This would lead to a title match at the first Clash Of The Champions, which The Midnight Express won after an impressive bout. The Fantastics would next head into the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tournament, making it to the semi-finals before being eliminated by The Four Horsemen contingent of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, who were also the NWA Tag Team Champions at the time. 

The Fantastics would soon settle back into their old feud with The Midnight Express, even briefly dethroning them for the United States Tag Team Titles, but would lose them back on the big stage of 1988’s Great American Bash show. They would continue chasing The Midnight Express, who would soon vacate the US Tag Titles following their World Tag Team Titles win, but would never get a taste of the World titles. That said, they would enter into the tournament for the vacated US Tag Titles and win them back at the fourth Clash Of The Champions, defeating the seemingly makeshift team of Eddie Gilbert and Ron Simmons. Unfortunately for The Fantastics, this was not meant to be, as they would soon drop the straps to The Varsity Club and depart the promotion immediately. 

This would also mark the full-time end of this iconic version of The Fantastics in North America for the most part, with the team soon heading over to Japan to compete for Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. Soon after, Tommy Rogers opted to spend most of his time competing in Japan, while Fulton returned home to the United States. With his partner competing across the world, Fulton would bring his brother Jackie in as a new tag team partner and continued to compete as The Fantastics in different promotions, including the now-Turner-owned World Championship Wrestling and Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

The end of 1994 would see a brief reunion of Rogers and Fulton in WCW, again slotted near the titles, feuding with the likes of Pretty Wonderful (Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff) and Harlem Heat, but never getting the nod in the big matches. They would also encounter an old rival when they squared off against Bobby Eaton and his new tag partner, Lord Steven Regal, of The Blue Bloods. The team would return to Japan again but make a few last mainstream North American appearances, making an appearance on Nitro in 1996 before making their WWF debuts….as opponents. Rogers would defeat his long-time partner in the first round of the Light Heavyweight Championship tournament in late 1997. 

Following this, Fulton would return to the independents, while Rogers would pop up in Extreme Championship Wrestling, briefly wrestling and working as an agent. 

The following years would see the original Fantastics do their own thing before reuniting for some matches against their old 80s tag compatriots in 2004 through 2007. At that point, Rogers would retire from active competition. Unfortunately, Rogers passed away in 2015 at age 54.

Fulton himself would continue to remain active in the business, teaming again with his brother Jackie and even briefly reuniting with Terry Taylor as a run as the “Original Fantastic Ones.” In 2019 he was diagnosed with throat cancer, but would happily announce in June 2020 that he was cancer-free before wrestling his final match a month later in a feel-good moment.

The Fantastics remain one of those incredible tag teams that unfortunately found themselves in their prime when the tag team bubble was nearly bursting at the seams. While the team themselves was full of charisma in the ring, it simply wasn’t on the same level as The Rock N’ Roll Express, and they, unfortunately, were not paired with a pitchman like Jim Cornette. The fact that they were a very ‘Southern’ team meant they would be limited to exposure in only certain territories, despite how good their in-ring product may have been. While an unfortunate turn for the team, one cannot understate their impact on helping make the 80s tag team wrestling scene the golden age of the genre. 

The Fantastics may not be remembered as fondly as some of their cohorts, but for those in the know, they stand out as one of the teams that could always be relied upon to present high-quality matches with any team set across the ring from them. Serious tag teams are still watching their matches with The Midnight Express over the years to this day, and for good reason. And this is why The Fantastics stand as one of the most overlooked tag teams in wrestling history.