Stan Lane

Wallace Stanfield "Stan" Lane (born August 5, 1953) is an American retired professional wrestler and broadcaster, trained by Ric Flair, who started wrestling in 1974 in Championship Wrestling from Florida. For a brief time in Florida, he was nicknamed Nature Boy. He is best known as one half of The Fabulous Ones, the Midnight Express and the Heavenly Bodies.

The Fabulous Ones

In 1982, Stan Lane went to Mid-Southern Wrestling and formed a team called The Fabulous Ones with Steve Keirn. The team feuded with the Midnight Express, Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee, The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams), Randy Savage & Leapin' Lanny Poffo and The Moondogs with whom they had a series of exceptionally bloody matches. They were also pioneers in the "MTV style" of promotion, creating promotional videos and spectacular entrances with their popular theme song "Everybody Wants You" by Billy Squier. The Fabulous Ones was actually started in Memphis by Jerry Jarrett & Jackie Fargo.

To fans excitement, he reformed the Fabulous Ones with Keirn briefly in the USWA, with Cornette as their manager. On January 7, 1991, they won the USWA Tag Team titles, defeating Tony Anthony and Chris Bullock. Three weeks later, on January 28, after a controversial match with Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Lawler, the titles were held up; a week later, on February 4, the rematch for the held-up titles was held and they lost the match and the titles to Lawler and Jarrett.

The Midnight Express

In early 1987, Dennis Condrey left Jim Crockett Promotions abruptly, leaving former partner Bobby Eaton & manager Jim Cornette as a tag-team with only one member. Enter a man that Eaton was very familiar with and who was no stranger to tag-team wrestling, Stan Lane formerly of ‘’the Fabulous Ones’’’. Lane and Eaton knew each other well from working against each other in the past and this showed as the new version of the Midnight Express jelled from the beginning. Early on, “Sweet” Stan added a deep radio “DJ voice” for manager Jim Cornette that would enrage the crowd.

In May 1987 the combination of Eaton and Lane proved to be a golden one as they won the NWA US Tag-Team titles (a title they would win three times during their time together). A year later the team was cheered on to victory as the Midnight Express won the NWA World Tag-Team Titles from Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard (See also: Brain Busters) on September 10, 1988. This feat meant that they were the first tag-team to ever hold both the NWA World tag-team and NWA United States tag-team titles, a feat only the Steiner Brothers would go on to duplicate in 1991. The Express’ run with the belts was a short one; they were defeated by The Road Warriors in a match that marked Hawk and Animal's first title reign.

Frustrated by their inability to win the tag belts in previous years, the Warriors and manager Paul Ellering had decided to return to their roots as violent thugs who would do anything to win. This new attitude soon paid off with a title victory over Lane and Eaton. On October 29, 1988, the Midnights' reign came to a quick and violent end in New Orleans. At the beginning of the match, Ellering brutally attacked Express manager Jim Cornette outside the ring. When Lane jumped in, the Warriors battered and bloodied Eaton, leaving Lane to fight both Hawk and Animal essentially on his own. Eaton was eventually able to tag in, but was quickly overwhelmed by Animal and pinned after a vicious clothesline.

Now the fan favorites the Midnight Express soon had to contend with a blast from the past, The Original Midnight Express as it consisted of Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose, who had teamed up before Condrey and Eaton became a team. The duo was led by longtime Jim Cornette nemesis Paul E. Dangerously in the hopes of proving that the originals were better than the new version. The shock of seeing the Original Midnight Express gave Dangerously’s team the initial advantage in the feud but Dennis Condrey left, being replaced by Jack Victory to cut the feud short.

Due to various booking issues, Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express left the promotion for a short while, around the time that Ted Turner brought out Jim Crockett and began promoting the federation as the National Wrestling Alliance / World Championship Wrestling. When the booking issues started to clear up, Cornette and the Midnight Express returned to the federation and a very strong tag-team division. One of those teams was The Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace), who admitted that the Midnight Express was one of their favorite teams and asked if Cornette would be their manager as well. Cornette agreed but the Midnight Express were not happy about it at all. After arguing, Jim Cornette stopped accompanying the Express to the ring, choosing to only manage the Dudes. At the Clash of Champions IX the two teams met with Jim Cornette in a neutral corner, forced to choose between the teams. The Express started out very aggressively, especially for a team that was supposed to be fan favorites and when the night was over the Midnight Express had once again established themselves as heels with Jim Cornette in their corner; Cornette had never stopped siding with the Express.

After their heel turn, the Midnight Express started feuding with Flyin’ Brian and ”Z-Man” Tom Zenk over the recently re-activated US Tag-Team titles, winning the gold from the young team in early 1990. The Midnight Express would lose the titles to The Steiner Brothers three months later.

After appearing at Halloween Havoc 1990, the Midnight Express split up when Jim Cornette and Stan Lane left the federation, due to conflicts with Jim Herd and booker Ole Anderson. For the first time in seven years there was no Midnight Express; it was the end of an era in tag-team wrestling.

Independent Circuit 1991-1992

During 1991-1992, Stan Lane competed in multiple independent wrestling organizations, including the Tri State Wrestling Alliance, the Global Wrestling Federation, the WWA, SAPW, the AWF, the VWA, and the IWA. During his stay in the GWF he wrestled and lost to the Patriot in matches for the TV and North American heavyweight titles. During his stay in the AWF, Stan Lane competed against Paul Orndorff in the heavyweight title tournament, but lost in the final match. Lane also held the tag team title with Jeff Collette in the VWA, and was managed by the Big Cheese during his time in the IWA.^[1]

The Heavenly Bodies

In 1992, he and Cornette went to Smoky Mountain Wrestling to form a new team called "The Heavenly Bodies" with Tom Prichard. They feuded with the Rock 'N Roll Express and won the tag team titles 5 times, until he retired from the ring after losing a loser leaves town match and was replaced in the team by Jimmy Del Ray.

Retirement and comeback

Lane retired in 1993 and went to work for the World Wrestling Federation as a member of the WWF's broadcast team. He began as a color commentator alongside Vince McMahon on WWF Superstars. He then went on to become the host of WWF Wrestling Challenge in 1994, where he worked with Ted DiBiase and Gorilla Monsoon. Lane also did voiceover work of matches that were taped exclusively for Coliseum Video. He worked with DiBiase and Monsoon for those too. He also worked as a commentator in Ted DiBiase's promotion, WXO.

Lane left the WWF in late 1995 and retired. Lane returned in the late-1990s and again reformed "The Fabulous Ones" for a few cards in Bert Prentice's NWA Wildside promotion to wild fan reception. In 2004, Lane wrestled on several shows with Condrey and Eaton in the independent promotions in the Mid-Atlantic area. He retired from all wrestling in 2005.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Belly to back Suplex
• Managers
  • Jim Cornette^[2]
  • Jackie Fargo
  • The Big Cheese^[3][4]
• Nicknames
  • "Sweet Stan"

Championships and accomplishments

• American Wrestling Federation
  • AWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[5]
• Championship Wrestling from Florida

• NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bryan St. John^[6]
• NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (2 times) - with Steve Keirn^[7]

• Continental Wrestling Association

• AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (16 times) - with Steve Keirn (14), Koko Ware (1), and Ron Bass (1)^[8]

• Georgia Championship Wrestling

• NWA Georgia Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[9]

• Jim Crockett Promotions | World Championship Wrestling

• NWA United States Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bobby Eaton^1[10]
• NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) (1 time) - with Bobby Eaton^[11]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1987 - with Bobby Eaton
• Smoky Mountain Wrestling

• SMW Tag Team Championship (5 times) - with Tom Prichard^[12]

• Southwest Championship Wrestling

• SCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Steve Keirn^[13]

• United States Wrestling Association

• USWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Steve Keirn^[14]

• Virginia Wrestling Association

• VWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jeff Collette ^[15][16]

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Hall of Fame (Class of 2009) with Bobby Eaton as the Midnight Express

¹Lane and Eaton's third reign with the NWA United States Tag Team Championship happened after Ted Turner's purchase of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from Jim Crockett, Jr. in November 1988. Turner renamed the promotion World Championship Wrestling and it remained an NWA affiliated promotion where some NWA championships were defended until WCW's withdrawal from the NWA in late 1993. Finishing Move: Myawashi Leg Kick

References

External links

• "Wrestling Accelerator" Profile: Stan Lane
• Memphis Wrestling History