Stan Lane (August 5, 1953) is an American professional wrestler. He was trained by Ric Flair and is best known as one half of The Fabulous Ones, The Midnight Express and The Heavenly Bodies.
Career[]
The Fabulous Ones[]
In 1982, he went to Mid-Southern Wrestling and formed a team called The Fabulous Ones with Steve Keirn. This legendary tag team is considered the greatest in the history of professional wrestling by many experts. They 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 Midnight Express[]
In early 1987 Dennis Condrey of the The Midnight Express left Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) from one day to the next leaving former partner Bobby Eaton on his own. Stan was chosen to replace Dennis and became "Sweet" Stan Lane. He added a deep radio “DJ voice” introduction 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 United States Tag Team Championship. They next began a historic feud with The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) A year later the team was cheered on to victory as the Midnight Express won the NWA World Tag Team Championship on September 10, 1988. This feat meant that they were the first tag team to ever hold both championships at once, a feat only the Steiner Brothers would go on to duplicate in 1991. The Midnight Express' run with the world championships only lasted a little over a month and a half before the Road Warriors won them.
Now fan favorites the Midnight Express soon had to contend with a blast from the past: The Midnight Express. Only this Midnight Express was billed as 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 long time 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 once again 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 (WCW). 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 & Johnny Ace), who admitted that the Midnight Express was one of their favorite team 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 the Champions IX the two teams met with Jim Cornette in a neutral corner, forced to choose between the teams. The Express started out very aggressive, 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 championships to The Steiner Brothers 3 months later.
After appearing at Halloween Havoc 1990 the Midnight Express split up when Jim Cornette and Stan Lane left the federation. For the first time in 7 years there was no Midnight Express, it was the end of an era in tag team wrestling.
The Heavenly Bodies[]
In late 1990, Lane reformed the Fabulous Ones with Keirn briefly in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and went to Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) to reunite with Cornette and form a new team called The Heavenly Bodies with Tom Prichard. They feuded with the Rock 'N Roll Express and won the SMW Tag Team Championship 5 times.
Retirement and comeback[]
Lane retired in 1993 and went to work for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a member of the WWF's broadcast team. He began as a color commentator alongside Vince McMahon, Jr. on WWF Superstars of Wrestling. 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.
He 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 toured with Condrey and Eaton in the independent promotions in the Mid-Atlantic area.
Championships and accomplishments[]
- American Wrestling Association
- AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (16 times) - with Steve Keirn (14), Koko Ware (1), and Ron Bass (1)
- Continental Wrestling Association
- CWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Steve Keirn
- National Wrestling Alliance
- NWA United States Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bobby Eaton
- NWA World Tag Team Championship - (1 time) with Bobby Eaton
- NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bryan St. John
- NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Steve Keirn
- NWA Georgia Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Southeast United States Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1987 with - Bobby Eaton
- PWI ranked him # 213 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
- PWI ranked him # 28 of the best tag teams during the "PWI Years" with Steve Keirn.
- PWI ranked him # 32 of the best tag teams during the "PWI Years" with Bobby Eaton.
- PWI ranked him # 73 of the best tag teams during the "PWI Years" with Tom Prichard
- Southwest Championship Wrestling
- SWCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Steve Keirn
- United States Wrestling Association
- USWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Steve Keirn
- Tag Team of the Year in 1987 - with Bobby Eaton
- Feud of the Year in 1988 - with Bobby Eaton vs Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers
- Tag Team of the Year in 1988 - with Bobby Eaton
- Other Titles
- VWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jeff Collette
- WF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
