Stan Lane

Wallace Stanfield "Stan" Lane (born August 5, 1953) is an American retired professional wrestler and color commentator.

Lane was trained by Ric Flair, debuting in 1978.

He initially wrestled primarily for Championship Wrestling from Florida.

He is best known for his appearances with the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1980s.

Primarily a tag team wrestler, Lane held championships including the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship, NWA United States Tag Team Championship, NWA World Tag Team Championship, and SMW Tag Team Championship as part of The Fabulous Ones, The Midnight Express, and The Heavenly Bodies.

In 1982, Stan Lane went to The CWA in Memphis TN 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.

In 1984, the Fabulous Ones worked in Minnesota for American Wrestling Association.

They were a popular tag team.

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 who 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 Four Horsemen members Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard (See also: Brain Busters) on September 10, 1988.

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.

During the November 5 episode of WCW Saturday Night, Jim Cornette (kayfabe) received an anonymous phone call, as the caller ridiculed Cornette over Eaton and Lane's loss of the NWA World Tag Team Championship to The Road Warriors on October 29.

Cornette recognized the caller and basically asked him to come say it to his face.

At that point, Dangerously and the Original Midnight Express hit the ring and proceeded to pummel Cornette and Stan Lane, who was wrestling in a singles match.

By the time Bobby Eaton showed up, it was three on one.

Cornette showed up the next week on TBS carrying his blood stained suit jacket and the feud was on.

The teams wrestled at Starrcade '88, but nothing was solved.

The Midnights vs. Midnights would be the hottest feud in WCW for months, building up to a six-man tag match involving the managers on pay-per-view in February 1989.

The one who got pinned would have to leave the promotion.

However, WCW (the former Jim Crockett Promotions) was under new ownership and in transition at the time and many wrestlers were coming and going.

At the last minute, Condrey decided to leave WCW.

Jack Victory was brought in as his replacement and the match went forward, but at this point no one really cared.

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.

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.