Lenny Lane

Lenny Lane
Birth name Leonard Carlson
Born (1970-10-16) October 16, 1970
Duluth, Minnesota, US
Residence St. Paul, Minnesota, US
Website www.lennylane.com
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Lane Carlson[1]
Lenni
Lenny Lane[1]
Luscious Lenny[1]
Billed height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1]
Billed weight 220 lb (100 kg)[1]
Billed from West Hollywood
Trained by Eddie Sharkey
Debut January 28, 1995[1]

Leonard "Lenny" Carlson (born October 20, 1970) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Lenny Lane. He is best known for his appearances in World Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2000. Lane is a former WCW Cruiserweight Champion.[1]

Professional wrestling career

World Championship Wrestling (1995–2000)

Carlson was trained by Eddie Sharkey and debuted in 1995. He first appeared in World Championship Wrestling as Lane Carlson, a jobber. He later changed his name to Lenny Lane and began to wear boots marked "LL", possibly due to his resemblance to Lex Luger in his early days despite his smaller size. His first storyline saw him as Chris Jericho's lackey. He later began advertising a (fictional) product known as "Ab Solution Plus." It was a health drug that supposedly benefited the abdominal muscles.

In June 1999 he approached Lodi and stated "They're not doing much with me and they're not doing much with you. Why don't we form a tag team?"[2] Lane had been inspired by a Saturday Night Live vignette featuring "The Ambiguously Gay Duo".[1] WCW management were initially reluctant, but booker Kevin Nash approved the idea, and Lane and Lodi were renamed The West Hollywood Blondes (as opposed to the Hollywood Blonds, "Stunning" Steve Austin and Brian Pillman). The Blondes were implied to be homosexuals, wearing pink trunks emblazoned with large pink triangles (a symbol of the gay community) and with Lane sporting pigtails, facial glitter and a lollipop. Controversially, the Blondes were later revealed to be brothers. The Blondes were an effective heel tag team, though they rarely won matches.

In an upset victory, Lane defeated Rey Mysterio, Jr. on the August 19 episode of WCW Thunder in Lubbock, Texas to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship. With the assistance of Lodi, he defended the title successfully including notably against Shaggy 2 Dope of the Insane Clown Posse over the next six weeks. On the October 3 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Psychosis was announced as having defeated Lane for the World Cruiserweight Championship at an unspecified house show. Lane had already been set to lose the title to Disco Inferno that night, but WCW management was worried about a possible incident. Lane didn't appear that night and Psychosis defended and lost the title to Disco instead.

The Blondes were taken off television[1] in the same month following protests from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, who threatened to organize a boycott of WCW, claiming that "the character of Lenny is presented with the intention to incite the crowd to the most base homophobic behavior" and "the audience's reaction [to Lenny Lane and Lodi being physically attacked by other wrestlers] gives permission to viewers to do harm to gay people in a very literal way."[3]

Lane and Lodi returned as "Standards and Practices", a censorious duo who opposed the "adult themes" present in WCW. In a drastic departure from their previous appearance, they wore designer suits, carried briefcases and were accompanied by a secretary, Miss Hancock. Standards and Practices was supposedly an attempt to mock the conservative views of WCW management, and was not unlike the Right to Censor faction the WWF would have shortly afterwards due to complaints from the Parents Television Council over their programming. Miss Hancock eventually abandoned the team. Soon the gimmick of Standards and Practices were dropped on an edition of WCW Nitro when both Lane and Lodi stripped off their suit and tie. In the following weeks, they competed under the tag team name 2XS, a gimmick more resembling two hard rock party goers who wore just jeans to the ring and came out to theme music resembling something from Van Halen. Announcers also began calling Lodi Idol (his name backwards) during the matches. This gimmick too was short lived as they failed to get over, even in a tag team title match and were soon pulled off TV a few weeks later. Both Lane and Lodi were released from WCW in August 2000. Lane briefly reappeared for a short feud with The Wall, but was released once more.

Independent circuit (2000–present)

Lenny Lane moved on to Texas Championship Wrestling, in April 2001, where he formed a tag team with Shane Helms, winning the TCW Tag Team Championships. The team was split when Helms was signed by the World Wrestling Federation. He also appeared on The AWA Stars Tour wrestling in the upper Midwest with Jim Brunzell, Buck "Rock n' Roll" Zumhofe, Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissy, Mantaur, and others. The Blondes reunited in the now defunct World Wrestling All-Stars promotion in late-2001. Lane was signed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (Lodi would have been signed too, but he was injured) and debuted on June 19, 2002.[1] Lane formed a short-lived tag team with Bruce known as The Rainbow Express and competed on the second-ever TNA pay-per-view on June 26. Lane sustained an injury, however, and the team split on November 20, 2002 after Bruce turned on Lane. He left TNA soon after.

Lane competed for Steel Domain Wrestling throughout 2003, and for the New Age Wrestling Alliance in 2004 and early 2005. He also works for the American Wrestling League, which is in the same TV slot and wrestles in the same venues as Steel Domain Wrestling did. Lane appeared on the October 31, 2004 edition of WWE Heat teaming with Ken Anderson against Rob Conway and Sylvain Grenier and on the September 30, 2008 edition of WWE's ECW on Sci Fi, losing a squash match to Jack Swagger.

Lenny Lane currently owns and wrestles for Prime Time Wrestling, an independent wrestling promotion out of Bloomington, Minnesota. He main evented the first show in September defeating Mitch Paradise. In January 2012, Lenny Lane defeated Chiropractor DC to become the first PTW Champion. He would later lose it to him in May. In September, Lenny Lane would defeat Renny D to become the only two-time PTW champion but would lose it to Black Stallion on the same night. In May 2013, Lane defeated Ariya Daivari to become the only three-time PTW Champion. In December of that year a match would take place between John Johnson and Renny D which Renny D would win. Lenny Lane that award the PTW Championship to Renny D making him a two time champion.

Personal life

He attended Denfeld High School and was a star basketball and football player. He moved to Minneapolis to start his wrestling career in the early 1990s. Despite depicting a homosexual in several different promotions, Lane is a heterosexual.

In February 2007, Lenny Lane married his longtime girlfriend, Adrian Milam.

In September 2007, Lenny Lane started a wrestling party business called WrestlingParties.com. The business has children coming to Lane's dojo where he teaches children the importance of exercise, healthy living, demonstrate pro wrestling moves and interacts with the children in a wrestling ring. In June 2008, Lenny started a wrestling party business for company meetings Wrestlingmeetings.com. The business has Lane going to the office that hired him, and ambushing a chosen individual (usually a manager) and putting on an impromptu match with the confused individual. Lane also runs a professional wrestling school in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Lenny Lane profile". OWOW. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  2. ↑ http://www.lodirulz.com/interviews.html
  3. ↑ Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - Studio Briefing - 12 October 1999
  4. 1 2 3 4 World Championship Wrestling (1999-09-12). "Lenny Lane Vs. Kaz Hayashi". WCW Fall Brawl.
  5. ↑ World Championship Wrestling (2000-03-13). "Billy Kidman & Booker T Vs. Lane & Rave". WCW Nitro.
  6. 1 2 World Championship Wrestling, TNT (1999-08-30). "Lodi Vs. Kaz Hayashi". WCW Monday Nitro.
  7. 1 2 3 Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002-11-13). "Rainbow Express Vs. Spanish Announce Team". TNA.
  8. ↑ "Nitro report on August 30, 1999".
  9. ↑ "WorldWide report on September 4, 1999".
  10. 1 2 "WorldWide report on February 13, 2000".
  11. ↑ "Stacy Keibler Biography". Netglimse.com. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
  12. ↑ Reynolds, R.D. and Randy Baer. WrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling (p.237)
  13. ↑ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.

External links

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