Jim Lanning

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Jim Lanning
An image of Jim Lanning.
Statistics
Ring name(s) Soldat Ustinov
Ivan the Terrible
Big Jim Steele
The Russian Krusher
Billed height 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Billed weight 315 lb (143 kg)
Born Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Retired October 26, 1990

Jim Lanning is a retired American professional wrestler, known by his ringname Soldat Ustinov, who competed in North American regional promotions including the National Wrestling Alliance and the American Wrestling Association during the 1980s.

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[edit] Career

Arriving in the AWA in late 1986, he would begin teaming with Boris Zukhov under manager Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie and together would defeat the Midnight Rockers for the AWA World tag team title in Lake Tahoe, Nevada on May 25, 1987.[1] After defending the titles for almost five months with victories over Wahoo McDaniel & D.J. Peterson on August 10,[2] Zukhov jumped to the World Wrestling Federation in October as part of The Bolsheviks with Nikolai Volkoff.

Replaced by "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers, he and Somers would hold the titles a little more than a week before losing them to Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee on October 10, 1987.[3]

In 1988, Lanning would team with Sheik Adnan losing to Greg Gagne & Ray Stevens on January 10 and to Wahoo McDaniel & Baron Von Raschke on January 17 as well as single matches to Tom Zenk and Ray Stevens.[4]

Later that year, he feuded with Sgt. Slaughter losing to him by disqualification on September 17 although he and Teijho Khan would defeat Sgt. Slaughter and Keith Eric by countout in a tag team match the following night.

On September 19, Lanning teamed with Teijho Khan and Col. DeBeers in a 6-man tag team match losing to Sgt. Slaughter and the Rock 'n' Roll Express. He and Teijho Khan would later feud with Baron von Raschke and The Top Guns (Ricky Rice & Derrick Dukes) before leaving the promotion by the end of the year.

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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