| Lenny Lane | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Luscious Lenny[1] Lenni Lane Carlson[1] Lenny Lane[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 224 lb (102 kg)[1] |
| Born | October 20, 1970 Duluth, Minnesota |
| Resides | St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Trained by | Eddie Sharkey |
| Debut | January 28, 1995[1] |
| Website | http://www.lennylane.com/ |
Leonard "Lenny" Carlson (born October 20, 1970) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Lenny Lane. During his time tenure in WCW, he was a one time Cruiserweight Champion.[1]
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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 addition 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 goes 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.
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 September 30, 2008 edition of World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW on Sci Fi, losing a squash match to Jack Swagger.
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 long time 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, healhy 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 a impromptu match with the confused individual. Lane also runs a professional wrestling school in Golden Valley, Minnesota.
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