Lenny Lane

As Lodi, Brad Kane became a familiar face in Raven's flock, usually with a big sign in his hands and something to say about whoever was in the ring.

He went on to team with Lenny Lane in the West Hollywood Blondes and later helped other wrestlers to get their start, including the now 14-time world champion, the Queen herself, Charlotte Flair.

Away from the ring, he's faced drug addiction, serious injuries and a heart attack.

Yet he is as strong now as he has ever been before.

Well, West Hollywood Blondes, very different to the flock and an interesting gimmick because WCW is, we'll get into standards and practices, but, you know, WCW is very much being monitored by this point.

You know, you've got the Astrid era, anything goes on the WBF and WCW is having to control its content quite carefully.

You've then got this couple, you know, you've got Lenny and Lodi who are not overtly a gay couple.

Right.

I have this note from The Observer on 12-23-1996. where Dave writes that Great Sasuke and Wellington Wilkins Jr. of Michidoku Pro Wrestling will be appearing on Eddie Sharkey's shows on 1228 in Minneapolis at the Northeast Armory and on 1229 at the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

And then Dave confirms on the 1697 that that did indeed happen with Sasuke wrestling Lenny Lane in front of about 250 fans on that 1228 show.

We have footage of this also just to round out 1996 here.

This is Sasuke's first match in the United States.

And it's more entertaining to see just from the fact that it's Sasuke versus Lenny Lane in Minneapolis in 1996.

And that is a sight to behold.

Yeah, they have a match in a pony ring, which it was kind of wild to kind of see.

It was an expensive trip bringing 13 people over from Japan, but Sasuke saw it as an investment in an Inoki-like legacy that he planned to create for himself.

DDP defeated Canyon, so who better than Canyon? On this night, it was DDP, albeit by disqualification.

The disciple, Brother Brutai, one of his 27 gimmick names, Ed Leslie, defeated Lenny Lane, and the main event saw Bret Hart and Sting end in a no contest.

This episode of Nitro also featured a couple of moments that live in infamy, like the Ultimate Warrior in the Mirror with Hollywood Hogan, Reed Flair, R.I.P. the youngest son of of, uh, Ric Flair at, uh, somewhere between eight and 10 years old coming out in his, uh, wrestling singlet and, uh, putting a little bit of a promo on Eric Bischoff, even performing, uh, a takedown on him on this night.

Uh, I think this is, uh, Ric Flair was trying to get back into the company at this point in time, all those, uh, negotiations and all those, uh, Chitter-chatter backstage, the kerfuffles and whatnot, the issues were starting to get resolved.

Yep.

Then we get a shot of Lenny Lane in the crowd with a huge sign that says, Use me.

Yeah.

That's not...

oh man

well that about wraps it up for tuesday nitro

couple of quick notes from thunder uh lenny lane beats the wall in a table smash to get his job back

main event anywhere in the world bro

Oh, good grief.

Uh, on the tour are Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, Luna, Gangrel, Crowbar, Norman Smiley, Konnan, uh, Jones, Disco Inferno, Buff Bagwell, Brian Christopher, Lenny Lane, Lodi, Stevie Ray, and main eventers, WWE Champion Jeff Jarrett, Road Dogg, and Bret Hart as the big draw as the commissioner.

Mm.

Hart gave the same anti-Vince speech that, uh, he left both WWF and WCW, having never been beaten for their world titles.