Stan Lane On Upcoming Midnight Express And Jim Cornette Reunion, Breaking In Under Ric Flair
Two weeks away from the Two Man Power Trip's HUGE TMPT Con 3 in Richmond, VA they welcome in a member of the legendary Midnight Express tag team, "Sweet" Stan Lane. Stan Lane will be appearing at the TMPT Con 3 extravaganza on May 18th alongside Dennis Condrey, Bobby Eaton and Jim Cornette as part of a very special 35th Anniversary celebration of The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette. Tickets for this show snd the VIP Jim Cornette Experience are available at this link. In this excerpt from the very rare podcast interview, Lane looks back at memories of the Richmond, VA territory as well as breaking into the business under the eye of Ric Flair. Full episode download link.
PLEASE CREDIT CHAD & JP OF THE TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING FOR THIS TRANSCRIPTION
Upcoming Midnight Express reunion in Richmond, VA:
"We are certainly looking forward to it. Any time you get the Jim Cornette Experience that in itself is worth buying a ticket but the fact that you are going to have myself, Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey for a change along with Jim Cornette makes it the complete four course meal and we are all looking forward to it and can't wait to get to Richmond on May the 18th."
The rare opportunity to meet two versions of The Midnights together:
"It is very rare. I was trying to think about it earlier and I can't even recall at all when Dennis, myself and Bobby did one of these kind of shows. Dennis for many years sort of like disappeared and nobody saw him but now he's back and I'm looking forward to seeing him and hanging out with him and I'm sure all of the fans are going to have a great time seeing us and talking to us as well. Even though the Midnight Express were heels for most of our career, I think we are also in kind of a strange and twisted way kind of fan favorites too and we love meeting the fans and certainly looking forward to May 18th."
Any standout memories of the Richmond stops on the booking sheet:
"I sure do but I am married now so I can't talk about them on air. All of those Virginia towns were great because we loved Richmond, we loved Norfolk, Virginia, Virginia Beach is where we used to go to all of these clubs with the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair but I can't think of any one particular instance because we just had so much fun back in the day in Jim Crockett Promotions. We were flying around in the Falcon nine passenger jet, the G-18 (the big 30 seater) and we were living large and it was just a great time and I miss it but times goes on and you can't be young forever."
Breaking into the wrestling business under Ric Flair:
"Ric and I just hit it off. I was living in Myrtle Beach and bouncing at one of the hottest clubs on the beach at a club called Mother Fletchers and I also worked part time at the Myrtle Beach Hilton doing room service and he and I just happened to bump into each other. I was sort of living Ric Flair's gimmick on the beach and I was all jacked up and tanned, had long hair and I knew all of the prettiest local girls so I invited Ric, Greg Valentine and Blackjack Mulligan to a pool party at the Landmark Hotel. When they showed up there with about three of my female friends they all loved that kind of stuff. I was putting them over and we were all buying drinks so I invited them over to Mother Fletchers as the guest judges for the wet t-shirt contests so I kind of worked it and got myself over with them and got his (Flair) phone number and stuff and the rest is history."
"We had a great time. I used to travel to the matches riding with Ric from Charleston and we'd go up to Richmond or wherever and he had me doing these hindu squats where on the first day it just about killed me but I worked up to where I could do about 500 without even breaking a sweat. So he and I would do the hindu squats before matches and all the old timers were loving that and would say that he's getting me trained right. They'd also go over holds and I remember Johnny Weaver giving me a seminar on how to crank the arm and also Swede Hansen was great to me and I remember working with him in the dressing room a lot. I didn't have a whole lot of ring workouts, maybe three of four but it was a great experience with Ric and Ric was like my idol and I idolized him."
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