I find it sad that I have to write something about the false advertising that takes place on the independent wrestling scene these days. This week it was brought to my attention that some shows that were scheduled for May 23rd and 24th in South Carolina were advertising Stan Lane (to team with Bobby Eaton) and Jimmy Hart. I spoke with Stan and I spoke with Jimmy. In Stan’s case he has no knowledge of anything. In Jimmy’s he had spoken with the promoter one time and NEVER committed to being there. I also spoke to Bobby Eaton who said Sal this happens a lot when I am booked I have no idea if the promoter has spoken to Dennis or Stan. In conversation Bobby said that he just shows up to do his job. In the case of Bobby Eaton he is still an active competitor and wants to wrestle.
I spoke with the promoter [Matt Holder] and advised him that Stan Lane was retired and had no desire to wrestle on any show. It is true that, in the case of many wrestlers, the word retirement is used to describe down time between shows. In the case of Stan Lane, who was lucky enough to have been trained and broken into the business by “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, retirement means not going to hang out at your old job. Stan also enjoyed success being a part of tag teams like The Midnight Express, The Fabulous Ones and The Heavenly Bodies. Stan had the intelligence and foresite to save his money so he doesn’t have to do things today that he doesn’t want to do.
I met Stan for the first time in April of 1988 when I was working for Jim Crockett. I worked with The Midnights several times and they were always easy matches. When Stan left WCW I started booking him on some shows and we hit it off. In the days since he has left wrestling he has made few appearences. I used all of my influence to get him out of retirement to team up with Steve Keirn in Memphis and to appear at WrestleReunion. When WrestleReunion was developed, the idea was to give fans something that they couldn’t see on every other independent show. As the idea was being developed, and always being a fan of the Midnight Express, I wanted to team them up in some six man tag matches. I was blessed to be able to do that and have some great matches to show for it. I was involved in The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette vs The Fantastics and The Rock and Roll Express, Dory and Terry Funk along with Mick Foley , The Armstrongs and Dusty Rhodes and The Rock and Roll Express.
In the case of many of these matches, being able to put them together was because they were special events. I can tell you, as time goes by, it is going to be much harder to get Stan Lane to do anything. Of all the talent that I got to appear at WrestleReunion the hardest one to convince to participate in the actual matches was Stan Lane. I had to rely on a long standing friendship and real creative idea’s to convince Stan to do it. If you ask him he will tell you he is retired. I can tell you several WrestleReunion stars started off the conversation with "I am retired". I guess that I can be quite persuasive since they didn’t stay retired. In the case of most Stan Lane he hasn’t wrestled since our World Wrestling Legends PPV. He will make an occasional autograph show appearance other than that assume that he truly is retired.
The wrestling business does have people in and out of retirement quite often. Most people can’t get it out of their blood or they have a huge financial need. In Stan’s case he walked away with a clear mind and a healthy body. You would think that people would applaud him and let him enjoy his life in retirement. The truth is he could probably be convinced to appear on some shows but from what he has seen of the independent wrestling scene he does not want to bastardize himself by appearing on events that are not run by promoters he feel are credible.
If you find any other version of The Midnight Express other than Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey advertised on the local independent scene the promoter is guilty of FALSE ADVERTISING so before warned and beware.
By
“The Big Cheese” Sal Corrente
