Shane Douglas on Why He Has Huge Respect for Lance Storm

Shane Douglas on Why He Has Huge Respect for Lance Storm
Clip from Franchise University with Shane Douglas episode 2

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FU to you all! ECW Legend ”The Franchise” Shane Douglas once again dons his Dean mortarboard and breaks out the trusty ”Board of Education” to beat some wrestling sense into you... verbally speaking... every Tuesday, Shane Douglas will take a deep dive into a different subject, event or performer with his trademark intelligence, expert insight and take-no-prisoners, spin-no-bullsh*t attitude.

Without Shane Douglas, there would have been no ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

It was Douglas who, on Aug. 27, 1994, won a tournament to become the new NWA Heavyweight Champion, and then threw the title down and proclaimed the death of the National Wrestling Alliance and the birth of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

No other competitor on the ECW roster could have pulled off such a flagrant act of defiance with the poise of the man who declared himself ”The Franchise.” Indeed, it was Douglas’ unflappable confidence, poison tongue and hair-trigger temper that made him both a captivating personality and a sports-entertainment outlier better suited for the uncensored world of Extreme Championship Wrestling.

The Franchise did not start out this way, however. Trained alongside Mick Foley by Dominic DeNucci, Douglas skateboarded into WCW as one-half of the fun-loving Dynamic Dudes alongside John ”Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis in 1989. Looking like Zack Morris with his bleached blond mullet and neon high-tops, the upstart popped over to WWE in the early ’90s and then back to WCW where he developed rapidly during a championship partnership with Ricky ”The Dragon” Steamboat.

Douglas’ breakout as a singles star came in 1993 when he abandoned his white bread good guy act as ECW’s newest villain. Dispatching his hardcore opponents with a rough, technical style — Douglas always favored belly-to-belly suplexes over barbwire bats — the Pittsburgh native became the first champion of the rebranded Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the leader of The Triple Threat. An obvious challenge to his nemesis Ric Flair and his Four Horsemen, the group’s rotating cast of characters included Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Candido and “Primetime” Brian Lee at different times.

A brief trip to WWE in 1995 became the career lowlight for Douglas as the Dean Douglas persona (based on the fact that he was formerly a school teacher) forced upon him failed to catch on with WWE fans who saw it as a retread of The Genius. When he returned to ECW, he had an even bigger chip on his shoulder. Now with his “head cheerleader” Francine by his side, The Franchise captured both the ECW Television and ECW World Heavyweight Titles while besting Chris Jericho, Bam Bam Bigelow, Sabu and many more.

After losing the ECW World Heavyweight Title to Tazz at the Guilty as Charged pay-per-view in 1999, Douglas returned to WCW for a strong two-year run as The Franchise. He won both the United States Title and the WCW Tag Team Titles (alongside Buff Bagwell) and captained competitors like Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in an impressive faction known as Revolution.

With extra stops in TNA as a manager and wrestler, Extreme Revolution and a mainstay of the independent scene to this day, Shane Douglas has been involved with pro wrestling at every level for 40 years.

Franchise University with Shane Douglas is part of the WSI Network.

#ShaneDouglas #Wrestling #WWE

[kenterminateddq]

Lance Storm is one of the most underappreciated athletes in wrestling history.

[cr]

To me Lance Storm was like ECW's Bret Hart. Both are very serious and very Canadian.

[SSS.]

WWE missed the opportunity to book a Storm vs Angle/Canada vs USA feud. They had one short match on Smackdown. It was intense while it lasted, but damn this was something anyone who watched both WCW & WWF in 2000 wanted to see going into the 2001 Invasion era.

[Gojirilla]

I honestly loved it whenever I'd see Lance come out to the ring in ECW. Not only cause I loved that White Zombie remix, but because his wrestling skills always made for an entertaining match.

[northofnashira]

Lance Storm, the best super kick in the biz.

[papboybrooklyn]

I always thought Lance storm was a better wrestler than Chris Jericho, Chris Jericho is a better character In my opinion

[jd]

He's got respect for Lance, because Lance is from Calgary, Alberta Canada!

[HollisKing]

One thing I noticed listening to guys like Shane and Booker T is they always talk about the character.

[kiprandom]

Lance stood out by being that serious bland guy. He was a brown sedan among a lot of monster trucks and muscle cars

[jonbourgoin]

The laughing in the intro sounds more like Freddy Krueger than Shane Douglas lol

[walterclark]

I really liked Lance Storm and Chris Jericho as a tag team. Plus i liked that feud Lance Storm had with Chris candido

[justint]

Lance Storm, the technician from Smoky Mountain, WAR, CWA, and Canadian indies at that point, would obviously not know how to give a stiff chair shot so it *did* make sense

[Chrizownsyou]

Lance was very vanilla personality, but had so much style in the ring. One of my favorites when I was a kid

[prodigal]

If you KNOW wrestling & love it, you HAVE to respect Lance Storm. He's only underrated by the CASUAL wrestling fan

[Serenitynowwwww]

we both have the charisma of wet newspaper., so naturally we respect one another

[wardengentles]

If you don't have respect for Lance Storm...you might as well not like Big Red chewing gum!