Yesterday on his Twitter page, former WWE, WCW and ECW Superstar Lance Storm announced that he was spending the week at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida as a Guest Trainer. Apart from their own highly decorated coaching and training staff – including head trainers Matt Bloom and Sara Del Rey, as well as Norman Smiley, Shawn Michaels, Serena Deeb, Steve Corino, Robbie Brookside and others – the WWE Performance Center has routinely brought in guest trainers for special seminars, including the likes of CHIKARA‘s Mike Quackenbush, former Ring of Honor manager Truth Martini, former 4x IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka, former ECW World Champion Jerry Lynn, and most recently, The Outsiders (Scott Hall & Kevin Nash).
My office for the week. Making some new friends while catching up with some old ones. Love this job. #NXT pic.twitter.com/CoAhiR3RMK
— Lance Storm (@LanceStorm) August 14, 2018
Lance Storm is a graduate of the Hart Brothers Wrestling Camp in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he got his start with fellow WWE alumn Chris Jericho in 1990. He spent his early days with West Four Wrestling Alliance (WFWA) in Winnipeg, the Hart’s Stampede Wrestling, and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW), as well as excursions to Japan with Wrestling Association “R” (WAR) and Otto Wanz‘s Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) based out of Austria, before returning to North America with Smokey Mountain Wrestling (SMW). His early years saw him paired with Chris Jericho in the tag team, The Thrillseekers.
In 1997, he joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he became a 3x ECW World Tag Team Champion, once with Chris Candido, and more famously as part of the Impact Players with Justin Credible. In 2000, Storm moved on to World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he formed a Team Canada (prior to Impact Wrestling’s version), that included fellow Canadian PCO, as well as “converted” Americans like “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Mike Awesome and Elix Skipper. During his time with WCW, Lance Storm won (and renamed) the WCW Cruiserweight Championship (renamed to the WCW 100kg Championship in honor of Canada using the metric system), WCW Hardcore Champion (renamed the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title – or S.H.I.T.), and was a 3x WCW United States (renamed Canadian) Champion.
Following the demise of WCW, the WCW Invasion angle debuted with the first attack launched by Lance Storm on May 28, 2001, when he made a surprise run-in during a match between WWF Superstars Steve Blackman and Perry Saturn on Monday Night Raw, officially launching the WCW Invasion of WWE, in his home of Calgary, Alberta.
Lance Storm only remained with the WWE for a few years, retiring from in-ring action in 2004, but in his three brief years with the company, he captured the Intercontinental Championship and was a 3x WWE Tag Team Champion. Upon his retirement, he assumed a trainer role with WWE’s then developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). He came out of retirement in 2005, for his final WWE match against former partner Chris Jericho for the ECW One Night Stand PPV. He would resign from the WWE that year and return to Calgary to open his own wrestling school, the Storm Wrestling Academy, which he continues to operate to this day. While he’s effectively retired from in-ring competition, he has returned to the ring for various one off appearances. Since then, his Storm Wrestling Academy has gone on to produce various of the world’s top indie talent, including WWE Superstars Tyler Breeze, Peyton Royce, and Oney Lorcan, former WWE Superstar Tenille Dashwood (aka Emma), and indie stars like Chelsea Green, Taya Valkyrie, Rachael Ellering and Brian Pillman Jr. (to name a few).
It appears that one former student caught up with her old mentor this week in Orlando, showing him the sights and eats of the US.
.@KassiusOhno & I had to take @LanceStorm to Cracker Barrel to discus how to become the best Evers. 😁 Lance has taught me everything I know and is forever my family. I’m so happy I could see him before I fly to Japan. #FamilyForEvers pic.twitter.com/OkQ8eBcC3Y
— Rachael Ellering (@RachaelEllering) August 14, 2018
