Lance Storm

Lance Storm

REAL NAME: Lance Evers
BORN: April 3, 1969 in Sarnia, Ontario
5'11 3/4", 225 pounds
ALIASES/NICKNAMES: 'Tiger' Lance Storm

During Lance Storm's career, he certainly proved himself to be a solid in-ring talent who wasn't afraid to be proudly Canadian, even when that didn't prove to be politically correct.

Growing up in North Bay, Ontario, Evers wasn't always a wrestling fan. His father, for one, couldn't stand it. But in 1985, like many kids, he was swept up by the whole Rock'n'Wrestling connection.

"I started being a wrestling fan a little late," he confessed.

But it wasn't Hulkamania or the Junk Yard Dog that turned Lance Evers into Lance Storm but rather a volleyball coach that he didn't like. Evers was enrolled at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario in Advanced Business Administration, and playing with the Golden Hawks men's volleyball team. Evers, in an interview with SLAM! Wrestling, said that the coach "took the fun out of it."

So he packed his bags, dropped out of university after two years and headed to Calgary in June 1990 to train with the Harts. "I thought I would be halfway decent at it," he said. On the first day in camp, where he would be trained primarily by Keith Hart, he met fellow future superstar Chris Jericho. Besides the Harts, he credits Champagne Gerry Morrow as being the biggest influence on his career. "He really, really taught me a lot early on."

In Storm's in-ring debut, for the Canadian Wrestling Connection, he would battle Jericho to a 15 minute draw, then return to win the Royal Rumble-like main event. As the nineties began, he was on the indy circuit, wrestling for Stampede Wrestling, and WFWA (IWA) out of Winnipeg, and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling as Lance Storm, the only name he's ever used wrestling and teaming with Chris Jericho as "Sudden Impact".

In October 1991, Storm and Jericho went to Japan to work for FMW, but Lance "hated the company" for not calling him for nearly a year despite promises of working five shows for FMW in 1992 and has "never been back."

In 1993, Lance worked in both Lebanon (where Americans couldn't work but Canadians, as well as Mando and Chavo Guerrero and Chris Adams could) and in Germany for Otto Wanz's CWA promotion.

Back in North America, his first big claim to fame was as one half of The Thrillseekers with Jericho in Jim Cornette's old Smokey Mountain Wrestling promotion in 1994.

"I still get ribbed about that one," Evers laughed, explaining that Cornette's early eighties style of wrestling is long gone these days.

The Thrillseekers feuded with the Heavenly Bodies during their time in Smokey Mountain. After the promotion folded, Storm worked some indy dates in Calgary and did another stint with the CWA, which was run by Peter William rather than Otto Wanz now.

Eventually, however it was off to Japan where Storm spent 2 1/2 years working for Genichiro Tenryu's WAR promotion, taking on Ultimo Dragon, Gedo and Jushin "Thunder" Liger, and winning the WAR International Junior Heavyweight tagteam titles twice with Yuji Yasuraoka. On June 17th, 1996, the pair defended the titles against El Samurai and Norio Honaga at New Japan Pro Wrestling's "Skydiving J" show at Budokan Hall, a match Storm refers to as one of the highlights of his career.

On the advice of his old friend Chris Jericho, Storm called up Paul Heyman. Formerly Paul E. Dangerously in the AWA and WCW, Heyman was now the owner and promoter of the Philadelphia-base Extreme Championship Wrestling. Storm began wrestling in ECW and loved it.

"I really like it," he said at the time of ECW. "They give you a lot more freedom to do what you like."

In February 1997, Storm began his career in ECW as a fan favourite, teaming with Shane Douglas and Chris Candido as the "Triple Threat" but after he and Candido lost the ECW Tagteam titles to Rob Van Dam and Sabu, Storm turned on Candido and become a heel.

Taking on Dawn Marie as his valet, Storm soon found himself teaming with Justin Credible (who Storm actually trained in Calgary in 1992) and the pair ruled the ranks of ECW as "the Impact Players". On January 9th, 2000, the team defeated Tommy Dreamer and Raven to win the ECW Tagteam titles.

The Impact Players, however, would explode at Hardcore Heaven 2000, when Storm challenged (and lost to) Credible for the ECW Heavyweight title. Shortly thereafter, in May 2000, Storm announced that he had signed with WCW.

By the end of the summer, Storm would have three titles to his credit and be one of the hottest stars on the WCW roster. Playing up his "Proudly Canadian" gimmick, Storm formed Team Canada (with Elix Skipper, Carl Oulette, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Major Gunns) and would become not only one of the biggest heels in WCW, but also one of the most successful, including the U.S. Heavyweight title (renamed the Canadian Heavyweight title), the WCW Hardcore title (or the Saskatchewan Hardcore International title) and the WCW Cruiserweight title (which Storm dubbed the 100 Kilos-and-Under title). Team Canada would feud with the Filthy Animals and Misfits in Action.

After the demise of the "Team Canada" angle, Storm was still a part of WCW's top-tier, battling the Cat for the WCW Commissioner's position. He worked the last WCW Monday Nitro on March 27, 2001 (teaming with Mike Awesome in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire for the WCW Tagteam titles) and was the last man to leave the locker room that night.

When WCW was sold to Vince McMahon, Storm was soon WWE-bound. Lance's super kick to Perry Saturn during a run-in on the May 28th Raw is War showing jump-started the WCW/WWF on-screen war ironically enough, in Calgary. In another ironic twist, his first televised WWF bout would be teaming with Mike Awesome against Kane and former partner, Chris Jericho.

Less than two months after arriving in the WWF, Storm beat Albert for the Intercontinental title and became an important part of the "Invasion" storyline. After the 2001 Survivor Series, Lance had to beg Ric Flair for his job back, finally defeating the Rock to regain entry into the WWF

With Storm drafted to the Smackdown roster, the WWF resurrected the Team Canada storyline, calling Lance (along with Christian, Test and, later, William Regal) the Un-Americans. Just days after defeating Hulk Hogan and Edge for the WWE Tagteam titles, Team Canada would jump to the Raw brand, taking the titles with them.

After the Un-Americans parted ways, Lance would fall primarily into the tagteam ranks, teaming with Christian, William Regal and Chief Morley (Val Venis) to win the WWE Tagteam titles.

Unfortunately, the storylines that Lance found himself involved in were becoming more and more ridiculous, including a teaming with Goldust, being labeled as "boring" by Steve Austin, and "Dancing Lance".

On April 19th, 2004, Storm defeated Stevie Richards in a match taped for Sunday Night Heat in his adopted home town of Calgary. It would turn out to be his farewell match as Storm announced his retirement approximately a week later. He would still be active in the wrestling business as a trainer for the Louisville, Kentucky-based WWE development territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Storm has come out of retirement on several occassions, including June 2005's ECW One Night Stand where he defeated his former Thrillseeker's partner Chris Jericho with help from his former Impact Players partner, Justin Credible, and as recently as April 2006, challenged "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson for the Ring of Honor Championship.

Despite his success, he believed that he was the most "unlikely guy to be in the business" because of his commitment to family and lack of a real wild side.