Early years (1997–1999)

He first appeared in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Lane Carlson, a jobber. He made his WCW debut on the April 14, 1997 episode of Monday Nitro by losing to the World Television Champion Ultimo Dragon. He later changed his ring name to Lenny Lane on the May 24 episode of Saturday Night during a match against Buff Bagwell, which Carlson lost. He began to wear boots marked "LL", possibly due to his resemblance to Lex Luger in his early days despite his smaller size. He made his pay-per-view debut at the 1998 Slamboree event as a participant in a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the World Cruiserweight Championship. He was eliminated by Juventud Guerrera. His first storyline saw him as Chris Jericho's lackey. He later began advertising a (fictional) product known as "Ab Solution Plus." It was a health drug that supposedly benefited the abdominal muscles. Lane picked up his first victory in WCW on the October 3 episode of Saturday Night against Lash LeRoux. He appeared in the World War 3 battle royal at the eponymous pay-per-view on November 22 for a future shot at the World Heavyweight Championship and Kevin Nash won the match.

West Hollywood Blondes and Standards and Practices (1999–2000)

In June 1999 he approached Lodi and stated "They're not doing much with me and they're not doing much with you. Why don't we form a tag team?"^[2] Lane had been inspired by a Saturday Night Live vignette featuring "The Ambiguously Gay Duo".^[1] WCW management were initially reluctant, but booker Kevin Nash approved the idea, and Lane and Lodi were renamed The West Hollywood Blondes (as opposed to the Hollywood Blonds, "Stunning" Steve Austin and Brian Pillman). The Blondes were implied to be homosexuals, wearing pink trunks emblazoned with large pink triangles (a symbol of the gay community) and with Lane sporting pigtails, facial glitter and a lollipop. Controversially, the Blondes were later revealed to be brothers. The Blondes were an effective villainous tag team, though they rarely won matches.

In an upset victory, Lane defeated Rey Mysterio, Jr. on the August 19 episode of WCW Thunder in Lubbock, Texas to win the World Cruiserweight Championship. With the assistance of Lodi, he defended the title successfully including notably against Shaggy 2 Dope of the Insane Clown Posse over the next six weeks. On the October 3 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Psychosis was announced as having defeated Lane for the World Cruiserweight Championship at an unspecified live event. Lane had already been set to drop the title to Disco Inferno that night, but WCW management was worried about a possible incident. Lane did not appear that night and Psychosis defended and lost the title to Disco instead.

The Blondes were taken off television^[1] in the same month following protests from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, who threatened to organize a boycott of WCW, claiming that "the character of Lenny is presented with the intention to incite the crowd to the most base homophobic behavior" and "the audience's reaction [to Lenny Lane and Lodi being physically attacked by other wrestlers] gives permission to viewers to do harm to gay people in a very literal way."^[3]

Lane and Lodi returned as "Standards and Practices", a censorious duo who opposed the "adult themes" present in WCW. In a drastic departure from their previous appearance, they wore designer suits, carried briefcases and were accompanied by a secretary, Miss Hancock. Standards and Practices was supposedly an attempt to mock the conservative views of WCW management, and was not unlike the Right to Censor faction the WWF would have shortly afterwards due to complaints from the Parents Television Council over their programming. Miss Hancock eventually abandoned the team. Soon the gimmick of Standards and Practices were dropped on an edition of WCW Nitro when both Lane and Lodi stripped off their suit and tie. In the following weeks, they competed under the tag team name 2XS, a gimmick more resembling two hard rock party goers who wore just jeans to the ring and came out to theme music resembling something from Van Halen. Announcers also began calling Lodi "Idol" (his name backwards) during the matches. This gimmick too was short lived as they failed to get over, even in a tag team title match and were soon pulled off TV a few weeks later. Both Lane and Lodi were released from WCW in August 2000. Lane briefly reappeared for a short feud with The Wall, but was released once more.