David B. McLane is an American businessman, known primarily as a

wrestling promoter A promoter works with event production and entertainment industries to promote their productions, including in music and sports. Promoters are individuals or organizations engaged in the business of marketing and promoting live, or pay-per-view ...

and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...

. He was the creator of the GLOW-

Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (also known by its initials as GLOW or G.L.O.W.) is a women's professional wrestling promotion that began in 1986 (the pilot was filmed in December 1985) and has continued in various forms after it left television. C ...

and WOW-Women Of Wrestling (recognized as WOW! and WOW), both nationally syndicated series. He also created the

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

series of the

World Roller Hockey League World Roller Hockey League (WRHL) was a professional inline hockey league. It lasted only one season. The WRHL was the creation of promoter David McLane. WRHL games were played with a puck on an outdoor rink with a SportCourt surface at Disney-MG ...

Pro Beach Hockey Pro Beach Hockey (PBH) was a professional inline hockey league. The league was created by David McLane, who had previously created the World Roller Hockey League. It lasted three seasons, 1998, 1999 and 2000. PBH games were played with a ball i ...

and the

Triple Crown of Polo 'Triple Crown of Polo', started in 2006, is an ESPN2 television series exhibiting the top-level league of United States, American polo. Started by David McLane, known for ''Women of Wrestling'', ''Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling'', and ''Pro Beach H ...

. All of these programs are termed "properties" under his company banner David McLane Enterprises, Inc.

Early life

McLane grew up watching

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

on television with his older brothers and attended live events in his hometown of Indianapolis. As a teenager he launched the

Dick the Bruiser William Fritz Afflis (June 27, 1929 – November 10, 1991) was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and former NFL player, better known by his ring name, Dick the Bruiser. During his NFL days he played four seasons with the Green Bay Pac ...

Fan Club, selling photographs of the wrestling star and other local professional wrestlers through mail order. Bruiser brought McLane in to work in the office of Bruiser's Indianapolis-based wrestling promotion World Wrestling Association (WWA). There he learned the ropes of promotion and marketing, eventually became the ring announcer and match commentator. McLane attended

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, graduating in 1984. While continuing to work for the WWA, McLane started his own promotional company to promote live events and concerts throughout the Midwest, including the stadium presentation of the

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrelat ...

Country Concert Tour and marketing of such groups as

New Edition New Edition is an American R&B/Pop group from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1978 by Bobby Brown. Their name is taken to mean a 'new edition' of the Jackson 5. The group reached its height of popularity in the 198 ...

in select markets.

GLOW-Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

McLane began the first-ever all women's wrestling television program in 1986, the

(GLOW). GLOW was a

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

ratings success, achieving superior ratings to the WWF's syndicated '' Superstars'' series, which launched at the same time and was frequently shown in adjacent timeslots on the same stations. Shot in a showroom at the

Riviera Hotel and Casino Riviera (colloquially, "the Riv") was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada, which operated from April 1955 to May 2015. It was last owned by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which decided to demolish it t ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, the show garnered a cult following. McLane served as the ring announcer, solo play by play announcer and owner of the company. The strong cult following led

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

to produce

GLOW (TV series) ''GLOW'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch for Netflix. The series revolves around a fictionalization of the characters and gimmicks of the 1980s syndicated women's professional wre ...

based on McLane's original creation. The series, produced by ''

Orange is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Wo ...

'' creator

Jenji Kohan Jenji Leslie Kohan (born July 5, 1969) is an American television writer and producer. She is best known as the creator and showrunner of the Showtime comedy-drama series '' Weeds'' and the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black''. S ...

launched on June 23, 2017. Netflix's second season of GLOW was released for streaming on June 29, 2018.

Roller Hockey

After selling GLOW, McLane partnered with ESPN for the creation of the

(WRHL) in 1992; the first made-for-television roller hockey league in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He arranged for these events to be sponsored by Franklin Sports and

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...

where the resort staged the events from their

MGM Studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

grounds. McLane merged the WRHL with another roller hockey start-up,

Roller Hockey International Roller Hockey International was a professional inline hockey league that operated in North America from 1993 to 1999. It was the first major professional league for inline hockey. History League president Dennis Murphy had been involved in the ...

and introduced

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

and

Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includi ...

to this niche sports marketplace through a league sponsorship. In 1997, McLane again partnered with ESPN to create

(PBH), with over 156 hours of original programming for ESPN. By holding the events at a beach venue, he got the sport out of enclosed arenas and into a more accessible open air environment. The presentation has been compared to the

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

WOW-Women of Wrestling

In 2000, McLane ventured back to his passion of women's wrestling and created the WOW!-Women Of Wrestling television series. Shot at the

Great Western Forum Kia Forum (formerly The Forum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Inglewood, California, United States, adjacent to Los Angeles. Located between West Manchester Boulevard, across Pincay Drive and Kareem Court, it is north of SoFi Stadium and t ...

, WOW! was syndicated in 100 markets, becoming the number one rated syndicated wrestling program in the markets of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. McLane and his business partner,

Jeanie Buss Jeanie Marie Buss (born September 26, 1961) is an American sports executive who is the controlling owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A daughter of Jerry Buss, who owned the Lakers and other ...

re-packaged WOW! in 2011 and aired its programs in select cities. Live events were staged in 2012 and 2013 in Las Vegas at the Eastside Cannery Casino and Hotel. In December 2014, WOW! announced their launch into digital media with a 2015 marketed platform as "WOW Superheroes". New content was produced in 2016 from the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles for distribution on the company's OWE.comwebsite. On April 20, 2017,

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

Studios, headed by

Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a television producer who is the former Chairman of MGM Television, MGM Worldwide Television Group. He is best known for creating and producing the reality shows The Apprentice (American TV series), ''The Ap ...

formed a partnership with McLane and Buss to produce and distribute new content across a number of media platforms. WOW - Women Of Wrestling Press Launch October 2021

WOW - Women Of Wrestling Press Launch October 2021

On June 18, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter announced McLane and his business partners Jeanie Buss and Mark Burnett contracted with

Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor whose net worth is an estimated $4.8 billion, according to ''Forbes'', and ranked No. 177 on the 2020 ''Forbes'' 400 list ...

's AXS TV for the broadcast of WOW live events commencing in early 2019. In summer of 2019 AXS TV CEO Andrew Simon announced in a live broadcast

Women of Wrestling WOW – Women of Wrestling, is an American women's professional wrestling promotion founded in 2000 by David McLane (who also founded Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW)). WOW is based in Los Angeles, California, and is owned by McLane and Los ...

scored the highest ratings and social media engagement of any program in the 17 year history of the cable network. On October 6, 2021, on top of the

Circa Resort & Casino Circa Resort & Casino is a casino and hotel resort in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, on the Fremont Street Experience. The property was previously occupied by the Las Vegas Club hotel-casino, the Mermaids Casino, and the Glitter Gulch strip club. Ci ...

in Las Vegas,

ViacomCBS Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...

Global Distribution President Dan Cohen, alongside McLane and WOW Executive Producers Jeanie Buss and

AJ Mendez April Jeanette Mendez (born March 19, 1987) is an American author and retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE under the ring name AJ Lee. She is currently an executive producer and color commentator for WOW – Wom ...

announced ViacomCBS had entered into a multi-year distribution agreement for WOW. For McLane this historic and exclusive media rights deal gives WOW the biggest distribution opportunities for the U.S. and abroad in the history of women's professional wrestling.

Polo

In 2003, McLane developed another new venture with ESPN, the

(TCP). The championship series was broadcast domestically on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

during weekends and internationally to 196 markets in twelve different languages by the

ESPN International ESPN International is a family of sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1989, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Operating regions Latin America Spanish-speaking countries * E ...

network through 2009. Marketing partnerships with

high end In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

sponsors Tiffany & Co. and

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...

helped propel the TCP to one of the most prestigious tournaments within the "Sport of Kings." In 2019, the Aspen Valley Polo Club hosted Team Audi defeating Team Flexjet to win the TCP season-finale. In the last weekend of August 2021, fans attending the Aspen Valley Polo Club witnessed Team TonKawa headed by Jeff Hidebrand,

Marc Ganzi Marc Ganzi is an American businessman. He is the President and CEO of DigitalBridge, and is the founder and former CEO of Digital Bridge Holdings and Global Tower Partners. He is also a polo player. Early life He received a Bachelor of Science in ...

, Gonzalito Pieres and Juan Bollini defeat Team NetJets by 9-8 in overtime to take the Aspen leg of the World Polo League Triple Crown of Polo.

Marketing

With his history of taking products from concept to market, in 2008, McLane was retained by a start-up non-pharmaceutical/nutraceutical products company to manage its start up. Following the completion of clinical trials, McLane oversaw the entry of three products into the U.S. market through direct-response TV, online, and print media. The company's cornerstone product, an appetite suppressant, named Livea is patent pending and was endorsed by NBC's

The Biggest Loser ''The Biggest Loser'' is a reality television format which started with the American TV show ''The Biggest Loser'' in 2004. The show centers on overweight and obese contestants attempting to lose the most weight; the winner receives a cash prize. ...

3rd season runner-up Kai Hibbard.

References

External links

*
David McLane's production company

ESPN's Triple Crown of Polo

Women of Wrestling
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mclane, David American businesspeople Indiana University alumni Living people Professional wrestling promoters Year of birth missing (living people)