David McLane

David B. McLane is an American businessman, known primarily as a wrestling promoter and television producer. He is the founder of the wrestling promotions Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and Women Of Wrestling (recognized as WOW! and WOW), both nationally syndicated series. He also created the ESPN series of the World Roller Hockey League, Pro Beach Hockey and the Triple Crown of Polo. Each aforementioned program is a property under his company banner David McLane Enterprises, Inc.

McLane grew up watching professional wrestling on television with his older brothers and attended live events in his hometown of Indianapolis. As a teenager he launched the Dick the Bruiser 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 Park Tudor School (class of 1979) and Indiana University in 1980.

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 Country Concert Tour and marketing of such groups as New Edition in select markets.

McLane began the first-ever all women's wrestling television program in 1986, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW). GLOW was a 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 in 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 to produce GLOW (TV series) based on McLane's original creation. The series, produced by Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan launched on June 23, 2017. Netflix's second season of GLOW was released for streaming on June 29, 2018.

After selling GLOW, McLane partnered with ESPN for the creation of the World Roller Hockey League (WRHL) in 1992; the first made-for-television roller hockey league in the United States. He arranged for these events to be sponsored by Franklin Sports and Walt Disney World where the resort staged the events from their MGM Studios grounds. McLane merged the WRHL with another roller hockey start-up, Roller Hockey International and introduced Pepsi and Taco Bell to this niche sports marketplace through a league sponsorship.

In 1997, McLane again partnered with ESPN to create Pro Beach Hockey (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.

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, WOW! was syndicated in 100 markets, becoming the number one rated syndicated wrestling program in the markets of New York City and Los Angeles.