Monday, November 5, 2018

Jerry Lynn was the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion?


Listening to the Mikey Whipwreck and Jerry Lynn's new podcast the other day it was mentioned by the host that Lynn was a former WWF Light Heavyweight Champion.  This statement gave me pause because I didn't remember Lynn being champion straight away so I decided to look into it.

On April 29, 2001 from Chicago on a live Sunday Night Heat before the Backlash Pay Per View Lynn made his WWF television debut defeating Light Heavyweight Champion: Crash Hardy to win the championship in about three and a half minutes.

This match was after the closure of WCW & ECW and even though Lynn was in the WWF during the invasion angle he was not affiliated with ECW brand during this time.  This was Lynn's 4th run with the promotion after brief stints in 1989, 1995, & 1997.

Jerry Lynn vs. Rick Martel May 16, 1989 LaCrosse, WI
He debuted on March 25th at a house show in Baltimore defeating Essa Rios.  He wrestled several house shows leading up to his match with Holly including pinning Brian Danielson at the now TD Garden in Boston on April 9th in a dark match.       

He defended the title for 37 days after winning the championship against: Kevin Kruger, Grandmaster Sexay, Crash Holly, Taka Michinoku, Essa Rios, Dean Malenko, Christopher Daniels, Eddie Guerrero, Funaki, and Michael Shane before his loss to Jeff Hardy.

Following the loss he had one rematch and then continued wrestling essentially the same core guys.  He made his Madison Square Garden debut on June 25th defeated Essa Rios with a tornado DDT in five and a half minutes on a taped Jakked that aired on June 30th.
  

On July 31st in Washington DC he wrestled Hardcore Champion: Rob Van Dam in a short match losing to the five star frog splash that was not anywhere near to the level of their matches from ECW.  This was the only significant match of Lynn's that I remembered from this run and it was a bit of a disappointment considering their history.

His final match was one week later on August 6th defeating Justin Incredible on a match taped for Jakked.  During his short run he wrestled primarily on Jakked with a couple matches on Raw and SmackDown and had no in ring PPV appearances.  At Judgement Day on May 20th he was relegated to making an appearance at WWF New York.

Lynn would go on to have a great career in TNA, Ring of Honor, and on the indies wrestling his last match March 23, 2013 in Minneapolis defeating Horace the Psychopath, JB Trask, & Sean Waltman in a Fatal Four Way.
  

I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Lynn just one time on September 5, 2009 in Fairfield, Maine for the indy promotion Pro Wrestling America.  This show had only like 10 fans in attendance and the majority of the wrestlers cancelled or no showed because a rival promotion about an hour north was also running.

Both Mr. Lynn and Sonjay Dutt were booked for both shows.  The worked the first half of the show in Brewer and then drove down to this show.  The first half of our show consisted of four shit-tastic matches with all trainees.  On match was Sack of Tacks match that where no one took a bump in the tacks.

Finally Lynn and Dutt arrived and tore the house down!  Lynn pinned Champion: Mark Moment with the cradle piledriver and in the main even in falls count anywhere match Cameron Matthews pinned Dutt with a piledriver.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

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