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!

World Class: Star Wars 1981 Review

About a month ago I was looking through the Hidden Gems section of the WWE Network and found the Star Wars 1981 World Class Championship Wrestling event.  I was pretty excited to find this because I've never seen it before and I'm a fan of the old World Class wrestling. I was also surprised it wasn't in the World Class section.

WCCW Star Wars 1981

Sunday February 22, 1981

Reunion Arena

Ring Announcer: Bill Mercer

Run Time 81 Minutes

Mil Mascaras vs. "Killer" Tim Brooks

Mil looks pretty good here, of course he is only 39 years old.  At the time of this match if you threw your opponent over the top rope you were disqualified.  The highlight of the match was Brooks throwing himself over the top rope in the corner trying to claim a dq victory.  Mascaras took three bumps in the match and no sold all three.  Finish came with Mascaras coming off the top rope with a flying body press.

No Disqualification
Fritz Von Erich vs. The Great Kabuki with Gary Hart

So this match was terrible. Highlight of the match was when a fan tried to attack Gary Hart and Gary leveled him, it was tremendous!  Fritz was in trouble with Kabuki dominating, so David ran in attacking Kabuki nailing a devastating back body drop and the Fritz got the pin.  Yup.

NWA World Champion: Harley Race vs. Kerry Von Erich

21 year old Kerry Von Erich was green as grass in this title opportunity.  Match was pretty clustery but it was a decent match.  Bronco Lubich was a terrible referee, just terrible.  He was slow, got in the way, just bad.  Harley was great, some classic Harley comedy with him selling the after effects of a sleeper hold and tumbling through the ropes.

Finish came when Harley bodyslammed Kerry on one of the ringside tables and then attempted a falling headbutt, but Kerry moved.  Both men were then counted out of the ring even though Kerry was three quarters of the way back into the ring when the referee finished the count.

WCWA World Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
David & Kevin Von Erich vs. Champions: Hercules Ayala & Ali Mustafa
The tag team championship was represented by a single large trophy.  Also Kevin is wearing boots in this match!  This match was a struggle of styles in the worst way.  You had the young Von Erich brothers who wanted to work a fast paced high intensity match that the crowd was very much into, and the big, slow, and plodding Ayala & Ali just slowed it right down.  But not in that good wrestling psychology way of slowing things down to build them back up, they just didn't want to move.
The Von Erich's won the title with a sunset flip.

This was taken right after Kevin & David won the match

Texas Battle Royal

The winner would receive $5000!  It looks like about twelve wrestlers in the match, you could be eliminated by pin fall or being thrown over to top rope to the floor.  Bruiser Brody won a very lackluster Battle Royal.

At the beginning of the matches the fans would gather around the ring for autographs from the baby faces, however when Kevin and David were in there the fans surrounded the ring and climbed up on the ring apron, it was pretty wild! Really showed just how popular they were with the fans.

There was only one camera that was used for the match, the hard camera but it would zoom in and move around following the action.  It came out very well.  I don't know who was calling the action, but it was a one man booth and he felt the need to talk non-stop and at times it was rough to listen too.

According to cagematch.net there was one other match on the card with Chang Chung defeating Bruiser Brody.  If you chose not to watch this then you are missing out on nothing.

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!

Pete Dunne: The Longest Reigning WWE Champion in 30 Years

At 524 days, as of October 26, 2018, the WWE United Kingdom Champion "Brusierweight" Pete Dunne has become the longest continuous reigning singles champion in over 30 years since Hulk Hogan's first title reign came to end on February 5, 1988.

Dunne represents the WWE's United Kingdom brand but unlike other champions in the WWE, Dunne defends his championship in promotions around the world.  Since winning the championship Dunne has competed in near 200 matches. While not all were title matches compare that to Brock Lesnar who wrestled just 17 matches in his 504 day reign as Universal Champion and Asuka who wrestled 149 matches in her 523 day reign as NXT Women's Champion.

In the near 66 year history of the WWE Pete Dunne ranks sixth on the list of longest single reigning champions.  That is not an accomplishment that you can dismiss as only Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, and Pedro Morales have had a longer continuous single reigns as a champion.

However, Dunne has as long way to go before he breaks into their ranks.  Pedro Morales', number five on the list, 1,027 days as the WWWF Champion is over 500 days longer then Dunne's.  In order to tie Morales, Dunne would need to hold the United Kingdom Championship until Thursday March 12, 2020.

Although I don't see Dunne holding the championship for another seventeen months I do think it would be amazing if he was the champion for over two years.

Here are the 15 longest single reigning champions in WWE History:

2,803 Days Bruno Sammartino WWWF World Heavyweight Champion May 17, 1963 - January 18, 1971

2,135 Days Bob Backlund WWF World HeavyweightChampion February 20, 1978 - December 26, 1983

1,474 Days Hulk Hogan WWF World Heavyweight Champion January 23, 1984 - February 5, 1988

1,237 Days Bruno Sammartino WWF World Heavyweight Champion December 10, 1973 - April 30, 1977

1,027 Days Pedro Morales WWWF World Heavyweight Champion February 20, 1978 - December 1, 1973

524+ Days Pete Dunne WWE United Kingdom Champion May 20, 2017 - current

  as of October 26, 2018

523 Days Lex Luger WCW United States Champion May 22, 1989 - October 27, 1990

523 Days Asuka NXT Women's Champion April 1, 2016 - September 6, 2017

504 Days Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Champion April 2, 2017 - August 19, 2018

502 Days Rockin' Robin WWF Women's Champion October 7, 1988 - February 21, 1990

454 Days Honky Tonk Man WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion June 2, 1987 - August 29, 1988

448 Days Trish Stratus WWF Women's Champion January 9, 2005 - April 2, 2006

448 Days Duane Gill WWF Light Heavyweight Champion November 17, 1998 - February 8, 2000

441 Days Sensational Sherri WWF Women's Champion July 24, 1987 - October 7, 1988

434 Days CM Punk WWE Champion November 20, 2011 -  January 27, 2013

For those wondering I didn't count The Fabulous Moolah's 10,170 days reign as Women's Champion because even though the WWE does officially recognize it, as it was the NWA Women's Championship until May 19, 1984 when it was renamed the WWF Women's Championship.  There is a lot of controversy surrounding the actual length of the reign and the number of times the lost it officially or otherwise until Wendi Richter defeated her for it on July 23, 1984.

Other former championships I didn't include because they were only recognized occasionally were the WWWF United States Heavyweight Championship (1963 - 1976),  WWF International Championship (1959 - 1984), WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1965 - 1985), WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship (1978 - 1989) and all WCW & ECW Championships.

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!