The Outsiders' Edge

Jerry lynn joined John on Elevation Radio last week.

Elevation Radio Program with Jerry Lynn
Host: Elevation
Available on

http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com.

Jerry Lynn talked to John Kline on the Elevation Radio Program on Thursday night to discuss his reemergence in ROH and on the Indy Scene as well as his feelings on the movie “The Wrestler” and to take a look back at his career in the old ECW, the WWF, and TNA.

Jerry started off the conversation by explaining how he “stole” his finishing move The Cradle Pile Driver from the Dynamite Kid Tom Billington. The beginning parts of the interview also focused on Jerry’s reemergence in ROH, the other wrestlers he is looking forward to working with in the promotion and how the company compares to his experiences in TNA and ECW. Jerry talked about ECW by recalling the very first time he wrestled his most famous opponent Rob Van Dam. He believed they always had fantastic chemistry together, but that their first encounter was difficult for Jerry to take:

“The first time was pretty rough going… I came back through the curtain with my head stuck to the side and blood coming out of my shoulder and my lip and my nose and Al (Snow) looked at me and said ‘it looks like you’ve been through a war,’ and all I could say was ‘Its not supposed to be like this’, but no, it was a good match and we did click right off the bat, and it was a good challenge for us to give the fans something they hadn’t seen before and we always tried to build off the previous match.”

After talking for a few more minutes about who Jerry enjoyed working with the most in ECW, the possibility of facing RVD again at the indy level, how he still sees some of his hardcore brethren like Justin Credible and Spike Dudley on the independent circuit, and whether he would have left ECW if they had been able to stay afloat. The conversation then shifted to Lynn’s short run in the WWF. Jerry commented on whether the company could have done a better job of showcasing his talents:

“No, they could have done a better job. But, you know, if I wasn’t what they were looking for at the time, you know timings got a lot to do with it, so I may have not fit in to what they were looking for… plus, I was never able to come up with a weird, whacky gimmick for me, so I’m sure they (WWF Creative) couldn’t. They like to come up with their weird whacky characters, so first of all they can own the name and then second of all they can sell a lot of merchandise off of it. “

One gimmick character Jerry Lynn did create was the Japanese influenced, mask gimmick Mr. JL, who he played in WCW. Unfortunately a knee injury and some new hires brought about the end of that career phase:”I thought great, here is something we can market for the kids and whatever, but then when I got hurt, after I came back nine weeks later, they brought in all the Mexicans, so then a mask meant nothing anymore, because you had a dozen people running around in masks.”

Lynn also talked about some of the worst gimmicks he has ever encountered in wrestling and how he felt particularly embarrassed for The Big Show during one period where the WWE was trying to get him to quit by forcing him to do humiliating things on camera every week. The focus then shifted to Jerry’s five year career in TNA. Jerry confirmed that the regular wrestling fan’s assessment that TNA management and creative has been very subpar. He blames the undervaluing of the X Division and backstage politics as reasons for the promotions lack of recent success: “Theres a lot of political stuff going on there, and the sad thing is when they buried the X Division, and I think the X Division is what kept the company afloat and what got it the most notoriety in the first couple years…but its all political stuff, you know?”

Jerry put over Petey Williams and his Canadian Destroyer finishing move and also talked about how instead of using vignettes to put over X Division guys real personalities and attitudes, TNA saddles guy with mimic roles like ‘Stone Cold’ Shark Boy or ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal just because they get overheard in the back doing those impressions.

By the end of his TNA run, Lynn felt that the company was turning into another version of WCW. After a little more TNA talk, including about his time as a backstage agent where he was placed in the uncomfortable spot of presenting many of TNA creative’s’ horrible ideas to the wrestlers, the conversation shifted to the movie “The Wrestler.” Jerry feels that the movie could have even gone further in showcasing some of the poorer locker rooms and situations wrestlers find themselves in on the Indy Circuit:

“….I always tell people, it could have even showed even worse conditions and a more nitty gritty part of wrestling…..I thought, ‘Man, I’ve had worse locker-rooms then that. And I’ve wrestled in front of six people. So they could have showed, you know, the real nitty gritty and just the whole bare-naked truth of wrestling.”

Jerry went on to discuss the comparisons between himself and Randy the Ram Robinson and how his perspective and sense of self has changed since Lynn now finds himself one of the older performers in every wrestling locker room he steps in.

Jerry then went on his way but not before remarking, that despite the travel demands placed on him by having to wrestle in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Colorado this weekend he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Other topics discussed include: his reaction to if he ever found out he was wrestling the Necro Butcher in a hardcore match, how he tore up his shoulder in TNA during a match with Juvi Guererra, his feelings on his physical resemblance to Mickey Rourke, and even more thoughts on TNA, ECW, Ring of Honor, the WWF, and WCW.

More information on Jerry Lynn can be found at www.JerryFNLynn.com

John Kline and Elevation Radio will be live Friday February 27 from 5:30 to 6:30 ( East Coast Time). John will be joined by huge special guest Bret “The Hitman” Hart, who will be calling in to talk about his career and his fantastic new autobiography Hitman.

~ by lordelevation on February 25, 2009.

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Tags: Bret Hart, Jerry Lynn