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Interview Highlights: Jerry Lynn talks about his TNA departure, Japan, Waltman, Dream Opponents Oct 18, 2007 - 1:25:40 PM
The following interview summary was sent to PWTorch.com. On October 16th, Wrestling Weekly host Doc Young and Les Thatcher were joined by Jerry Lynn. Wrestling Weekly airs every Tuesday at 8pm Eastern at www.wrestlingweekly.com...
Les ask's Jerry if it's true that he asked for his release from TNA. Jerry Lynn highlights it was true and that they sent him home for two TV tapings in a row, so there was one whole he wasn't getting paid, so he decided to go. He continued by saying he wasn't happy with TNA's direction for his character. Doc asks if he was still helping out as a road agent for the X Division. Lynn noted once he returned to in-ring competition he was no longer a road agent.
Jerry talked about three month angle with Chris Sabin and Christopher Daniels, which weren't thought out well, with Lynn highlighting about the Daniels angle "it was three weeks of him leaving me laying and then the pay-per-view match, put him over…done, angle done." Jerry Lynn continued by saying there was more he wanted to learn before retiring and wouldn't learn it by doing what he did. Doc emphasises that Jerry's working a lot of indies now and Lynn pointed out he's working for Danny Daniels in Chicago, ACW in San Antonio.
Les notes that Jerry will be doing Super 8 this year, which Lynn highlights will be for the first time. Les and Jerry talked about that wrestling is a continuous learning process and it‘s always evolving. Les then spoke with Jerry Lynn about his matches with Sean Waltman. "We had a lot of fun, we were hungry and we both just really loved the business and respected it…we watched a lot of tapes together."
Sean Waltman and Jerry Lynn, circa 1990 [photo by Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]
Doc asks if Jerry still talks with Sean. Lynn notes that he does once in a while. Doc says that the listeners in the chat room are saying that they'd love to see Jerry in Ring of Honor and if he has any plans to work there. Lynn pointed out that he's been talking with Gabe (ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky) and he'd like to work for them "somewhere down the road" and that he‘s worked a lot of the guys in ROH on the indies.
Doc asks if Jerry has been asked to work in Japan. Lynn said he hasn't and talked about the last time he went there and the in-ring style there. Jerry Lynn spoke about CZW, whom he's worked for twice and said it was fun. Listener DeCapo asks for Jerry to talk about the ECW locker room. Jerry said the ECW was "always great, out of any fed I've worked for, it was more like a family" and he discussed the end of ECW, which said effected the morale but still went out there to give it their all and they still find ways to have fun.
Lynn noted that Bubba (Team 3D's Brother Ray) booked some venues for ECW, Taz did the designing, Tommy Dreamer helped out with the merchandise and Mikey Whipwreck, Danny Doring and Roadkill started on the ring crew. Jerry said that Tommy would have done anything to help ECW and anyone in general.
Lynn said he's often asked who his favourite opponent is and said that he has favourites for different reasons. Doc asks Jerry Lynn what style suits him best. Jerry said "Sean (Lighting Kid) and I started the X-Division back in 1989/90, over the years we just kept kicking things up a notch…we watched Mexican/Japanese types and merged all the styles into one." Doc asks Jerry how wrestling effected his family. Lynn noted you have to truly love wrestling to make it in this business. "If you don't have a genuine love for it (wrestling) you're not going to last long. I have sacrificed good job opportunities, family…friends, relationships you name it. This is the one job where I wake up and look forward to going to work and I have done so many different jobs…and I was told if you find a job you love, you will never have to work another day in your life.""
Jerry then talked about the reaction he received when he first said he wanted to be a wrestler and that wrestling has to be something you really want to do and love." Doc asked Jerry Lynn what other jobs he did spoke about his previous jobs before getting into wrestling. A question from the chat room is, if Jerry wrote a book, what would the title be. Lynn replied by saying "it would probably be something like…‘Wrestling: Everyone's Dirty Little Secret' because there‘s so many people out there who don‘t admit to watch wrestling but sure know who Hulk or Stonecold, The Rock…."
Another question is if Jerry Lynn could pick any era, angle and faction to work with, who would it be. Jerry said he always wanted to work in the ring with Eddie Gilbert and talked about when he first started out he sent tapes to USWA and Eddie saw the tape and brought him, which he said was a compliment. Lynn continued by saying the next year he brought him into Global (Global Wrestling Federation [GWF]) and emphasised he would have loved to be in an angle with Eddie Gilbert. Jerry is then asked about road stories and Lynn say‘s any road stories you can talk about on the radio have to be pretty boring.
Jerry Lynn was then asked if he owns an iPod and if so, what's on it. Jerry say's he doesn't but if he did it would have a bit of everything, but mostly death metal. Jerry Lynn then spoke about his favorite death metal bands and that he attended ‘First Avenue' nightclub in Minneapolis, where the concert scenes of 'Purple Rain' were filmed and Jerry noted he's seen a lot of concerts there. Lynn also pointed out he's wrestled at ‘First Avenue' too. Another question is what crowds did Jerry like to wrestle in front of. Lynn says Texas, Chicago, Philadelphia and that there was so many.
Doc asked Jerry if he left on good terms with TNA. "I think so. Actually, I think they were confused as they asked why" and he pointed out he couldn't work there because he wasn't getting paid for a month. Jerry then pointed out there's certain indie's he couldn't work for because of the TNA DVD distribution deal, TV Spots, pay-per-view's etc. Les points out that there was talk of TNA having a training camp in Nashville. Jerry noted that it never happened and when the budget got tight they wouldn't fly people in.
Doc asked Jerry Lynn if he still watches WWE and he highlighted if he's home he tries to watch it but normally "I can't watch it for very long… you can't take any of it seriously…I‘d rather watch G.L.O.W!."
Jerry Lynn's Myspace is www.myspace.com/therealjerrylynn
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