Since August 2004, Jerry Lynn has been off the active roster with a shoulder injury. That all changes on June 10th when he steps back into the ring for his first match as part of the “Hardcore Homecoming” event at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia.
“It is a great honor to be part of this event and will be a fun night. It will be good to see some of the guys again like a family reunion. I haven’t seen the full line up, but because of what ECW was and how special it was, this will be an important night. It doesn’t matter how beat up or how old we are now, or what we can or can’t do. People are still going to go out there and bust their ass,” Lynn told SLAM! Wrestling in a phone interview. “Hopefully the shoulder will be good because I am coming back early, the doctors estimated a year. I’ve had clearance to start working out since December. The shoulder is about 95% but I have to keep up with the rehab exercises which is just good preventative maintenance anyway.”
Lynn will re-ignite his biggest feud from his ECW days, locking horns with Justin Credible. The two battled many times, culminating in Lynn pinning Credible at Anarchy Rulz to win the ECW title in his home state of Minnesota. Lynn is looking forward to facing his old foe.
“When I heard the show was going to be put on I asked to wrestle Justin because he was my biggest arch-nemesis in a heel vs. face feud. My feud with RVD [Rob Van Dam] was basically a double-face feud. Justin and I have a lot of history at the arena, the first time we wrestled each other was our debuts at the ECW arena in Philly back in 1997 or 1998.”
Despite Lynn having been on the shelf for over a year and Credible having been working less, Lynn still has high expectations.
“I am still going to go out and do my best and hold anything back. It is going to be a very good match, I don’t want to disappoint anyone, I take too much pride in my work.”
The former X-division champion has been keeping busy with life as well as playing a vital behind-the-scenes role with TNA. He’s helped guide many of the top X-division stars, which has helped keep him motivated.
“After being a road agent for awhile, I got on the road agent diet and fattened up. I’ve been busy training hard for the comeback, and the wife always has the ‘to do’ list which keeps me busy, as well as spending as much time with my daughter as possible before I go on the road again. It is surprising how there just aren’t enough hours in the day.”
While the show is a warm up for his return full time, the nostalgia is a big part of the project. Like many who were part of ECW’s eight-year run, he considers it to be the best time of his career.
“ECW was the best time of my life as far as working. I would wake up and when it was time to catch the flight and go out on the loop I always looked forward to going. It was never a case of thinking ‘Oh God, I don’t want to go to work today.’ It was a blast. Nothing has ever come close to what ECW was. People have tried to copy it but I don’t think it will ever happen again. If this show does really good and people want to see us take it on the road there might be a reunion. It has been tried all over the country, people try and do the hardcore stuff and it’s not the same. I know it won’t be duplicated.”
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