Rob Van Dam Tried To Talk Jerry Lynn, Who Brought Him Into AEW, Out Of Retirement

Former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lynn retired from the ring in 2013. Despite not lacing up his wrestling boots in over 10 years, Lynn is currently involved in a storyline with reigning FTW Champion Jack Perry on AEW programming. Lynn's friend Rob Van Dam spoke about how he once tried to get the 60-year-old to change his mind about retiring. 

"I tried to talk Jerry [Lynn] out of retiring when he retired a long time ago," Van Dam said on the "1 Of A Kind" podcast. "I just remember I was, like, really bummed. We hadn't wrestled each other in quite a while, I guess, and then we had a match in TNA [now Impact Wrestling]. So this is like 2011-ish, somewhere around there, and I loved working with him ... I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed working with him, and I was like, 'Man, come on, are you sure you want to retire?' 

"And one thing that was funny was [that] he quit going to the gym, and he told me he wanted to make sure he was committed in retiring. Like, I always say [that] when wrestlers retire and they wrestle more afterwards, it takes the meaning out of retirement. He thought so too, and he was like, 'I'm not even allowing myself to get into shape or anything.' Because he said, 'I might start feeling good and trick myself into taking some more bookings or whatever.' 

Van Dam said he didn't think Lynn would fight reigning FTW Champion Jack Perry in the future and seemingly teased something may happen on the August 2 edition of "AEW Dynamite." That, of course, turned out to be Lynn bringing in RVD to face Perry for the FTW Championship on "Dynamite" next Wednesday night. 

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "1 Of A Kind" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.