AEW's Jerry Lynn Recalls Thinking He'd Never Work For ECW While With WCW

While ECW was known for its violence, bloodshed, and chaos, it was ahead of its time in showcasing some of the best in-ring workers in the business at the time. One man who personified the "work-rate" portion of ECW was current AEW coach Jerry Lynn. He found a lot of success in ECW, even becoming the company's World Heavyweight Champion in October 2000 at the Anarchy Rulz event, which took place in his home state of Minnesota.

However, Lynn initially thought that he would never work for ECW, which he revealed on a special live edition of Chris Jericho's "Talk is Jericho" podcast. The reason Lynn thought this way wasn't because he didn't think he was good enough.

"When I was in WCW, I would get together with a buddy of mine, and at two o'clock on some obscure network, we'd watch ECW. I told him that is one company I will never work for," Lynn said. "I'm watching Balls [Mahoney] and The Sandman trade chair shots, and the fans are handing weapons, microwave ovens, and frying pans over the rail, clocking each other in the head with them." 

Lynn stated that Paul Heyman knew he wasn't signed to a contract in WCW and got Chris Candido to get in contact with him. He explained what his fee would be, but had one other request. "I don't want some idiot hit me in the head with a frying pan." 

The AEW coach was put at ease by the matches Eddie Guerrero had with Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio had with Psicosis, but quickly came to learn that to survive in ECW, he'd have to take a cane shot or a table bump on occasion.

Please credit "Talk is Jericho" when using quotes from this article and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.