Jerry Flynn

In 1991, Flynn debuted in the Japanese shoot style wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi and remained there for a few years. This period also saw Flynn face Masakatsu Funaki on the co-promotional SWS/WWF SuperWrestle card on December 12, 1991.[3]

Flynn wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in June and July 1995 during a tour of the Mid-Atlantic states and Midwestern United States. Flynn made appearances on WWF Monday Night RAW, WWF Wrestling Challenge and WWF Superstars of Wrestling, losing to WWF performers including Jean-Pierre LaFitte, Rad Radford, The Roadie and Waylon Mercy.[4]

By 1996, Flynn had worked as a jobber for the WWF, performing in a few house shows before making his way into WCW with help from Brian Blair, a friend of road agent Paul Orndorff, and Mark Starr, who helped gain Flynn a tryout at Universal Studios Florida for a WCW WorldWide taping. He began performing regularly on WCW's secondary TV program, WCW Saturday Night, in 1997 and by the following year was gaining numerous wins over low-card performers.[5]

In 1998, Flynn began to elevate his status, wrestling on Monday Nitro, the company's flagship program. He had a series of matches with Bill Goldberg, which saw Flynn come close to beating Goldberg, but ended up losing, adding several notches in Goldberg's streak, until his defeat by Kevin Nash at Starrcade. In 1999, he had a short-lived feud with Ernest "The Cat" Miller and his manager Sonny Onoo after Miller and Onoo attacked Flynn backstage during an interview with Gene Okerlund and cut off his hair.[5] The feud ended when Flynn gained revenge by defeating Miller and Onoo in a handicap match at the Uncensored pay-per-view.[5] Later that year, he unsuccessfully participated in the Junkyard Invitational at Bash at the Beach.[5]

He then became a member of The First Family, a heel stable managed by Jimmy Hart.[5] However, an injury Flynn sustained led to the eventual disestablishment of the group.[2] In November 1999, Flynn and Juventud Guerrera were arrested for DUI. He then began a feud with mixed martial arts fighter Tank Abbott which Flynn later expressed enthusiasm for.[5] During this time, Flynn's persona emphasized his shootfighting skills including a "shootfight rules" match against The Wall on Thunder.[6] His feud with Abbott culminated at the 2000 Souled Out where Abbott defeated him via knock-out in a mere 1:39.[5] He was released in April of that year.

In November and December 1998, Flynn returned to Japan, where he wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Flynn formed a tag team with Dave Finlay, with whom he competed in the annual Super Grade Tag League, a round robin tag team tournament. The tournament was won by Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima.[7]

On September 19, 2000 in Tampa, Florida, he also unsuccessfully faced Mike Rapada in a tournament final for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[8] He wrestled a tour of Puerto Rico for World Wrestling Council, where he briefly held the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship in February 2001, before retiring.