The Gimmick Table: The Origin of Mr. JL

Posted on October 9, 2024 by bdamage1

Brian Damage

A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.

Today we browse the gimmick of Mr. JL

Jerry Lynn had garnered a lot of attention for his classic matches against ‘The Lightning Kid’ Sean Waltman while wrestling for the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF). In 1995, Lynn got an offer to join WCW and he took it as a huge opportunity for his career. Lynn felt he needed to stand out before debuting for WCW and came up with a Power Rangers type of gimmick. At the time, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were very popular with young audiences and Lynn felt that he could be the first wrestler to capitalize on their popularity and create something new and dynamic.

While the company liked the idea, they envisioned Jerry Lynn more as a luchador and wanted to place a mask on him. Eric Bischoff felt that Lynn’s gimmick could be an English speaking luchador who could stand out in various matches against all the foreign, non English speaking talent that was coming into the company. He was asked by Kevin Sullivan to come up with a name for himself. Lynn chose the name of ‘Phantasm.’

Unfortunately, Sullivan rejected the name, feeling it was too complicated. He was given the very generic name of Mr. JL which was simply his own real initials for Jerry Lynn. Just like his new name, Mr. JL was used solely in WCW’s cruiserweight division and wasn’t really given an opportunity to do promos or be introduced in any exciting way. Mr. JL remained under the radar in WCW until 1997, when he was released after being sidelined with an injury.

You can read other Gimmick Table entries here