In the later years of Extreme Championship Wrestling, once many of the original stars such as Shane Douglas, The Sandman, Raven and Taz had left for WCW or WWF, there were two men who would become the new anchors of the promotion, putting on matches that would go on to define an entire generation, Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn. 

Throughout the 1980s and much of the ’90s as well, professional wrestling was an unapologetically “big man” sport, leaving talents like Lynn and Van Dam who were of average size to rely on their incredible in-ring abilities. While both men started their careers roughly around the same time, their paths would not cross until the late ‘90s in the land of the extreme.

Jerry Lynn began his wrestling career in 1988, first performing on the independent scene in his home of Minnesota. As he made his way around the country and into different promotions, Lynn would interestingly be the last challenger to Larry Zbyszko’s AWA World Heavyweight Championship before Zbyszko would depart for World Championship Wrestling. Lynn’s first real big ‘break’ would come when he made his way to the Global Wrestling Federation out of Houston, at the time run creatively by “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert (read more about Gilbert here) where he took part in a long feud with The Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman, the future 1-2-3 Kid, Syxx, X-Pac) that put both men on the map. Lynn would eventually make his way to World Championship Wrestling where he was inexplicably put under a hood and wrestled as Mr. JL. He would be released by WCW in 1997 while injured by Eric Bischoff, who seemed to have a knack for releasing talent while they were injured under his watch (see also, Steve Austin and the aforementioned Sean Waltman). This would lead him to Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Rob Van Dam would make his professional debut in 1990, under his real name of Robert Szatkowski. Before his debut, he was famously one of the plants for a skit on WWF TV with the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase at the age of 16, where he earned $100 for kissing DiBiase’s foot. In 1991, due to his martial arts background and resemblance to actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, Florida promoted Rob Slinker would dub Szatkowski as Rob Van Dam. From this point, RVD would bounce around the independents, including an appearance as enhancement talent “Matt Burn” against The Mountie on WWF TV. He would spend a few years in WCW during the Bill Watts era as Robbie V, due to Watts’ apparent dislike of the Rob Van Dam moniker. He would depart WCW in 1993, continuing to bounce around the independent scene before signing with ECW in 1996.

On April 4th, 1998, Rob Van Dam would dethrone the great Bam Bam Bigelow for the ECW World Television Championship and begin a reign that would go for nearly two years, solidifying him as an ECW Legend. While RVD and the former-Mr. JL had faced off on house shows periodically, their first meeting of note and arguably the true beginning of their feud would come on March 21, 1999, at the Living Dangerously PPV from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Just shy of a year into his reign as Television Champion, Van Dam entered the match as the heavy favorite as Lynn had yet to be able to fully show what he was capable of in the ‘Land Of The Extreme.’ This match would change everything for both men, intrinsically linking them together from this date until the end of ECW. The two men would battle to the 20-minute time limit, where referee John Finnegan would actually award the championship to Jerry Lynn. However, always the noble good guy at this stage of his career, Lynn refused to win the title in this manner and requested a five-minute time extension for the match. As expected, once the match was restarted things went in the favor of the defending champion and Rob Van Dam would walk away with his ECW World Television Championship intact.

Later In the same show, referee John Finnegan would be interviewed regarding his decision to want to award the match to Jerry Lynn, only to be interrupted by RVD himself. Now declaring himself ‘Mr. PPV’ Van Dam would put Jerry Lynn over heavily, telling him he just pushed him to his limit and gave him his best match before challenging him to come back at the following PPV, in this case, Hardcore Heaven, for a rematch. Joey Styles would push the idea of the match having no time limit, which takes us to that night.

The match at Living Dangerously was an instant classic in many fan’s eyes, even earning a rating of 3.25 stars from Dave Meltzer, who was known for notoriously disliking ECW and their product. But the best was yet to come for Lynn and Van Dam, as the hype built towards their rematch on May 16th, 1999 at that year’s Hardcore Heaven Pay-Per-View.

Hailing from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, the match was set with no time limit to ensure that one way or another we would have a definitive winner to the match. Both men came prepared this time, with Van Dam no longer underestimating his Minnesota-born opponent. Beginning with a showcase of both men’s mix of technical and high-flying ability, the story of the match slowly builds as both men give their all to vanquish their opponent. At this point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out another crucial member of the story and the matches, ‘The Man Who Always Calls It Down The Middle’ Bill Alfonso. Steadfast in RVD’s corner, whenever Lynn may gain a slight advantage, Fonzie would always be there to trip him up on the ropes, or to present RVD with a steel chair that would help give him an advantage. While RVD may have been the stereotypical ‘heel’ in these matches, it’s worth noting that he was just so damned good at what he did that the fans couldn’t help but love him, which always added another interesting wrinkle to the story and matches between the two men. As the match wears on the violence is stepped up, with chairs introduced left and right, and a brutal sunset flip powerbomb through a table. Outside of one small botch by both men standing on the top turnbuckle where Lynn falls into the ring and RVD crotches himself on the top rope (which the unrelenting ECW crowd meets with a “you f**ked up” chant as expected) the match is simply flawless. Dave Meltzer gave the match a 4.25 Star rating, but make no mistake, this could be considered a 5-star match. Following a Five-Star Frogsplash, the match appears to be over but Lynn reverses it into a small package. One more Five-Star Frogsplash ends the bout. Following the match, Lynn departs the ring but is called back by Alfonso and RVD, and the two men share a high-five.

This match was so good that when ECW made their debut on TNN later that summer, in place of a shoot segment that Heyman was denied being allowed to air, he chose to air this match to showcase two of the absolute best that ECW had at the time. The feud would never quite hit the same high again, but the two would pair up at the next ECW Pay-Per-View, Heat Wave 1999, to battle the Impact Players, Justin Credible and Lance Storm, which they would win in the main event.

Unfortunately, in early 2000, Rob Van Dam would suffer a severe ankle injury that resulted in him having to forfeit the ECW World Television Championship after a nearly two-year reign. Upon his return, Lynn would battle RVD at Hardcore Heaven 2000, but the match was more to set up a short feud between RVD and Scotty Anton (the former Scotty Riggs in WCW). But the paths between Lynn and Van Dam would cross one more time, with the roles reversed as Lynn had aligned himself with Cyrus The Virus and ‘The Network.’ At ECW Guilty As Charged 2001, the final real ECW Pay-Per-View, Jerry Lynn cut a promo saying the only way he would compete anymore was in the main event, setting up that evening’s headlining act. While the fans would chant for RVD, Lynn would laugh them off saying he wasn’t there.

Fast forward to later in the night. After Rhino defeated The Sandman for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, Cyrus would call out any wrestler to face the ‘Man-Beast’ Rhino, Rob Van Dam would make his way to the ring and face off with the last ECW World Heavyweight Champion before being jumped by Jerry Lynn, setting up the final ECW PPV main event. While this match could not approach the greatness of their earlier battles, it still served as a healthy reminder that both Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn had changed the name of the game and set the groundwork for much of what we would see over the following decades. It is easy to argue that without the series of matches that these two men put on, we never would have seen successful runs from talents like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) or even Cesaro. The feud between the two would come to define late-ECW, along with a feud such as Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka, but it’s clear which feud had a long-standing effect on the business as a whole. 

As I worked on this article I would revisit several of these matches and I can assure you that they stand up today and could very easily be seen as main event-style matches on any WWE, AEW or IMPACT Pay-Per-View today.

Sometimes looking at the past shows you how we got to the present.