The third-annual AAW Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament is this weekend, with back-to-back shows on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, both in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago: Home to hipsters, blue Divvy bicycles, five-dollar cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and, as of the past decade or so, some very good professional wrestling.
Fans around town and in certain pockets of the Internet are extra excited about these two events, and for good reason as, annually, the Lynam shows have been the best on the entire calendar, with this year looking no less impressive than the 2016 and 2017 installments. A fitting tribute to the namesake of the events, Jim Lynam, a well-known radio voice and a former manager in the early days of AAW.
Lynam passed away on August 4, 2015, but not without leaving an impact on fans, friends and the wrestlers who knew him.
Perhaps nobody knew Jim quite like AAW Owner Danny Daniels, who teamed up with Lynam back in 2005 to purchase the company. The two met a year or so prior when Daniels started working for AAW as a wrestler.
“We had a very similar sense of humor and a great passion for wrestling, so we hung out a lot,” Daniels recalls. “We were both the same age so we could relate with stuff that we grew up on. I started booking the shows for AAW before we bought it, as well.”
A dynamic duo, Daniels and Lynam helped bring some of the hottest up-and-coming talent to Chicago’s western suburb of Berwyn. Performers like Tyler Black, Jimmy Jacobs, Jerry Lynn, Alex Shelley, and Silas Young all became household names under the new ownership, and audiences steadily increased.
But what was their secret?
“Jim was my soundboard then,” Daniels says. “As owners, Jim was very good at making friends with the talent and fans while I was stressing out backstage or yelling at someone. He was always one to calm me or Mike [Petkovich, AAW Executive Producer] down when something went wrong.”
Having somebody as cool, calm and collected as Lynam on board helped steer the AAW product in the right direction, quickly making it a Chicago-area mainstay and a company to keep an eye on for the future. This was still within the first few years of AAW.
Keith Lipinski, producer for AAW, most recognized as the tall human holding the camcorder at shows, was making a name for himself in the wrestling industry around the same time under the employ of MTV’s Wrestling Society X. While his current gig offers much less in the way of pyrotechnics, he nevertheless enjoys his role in making AAW into the world-recognized promotion it is today.
He admits, however, that it is Lynam who deserves the credit in getting them there.
“AAW simply wouldn’t exist today without Jim,” Lipinski says. “His connection with [Chicago radio station] Q101 and the Mancow show helped AAW at a very difficult time. He was one of the biggest factors, and a big character back in the day. Even when he retired [from being a] manager and moved over to being the AAW Owner, he was involved.”
Lynam at his height was a manager heavy on personality, and he was a winner on the mic. In his latter days with the company, Lynam often took to the ring before bell time and thanked fans for spending their hard-earned money for attending, never forgetting where he came from, or the value of a dollar.
“You could tell how genuinely thankful he was to the fans and proud of AAW he was,” says AAW ringside photographer Michael Watson, who first met Lynam during his final years with the company.
Watson, who drives in from Iowa to shoot AAW, remembers how happy and excited those working for the company would get when Lynam was in the building.
Among those coworkers was Eddie Kingston, who debuted for AAW in May 2013.
A two-time AAW Heavyweight Champion and die-hard fan of the gridiron, same as Lynam — who often wore a Chicago Bears jersey to the ring — Kingson remembers his good friend as someone whom everyone loved to be around.
“He was great,” Kingston remembers. “He used to always laugh when I busted Danny’s chops to the point he would find me and ask me to do it. I really miss and think about him around this time of year because we talked what felt like every Tuesday [to] talk about fantasy football.”
The “time of year” Kingston is referring to is, of course, both football season and the annual Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament, so named for Lynam a year after his passing.
Daniels says he doesn’t know who came up with the idea for creating a pair of shows to honor Lynam, but “we all thought it would be a good idea to honor him” while showcasing the top talent from around the world.
“As a kid, the Jim Crockett Sr. Tag Team Tourney was cool to me, so [dedicating a tournament to Lynam] felt like the right thing to do,” Daniels says.
Typically loaded with the top names on the independent circuit, the previous Lynam Tournaments have featured some of the most exciting and memorable matches in AAW history, including a riveting 2016 Final between Chris Hero and Zack Sabre, Jr., as well as Sami Callihan vs. Mark Haskins from last year, among many others.
This year’s tournament stacks up well with 2016 and 2017 and boasts such contests as Rey Fenix vs. Shane Stickland, Rich Swann vs. Trevor Lee, and for the AAW Heavyweight Championship, Brody King vs. Penta El Zero M.
The stakes are the highest they have been all year long, with two championship matches and the winner of the tournament receiving a title opportunity at Windy City Classic XIV in December at 115 Bourbon Street.
Fans are currently submitting their completed brackets to the AAW Twitter account, while podcasts and other fine, upstanding wrestling websites have previewed the weekend in full. The excitement is high, but the target this time is different.
Unlike years past, Lipinski explains, this year’s twin bill of shows feels special, with a greater sense of identity, drawing equal amounts of talent from its regular roster as well as the indies at large.
“I feel this year more than next, it’s a greatest hits of AAW,” Lipinski says, “and a celebration of independent wrestling in 2018.”
And Jim would want it no other way.
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Curious about attending the shows? Head on over to aawpro.ticketleap.com/ and secure your seats for any of AAW’s next five shows, including both nights of the Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament.
Be sure to check out our preview with Dr Keith!