Dr. Luther

Len Olson (born October 30, 1968) is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling, better known by the ring names Dr. Luther and Lenny St. Clair. Olson is known for his appearances in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, WAR, and IWA Japan in the 1990s.

Dr. Luther
Birth nameLen Olson
Born (1968-10-30) October 30, 1968
Calgary, Alberta, Canada[1]
ResidencePortland, Oregon
Spouse(s)Julieann Welty
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Atomic Punk[1]
Dr. Luther[1]
Lenny St. Clair[1]
Lenny LaFond[1]
Luther
The Masked Canadian[1]
Billed height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Billed weight251 lb (114 kg)[1]
Trained byHart Dungeon[1]
Debut1988[1]

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1988–1992)

Born and raised in Calgary, Olson was brought up with Stampede Wrestling. He was trained by Keith Hart in the Hart Dungeon. On April 12, 1991 Olson lost to Chris Jericho in CNWA. He continued to fight in Calgary until 1992.

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (1992–1994)

In 1992, Olson was invited on a tour of Japan with the Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling promotion. Told to develop a character for himself, Olson donned a straitjacket and face mask and adopted the ring name "Dr. Luther". As Dr. Luther, Olson would throw chairs and run into the audience, quickly becoming a popular and feared wrestler.[2]

Olson teamed with Dr. Hannibal (Steve Gillespie). He feuded with many Japanese like Tarzan Goto, Hayabusa, Mr. Gannosuke and Atsushi Onita. He feuded with other wrestlers such as Sabu, The Sheik and Mike Awesome, who was known as the Gladiator. In February 1993, he and Dr. Hannibal joined the original Team Canada, which included The Gladiator, Big Titan, and Ricky Fuji.

In 1992, Olson held the AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship.[3]

On May 5, 1993, Dr. Luther and Hannibal Lector (Dr. Hannibal) lost to Sabu and Sabu's uncle The Sheik. Later, he fought as the Masked Canadian (Roddy Piper's old masked persona in NWA Hollywood Wrestling). On July 23, the Masked Canadian defeated The Sheik by disqualification. Then on July 26, Sabu defeated the Masked Canadian. On July 30, he defeated Hayabusa.

By 1994, Olson left Japan and wrestled in various promotions. In 2001 he returned to FMW and won the tag team titles with Biomonster DNA.

WAR and IWA Japan (1995–1997)

In July 1995, Olson appeared with the Japanese promotion WAR. He returned to the promotion in March 1996, regularly teaming with Big Titan.

He returned to Japan in 1996 and teamed with Freddy Kruger Doug Gilbert until 1997.

Independent circuit (1997–2020)

In August 1998 Dr. Luther competed in two matches for Extreme Championship Wrestling losing to Mike Awesome and Tommy Rogers.

On August 26, 2000, Olson was on World Championship Wrestling's WCW Worldwide as Mad Jack losing to Vampiro.

In 1998 Dr. Luther made his debut in Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) based in British Columbia. In April 2000 he lost to Kurrgan. On November 23, 2000, Luther won the ECCW Heavyweight title by defeating the Juggernaut. He held the title for 373 days until losing it to Chance Beckett on December 1, 2001. During the title reign, Luther retained his titles by defeating Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, and Christopher Daniels. He left in 2002.

After ECCW Luther left the company in 2002 and went to other independents. He stopped in Portland, Oregon, wrestling for Portland Wrestling. He lost to Raven on September 3, 2004. His last feud was with Skag Rollins.

In 2009 he wrestled in Marysville, Washington. In 2011 he wrestled in Hollywood as Father Dante. In 2016 Dr. Luther returned to wrestling in ECCW.

All Elite Wrestling (2020–present)

Dr. Luther began working with All Elite Wrestling in late 2019. On the January 8, 2020 edition of Dynamite, Luther made his first television appearance during a match for the AEW Women's World Championship between Riho and Kris Statlander as the fourth member of the heel Nightmare Collective stable (which consisted of Awesome Kong, Brandi Rhodes, and Mel).[4] However, the angle was badly received by fans and was dropped in February after Kong left the promotion to film the final season of GLOW.[5][6][7] Luther made his in ring debut for the promotion on the February 28th edition of AEW Dark in a winning effort against Sonny Kiss.[8] On March 11 Olson was officially signed to a contract with AEW as both a performer and working in an unspecified role in the AEW office. [9]

Championships and accomplishments
gollark: That doesn't sound very good.
gollark: as a package maintainer.
gollark: So do you *still* have to bump dependency versions whenever an update happens?
gollark: `commandlinetoolwhichmanagespackages`
gollark: Can you update *everything* at once?

References
  1. "Dr. Luther". Cagematch.net. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  2. Chris Jericho (12 May 2011). A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex. Orion. pp. 199–. ISBN 978-1-4091-3692-7.
  3. "Dr. Luther – Titles". Cagematch.net. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  4. https://lastwordonprowrestling.com/2020/01/08/canadian-deathmatch-wrestler-dr-luther-debuts-with-aew/
  5. https://wrestlingnews.co/aew-news/brandi-rhodes-explains-why-she-left-the-nightmare-collective-and-what-original-plans-were-for-awesome-kong/
  6. https://411mania.com/wrestling/aew-news-nightmare-collective-has-been-cancelled-cody-and-brandi-rhodes-make-media-rounds-card-for-aew-dark-tomorrow-night/
  7. https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=133863
  8. "SPOILERS AEW Dark Results For Next Week". Ringside News | Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers. 2020-02-27. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  9. Chris Jericho. "After 30 years of riding the roads and taking bumps worldwide, @dr.luther signed his first national US contract today..." instagram.com/chrisjerichofozzy/. Instagram. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.