History Wrestling / JayLethal

Jay Lethal (real name Jamar Shipman, born April 29, 1985) is an American professional wrestler trained by Dan Maff and Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck, best known for his tenures in Wrestling/RingOfHonor and Wrestling/{{TNA}} over the course of his career.

He began his career mainly competing for ROH and Jersey All Pro Wrestling, being introduced in the former under the ring name Hydro through the stable Special K, a bunch of rich kid ravers with no respect for anything. Aside from being a stark contrast to his actual personality, this was also a comical heel gimmick which masked his growing in-ring talent. Wrestling/CMPunk and Wrestling/SamoaJoe both noticed this after facing him in the ring, to the point that Joe would go out of his way to get Lethal out of Special K (thus relinquishing the Hydro ring name) and make him his protégé and sidekick in the feud against the Rottweilers, most notable of which being Wrestling/LowKi and [[Wrestling/NelsonErazo Homicide]]. During this stretch he also became the fourth of only seven men to hold the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/roh/roh-p.html ROH Pure Championship]]. Eventually, Lethal would turn heel on Joe, engaging in a short feud with him before leaving ROH for the greener-seeming pastures of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

** In AEW: Ricky Starks.

** In TNA: Petey Williams, The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), Sonjay Dutt, [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Team 3D]] (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), Wrestling/RicFlair, Robbie E.

* IHaveTheHighGround: Especially as "Hydro", whose initial gimmick was doing nothing but fancy flips and as part of the X division, which was focal to TNA's "High Flying" branding during the Fox Sports Net and webcast eras.

* ComedicUnderwearExposure: Courtesy of Matt Taven.

At ''Supercard of Honor VIII'', Lethal became the new centerpiece of [[EvilMentor Truth Martini]]'s PowerStable, the House of Truth, as well as the first ever two-time World Television Champion, by accepting Martini's help in taking the title from Sicilian badass Tommaso Ciampa. Since then Jay has gone on a dominant tear with the championship, defending against many of the company's top mid-to-upper card talents and becoming the first champion to hold the belt for over a year. At this point he would declare himself '''the''' ROH Champion, aka [[BadassBoast the only champion that matters]], over the company's actual World Champion Jay Briscoe. This eventually culminated in a winner-take-all match between the two Jays at Best in the World 2015, with Lethal pinning Briscoe (the first man to do so in over two years) to remain TV Champion as well as finally become [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/roh/roh-h.html ROH World Champion]]. This made him only the third triple crown champion in ROH's then 13-year history.

* BreakupBreakout: Has gone onto far more success than any of his Special K stablemates.

* {{Cameo}}: One of many in ''Film/TheWrestler''.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Wrestling/CMPunk got Hydro to follow the Code of Honor. Wrestling/SamoaJoe got him to cut out the Hydro crap altogether. [[UngratefulBastard Not that it ended well.]]

** Hydroplane (springboard DDT), That's All She Wrote(Kryptonite Krunch)

** Won a six pack featuring Dean Allmark, El Ligero, Martin Kirby, Marty Scurll and MK [=McKinnan=] to Southside Wrestling Entertainment's "Speed King 2013"

* YouAreNotReady: He was initially disdainful of having to defend his World Title against Wrestling/LioRush, proclaiming that ROH was out of ideas. After the match, Lethal decided that Lio Rush was good and might eventually become a better wrestler than him but that for now he was the best wrestler in the world and getting a defense against the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament winner [[TemptingFate clearly proved there were no challengers left in ROH]].

He began his career mainly competing for ROH and Jersey All Pro Wrestling, being introduced in the former under the ring name Hydro through the stable Special K, a bunch of rich kid ravers with no respect for anything. Aside from being a stark contrast to his actual personality, this was also a comical heel gimmick which masked his growing in-ring talent. Wrestling/CMPunk and Wrestling/SamoaJoe both noticed this after facing him in the ring, to the point that Joe would go out of his way to get Lethal out of Special K (thus relinquishing the Hydro ring name) and make him his protégé and sidekick in the feud against the Rottweilers, most notable of which being Wrestling/LowKi and Homicide. During this stretch he also became the fourth of only seven men to hold the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/roh/roh-p.html ROH Pure Championship]]. Eventually, Lethal would turn heel on Joe, engaging in a short feud with him before leaving ROH for the greener-seeming pastures of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

* BaldOfAwesome: After the Bullet Club shaved his head.