Len Olson (born October 30, 1968), better known by the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

s Dr. Luther or simply Luther, is a Canadian

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

signed to

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, w ...

, where he is also a producer. He is also known for his appearances in Japan for

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their ...

WAR War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, and

IWA Japan The International Wrestling Association of Japan, more commonly known as IWA Japan, was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion operating from 1994 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2014. It was formed by Víctor Quiñones as a successor to the W ...

in the 1990s. Olson has also appeared in numerous promotions throughout the Canadian

independent circuit In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective noun, collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor lea ...

in the 1990s and 2000s.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1988–1992)

Olson was born and raised in Calgary, and was brought up with

Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the prom ...

. He was trained by Keith Hart in the

Hart Dungeon The Hart Dungeon or Hart Family Dungeon, otherwise known simply as The Dungeon, was the gym and wrestling school located in the basement of the Hart mansion. The school was created by Stu Hart, patriarch of the Hart wrestling family and is known f ...

. On April 12, 1991, Olson lost to

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and singer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Jeri ...

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

promotion. Told to develop a character for himself, Olson donned a

straitjacket A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with long sleeves that surpass the tips of the wearer's fingers. Its most typical use is restraining people who may cause harm to themselves or others. Once the wearer slides their arms into the ...

and

face mask The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human Personal identity, identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental d ...

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. Olson teamed with Dr. Hannibal (Steve Gillespie). He feuded with many Japanese like

Tarzan Goto , better known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches against Atsushi Onita in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling ( ...

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C ...

Mr. Gannosuke is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) under the ring name . Honda was quickly pushed as "Mr. Gannosuke" due to his resemblance to the actor Ashiya Gannosuke and he beg ...

and

Atsushi Onita is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and is credited with introducing Japan to the deathmatch style of professional wrestling. He founded ...

. He feuded with other wrestlers such as Sabu, The Sheik and

Mike Awesome Michael Lee Alfonso (January 24, 1965 – February 17, 2007) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the American professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestl ...

, who was known as the Gladiator. In February 1993, he and Dr. Hannibal joined the original Team Canada, which included The Gladiator,

Big Titan Richard Bognar (January 16, 1970 – September 20, 2019) was a Canadian professional wrestler, actor, and motivational speaker, best known as the "fake" Razor Ramon who debuted in the World Wrestling Federation alongside the "fake" Diesel in a s ...

, and

Ricky Fuji Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic *Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

. In 1992, Olson held the AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. On May 5, 1993, Dr. Luther and Hannibal Lector (Dr. Hannibal) lost to Sabu and Sabu's uncle The Sheik. 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

. He returned to the promotion in March 1996, regularly teaming with

. He returned to Japan in 1996 and teamed with Freddie Krueger until 1997.

Independent circuit (1997–2020)

In August 1998 Dr. Luther competed in two matches for

Extreme Championship Wrestling HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrest ...

losing to

and Tommy Rogers. On August 26, 2000, Olson was on

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nation ...

's ''

WCW Worldwide ''WCW WorldWide'' was an American syndicated television show that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that aired from October 8, 1975, to March 31, 2001. At the time of its cancellation, ''WorldWide'' was the longest-running, uni ...

'' as Mad Jack losing to

Vampiro Ian Richard Hodgkinson (born May 31, 1967), better known by his ring name Vampiro, is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler who most recently served as director of talent for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA). He also worked for Lucha Unde ...

. In 1998 Dr. Luther made his debut in

Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) (formerly known as NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling and Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling) is a Western Canada-based professional wrestling promotion and a former member of the Nati ...

(ECCW) based in British Columbia. In April 2000 he lost to

Kurrgan Robert Maillet (born October 26, 1969) is a Canadian actor and retired professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is known for his time in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1997 to 1999, where he performed under the ring name ...

. 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 Thomas James Laughlin (born February 13, 1971), is an American professional wrestler and promoter better known by the ring name Tommy Dreamer. He is signed to Impact Wrestling and is the owner and promoter of the House of Hardcore (HOH) promo ...

and

Christopher Daniels Daniel Christopher Covell (born March 24, 1970), better known by the ring name Christopher Daniels, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and is the Head of Talent Relations. He is best kno ...

. 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 A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

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

in late 2019. On the January 8, 2020 edition of ''

Dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

'', Luther made his first television appearance during a match for the

AEW Women's World Championship The AEW Women's World Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Established on June 18, 2019, the inaugural champion was Riho. The current champion ...

between

Riho is a Japanese professional wrestler and idol currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She is a former AEW Women's World Champion. She was trained by Emi Sakura and debuted for her Ice Ribbon promotion in May 2006, at the age of nine. Sh ...

and

Kris Statlander Kristen Stadtlander (born August 7, 1995) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Kris Statlander. She is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling, and has also performed on the independent circuit. She is currently ...

as the fourth member of the

heel The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower Human leg, leg. Structure To distribute the compressive for ...

Nightmare Collective stable (which consisted of

Awesome Kong Kia Stevens (born September 4, 1977) is an American actress and retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)/Impact Wrestling under the ring name Awesome Kong. She also worked with Ring ...

Brandi Rhodes Brandi Alexis Runnels (née Reed; born June 23, 1983), known professionally as Brandi Rhodes, is an American professional wrestler, ring announcer, model, businesswoman and television personality. She is known for her time as the former Chief B ...

, and

Mel Mel, Mels or MEL may refer to: Biology * Mouse erythroleukemia cell line (MEL) * National Herbarium of Victoria, a herbarium with the Index Herbariorum code MEL People * Mel (given name), the abbreviated version of several given names (including ...

). 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''. Luther made his in ring debut for the promotion on the February 28th edition of ''

AEW Dark AEW or aew may refer to: * Airborne early warning, airborne radar system for detecting aircraft * Aerosvit Airlines, an airline based in Kyiv, Ukraine (ICAO airline designator: AEW) * AEW Capital Management, a property investment management company ...

'' in a winning effort against Sonny Kiss. 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. Luther would then form the Chaos Project tag team with

Serpentico Jonathan Cruz Rivera (born February 23, 1984) is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is currently working for the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Serpentico and occasionally under his real name of Jon Cruz, a ...

on AEW Dark, where they developed a winning streak. On the September 30 episode of Dynamite, Luther and Serpentico attacked

and

Jake Hager Donald Jacob Hager Jr. (born March 24, 1982) is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Jake Hager, where he is a member of the Jericho Appreciation Society st ...

after Jericho provoked Luther thus setting up a match for the following week. The following week on Jericho's 30 year anniversary show, Luther and Serpentico in their debut match on Dynamite were defeated by Jericho and Hager.

Championships and accomplishments

*Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling **CRMW Mid-Heavyweight Championship (2 times) *DOA Pro Wrestling **DOA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *

ECCW Championship The ECCW Championship (formerly known as the NWA/ECCW Heavyweight Championship) is the top singles championship in Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling. It was first established in 1996 in the then-independent ECCW, and its name was changed whe ...

(1 time) **

ECCW Tag Team Championship The NWA/ECCW Tag Team Championship is the tag team title for the Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling wrestling promotion based out of British Columbia. It was activated in 1996. The first champions were the Glamour Order Of Discipline. Th ...

(3 times) – with Incubus (2) and

Juggernaut A juggernaut (), in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. This English usage originated in the mid-nineteenth century and was adapted from the Sanskrit word Jagannath. ...

(1) *

AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association from 1981 until it closed in 1991. In 1988 Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling claimed that Jim Backlund won the championship, something not officially ackn ...

(1 time) *Indigenous Wrestling Alliance **IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *North American Wrestling **NAW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) *West Coast Championship Wrestling **WCCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *Western Canada Extreme Wrestling **WCEW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Juggernaut

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Luther, Dr. 1968 births 20th-century professional wrestlers 21st-century professional wrestlers All Elite Wrestling personnel Canadian expatriate professional wrestlers in the United States Canadian male professional wrestlers Canadian podcasters Canadian YouTubers Expatriate professional wrestlers in Japan Living people Professional wrestlers from Calgary Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Japan AWA World Light Heavyweight Champions