Lynn’s mayor brings mayhem into squared circle

LYNN – Judith Flanagan Kennedy says one thing being mayor of Lynn has taught her is she has to be ready for “almost anything.”That approach served her well when she showed up for a professional wrestling event at Lynn English High School on Saturday, Sept. 18 for what was supposed to be a short appearance as a guest referee.Instead, it turned into a star-turn for the first-term mayor, who tangled with a professional female wrestler, whose stage name is Amber, complete with hair pulling and fake punching.?I?m game for anything, within reason, and it was for a good cause, it was a fundraiser for East Lynn Pop Warner,” Kennedy said Monday night during a break before a meeting.Kennedy showed up at the high school thinking she was only going to have a small role as the guest referee, but when she arrived, someone brought her downstairs to the make-shift dressing room where the wrestlers were preparing for their bouts.There, she received a quick primer on how to wrestle and went over the script with the wrestlers participating in a “mixed gender diva tag-team match,” she said.The script called for Kennedy to jump in the ring and start fighting with the women manager of the other tag-team, so the impromptu training session she received really helped.?They showed me how to pull her hair without really pulling her hair and to look like I was hitting her without really hitting her,” Kennedy said.”I was thinking, Oh my God I can?t believe I?m doing this.”Kennedy, who wrestled wearing a Red Sox T-shirt because she thought she?d be changing into a referee?s uniform, got into her role once the match started.By the time the other women manager jumped into the ring and attacked Kennedy?s female wrestler, the mayor was ready to go.?The adrenaline got the better of me and I leaped into the ring and pretended to pull her hair and pretended to punch her,” Kennedy said laughing as she recalled her wrestling debut. “It was a lot of fun.”The other wrestlers told Kennedy she did a good job for her first time in the ring, and the mayor said the crowd “loved” watching her fight it out, even if it wasn?t real.?I closed my eyes and a lot of it was like a dream-like sequence,” Kennedy said. “The referee held up my hand at the end and the crowd let out a pretty good cheer.”Her performance even impressed her son, Colin, 14, and her daughter, Mia, 12, who attended the match.?My son posted on Facebook that night, ?Sweet, my mom is beating up on Amber the wrestler.,? so they weren?t too embarrassed,” Kennedy said.Word about the mayor?s wrestling debut at the event, which was held on Sept. 18, soon began to make its way around the city, Kennedy said.?The first I knew that talk was getting around was when I got pulled over by a police cruiser and it was a couple of officers I knew and they asked me if I had really wrestled,” Kennedy said.Bill Cushing, the vice president of East Lynn Pop Warner, witnessed Kennedy?s debut and came away impressed, saying the mayor?s performance looked “very realistic,” despite her petite stature.?She crawled into he ring and she goes right after the girl and jumps on her and pulls her by the hair,” Cushing said Tuesday. “It was hysterical, the little thing, she didn?t want to quit. She was right on top of her, throwing punches left and right.”Cushing said the crowd of approximately 600 wrestling fans embraced the performance.?The crowd was ecstatic, they couldn?t believe that little girl could do what she did, but she was a real trooper,” Cushing said.The Pop Warner vice president called the wrestling card, the first one the organization has held in years, a success, and thanked school officials for allowing the group to hold it at the high school.Kennedy met many of the wrestlers on the card, including former WWE star Mick Foley, who she posed for a picture with.Jordan Avery, a 17-year-old Lynn Vocational Technical High School student who knows the mayor through volunteering on her campaign, praised Kennedy?s acting performance.?I