Julia Reilly, the actress who portrayed the character Claire Lynch in a widely criticized 2012 TNA storyline involving AJ Styles, passed away approximately two months ago in Orlando, Florida. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, her body was discovered at her home after she did not show up for a scheduled event, with preliminary indications suggesting she died of natural causes.
Reilly, who also worked as a performer playing Olive Oyl at Universal Studios, was chosen from numerous candidates for the TNA role. The storyline, considered by many fans and critics to be one of the worst in wrestling history, initially teased an affair between AJ Styles and then-TNA President Dixie Carter. It later evolved to introduce Reilly’s character, Claire Lynch, as a purported drug addict whom Styles and Carter had tried to help.
The angle then took a dramatic turn when Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian alleged that Styles was having an affair with Lynch and that she was pregnant with his child. The storyline became a central focus of TNA television for several weeks.
However, the situation took a serious real-world turn for Reilly after her real name was made public. She began receiving a torrent of harassment from wrestling fans who bombarded her professional website, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts with derogatory and hateful messages, which reportedly included attacks on her physical appearance. The source text described the messages as “some of the most classless garbage you’d expect to see, just abhorrent message board loser stuff.”
Due to this intense harassment and her concern that being associated with the controversial role would negatively impact her acting career, Julia Reilly quit TNA. The promotion abruptly ended the storyline the following week. On air, they claimed a statement from Lynch’s attorney revealed the entire affair was a setup: Styles was not the father, Lynch was never actually pregnant, and she had been hired by Daniels and Kazarian to drug Styles and take photos with him.
Following her brief and tumultuous time in professional wrestling, Julia Reilly never listed the role of Claire Lynch on her professional resumes and did not publicly acknowledge her involvement in TNA later in life. In recent years, she had been working as a presenter and M.C. for various events, such as trade shows, in the Central Florida area.
