[2] Shipman made his wrestling debut under the ring name Jay Lethal on December 7, 2001, at JAPW's "Class Of 2001 Student Show", in a match where he defeated Dixie.

[16] His reign lasted an unprecedented and unreplicated eleven months, with Lethal finally losing to Crazy Ivan on August 22, 2003, in Rahway, New Jersey at Counter-Strike.

[17] Lethal also held the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship, defeating the champion, Azrieal, Insane Dragon and Jack Evans on February 28, 2004, at Revolution, in a four-way match.

Lethal was awarded the Heavyweight Championship on March 26 at Caged Fury 2 held in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but he refused to accept it, claiming that he wanted to "earn" the title.

[19] On October 22 at 8th Year Anniversary Show Lethal ended his feud with Corino by defeating him for the title in a Dog Collar match with help from Tommy Dreamer.

Shipman made his Ring of Honor (ROH) debut as Hydro, a member of Special K on Revenge on the Prophecy held in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on January 11, 2003.

[24] Having lost every match for months, Lethal was obliged to face Matt Stryker at Glory by Honor III on September 11 with his ROH career on the line.

[24] At the Best of the American Super Juniors Tournament on April 2, Lethal and Joe faced Jimmy Jacobs and B. J. Whitmer for the vacant Tag Team Championship, but were defeated.

[45] On the February 18, 2006 episode of Impact!, Lethal defeated Roderick Strong and Shannon Moore to earn a spot in Team USA, the defending champions in the 2006 World X Cup.

[49] In the June 1, 2006 episode of Impact!, Lethal scored a win over Alex Shelley, but was after the match attacked by his associate Kevin Nash, who had declared a war on the X Division in the aftermath of Team USA's World X Cup victory.

[54] In a strong product placement, Lethal alongside Sonjay Dutt, got fellow X Division superstar Chris Sabin ready for his match at No Surrender by watching clips of Jackass Number Two, which was being heavily promoted by TNA at the time.

In December 2006, Kevin Nash recruited Lethal, Senshi, Austin Starr, Sonjay Dutt and Alex Shelley to compete in a tournament known as the Paparazzi Championship Series.

Lethal and tag team partner, Sonjay Dutt, who had rejected Nash's idea for his new gimmick, won a shot at the X Division Championship held by Chris Sabin at Sacrifice.

[66] On May 8, TNA Mobile announced that Randy Savage himself called Jay Lethal and said that he loved the "Black Machismo" character as the two spoke on the phone for several minutes.

[129] On August 13, at the first Ring of Honor Wrestling tapings under the Sinclair Broadcast Group banner, Lethal defeated El Generico to win the ROH World Television Championship.

[132] On December 23 at Final Battle 2011, Lethal successfully defended the ROH World Television Championship in a three-way match against El Generico and Mike Bennett.

[135] On March 4 at the 10th Anniversary Show, Lethal's ROH World Television Championship match with Tommaso Ciampa ended in a fifteen-minute time limit draw.

[145] Having found his "killer instinct", Lethal appeared at the following internet pay-per-view, Glory By Honor XI: The Unbreakable Hope on October 13, earning a submission win over Davey Richards.

[148] On April 5 at Supercard of Honor VII, Lethal failed to earn another shot at the ROH World Championship, when he was defeated by Michael Elgin in a number one contender's match.

[151] On April 4, 2014, at Supercard of Honor VIII, Lethal turned heel for the first time in nearly a decade by accepting help from Truth Martini, to defeat Tommaso Ciampa to regain the World Television Championship, becoming the first two-time holder of the title.

[159] As part 2015's "supershow" series with Preston City Wrestling, Lethal retained the ROH World Championship in three individual defenses over Noam Dar, Doug Williams and Joey Hayes.

[160] Lethal returned to the UK again to defend the ROH World Championship, this time defeating Mark Haskins at a sold-out show in York Hall, London for Revolution Pro Wrestling.

He would drop the title on April 6, 2019, to Matt Taven in a triple threat ladder match (with Marty Scurll also involved) at G1 Supercard, ending his second reign at 280 days.

On December 13, 2019, at Final Battle Lethal, along with Jonathan Gresham, won the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the first time, after they defeated The Briscoe Brothers.

On the November 28, 2020 episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, Lethal appeared with newly formed faction The Foundation (Jonathan Gresham, Rhett Titus, and Tracy Williams).

As a tribute to Randy Savage, who had died just a week earlier, Lethal worked in his Black Machismo gimmick in a tag-team match, where he and Magno were defeated by The Right (Jon Rekon and Petey Williams).

[177] On March 22, 2013, Lethal made his debut for Southern California-based Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), losing to Eddie Edwards in a singles match.

[189] On the May 6, 2022 episode of Rampage, Jay Lethal would defeat Konosuke Takeshita and have Dutt and Singh assist in attacking him, only for Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) and Samoa Joe to make the save.

[194] On January 4, 2023 episode of Dynamite, Lethal and Jarrett challenged The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, but failed to win the titles.

[201] In November 2010, he was a contestant on an all-TNA week of Family Feud, teaming with Matt Morgan, Mick Foley, Mr. Anderson, and Rob Van Dam against Angelina Love, Christy Hemme, Lacey Von Erich, Tara, and Velvet Sky.