Joey Ryan was a recent guest on the IMPACT Wrestling Press Pass podcast, where I had the chance to ask him about his current status as a free agent in wrestling. Ryan recently had his request for a release granted by Lucha Underground, and said that while an exclusive contract is full on benefits, he feels that talent today can still enjoy a national spotlight through the advances of the internet instead of relying on a company with a TV show:
“I’ve have to weigh the pros and cons, the benefits, but I’m not in a rush to [sign anywhere]. With social media and this independent wrestling boom, I think there’s a lot of national notoriety just from doing the independent wrestling. Twitter is big, Instagram is big, everybody sees everything now. When I first started wrestling and I wanted to watch a show that was happening in New York—I’m from Los Angeles—I’d have to wait for it to get released on VHS, and I’d have to go find a tape trader that would sell or trade it. Now, there’s gif of almost every show immediately, video clips from fans in the audience, so I think you can get national notoriety from being independent right now.
A contract is nice because it’s safe; you have a job, you have income, even maybe when you’re not taking your own bookings independently. That’s one definite benefit, but the way I look at it right now, I’m not in a huge rush right now. When you’re in a long-term relationship and you break up, it’s not healthy to just jump back into a new relationship. Kinda be single for a little while and feel it out. Wait until the wounds heal and then you’ll have a clear picture of where you want to go and who you want to be. Right now, I think I’m just going to stay independent for awhile and figure out what’s the best move for me.”
Related: Lucha Underground Grants Immediate Talent Releases, Joey Ryan Confirms He’s Now A Free Agent
Additionally, I asked Ryan about his comments earlier in the call about being a spectacle in wrestling, and if he’s ever turned something down for one reason or another. Ryan said that he does have personal preferences about certain match types, he is usually fine with working with talent to help get each other over. He went on to say that he’s never really turned down a major part of a match, but will sometimes nullify a small part of a match if it feels forced:
“There’s always—the [safety issue] is I won’t ever do something that’s super dangerous. I’ve never done deathmatch stuff, and that’s just personal preference. Having the schtick that I do, I always want to make sure that my opponents can do what they do, or play along with what I do, and it’s a little bit silly sometimes. If they are willing to help me get my stuff over, I am willing and able to get their stuff over.
As far as ideas, and it’s never a huge part of a match—one that comes to mind is I recently turned down a kiss spot with another man. It’s not because I didn’t want to kiss, because I’ve kissed plenty of men in wrestling matches in my life, but I felt like it was forced. I felt like the way that it was presented to me was ‘hey! let’s show everybody how progressive we are!’ by kissing in this match. I didn’t think it needed it. I thought that it didn’t play well with what we had, and I thought it was more eye-rolling than anything. I don’t want to do a spot just to show we’re progressive, so to speak. That comes to mind, but I can’t think of anything where I turned down a major part of a match.”
Watch More: Joey Ryan vs. Randy Myers On Free Match Monday Presented By Powerslam
