Anish Vishwakoti interview: Joey Ryan on social media driving his success, the wrestling that influenced him growing up, his run with Lucha Underground

By Anish Vishwakoti, ProWrestling.net Staffer, (@AVX_9001)

Joey Ryan has recently been making headlines for his ‘shocking’ Res-erection at the historic Independent wrestling event, All-In. He is also an integral part of Lucha Underground and the following is a transcript of our conversation at the LU season four tapings.

Anish: I have the man with the most famous penis in the world. It’s not Ron Jeremy, it’s not Val Venis, it’s the one and only ‘King of Dong Style’ Joey Ryan.

Joey Ryan: Hey, how you doing, thanks for having me on the show.

Anish: Alright, so you came to Lucha Underground a little later, so what is it that drew you to Lucha Underground?

Joey Ryan: Yeah, so I wasn’t in Season 1, I started in Season 2. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect, I had talked to them about Season 1, but we couldn’t find something. I had been a part of a lot of these wrestling companies that pop up and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I was a little bit more stand-offish when they made the initial offer… But when I started watching Season 1 and I saw how cool it was, how good the wrestling was, and the angle they took on wrestling. I knew I had to be a part of it, and they were still interested in bringing me in for Season 2.

Anish: Of course. And how did Lucha Libre influence you when growing up? Or did it?

Joey Ryan: You know what, it didn’t really have a lot of influence on me until I started wrestling. I grew up a WWE fan, or WWF at the time, I had three older brothers so I was a fan at a very young age. When I started wrestling, I started in Southern California which has a lot of it, it’s close to Mexico so it has a lot of Lucha Libre influence… I started wrestling for Lucha Libre promotions with wrestlers who trained in Mexico, so I had to kind of adapt to their style. So it became more of an influence when I started wrestling.

Anish: And with what you do, it’s not like anything else in the wrestling scene. You have a very specific character that I don’t think anyone else has ever done, or that anyone else will ever be able to pull off. Could you explain a little bit of what Joey Ryan is about?

Joey Ryan: It’s crazy, I will always credit my success to being based off social media, and the fanbase that I have built on there, because they took these videos and made them go viral for me. Basically, with the things I’ve done in wrestling, I’ve always tried to push the envelope. I’ve always tried to, not necessarily cross the line, just get to the line and kind of just…

Anish: Nudge it?

Joey Ryan: Just… Test the boundaries, and luckily since no one’s really doing that and no one’s really doing the stuff that I do, those videos are so much different than everyone else’s. The fans really took them and started spreading them around. Sometimes, I’d have these videos that were going on ‘The Soup’ and they were going on ESPN and talk shows. So I’ve been blessed with an amount of Internet attention.

Anish: So I can’t spoil Lucha Underground Season 4, but what has Lucha Underground given you that you can take to different promotions? Because, you play sort of a different character here, in that I can reveal that you’re an undercover cop.

Joey Ryan: Yeah, that’s already out there. And yeah, you know one of the coolest things about Lucha Undergound is the storylines and backstage vignettes we film is very much like an HBO episodic television show rather than a sporting event. That’s not really been done much, or at all in wrestling. So it kind of gives us a different aura so that when we go to different promotions, and different companies, it gives us almost this TV Show… Star like aura about us. So it’s cool to see how other people, other wrestling fans look at us as stars, or actors on this television show.

Anish: Okay, and is there anyone outside of Lucha Underground that you’d like to see come here?

Joey Ryan: I mean there’s a ton of guys, a ton of talented wrestlers, you know, especially now that wrestling’s growing. I mean it’s tough to pick someone off the top of my head, but I think there’s definitely room for growth in Lucha Underground. There’s a lot of guys out there that would excel in this environment.

Anish: And building on that, where do you think we’ll see Lucha Underground in ten years from now? Do you think it’ll still be around? Do you think it’ll be a lot bigger? Do you think they’ll be able to compete with the likes of New Japan, WWE or Ring of Honor?

Joey Ryan: I mean the sky is really the limit. Wrestling’s not going anywhere at all, the audience is growing and it’s getting more and more popular by the year. So as long as we get the fanbase and we have Netflix or El Rey Network backing us, I don’t really think there’s anywhere we can’t go.

Anish: Absolutely, and do you have any specific favorite moment or match here in Lucha?

Joey Ryan: I really liked the Five-O street that I had with Cortez Castro at the end of last season… We did the street fight with all the police props so it was a really fun, that was a memorable match for me.

Anish: And just a quick question for all our sports fans out there. Favorite sports team?

Joey Ryan: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim!

Anish: Alright, and where do you think the character of Joey Ryan is going to be? Either here in Lucha Underground or in other promotions?

Joey Ryan: Wherever he wants to be. I think he really likes Lucha Underground so he’s going to stick around here. And luckily with Lucha Underground, I have the freedom to wrestle other places as well. So probably at a wrestling show near you.

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