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Joey Ryan Discusses InterGender Wrestling, The TNA GutCheck, More

September 2, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

– Joey Ryan recently appeared on The Kevin Gill Show, here are the highlights…

On InterGender Wrestling: I think it’s more heroic for a woman to stand up for herself and fight her own battles, whether it’s a man or a woman. To present her in that light where she could do anything. Be in a man’s world and hold her own right… It’s no different from The Avengers when they have Black Widow fight somebody, or in Mad Max when they have Charlize Theron’s charter has a fight scene with Tom Hardy’s character. And it’s an intense fight scene and battle. It’s scripted fighting… If you can make it believable and make it make sense, which is probably the hardest, and probably the most creative and rewarding thing about inter gender stuff I do is finding a way to captivate the fans and get them emotionally engaged into it without checking out because it’s so not believable. You have to keep it in the realm of believability.

On Eric Bischoff/Gut Check: The gut check idea was Eric Bishoff’s, and he’s a big fan of reality TV. He thinks it bring out the realism of the moment which emotionally connects with an audience, and he’s right. If it was scripted it would come off scripted and people would see through it…

On making history on live TV with some inspiration from Eric Bischoff: So when I came back to do the judging segment, they gave me a live microphone! I probably would have been a little more reserved with it.. but Eric Bischoff being a fan of reality TV he pulled me aside literally moments before the segment was gonna start and he said “I understand you’re pretty good with a microphone” and I’m like “I’m Okay” you know? And he goes don’t be afraid to speak your mind out there. And when I got that green light, i was like ok, well..They are presenting me as a heel, so I’m not gonna just tuck my tail between my legs and thank you sirs if they say no, I’m gonna go off. If this is my one time to be on live national television, I’m gonna make it memorable! So I did.

On that memorable Gut Check showdown on Live Television with Joey Ryan, Al Snow, Tazz, and Bruce Prichard: Nothing against the guys that were doing the judging but this was my moment and i was gonna make it about me. So I did the thing, I got in Tazz’s face, and this and that, and I had never met Tazz before so that was awkward for him at least necause he didn’t know me. So I did all that and I got to the back and I didn’t know how the reaction was gonna be or if everyone is gonna be mad at me for doing that… Eric Bischoff pulled me aside, he loved it. He was like that was awesome, thats what the segment is, that what it’s about. Still on TV, I was told no, but he loved it and said we’ll be in touch with you. Literally, I flew home the next day, and when I got home, that afternoon Bruce Prichard called and said we want to offer you a contract.

On an Academy Award for John Cena: There’s no academy awards for wrestling. You will never see John Cena nominated for best actor in a TV show.. Even though he should be. Doing it live, doing it with stunts, captivating an audience of millions of people. So, why is he not nominated for best actor in a tv show? I think it’s because wrestlers don’t let themselves be seen as actors, and part of that is because the audience rejects the idea of being tricked.

On Pro Wrestling Guerilla: Super Dragon is very selective about what he does with the brand name because he kinda wants it to have that cool underground feel. So in a way he’s trying to keep it punk rock. We see your major record label offering us a deal but we’re comfortable doing it our way, on our terms. That almost makes it more cool, and more people want to come see it, do might be helping it grow in weird way. It’s kind of cool and respectful.

article topics :

Joey Ryan, PWG, TNA, Larry Csonka