Ryan Nemeth Says He Initially Turned Down Offer To Join TNA

Ryan Nemeth is a big part of the TNA roster, but he says he initially turned the company’s offer to join them down. Nemeth joined TNA in 2024 and has teamed regularly with his brother Nic. The two are currently the TNA World Tag Team Champions.

However, as Ryan recently told Death Arts Xiii By Ash during an interview, he wasn’t interested when the company first reached out. He noted that he was kind of turned off by wrestling, seemingly alluding to his acrimonious exit from AEW. He spoke about turning the company down and what ultimately got him to sign on. You can see highlights below:

On Initially Saying No:

“I’ll tell you like the real answer that’s maybe not so pleasant, is that I had politely said ‘No thank you’ a few times. Because I was a little turned off by everything in wrestling, in my personal life — which made it seem like I don’t wanna have anything to do with this anymore, ever again. [laughs] It’s just so brutal, you know? You could find some gossip about that, and maybe some half-facts. But the truth is I had some really horrible things continue to happen to me in wrestling which really turned me off from it entirely. And so, when someone from TNA reached out and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in this?,’ I said, ‘I am just — it’s nothing against, the company looks great and this idea seems great. But I am not in a place where I wanna get back involved with this kind of stuff anymore at all.’

“And that conversation went on for a few weeks or months. And I said, ‘Here’s the deal. I don’t wanna be put into random eight-man tag matches on the internet that nobody watches, and be a meaningless person who’s there to get beat up. I don’t wanna do that, first of all.’”

On Why He Ultimately Agreed:

“The TNA person said, ‘I have an idea for you and your brother. It’s a storyline. I can’t guarantee anything but we could try it out and see how it goes.’ And I said, ‘Alright. Some time has passed; this actually sounds cool.’ To have a company have an idea, versus ‘Would you like to be cannon fodder for the people we really care about?’ It was a company saying, ‘You are special and we’d like to utilize that in our TV storylines.’

“That was exciting to me. So it was risky, but I said, ‘Sure, let’s try it.’ And we’re kind of both giving each other a tryout. TNA was seeing how I am; I was seeing how TNA is. And luckily for everybody, it worked out great. So, that’s like, the gist of it, I think. At first, I was trying to not do it because I was kind of badly burned from wrestling behind-the-scenes stuff… I’m glad it worked out, and it’s continuing to work out well.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Death Arts Xiii By Ash with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.