UPDATED: Joey Ryan Responds to New Accusations Of Sexual Misconduct Against Him

UPDATED: Joey Ryan has responded to the multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against him that surfaced this weekend, saying that while his attorney has told him not to speak to any of the specific accusations, he does want to take responsibility for not always treating people with respect and that it is possible he pursued people who were not interested in him, invaded their personal space, and made them feel uncomfortable. He did add that he started counseling in October of 2018 and still attends every week now, and that he is now on prescription medication. He said he has reached out to some of the people involved in past incidents with him and says he has had positive interactions with them.

His full statement can be read below.

https://twitter.com/JoeyRyanOnline/status/1274540701888331778?s=20

ORIGNAL: Joey Ryan was among the many wrestlers accused of sexual misconduct yesterday, as a woman accused him of forcing a kiss on her and groping her. Now two more people have come forward with more allegations against the Impact Wrestling star. Coventry-based ring announcer Charlie said that Ryan repeatedly touched her without permission and propositioned her for sex. Meanwhile, a male fan named Marky said that he was also touched by Ryan without permission and mocked by Ryan and David Starr for being gay. Starr, you may recall, was recently accused of rape.

Charlie wrote: “I’m going to start this by saying that I’m ashamed. Ashamed that I brushed it off as ‘banter’ and ‘it’s just the lads’ – when what happened to me was not acceptable. The wrestler repeatedly propositioned me for sex after a wrestling show. Myself and the majority of the roster shared a few drinks after a show (an important point, this was my second ever show as an MC, – he took ADVANTAGE). The wrestler had come to the UK and up until this point in the night, despite being the only woman in a large group of 6ft+ men, I had felt safe. The majority of the wrestlers are my friends, my colleagues and my partner.

The wrestler sat beside me and proceeded to touch my hands and my arms, invade my personal space and desperately tried to get me to go home with him. The ‘home’ was another wrestler’s couch, he offered up someone else’s home without their permission to try and fuck me. He offered me sex multiple times, and when I told him I had a partner, that was ignored, despite my partner being only a few feet away. When I asked the wrestler if his wife would mind, indicating his wedding ring, this was also ignored – apparently they have an ‘arrangement.’ He refused to take ‘No’ for an answer.

He deliberately isolated me from my friends and my partner, sitting me on the furthest side of the tables, pushing his leg against mine, sitting beside me, almost ontop of me. He also made comments about the self-harm scars on my arms – an attempt at negging? Touching and stroking without my permission. Whatever it was, it was disgusting. I ignored it all as a bit of fun, laughing it off in the moment, surely I should feel flattered that a man all the way from America with a wildly impressive resume of titles and matches, arguably the most famous wrestler I have met, but I didn’t. I was left feeling hollow and empty, I finally managed to get away from him, making excuses that I was needed elsewhere. Eventually he left. That was that. My introduction to the social atmosphere behind professional wrestling. I have never forgotten it, and I don’t think I ever will. It wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t some fun. It was wrong, it crossed boundaries. I was victimized, harassed and taken advantage of. Fuck you.

Since I’m seeing so many people defend him, fuck anonymity. The man in this story is Joey Ryan.”

https://twitter.com/thewrestlingmc/status/1274322339136757760

Marky added: “The first legit independent wrestling show I went to was GCW: just being honest. I was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to expect. I was mainly excited to see Effy and for that reason had my pride scarf on. It was already scary at that because I didn’t know how fans would perceive me. The fans were amazing. Two wrestlers weren’t. I went to the merch table and David Starr and Joey Ryan were next to each other with merch. I went to them looking at merch not knowing what to buy. I settles on a ‘We the Independent’ beanie and asked them for a picture. They came up to me and the first thing Joey did was look at my pride scarf and say, “Do you want to take a pictures of you holding my dick or would that turn you on.” It threw me off but I brushed it off as cis humor and laughed. Joey then said “or do you want to do it to me” and tried to grope me with his hand. I backed up in hesitation and bumped into David who was behind me and he said, “Joey maybe he’s a bottom” and he tried to slap my ass. I awkwardly stood aside as the fan took the picture.

I told the fan to delete it after as I didn’t want that image existing to come up in my mind ever again. That experience still exists in my mind and might not go away, ever. I was already questioning my sexuality as is and that just made me feel like being gay/pansexual wasn’t “okay”. I don’t even know if he remembers that happening. But thank you. Thank you Effy for also helping me with sexuality after that encounter and making me forget the experience for the time being and make me proud to don the rainbow.”

https://twitter.com/yousuckmark/status/1274414650424061953