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An announced return to the ring for former professional wrestler Joey Ryan was canceled within hours of it being announced today.
A new promotion titled "Portland Wrestling" announced Ryan would be working for them on 8/23 in Vancouver, Washington. When there began to be a massive amount of backlash to the promotion announcing it on Facebook, initially they stated they would not unbook Ryan, but later announced his flight was canceled and he would not be appearing.
When asked why Ryan was booked to begin with, the promotion responded, "Multiple other talent was unavailable, he was reasonably priced, other local guys wanted to work him, he hadn't been here since 2014, he had soberingly repented from the man he was in the past, he was happy to leave the comedy gimmick in the past to just be a wrestler again, and it would be good for him as a person to wrestle in service of non-profits, which are what I exclusively try to work with when promoting a show. It takes about ten times the work to find a non-profit with the space to hold an event, but it is spiritually rewarding to know that a cut of the gate is going to benefit something much greater than myself and my show. Alas, other promoters have publicly threatened to blackball anyone who worked for me and explicitly stated that they would destroy my show before it even got off the ground. They were successful at that."
The promotion also stated it was unlikely their event would even go forward now.
Ryan left professional wrestling after allegations about him came out in the summer of 2020 when he was public accused of sexual misconduct by a woman on social media. After he responded on social media, other allegations were made against Ryan. While no criminal investigations or charges resulted from the allegations, a number of promotions cut ties with Ryan while other wrestlers came out against him. Ryan's Bar Wrestling promotion was shut down and Impact Wrestling (now TNA) announced he had been terminated from his contract. Ryan later posted a long video addressing the allegations, showing screenshots of messages that he stated proved many of the claims against him didn't hold up to scrutiny. Ryan later filed lawsuits against a number of his accusers, although many of them were later dropped by Ryan. Ryan has not wrestled in years and when social media accounts made public that he was working at a theme park, he was let go from that job.
Ryan reached out to PWInsider.com this afternoon in the aftermath of the situation today, requesting the following video he released in December 2024 be posted:
Prestige Wrestling, which runs the market regularly, announced:
We have been informed that the show that our event was “counter programming” has removed the source of our inspiration from their event & is proclaiming on social media their show is at risk of being cancelled due to our interference.
I believe it is something to note that you should visit their Facebook page & read their responses in regards to this situation. Between their current status & their reaction on a previously deleted status it is clear they did not make changes to their event in any sign of good faith, but instead couldn’t handle the public backlash & are attempting to frame the situation in a “poor me, we were trying to do something good” light.
“Stand on business” is a phrase that I have heard a lot lately & is something I have practiced for years. While other promotions in the region may choose to stay silent & just let things like this pass without issue, I believe it is up to those that have helped build the scene into what it is today to make sure we don’t fall victim to the same bullshit that has plagued independent wrestling for years, to make sure our talent, fans & employees have a positive & safe experience always.
We have built a reputation over the past 8+ years of being the pinnacle of professional wrestling in the Pacific Northwest & we won’t let some goof that runs a Facebook page give our scene a poor reputation. Ever.
WITH THAT SAID…
FJR will absolutely still be taking place on August 23rd in Portland. The venue is to be determined but we are working on multiple options currently. We have wrestlers from numerous promotions, from all over the United States coming in for this event to support a good cause.
100% of profit made after expenses will be donated to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network).
If you’d like to support Prestige Wrestling, the wrestlers on this show & the cause that we are throwing this event for there are links below.
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Subscribe to our Patreon or donate on PayPal/Venmo/CashApp, every little bit will help!
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