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ANNOUNCED CHARITY EVENT OFF AFTER JOEY RYAN ADVERTISED

An event titled "Wrestling For's Women charity" was announced today for 3/20 in Knoxville, TN at Jackson Terminal.

Among the talents advertised on the poster for the event was Joey Ryan, which caused an uproar on social media.    Others advertised included Molly Holly, Trey Miguel, 2 Cold Scorpio, Davey Boy Smith Jr., and JTG.

AEW President Tony Khan tweeted that he would pull his talent booked for the show (Brian Cage and Sonny Kiss were also featured on the poster) if Ryan was also there.   He then asked if the charity for the show was legitimate,

FiteTV then tweeted the following in response to the charity advertising FITE would carry the event:

Some fans, digging deeper, found out the charity event was actually connected to Ryan's old Bar Wrestling promotion as the promotion's email was listed on the ticketing page for the event. 

In the wake of the response to the connection to Ryan, the event has been canceled with its Twitter account, which had been launched last month, also deleted.  Before deleting the account, the following was posted:  

We apologize for riling everyone up. It is clear that we’re in over our heads.

We’ll say that everybody booked was fully aware of all details including going through AEW’s 3rd party booking system for talent.

Rather than put talent in a tough situation, we’ve canceled the show.

What Ryan's connection to the show may have been, beyond working as a talent on the show, has not been explained.  In the wake of the situation, Ryan has deleted all the Tweets on his own personal Twitter account.

Ryan, real name Joseph Meehan, filed a number lawsuits last year, all denying claims of sexual assault against him that came up in the summer of 2020 as part of the online #SpeakingOut movement.  His lawsuits allege that the women who made the claims used social media postings to defame him, hurting his ability to make money as a professional wrestler through his performances, merchandise, Patreon account, the loss of his Bar Wrestling independent wrestling promotion, his Twitch channel and Cameo video messaging.  In many of those lawsuits, he is seeking sizable monetary damages. 

Meehan is also pursuing a breach of contract lawsuit against Impact Wrestling parent company Anthem Wrestling, which released him in the wake of the allegations.

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