Joey Ryan

Joseph Ryan Meehan (born November 7, 1979), is an American former professional wrestler and promoter.

During his early years as a professional wrestler, he founded the Southern California promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) with five other wrestlers, where he held the PWG World and PWG World Tag Team Championships.

He later appeared on the independent circuit, wrestling for promotions such as Ring of Honor, Wrestling Society X, Major League Wrestling and DDT Pro-Wrestling (where he held the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship 43 times).

Ryan also wrestled for the TV series Lucha Underground, Impact Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming NWA World Tag Team Champion with Karl Anderson in the latter.

In NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, Ryan served as head booker, and he was the promoter of Bar Wrestling.

He was known for using his penis as part of his moves, most notably, the YouPorn-Plex.

However, he didn't watch wrestling until the 1990s, because his school friends were fans.

When WWF came to Anaheim, a man gave them tickets to an independent show.

After watching the show, he decided to train.

Meehan started his professional wrestling training in February 2000 with Jesse Hernandez's Empire Wrestling Federation in San Bernardino, CA under Bobby Bradley.

During this time, Ryan (billed as Joey Shadow) was part of a gothic stable, teaming with fellow trainees Sid Shadow and

Stitches.

He then went on to Rick Bassman's Ultimate Pro Wrestling in 2001 in Huntington Beach, CA and later El Segundo, CA where he trained under Tom Howard and Brian Kendrick to whom he credits with most of his training.

He returned to training in 2004 at the Inoki Dojo in Santa Monica, CA under Bryan Danielson.

During his early years, Ryan became a regular at many southern California promotions including EWF and UPW where he trained, as well as Revolution Pro Wrestling where he had his first matches against Super Dragon and also competed against Mike Quackenbush and had his first inter-gender matches with Sara Del Rey.

His first national exposure came when he was brought into Gary Yap's EPIC Pro Wrestling where he has matches against Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) alum The Messiah, Frankie Kazarian and Brian Kendrick on high profiled cards featuring names like Sabu, New Jack, Vampiro, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson.

After training at the Inoki Dojo, Ryan received his first television exposure from NJPW-USA Toukon Fighting Spirit.

Although mostly used as an enhancement talent, he was able to get exposure by competing in matches against Bryan Danielson with CM Punk on commentary.

Ryan continued teaming with the X-Foundation, and regained the tag team titles with Scott Lost on June 19, 2004, at Rocktoberfest.

Problems began within the X-Foundation, leading to a ladder match between Joey Ryan and Scott Lost for the titles.

Scott Lost won the match and chose Chris Bosh as his new partner.

At Use Your Illusion 4, Ryan lost a 60 Minute Iron Man match to Super Dragon.

After a brief absence, Ryan began teaming with Scott Lost and Chris Bosh, leading to uncertainty over his actions.

He would then set out to prove that he is the best technical wrestler.

He challenged and defeated wrestlers known for their great technical skills, such as Alex Shelley, Claudio Castagnoli, Rocky Romero, and Chris Hero.

On May 19, 2006, he competed in The Best of American Super Juniors Tournament, however losing to Roderick Strong in the first round.

Joey Ryan is one of the six founders of SoCal promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, collectively known as the "PWG Six".

PWG was formed when the founders grew tired of arguing with promoters, feeling they knew more about the inner workings of professional wrestling and could therefore promote and book shows more effectively.

Meehan said that they went in with low expectations, never exceeding more than one show but if enough money was attained, the production of a second show would be the goal.

He began in PWG as part of the X-Foundation with Funky Billy Kim and "The Professional" Scott Lost.

They teamed together at PWG's first show, losing to the team of Adam Pearce, Hardcore Kidd, and Al Katrazz.

Ryan then took part in the Bad Ass Mother 3000 tournament to determine the first PWG Champion.

Ryan made it to the finals, but lost to Frankie Kazarian.

Ryan then teamed with Scott Lost in the Tango & Cash Invitational tournament for the PWG Tag Team Championship.

They made it to the semi-finals, but lost to Super Dragon and American Dragon.

Ryan and Lost won the titles at the next show by defeating inaugural champions Homicide and B-Boy, but lost them in their first defense against Quicksilver and Chris Bosh.

During the Speaking Out movement in June 2020, Meehan was accused by several women of sexual misconduct and he was subsequently released from Impact Wrestling.

He has denied the accusations and filed lawsuits against some of his accusers and Impact Wrestling.

Meehan is the youngest of three brothers and he remembers watching WrestleMania 2, when Jake Roberts used his snake.

His favourite wrestlers were Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat and the British Bulldogs.