Legalize Sleaze.
Joseph Ryan Meehan (born November 7, 1979) is an American professional wrestler and promoter, better known by the ring name Joey Ryan and his gimmick of a brash man who for all the world looks like if Jon Lajoie was a 1970s porn star, complete with luscious Porn Stache. He had a long career on the independent circuit, but is now a pariah in the industry after over a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct as part of the #SpeakingOut movement, to the point that every booked wrestler withdrew en masse from an indie show when they learned he was involved.
During his early years as a profesional wrestler, he was one of the founders of Southern California promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he held the PWG World Championship once and the PWG World Tag Team Championship four times (three times with Scott Lost, one time with Candice LeRae as the World's Cutest Tag Team). From there, he would eventually work with several other promotions in USA, like Ring of Honor, National Wrestling Alliance, where he became a one-time NWA World Tag Team Champion with Karl Anderson, and the wrestling TV series Wrestling Society X. He also worked with NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, for which he was the head booker of from January 2011 to August 2011. In 2012, Ryan signed a contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he worked until his release the next year. He was re-signed by the the promotion, then known as Impact in 2019, where he worked under the name "Joseph P. Ryan" and formed a Right to Censor-esque stable called "Cancel Culture", but was fired in 2020 after the allegations against him came to light.
He worked on several independent promotions around the world, like Major League Wrestling, DDT Pro-Wrestling in Japan, as well as the TV series Lucha Underground. Also, he founded the promotion Bar Wrestling.note
Joey Ryan can be seen making a cameo in the NSFW video for "Close Up
" by Peaches & Kim Gordon.
These tropes associated with Joey Ryan are brought to you by the 87%ers:
- A Hero to His Hometown: He's from Hollywood, California, so the Championship Wrestling From Hollywood crowds tend to give him a pass on a lot of things.
- Aborted Arc: In season 4 of Lucha Underground, his previously-established status as an undercover cop and mole for Dario Cueto went completely unmentioned, mostly because the other aspects of the related storyline had been written off or excised.
- Animal Motifs: Formerly a giant rooster. Makes sense, given his gimmick.
- Artistic License – Law
- When he was accused of stealing the Championship Wrestling From Hollywood Television Title Belt, Ryan claimed that possession was 9/10ths of ownership. Needless to say, that wouldn't justify theft if Cintron had actually pressed charges.
- Joey's other antics aside, he was correct at least in that he had the right to continue appearing on Championship Wrestling From Hollywood shows, provided they would actually take him back. Whatever legal action TNA could threaten, he should have been legally allowed to go where he pleased as an independent contractor, so long as he did so when nothing was scheduled on his contract.
- Ass Shove: Karlee Pérez shove his own blow pop up his behind after decided showing the fans of Beyond Wrestling that Ryan was wearing a thong wasn't humiliating enough.
- Bait-and-Switch: He's defeated Nick Madrid. Now number one contender Willie Mack is set to defend against Tyler Cintron... and then Joey Ryan's music plays.
- Balls of Steel: Part of his Lucha Underground gimmick involved noselling groin attacks. Vampiro once quipped that he has a "bionic Six Million Dollar Man jockstrap".
- Breast Attack
- Many of his intergender matches involve him using a move called the "Boobplex", where he hits his female opponent with a German suplex using her breasts as the handle; in turn, his tag team partner Candice LeRae has a variation she does involving male opponents' crotches, appropriately dubbed the "Ballsplex".
- Parodied in CZW where he hit on Greg Excellent by clamping on his man boobs.
- Calling Your Attacks: A rather extreme example in Family Wrestling Entertainment, where he boasted to Ivelisse Vélez exactly which moves he was going to use on her months ahead of their scheduled match. You can image how well that went for Mr. Ryan although he did manage to hit Ms Velez with the boobplex, which seemed to hit her Berserk Button.
- Cardio Vascular Love: Some of his entrance attire have illustrations of him and Candice LeRae framed by a heart symbol.
- Carpet of Virility: With an impressive hairline going down to his belly button. Often seems to pour water or oil on himself for added effect. He's even weaponized his body hair by pushing into the eyes or mouths of his opponents.
- Casanova Wannabe: Especially in the sense that he's a sleazy guy who gets his hands all over his opponents, no matter the sex. Needless to say, not too many people find that pleasant. In Lucha Underground, it was played up even more as a cover for him being an undercover cop.
- Characterization Marches On: Transformed from a sleazy heel who had the image of a typical 70s/80s babyface like Magnum T.A. to an internet darling type character not too far removed from Daniel Bryan and CM Punk (still with the sleazy old school image of his indies character) to "The King of Dong Style", a gimmick mainly based around his penis being superhumanly strong and tough.
- Combat Pragmatist: In LU's Aztec Warfare match (their version of the Royal Rumble), competitors can only be eliminated by pin fall or submission. So Ryan twice tried to get around it by handcuffing himself first to the fence outside the ring, then to the railing of the stairs. Matanza and Mil Muertes solved the problem by respectively tearing the railing out and breaking the handcuff chain before beating Ryan up.
- Continuity Nod: After his World's Cutest Tag Team partner Candice LeRae signed up with WWE in 2018, disbanding their team, Ryan or people who interacted with him would make references about "the blonde girl he used to team with."
- Cool Shades: Especially as Joey Hollywood, with white rims. In Lucha Underground, he sported a badass pair of police shades.
- Counter-Attack:
- Yeah, spreading your legs is natural when Irish whipping someone, but be careful that Joey doesn't instead slide through them while holding your arm and then give you a pump handle suplex!
- His infamous "dickplex" against Danshoku Dino in DDT definitely qualifies; Dino attempted a Groin Attack, only to find, to his dismay, that not only did the aforementioned "Balls of Steel" protect Ryan, they also allowed him to proceed to judo throw Dino using only his... yeah. This, now called the "YouPorn-plex", has come to be part of his ensemble of moves, although he no longer uses it as a counter attack.
- Crowd Chant
- Los Gallineros got "KFC", "Pollo Loco" and rooster calls.
- His protestation to Christina Von Eerie and Carlito not being appropriate "Family" Wrestling Entertainment sparked a chant of "Joey's racist".
- "Touch his dick" whenever he goads his opponent into setting up the YouPorn-Plex.
- Defeat Means Friendship: He and Candice started out feuding, with both scoring wins over the other but neither being able to finally end it. They eventually decided to just quit the feud and team up.
- Didn't Think This Through: His plan for Aztec Warfare II was to handcuff himself to the guardrail outside the ring, preventing him from being pinned. Sounds good, except for the glaring flaw was that he couldn't do anything at all while cuffed to it and was wide open and was beaten down by others during the match. The handcuffs didn't deter Matanza either, he just ripped the rail free before dragging Ryan into the ring.
- He still hadn't thought it through the following Season, when he tried handcuffing himself to the stair rail during Aztec Warfare III. He lasted even less time, as Mil Muertes came out, broke the handcuffs, hauled him into the ring, and eliminated him.
- Dirty Cop: In Lucha Underground. Ryan may be loyal, but he's also crooked (probably another reason Officer Reyes hates him). When he's searching Dario Cueto's office for evidence, he finds Cueto's stacks of cash in his desk draw and his reaction is literally "payday has come early".
- Taken even further in Season 3 where he's no longer loyal at all and immediately sells out the police and Castro/Reyes to Dario. He's clearly rotten to the core.
- Disco Dan: His most popular gimmick was a sleazy lecherous creep who acted like he was pulled right out of the 70s. Joey explained that the reason why he played the 70s gimmick heel was because he wanted to be an old-school babyface (both in look and in-ring style) like Magnum T.A. or Hulk Hogan, but he took a step back and realised that modern wrestling audiences probably look at those characters as being creepy and sleazy, so he decided to dial it up to eleven.
- Eagleland: Despite the name, his Real American Heroes tag team with Karl Anderson was a Type 2 variant of this, to the point of parodying the trope said name matches.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Ryan used to have much shorter hair, a much thinner mustache, fingerless gloves, and be a much more serious competitor, to say nothing of time as El Gallinero.
- Eccentric Mentor: Brian Kendrick, which makes more sense when you remember the Gallinero gimmick.
- Enemy Mine: His old rival Ivelisse Velez was wary of him in Lucha Underground, especially since Ryan was tagging with the almost universally loathed Jack Evans. However after Evans refused to release a hold on Velez's tag team partner XO Lishus after Lishus had passed out he realized why all the other wrestlers disliked Evans and ended up in his own feud against him. Their mutual feuds with Evans lead to Velez, Ryan and Lishus forming a new trio to chase the belts after he was dealt with.
- Fighting Your Friend: Against Sunami at Vendetta Pro Wrestling's Terror Rising 2015.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The genuine respect and sportsmanship he showed Candice LeRae was said to be very out of character during the Alternate Wrestling Show's Fourth Annual Women's Tournament, which is probably a side effect of them having teamed for so long.
- Gag Penis: His "The King of Dong Style" gimmick is mainly based on his penis being superhumanly big and strong. To the point that he can use it to toss his opponents. It is also super tough, making it impervious to any Groin Attack.
- Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: During his matches he's usually looking for an opening for what's really important, getting right in the view of and shouting at the hard camera while dramatically pointing at it.
- Hardcore: Subverted, at least in the this genre's sense as Joey is not a Garbage Wrestler. Rather, the Championship Wrestling From Hollywood commentators said "...he likes to get hardcore in his other line of work".
- Humiliating Wager: He and Prince Nana put their beards up against Necro Butcher and Grizzly Redwood, and lost.
- Hypocrite: He hid a lot of his unsavoury behaviour behind a facade of progressivism and "wokeness". For instance, he was one of the loudest voices calling Jim Cornette a misogynist for not liking women's wrestling or commenting on female wrestler's appearance and personal lives, something Jim was quite happy to point out once the allegations came out.
- If It's You, It's OK: In Lucha Underground. Though Ryan is most definitely a ladies' man, he was not adverse to XO Lishus bouncing his face off his behind and twerking for him, even seemingly liking it and asking for a kiss afterward. This seeming fondness for Lishus even led Ryan to intervene in his No Mas match with Jack Evans, potentially saving his life in the process. They later decided to team.
- It's All About Me: Usually wants all attention on himself, however when he got it upon his return to Championship Wrestling From Hollywood in 2013, he ended up getting annoyed that everyone had so many questions for him.
- Large Ham: He usually doesn't really need to be given a microphone, as the house mics can let him cut promos just fine. If he's having any frustrations with the referee all but the cheapest seats will hear it just as well.
- Masked Luchador: He was El Gallinero #1.
- Mistaken for Romance: A lot of people think that he and Candice are dating; they're not. Bar Wrestling attempted to solved this by having LeRae team up with her actual boyfriend Johnny Gargano against Ryan and his actual girlfriend Laura James.
- The Mole: In Lucha Underground, he was Dario's mole within the police force.
- Not Me This Time: In 2016, Ryan has been continuously winning the DDT Heavymetalweight Championship and making it notable in the US Indie scene, so you couldn't fault Marty Scurll for assuming Joey had it when he didn't. Even though the real champion, Rocky Romero, was standing two feet away
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: The younger vs who he calls "the old fat guy" Tommy Dreamer.
- Oral Fixation: Lollipops, preferably blow pops. He's wrestled matches without taking them out. He can apparently make them last for days, if Robbie E is to be believed, which doesn't stop his fans from taking them from his mouth. And he's not above taking the lollipops back out of fans mouths to suck on later either.
- Perky Female Minion: Chase Walker was accompanied by Trisha LaFache in the Wrestling Retribution Project. Jade Chung as part of The Dynasty.
- Pint Sized Power House: Can suplex, slam and toss men seventy pounds heavier than himself, although he often struggles through the effort.
- Porn Stache: Purposefully tailored to be sexy, or what he perceives as such. Even more fitting for his Lucha Underground run with the secondary gimmick of undercover cop.
- Power Stable: The Embassy in Ring of Honor.
- Power Trio
- Los Gallineros, he being the first El Gallinero of the three.
- X-Foundation in The Empire Wrestling Federation and Ultimate Pro with Scott Lost and 'Funky' Billy Kim.
- Really Gets Around: His reason for selling Reyes and the police out to Dario in Lucha Underground?
"I got child support to pay." - Real Men Wear Pink: Pink knee pads with red and white trunks, really, it works!
- Resurrection Revenge: Hilariously parodied by him at All In, as a form of "homage" to Taker's WMXX return. After being offed by "Hangman" Adam Page, there was a funeral held for him shown at Being the Elite where there was a lot of emphasis on his thing. Come the event, after Hangman won a Chicago Street Fight match against Joey Janela, the lights go off on the arena, a video of him having an erection is shown, and eight men dressed as penis (simulating Undertaker's druids) appear on stage to receive the "resurrected" Ryan, who then proceeds to waste Hangman and throw him to the aforementioned "dick druids" who carry the Hangman backstage.
- Running Gag: Has fourty-four reigns as DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight champion.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: How he was able to wrestle in Championship Wrestling From Hollywood while still employed by TNA, apparently. There were actually worries from Championship Wrestling From Florida officials that "That other company" might threaten them with legal action if they filmed him for their television program and told him no but Joey Ryan came back and butted his way into the main event anyway.
- Shout-Out: During a Pro Wrestling Guerilla appearance, he surprised the audience with this impression of Andy Kaufman, of all people.
- Small Name, Big Ego: The catalyst behind his 2012 campaign/feud to be let on TNA after being rejected during the Gut Check competition.
- Smug Snake: Joey Ryan is the best and most important wrestler with a TV tropes page! Not only was he the highest drawing PWG Champion of all time, not only was he a ratings bolster on television but he has his own verified twitter account!
- Sore Loser: In 2009, after he failed to win the PWG World Championship from Chris Hero, who went on to surpass him in number of days he held the belt, meaning Joey Ryan was no longer the longest-running Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Champion of all time.
- Squash Match: When forced to wrestle his own tag team partner Matt Morgan, Joey didn't do so well. You could give him points for trying but he already guessed how it was going to go.
- Start My Own: Tyler Cintron was the official Championship Wrestling From Hollywood International Television Champion, but since Ryan saw himself as the biggest television star in the company, on account of his TNA appearances, he brought out his own replica of the belt and called himself the true television champion.
- Straw Misogynist: Implied prior to teaming with Candice LeRae ("Cry like the weak woman you are.") Well, sometimes it was implied, sometimes it was overtly apparent.
- Sweet Tooth: That ever-present lollipop.
- Tag Team
- That Seventies Team in Rev Pro, Guerilla and Wrestling Society X.
- The Real American Heroes with Karl Anderson in several promotions.
- With Tony Broadway in NWA Pro and Ring Ka King.
- Lucky Inc. (later The Happening) with Johnny Goodtime in NWA Pro and the Alternate Wrestling Show.
- The Dynasty with Scott Lost.
- The World's Cutest Tag Team with Candice LeRae.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Lucha Underground. Him and Officer Reyes aka Cortez Castro don't get along, but they worked together as undercover agents to take down Dario Cueto. At least, until Ryan turned mole.
- Tempting Fate: Just before his debut bout in Lucha Underground, he stopped by the dressing room to taunt his then-partner Officer Reyes/Cortez Castro about the beating he'd just taken, mockingly suggesting Reyes could watch his upcoming bout for a few tips on how to wrestle, saying he expected to make short work of his opponent. Who would said opponent turn out to be? Cage.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: On his "Joey Ryan Has A Camera & A YouTube Account" series, Joey would deliver some long-winded ones, weekly, to Taz and Al Snow. This is just one such effort.
- The Rival: Los Luchas to the Real American Heroes of the NWA World Tag Team Titles. Also, some team known as Los Crazy Chickens.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Despite being denied by the Gutcheck judges, he didn't get the hint.
- He actually became this in Real Life for a while after the allegations were revealed, making apology videos and even trying to promote his own events despite the general consensus being that he should disappear into disgrace and obscurity.
- Theatrics of Pain: Wrestled three times on FWE Reloaded showing the effects of each as he advance to the point he couldn't even execute a (Vertical)suplex on Von Eerie(he could his usual just fine).
- Tournament Arc: Joey Ryan defeated Chris Hero in the finals of the 2010 Battle Of Los Angeles.
- Treacherous Advisor: One of Willie Mack's trainers and claimed to be his friend. All while striking him after the pretense of a handshake, punching him in the throat, kicking Mack in the groin while he wasn't looking, wrecking Willie's chance at the actual television title and being all around jackass in Championship Wresting From Hollywood.
- Two Decades Behind: Times two! He once told "the hard camera" operator they were free to go to commercial while he had Wes Draven in a head vise...while on internet pay per view.
- Two First Names: His most common gimmick has them anyway.
- Un-person: He was editted out of every episode of Being the Elite he appeared in, and it's likely AEW aren't going to trumpet his match at the inaugural All In any time soon.
- Much of the Internet wrestling community has decided that Candice Larae once defeated the Young Bucks for the PWG tag team titles single handedly.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: He faces his girlfriend, Laura James and proposes mid-match. He then uses this distraction to win the match.
- Would Hit a Girl: Claims to be into super kicking chicks. Possibly tying into the Andy Kaufman impression above, he's wrestled a fair share on inter-gender matches on the independent circuit. It probably helps that he's only 5'9", meaning he doesn't tower over female wrestlers the way others might.
- Wrestling Doesn't Pay:
- The commentators of Championship Wrestling From Hollywood implied he worked as a porn star when he wasn't wrestling (you don't say?).
- In Lucha Underground's storyline, he doubles as a police officer. In fairness, the reason in LU is not that wrestling doesn't pay; it's that he's working undercover as a pro wrestler to try and get evidence of the promoter's crimes. Said character also has child support to pay.
- "Who wants a mustache ride?!"
