Joseph Ryan Meehan (born November 7, 1979), is an American actor, writer, producer, 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.
During the Speaking Out movement in June 2020, multiple women publicly alleged sexual misconduct against Meehan and he was subsequently released from his TNA contract. Meehan has denied the allegations and filed lawsuits against some of the women for defamation and Impact Wrestling for not performing a contractually obligated investigation.
Professional wrestling career
Training and early years (2000–2006) Meehan is the youngest of four brothers and he remembers watching WrestleMania 2 live with his family when he was six years old. After seeing Jake Roberts use his snake on his opponent, Meehan became emotionally invested in wrestling. His favourite wrestlers growing up were Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat and the British Bulldogs. However, he stopped watching wrestling in early adolescence until the mid 1990s, because his school friends were fans. When WWF came to a live event he and his friends were attending in Anaheim, a man gave them tickets to an independent wrestling show. After attending that 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 called The Underworld, teaming with fellow trainees Sid Shadow, The Nomad 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. On May 19, 2006, he competed in The Best of American Super Juniors Tournament, however losing to Roderick Strong in the first round.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla The X-Foundation (2003–2004) 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. 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.
PWG World Champion and The Dynasty (2005–2012)
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. Though he won the matches, Ryan had to cheat and use help from Lost or Bosh to win, since he would usually be outwrestled each match. On December 3, 2005, at Chanukah Chaos (The C's Are Silent), Joey Ryan beat Kevin Steen for the PWG Championship after Super Dragon, who was feuding with the champion, gave Steen two Psycho Drivers. He made his first defense at CZW's Cage of Death 7 against El Generico. Ryan began defeating a number of wrestlers using some under handed tactic or a sheer stroke of luck on his behalf. It was around this time that Ryan changed his appearance to resemble Tom Selleck from Magnum, P.I., which included a big moustache. He even changed his finisher name from the Duff Drop to the Moustache Ride. Some of the wrestlers he has defeated include Chris Kanyon, Human Tornado, Chris Bosh, A.J. Styles, Emil Sitoci, Jonny Storm, Kevin Steen, Chris Sabin, Super Dragon, Necro Butcher, Frankie Kazarian, Davey Richards, and B-Boy. Ryan became at the time the longest reigning champion, and made the title a world championship in the process by defending it in Europe.
He went on to form a stable known as The Dynasty, consisting of himself, Scorpio Sky, Scott Lost, and Chris Bosh. The four screwed the then PWG World Tag Team Champs Super Dragon and Davey Richards, ending their dominant reign as tag champs. Ryan would proceed to give Super Dragon a Moustache Ride through two tables, putting him on the shelf. After holding the PWG World Championship for a little over a year, winning usually due to cheating and interference, Ryan lost the title to Human Tornado in a Guerrilla Warfare match on January 13, 2007, at Based on a True Story. On January 27, 2008, Ryan and Scott Lost were awarded the PWG World Tag Team Championship after the titles were stripped off Super Dragon and Davey Richards. They eventually lost the belts to El Generico and Kevin Steen on March 21 at 1.21 Gigawatts. During the summer of 2009, Ryan attempted to stop Chris Hero's reign as the PWG World Champion in order to retain his record as the longest reigning PWG World Champion in history, but after he failed to regain the title in two separate title matches, Hero broke Ryan's record on August 17, 2009. Shortly afterwards Ryan turned face and on September 5, entered the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles, defeating Chuck Taylor in his first round match. The following night Ryan defeated Austin Aries and Claudio Castagnoli to advance to the finals, where he defeated Chris Hero to win the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles. After his win, Ryan dubbed himself "The Hollywood Submission Machine" and adopted a new submission finishing maneuver, the End Scene. When Davey Richards was after the tournament stripped of the PWG World Championship, Ryan and the three other Battle of Los Angeles semi-finalists, Brandon Gatson, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, were placed in a four-way match to determine a new champion. On October 9, 2010, at The Curse of Guerrilla Island, Ryan failed in his attempt to regain the PWG World Championship, when he was defeated by Claudio Castagnoli. Ryan received a one–on–one shot at the PWG World Championship on April 9, 2011, but was again defeated by Castagnoli. Afterwards, Ryan began regularly teaming with the returning Scorpio Sky and on August 20, the two defeated the RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma) to become the number one contenders to the PWG World Tag Team Championship. On September 10, Ryan and Sky failed to capture the PWG World Tag Team Championship from The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson). After signing a contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Ryan wrestled his PWG farewell match on December 1, 2012, where he was defeated by Scorpio Sky.
The World's Cutest Tag Team (2013–2015)
Following his release from TNA, Ryan returned to PWG at the promotion's tenth anniversary event on August 9, 2013, teaming with Peter Avalon and Ryan Taylor in a six-person opener, where they were defeated by B-Boy, Candice LeRae and Willie Mack. On August 30, Ryan entered the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles, but was eliminated from the tournament in his first round match by Drake Younger. The following day, Ryan formed the Best Friends stable with Chuck Taylor and Trent? as the three defeated B-Boy, Tommaso Ciampa and Willie Mack in a six-man tag team match. Ryan also formed a partnership with Candice LeRae, which led to the two unsuccessfully challenging The Young Bucks for the PWG World Tag Team Championship on October 19.
On July 27, 2014, Ryan and LeRae defeated The Young Bucks in a Guerrilla Warfare match to become the new PWG World Tag Team Champions. They lost the title to Monster Mafia (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) on May 22, 2015, in the opening round of the 2015 DDT4.
WWE appearances (2005, 2011, 2013) Ryan has appeared in several matches as enhancement talent for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), competing against Rosey, Sylvan, The Gymini, Mark Henry, John Morrison, Super Crazy and two times against Big Show. On August 14, 2011, Ryan made an appearance at SummerSlam, portraying a fan during a match between Mark Henry and Sheamus. Two days later, Ryan wrestled a dark match at the SmackDown tapings in Bakersfield, California, losing to Bo Rotunda.
Wrestling Society X (2006–2007)