During the latest edition of the “NotSam Wrestling” podcast, Joey Ryan commented on turning down offers from AEW and WWE NXT, instead revealing that he’d be staying on the indie scene. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On not signing with AEW: “It’s funny because people still think I’m there or expect me to be there. I get tagged in all those AEW tweets and all that stuff because people assume that I’m with that company. Those guys are my best friends, and that doesn’t change. I’ve had extensive discussions with them, and they’re not sure if what I do can play on their television show. They don’t really have an idea for me specifically, there’s not really like ‘if we bring you on, we have to take away what makes you over.’ So, it’s a gamble for me, not only creatively, but financially, because even now, I’m making better money than these contracts can offer to start. So I’d be taking a pay cut and essentially start over. We’ve had discussions about and it just didn’t make sense. It just felt like I’d be irresponsible to myself and where I’m at with my life, finances, my geography, and creativity. It would be a gamble that I don’t really necessarily need to take.”
On not doing his spots on TNT: “It’s just finding out what can play and what can’t play. They’re obviously a new company and they’re still figuring it out as they go. As I came to decisions with them, we realized they’re gonna be successful without me and I’m gonna be successful without them. Maybe our paths will cross at some point, but there is no urgency to it because neither of us necessarily need the other one right now. It’d be nice to work with my friends, but it’s not a necessity right now until they figure out and learn their own product and how they want to present it.”
On the rumors that WWE wanted him to go to NXT to perform and eventually transition into a coaching job: “I try not to overthink on that level. It would always be nice to have I guess job security or a place where you know you can still provide after your time in the ring is done. Because I am getting…I’m 39 now. That is a thing I think about. But I don’t want to get caught up in something that, like I mentioned earlier, that I don’t really have an urgency to get to. I have to stop and realize that there’s plenty of jobs in wrestling, whether it’s just promoting my own shows or being an agent somewhere or even if it’s just finding a job in creative, maybe, because of my experiences, or even just starting your own wrestling school and coaching your own wrestling school. There’s a lot of different avenues that you can go to and I don’t want to be quick to jump on anything because I’m worried. I don’t want to get scared into something that might not be the best fit for me. It does weigh a little bit, I can’t lie about that, but I have to pace myself and realize that I don’t need that, necessarily.”
(h/t 411 Wrestling)
