Exclusive: Joey Ryan Explains Turning The Negative Of His Injury Into A Positive With Thumb Wrestling
When you’re an independent wrestler, activity is crucial. It’s money. When you’re Famous Dick Wrestler Joey Ryan, fortunately you have a few more options.
Ryan was forced to on the shelf last year after sustaining an injury that kept him out several months. Without a company looking after him consistently, the independent Ryan still actually made booked dates despite the injury and the fact that he couldn’t actually wrestle.
“I had torn tendons in my chest, microtears. The doctor recommended surgery and I scheduled an appointment with a surgeon. I had international bookings, and they already bought my flights and couldn’t get reimbursed for that flight. Part of the booking was for meet and greets. I can still sign autographs, I can still meet the fans, so they asked me to still come out. I was able to come up with ideas like thumb wrestling wars and staring contests to still get in the ring and do something for the live crowd,” Ryan said.
Fortunately for Ryan, his doctor would inform him that enough of the muscle was attached to where he would be able to rehabilitate the injury via physical therapy to avoid surgery. Ryan said that the relief of expecting to miss upwards of nine months to find out he’d only miss three was huge for him. Even though Ryan couldn’t wrestle, the things he did in the ring ended up making more headlines than if he were to have had a standard match.
“That definitely helped. Any time you bring attention to yourself, you bring attention to who you’re working for. That helps when you’re trying to book yourself out. Some of these places that saw that stuff going on still wanted me to come out to where I was booked, or wanted me to host the events, do signings, run ins, thumb wrestling or staring contest bits. Promoters love attention because that’s going to draw fans in,” Ryan told us.
Joey Ryan’s Penis Party took place Friday, April 5, and the show was streamed live and on-demand on Fite, which allows you to watch on any device — Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, mobile, web and more.
