Last night Alpha-1 Wrestling‘s Wrestlers Gone Wild event in Hamilton, Ontario featured many top stars of the indie circuit, including Cody Rhodes, Gregory Iron, Curt Stallion, Rickey Shane Page, Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF), Josh Alexander, and A1 promoter “All Ego” Ethan Page. But it one wrestler in particular, “The King of Dong Style” himself, Joey Ryan, drew ire from a particularly sensitive (and homophobic) audience member. So much so, that it enraged her enough to write Alpha-1 to complain about his match being “inappropriate and very gay”. Alpha-1 posted the email and their email reply on their Twitter today.
This email is incredibly heart breaking.
The 1st 2 screenshots show the fans email sent to us regarding @JoeyRyanOnline vs @GregoryIron from last nights event ….
The 3rd screenshot was our response. Trust us. We wanted to say MUCH more!
Sad sad world. pic.twitter.com/tJHFsyWiXT
— Alpha-1 Wrestling (@A1Wrestling) January 22, 2018
Here’s the full email:
Clearly the parents never did any research on the event they were attending – Alpha-1 has featured many controversial and violent matches on their cards over the years. They’ve never promoted themselves as being “family friendly” entertainment. And clearly they did no research whatsoever into the talent featured on the card, as Joey Ryan’s penis antics are fairly well known in the wrestling community (and quite accessible to see on YouTube). It wouldn’t have been difficult to find out just what you were getting into, between the ultraviolence that wrestlers like Rickey Shane Page and MJF are capable of, and the penile shenanigans that Joey Ryan is famous for. Alpha-1 responded to the irate fan by email.
It’s no secret that Joey Ryan’s gimmick is very polarizing. Much like The Young Bucks, there’s no middle ground. Either you hate them for “destroying the business” (like Jim Cornette) or you “get them” and love them for having fun in the ring. It’s interesting that someone so clearly homophobic – thinking that all the fans who were chanting “TOUCH HIS DICK” (a pretty traditional chant at Joey Ryan matches) were all “gaymen” – mentions harbouring for the olden days of Andre The Giant. Clearly they missed on characters that pushed the boundaries of “comfortable” sexuality from the old days, like Gorgeous George, “Adorable” Adrian Adonis, or “Exotic” Adrian Street.
But, as they say, any heat is good heat.