Joey Ryan Talks Attending WWE Tryouts, Feedback He Was Given

I recently interviewed former TNA Superstar Joey Ryan, who was released from TNA this past July. During the interview, which will be published in its entirety this week, I asked Ryan about attending the WWE tryout camp this past August.

"I mean, it was what it was," said Ryan. "I don't even know how to really describe it because it didn't have a whole lot to even do with professional wrestling. It was more just conditioning and they focused very little on professional wrestling and very little of the drills they ran that had to do with professional wrestling. We did hours and hours of rolls and cardio and then like a minute on promos. So it was like, really different than I thought it was because I thought they'd want to focus more on seeing everyone's acting abilities or everyone's personalities, but they really didn't. It was more like, let's just have a look at everybody and see what we like. I don't even know if there was any kind of measuring stick to be like, well if he does this well or they do this well then we're going to have our interest in them.

"It was more kind of just them having a look at everybody and just getting everybody in one room and making their decisions based on what they personally liked or not. My only feedback from them really was that they feel like I'm too, which was kind of confusing to me, they feel like I'm too old and experienced to be in developmental. I'm in my 30s now, but my age and experience didn't change from when they invited me to the camp, so I didn't really understand that. To them, they're in control of how they do their system. So that was my feedback. They just didn't feel like it was the right time in my life to be in developmental. They're not bringing anybody straight onto TV at the moment because they've got a full roster themselves. So it was what it was."

The first part of our three part interview with Joey Ryan will be posted on this site this Tuesday afternoon.