Despite currently being a part of TNA Wrestling, Ryan Nemeth originally had no interest in joining the promotion.
In a recent appearance on Death Arts Xiii By Ash, Nemeth revealed that he had politely declined overtures from TNA on multiple occasions, having grown disillusioned with professional wrestling in his personal life.
“The honest answer — perhaps not the most agreeable one — is that I turned down TNA a few times because I was pretty much turned off by everything associated with wrestling on a personal level. It gave me the impression that I never wanted anything to do with it again. It’s just so brutal, you know.
“You might come across some gossip or half-truths about it, but the reality is that some genuinely terrible things kept happening to me in wrestling, which completely turned me away from it.,” Nemeth explained.
When someone from TNA eventually reached out to him again, Nemeth felt he was not in a position to get involved with wrestling. He further revealed that the conversation stretched on for weeks, even months, and that he was unequivocal about not participating in random matches.
“The TNA representative said, ‘I have an idea for you and your brother. It’s a storyline. I can’t guarantee anything, but we could give it a try and see how it goes.’ And I thought, ‘All right, enough time has passed now — this actually sounds interesting.’ To have a company come to you with a creative idea, rather than asking you to be cannon fodder for people they care about more, was a big difference. They were saying, ‘You matter, and we want to use that in our TV storylines.’ That was exciting to me.,” he added.
“So it was risky, but I said, ‘Sure, let’s try it.’ It was kind of a mutual tryout — TNA was getting to know me, and I was getting to know TNA. Fortunately for everyone involved, it worked out. That’s basically the gist of it. At first, I was trying to stay away because I had been badly burned by behind-the-scenes aspects of wrestling.,” Nemeth concluded.
After competing in AEW and ROH from 2021 to 2023, Nemeth joined TNA Wrestling in 2024 and has remained with the promotion since. He has participated in multiple televised storylines and frequently teams up with his brother, Nic Nemeth.
