Joshua Ryan

Joshua Ryan (Wrestler)
Joshua D. Ryan was born in the borough of the Bronx in New York City, New York. His mother, Jennifer A. Ryan, was arrested several times in Joshua's childhood, all of her arrests were in relation to narcotics. Joshua's father is unknown and Joshua says in an interview he took several days before his debut, "You know, my mom always said my dad went into the army or something but I know he probably left us..."

In his childhood, Ryan said that his mother brought different men home every other day. He remembers one specific man who, as Joshua Ryan said, "was wearing a nice suit and was fancy. Him and momma went in the room and a couple minutes later I heard screaming and he left."

Entering his teen years, Joshua Ryan toyed around with drugs and by the age of 14 he was already getting loads of cash from dealing drugs like cocaine, weed, and even got into prescription pills himself. In an interview with TMZ, Joshua Ryan says, "I remember seeing bad shit on that corner. One guy was suffering such bad withdrawals he tried stealing a dimebag from me. He was the first guy I ever dealt with if you know what I mean..."

By age 16, Joshua Ryan had enlisted his friends into the drug business and he had dropped out of High School. Ryan had several encounters with the police during these times and says that he become on a first name basis with several police officers. He says, growing up and listening to Biggie Smalls and Tupac had influenced him. It showed him that even when he was down at the bottom that he could rise to the top.

At age 17, while at a friend's house, Ryan came upon the sport of wrestling. He remembers that as he was channel surfing, his friend shouted out, "Stop!" and on the television was a wrestling match. That was the first time that Ryan ever saw the sport of wrestling and he says that was what influenced him to begin his wrestling career.

Putting his drug operation on hold, Ryan had began to go to the gym daily and while being given advice and help by trainers and well known local wrestlers, Ryan "practically trained himself," he claims. After several failed attempts to try and get into local wrestling companies and businesses, Ryan had finally heard of a company that was returning to the streets called Global Championship Wrestling (GCW) and had gotten accepted to join! After debuting against Dragon Dorado, Joshua Ryan then went on an undefeated streak until Kevin Smith, the current GCW Legacy Champion at the time, had defeated him at a Night At The Academy for the GCW Legacy Title.

Joshua Ryan reports that after losing his undefeated streak, he had gone under a whole entire revamp until getting a rematch at No Remorse against Kevin Smith for the Legacy Title. As Joshua Ryan was victorious, being crowned GCW Legacy Champion, the briefcase holder Mr Love cashed in on Ryan, and beating him for the Legacy Title. Two weeks later at Lightning Episode 18, Joshua Ryan got his rematch and won, being crowned the GCW Legacy Champion and the first wrestler in GCW to ever be a 2x Champion.

Ryan then went on to defeat Anthony Xavier at Fright Night and defeat Danny Hall at Divided, which made Joshua Ryan the second ever wrestler in the company to win their match at a pay-per-view when they're on the poster. When the brand split occurred, Joshua Ryan remained on the Lightning Roster and on Lightning Episode 24, Joshua was vacated of the Legacy Title and crowned the first ever GCW Champion, the main title of the Lightning Show while the GCW Heavyweight Title was moved to Venom.