Joey Ryan Files 2 Lawsuits Against #SpeakingOut Accusers

During the Speaking Out movement, at least 17 allegations of sexual abuse were made against Joey Ryan (Joseph R. Meehan). Ryan was subsequently fired by IMPACT Wrestling and his promotion, Bar Wrestling, closed down. 

Ryan filed two lawsuits on September 24 against women who accused him of sexual abuse. In both, the former wrestler has requested a jury trial.

Details of a lawsuit were first reported by Heel By Nature. They noted Ryan filed the lawsuit in the United States District and Central Court. He claims the three women made false allegations against him which resulted in damages to his reputation and financial loss. 

Ryan is claiming lost revenues of up to $19,000 per month from closing Bar Wrestling, merchandise, his Patreon account, Cameo, Twitch and wrestling bookings. 

He has requested $200,000 in economic damages from each woman multiplied by the number of months since June 21, 2020, and $5,000,000 from each of the defendants in non-economic damages. As part of the lawsuit, Ryan has asked for an injunction ordering the defendants to retract all defamatory statements and for any articles covering the defamatory statements to be deleted. 

The former IMPACT Wrestling wrestler filed a second lawsuit on September 24 in the City of Los Angeles Central Judicial District Court against one #SpeakingOut accuser and 10 Jane Does to be named. News of a second lawsuit was first reported by PWInsider. 

Similar to the first lawsuit, Ryan claims the defendant made false allegations against him which resulted in damages to his reputation and financial loss. In addition, Ryan claims the allegations have resulted in the "negligent infliction of emotional distress." 

Meehan has requested $25,000 for economic damages and $25,000 for non-economic damages. He also asked that the court rules for "an injunction ordering to retract the defamatory statements and to take the defamatory statements down from the websites in which the statements were made and published; specifically defendant should retract and take down any, and all, defamatory statements made and published by defendant that (1) Plaintiff assaulted defendant; (2) Plaintiff committed a sexual battery on defendant; (3) Plaintiff committed (1) and (2) in a manner that would be considered a felony;(4) defendant engaged in sexual acts with Plaintiff without Defendant’s consent; and/or (5) defendant was forced by Plaintiff to engage in sexual acts with Plaintiff, forced meaning the use of fear, threat and intimidation; and any iteration of such statements."