TNA's Ryan Nemeth Explains How Animosity In FCW Led To Acting Career

Momodu Mansaray/Getty Images

TNA star Ryan Nemeth has detailed how being cut by WWE led to him moving to Los Angeles to begin his acting career.

Nemeth, during his conversation with "Developmentally Speaking," revealed how a new coach in FCW disliked him from the start, leading to his WWE exit.

Advertisement

"Someone else took over FCW and that person had ... the only interest he had in me was getting rid of me as fast as possible," said Nemeth. "When Dr. Tom [Prichard] was in charge and Dusty had a lot of pull and say, I was the literal top 10 of FCW on the wall on a board and I was like three or four."

He revealed that he was moved from being one of the top performers in the company to the beginner's class. Nemeth, in previous interviews, had stated that then FCW/NXT coach Bill DeMott disliked him right after he took over from Tom Prichard. He had claimed that things were better when Prichard was head coach, while John Laurinaitis was the head of talent relations.

"I really thought like, this is reassuring. To come into work every day and know that I'm putting in all this effort and getting something out of it, that was a good feeling. And then the regime shifted and I'm embarrassed to tell you I was in all the top training, polishing classes, and then overnight I was in the beginner class with Baron Corbin and Mojo Rowley and models who had never wrestled before. I like both of those people a lot but at the time I felt very angry about that."

Advertisement

AEW

Ryan Nemeth remembered how he was downcast when he learned about falling down the pecking order in WWE and decided to leave wrestling and focus on acting.

"I wanted to quit and I remember having a lot of like emotional breakdown moments privately, you know, where I would, like a movie, I [would] like drive to the beach at like 11 at night on a Wednesday and be like, 'What am I doing with my life, dude? Obviously, this guy wants to fire me,'" said Nemeth. "I was thinking, I got to just move to LA and just do acting and writing and, you know, if this is the only company in the world and whoever doesn't like me that's pretty much it."

Advertisement

He revealed that he moved to LA a month after his WWE release, despite enjoying the life he had in Tampa. 

"It was very quick. I, like, basically, suddenly moved to LA, I didn't have even somewhere to live," recalled Nemeth. "I think I went there with my car and like a few laundry baskets of clothes and just thought like, I have some friends there, I'll figure it out and I did you know.

Nemeth added that his goal is to make people happy, be it with his wrestling, acting, comedy, or writing. He revealed that the AEW contracts he had signed stated that he can't be penalized for taking up acting roles and said that the company was supportive of his acting endeavors.