Ryan Nemeth On Why It Was Important To Create His Heel Film, Tony Khan & AEW Leadership Supporting Him

In a recent interview on Into The Danger Zone with Chris Denker, Ryan Nemeth discussed why it was important to create his Heel film, AEW supporting his film efforts, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Ryan Nemeth on why it was important to create his Heel film and the impact of the Speaking Out movement: “I crowdfunded it. In 30 days, raised a gigantic budget. Thank you everyone who helped with that, thank you [Chris Denker] for helping with that and we shot this movie and cut the script down a lot and started hopefully — the goal was to start a conversation about sexual assault in indie wrestling. That was very not talked about, and I was prepared that this was going to get me blacklisted from wrestling forever because I was sure that this was gonna fall on deaf ears or just have me being a guy just making up shit. Then the pandemic happened and during post-production while we’re editing it, during the editing process, the Speaking Out thing started happening. It was like June or July or whatever and people started talking about literally the thing I was making a movie about and fans were kind of being like, ‘Whoa, we didn’t know this was happening. Oh my God, this is terrible.’ Then I started to think, number one, ‘Awesome, that’s great. This shit will all be out there and exposed.’ But also, ‘This will maybe be well-received by the wrestling community versus ruining my career.’ It sucks that any of it is true, but I’m glad Speaking Out happened and I did not get blacklisted from wrestling as it turns out and the film has went on to screen at so many festivals and win so many awards and be really well received for the most part. It was important for because I felt the same thing I felt for a few years now which is, I don’t want to be involved in wrestling unless I’m contributing to wrestling and the world in some way that helps versus I’m just doing it as a job and getting paid. That’s why this movie was so important to me.”

On AEW supporting his film efforts: “And I gotta say, to credit AEW and Tony Khan and everybody there, they’ve been so supportive of this. To Tony even saying, ‘Hey, if you wanna go to film festivals and take some of our camera crew and do interviews, we’ll post them. Let us know.’ And they always retweet all the festivals and stuff. Again, unheard of anywhere else in my life and anywhere else I’ve worked at so, great. Very, very great company, very supportive and thanks to all of them for helping out man.”

Ryan Nemeth on the leadership in AEW: “It’s been awesome. I will say that it’s not a perfect company. They’re new and growing, but it’s the happiest and most creatively fulfilled and encouraged I’ve felt in the context of pro wrestling, bar none. It’s amazing company with amazing leadership and peers and the fanbase. Tony Khan rules, man. I’m sorry, he’s awesome. Cody is a great leader for people there. The Young Bucks are so amazing in-ring and behind the scenes. Very supportive in the things that matter, especially in the issues in Heel. It’s nice to have people behind that. Kenny is a great mentor for wrestling. The leadership there is huge, and we’ve got Amanda Huber on board now running the charity department, so it’s awesome.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Into The Danger Zone with Chris Denker with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.