What happened to Trytan? TNA's giant prospect

 

He was seemingly gone as quickly as he arrived, but what happened to Trytan, TNA’s prospect in the early days of Impact?

Real name Ryan Wilson, the six foot nine tall Trytan, billed as six eleven began his career in 2001. 

Around the time TNA was getting off the ground, Wilson was wrestling mostly for Nashville based

USA Pro Wrestling, as well as managing a chain of Golds Gym’s in the area. While injured he got to know some

of TNA’s wrestlers who would come to the gym, and that was his way in.

Wilson would serve as a member of Red Shirt security, hired guns working for Jeff Jarrett in a power struggle

with Erik Watt’s and his black shirt security. If you didn’t know already, early TNA was a bit weird sometimes.

After the dissolution of the red shirts, Wilson would disappear off screens in late 2003 following a loss to Raven,

the Sandman and Erik Watts. This would take place in Raven’s own gimmick match, the clockwork Orange House

of Fun.

In 2004 Wilson would wrestle a few dark matches for TNA under a new name, Titus. It seemed though, that

TNA might have big plans for Wilson, under yet another new name. For several weeks in early 2005, TNA aired

cryptic hype videos filled with stock footage and colour gradients. The videos claimed that a man with “superhuman

power from a distant beyond” was coming, which turned out to be a far cry from what we got.

Trytan’s first and only real feud would be with the Alpha Male of TNA, Monty Brown, who was coming off being

a main event level World title challenger in previous months. At Destination X the two would have their only singles

match, in which Wilson didn’t exactly look like a star. At one point he lifted Brown for a press slam, and almost

dropped him at a scary angle, despite just managing to help him land on his back. After about five minutes, as

Monty was going to attempt his Pounce finisher, the lights went out in the Impact zone. When they came back on,

a completely different bloke dressed all in black with a mask on was attacking Brown, who would promptly hit the

pounce on him. Despite this man clearly not being Trytan, Monty would pin him anyway, but the official decision

would be a no contest, as Trytan would be seen skulking up the ramp.

Trytan’s TNA career wouldn’t get too much more impressive from there. He would gain his one and only singles

victory on the following weeks Impact, a two minute victory over Buck Quartermain. While he would begin to

successfully team with Simon Diamond towards the end, Trytan would wrestle just seven matches, and would quietly

disappear by June.

After leaving TNA, Wilson would sign a developmental deal with WWE, which back then meant being shipped off

to Ohio Valley Wrestling. Wrestling this time as Jacob Duncan, Wilson would achieve some success in OVW, even

holding the OVW heavyweight title for fifty days. That same title had not long before him been held by CM Punk in

his stint in WWE developmental.

At times it looked like Wilson might get a chance on the main WWE roster, as he would wrestle a tour of house

shows on the Smackdown brand in Summer 2006, and another for the Raw brand in 2007, but as best I can tell he

never had a televised WWE match. Wilson would continue to wrestle in OVW through 2008, before seemingly

leaving wrestling.

What happened to Ryan Wilson once he left WWE in late 2008? Now Father of three and a manager of a in his

words ‘motorsports place’. He also noted that he had a proper job in medical sales from around 2010 until the

Covid pandemic hit, and that his last involvement in wrestling was around 2008, which is also when he left OVW.

Ryan says he left the wrestling business because despite spending time with Undertaker and Kane who he credits

as positive influences on him, he never got his big break, and so he chose to start a family with his wife when his

contract ended.

Sources:

Two man power trip podcast, February 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqxy8Cli_Do

TNA teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqtBB1MCiE8

Trytan vs Monty Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kLSizUE6IM

Cagematch profile https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=1776

Words a new Wrestling fan should know

 

In my previous video about the rules of a pro wrestling match, I tried to not use too many inside or wrestling only terms, but here are a few that might be helpful. This isn't going to be a definitive glossary as there's a really good one on wikipedia for that, just some words that are commonly used that a new fan might not know. If you're not a new fan let me know in the comments what words or phrases I've missed that should be in a future part.

Babyface/Heel - A babyface, or face for short refers to a good guy, and a heel is the bad guy. This is similar to the old Westerns clearly defining their heroes and villains by the wearing of white hats and black hats. It's usually easy to tell who the good guy wrestler is, because the adult male fans will hate them just because and for no better reason. ***Admit it lads, we've all boo'ed the top babyface because he wins too much, or because he somehow looks good in jorts, or because you girlfriend has a massive crush on-ahem. Moving on...

The unofficial record for most turns between heel and babyface belongs top the Big Show, who over a thirty year in ring career, turned thirty six times. Them's some pretty worrying mood swings.

Booker - Less common but still around these days, a booker is the person in charge of the creative direction of a wrestling show or promotion, from what actually happens on shows to who is booked on them. Nowadays bigger companies have either a committee or a writing team, but the final say still usually falls with one person in charge, often the wrong person but more on that another day. The creative direction of a promotion is still often referred to by fans as 'booking'. It's even more often referred to as 'bad booking' whether it actually is or not.

Kayfabe - a term that comes from carny speak, kayfabe is an odd word to define. A similar word might be 'canon' as in kayfabe refers to what is being done in storyline or canon terms, rather than backstage or real life. You might use it in such a way as "in kayfabe, Ricochet was badly enough injured that we might never see him again, but in real life he's probably going to the other company for a shitload of money."

Blading - This is one of a few words used to describe the act of a wrestler cutting themselves, usually on the forehead, to draw blood. Other words you might hear include juicing, gigging, getting colour, bashing the bishop, spanking the monkey or choking the chicken. Wait, what were we talking about again? Blood is typically used to add more drama to a wrestling match, though some wrestlers clearly have a kink for it. As the old and slightly cynical adage goes, red equals green, meaning that a blood feud will always draw a paying crowd back to the arenas. Wrestlers will often hide a sharp object or 'blade' somewhere on them, or will be handed it by a referee, and will use it at the opportune time, or if you're reffing a Jon Moxley match, whenever he damn well asks for it so it seems.

Dirt sheet - This used to refer to specific newsletters, which were the primary source for fans to get behind the scenes information, mixed with ridiculous rumours, from inside the business. Nowadays this is a catch all term for the many, many websites that report on inside information usually behind a paywall, the aggregate sites that report on those reports, and the twitter accounts that clickbait the lot of it. Basically, always consider the source, and if they look shifty don't believe them...

Outlaw mudshow - a fairly modern term used by more negative fans and wrestling personalities, often to dismiss anything unusual, comedic or quirky, that doesn't fit traditional standards. While I at first included this to be a sarcastic, there is a serious point to be made here. Please please please, like what you like, and don't hate on other fans for liking what they like. There's too much of that these days, and it just makes everyone dislike each other more than they naturally would. As you delve deeper into wrestling quite frankly, you'll see some mad shit. Some good, some bad, but thats all subjective. Well, nearly all subjective. Some things are universally mocked.

A beginners guide to the rules of Pro Wrestling

This video was inspired by two things. Firstly, my girlfriend (yes, I have one), who recently watched an episode of Smackdown with me and has since become a fan of Cody Rh- I mean wrestling. She knows nothing about it though, and so this was made with her in mind, but if you're not a new fan I've also peppered it with a ton of sarcasm, so I hope you also get something out of it. The other inspiration is that last month marked twenty five years since the first time I saw wrestling and became a fan instantly. So yes, these are the ramblings of an old fan, aimed at a new one, sort of.

The rules of a wrestling match

There are many, many different types of wrestling match with different rules. Some are more traditional while others seem to come from the minds of absolute maniacs. Here are the standard rules of a wrestling match on top of which everything is based.

- The two main ways to win a standard pro wrestling match are pinfall or submission. A pin fall occurs when your opponents shoulders are held down on the ring mat until the referee counts to three. Seemingly, it is also an unwritten rule that wrestlers aren't allowed to break a pin at a one count, as it only seems to happen every time the groundhog see's its shadow.

Pinfalls can be broken by lifting a shoulder off the mat, sometimes helped by a wrestler kicking their legs up, which is where the phrase 'kick out' comes from. A wrestler can also break the count by touching or reaching under the ring ropes, known as a 'rope break'. This can be done with any body part, hand, foot or otherwise, but much like in sex, the tongue is usually more impressive.

The other key way to win, submission, occurs when a wrestler, usually in a hold of some kind, either verbally gives up or repeatedly taps the mat as a sign or surrender, known for short as a 'tap out'. It's most commonly thought that while tap outs existed in other sports, the ECW wrestler Taz innovated them in wrestling. His claim to this is that his finishing hold the katahajime, or the Tazmission, involves him wrapping his arm around the opponents jaw, thus disabling a verbal submission, so there had to be another way of wrestlers admitting defeat. Knowing Taz's reputation for being not the most pleasant man back in his wrestling days, its equally likely that no wrestler wanted to give him the satisfaction that comes from a verbal submission, and so would rather tap.

- Another way to win a wrestling match is by count out. This occurs when a wrestler is outside the ring for longer than the referees count of ten, and is declared the loser. When outside the ring, the referees count can be broken if a wrestler re-enters, and exits the ring again. In most companies the referee will count to ten, but some promotions particularly outside the US, the count can go up to twenty. In Europe this is so that the crowd can have a siesta part way through and not miss anything, because twenty counts feel like a fucking long time.

- The final way a match can end is by disqualification. This typically follows some kind of rule breaking. There are many, many things that a wrestler can be disqualified for, most of which are fairly obvious like low blows, joint manipulation or fish hooking. None of which are as kinky as they sound by the way. A DQ can also happen if a wrestler uses a weapon, sometimes referred to as a 'foreign object', or as we're supposed to say these days, 'international items'. Damn woke brigade.

Outside interference by anyone not officially part of the match will also cause the person on whose behalf they are interfering for to be DQ'd. The last thing to note about DQ's is that if a defending champion gets disqualified, they usually don't lose their title. This is in storyline, a way of ensuring that championships are won and lost fairly, but behind the scenes this is a way of letting a champion loose for whatever reason without taking the belt off them.

This is as the title says, a beginners guide, but if you are a long term fan like me I'd love to know what you think is relevant that I haven't talked about, so please let me know in the comments.