Ryan Nemeth Interview: "Heel", Bringing Awareness To Wrestling, Filmmaking, AEW, More

When will it become available for streaming?

Nemeth: I get this question a lot and I have the same question. I can't pursue distribution for streaming until we've exhausted all festival possibilities. You can't do both at the same time. Festivals won't put your film in the festival if it's already publicly available and it's hard to get it publicly available unless you have these festival accolades. The process is, we're trying to hit as many festivals as we can and luckily, it's been winning some awards. We won Best Director at one and it's nominated for a lot. It's a little strange because coming off of the COVID thing, we wanted this to be at festivals a year ago, but it was all delayed because of the pandemic. The timing is very strange and I'm just going along for the ride. I do ultimately want it to be streaming somewhere, so for all the people asking, yes, I want that to happen. Where will it be and when will it be? I don't know, but I think it will be.

Between promoting "Heel" and now landing a fairly regular role with AEW, how crazy have the last few months been for you?

Nemeth: Pretty nuts, man, in a good way. The busiest I've ever been and the happiest I've ever been in wrestling, really. We were talking about people that backed the movie. One of my great friends Brodie Lee was a huge backer of this film. This week, Amanda, will be going to see it with me at the Sunscreen Festival. I had simply planned to visit AEW on account of Brodie Lee's birthday and then Luchasaurus was trying to tell me, “Hey, you should come in for this. We're doing a surprise birthday for him.” I hadn't seen him in a couple of years. I had seen him and her a few times when they came out to LA. I planned to come in for his birthday, and as you probably know, you always have to bring your gear no matter what. The most wrestling I'd done this year was stunt coordinating on shows and music videos, not live wrestling because it didn't exist. It was shut down. I brought my gear and Brodie Jr. didn't even remember me. It was five years ago, so he was like, “Who's this guy?” He's still the madman he used to be.

While I was there, they said, “Hey, do you have gear? Do you want to be in a match?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” I didn't want to make it seem I was showing up and asking for a job. Not at all. I was literally just there to see her and him. Somehow I'm debuting on Dynamite against Adam Page, which is absolutely insane. I thought, “That was fun.” I flew back home and they sent a camera crew back to LA. They shot me on Venice Beach talking and I said, “Wait, am I on the show now? What is happening?” They brought me back for the next trip for some more matches and then the next trip and I thought, “Does this company think I work here? I don't.” It's been great, man. I'm enjoying it as long as it lasts. I'm not banking on it, I'm not counting on it, but it's been a great reunion with a lot of friends from FCW and NXT and I've made a lot of new friends and connections. I said it before, but it's true: this is the most fun in wrestling I've ever had anywhere and I think it's a really great company with some really great people there.

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