Maniaweekend.blogspot.com is featuring an interview with indy wrestler Joey Ryan where he talks about working as an extra for WWE recently at the Summerslam PPV in Los Angeles. Ryan got lots of attention for selling the spot of Mark Henry putting Sheamus through the ring barricade.
“I am so comfortable being an extra at WWE that I don’t even get nervous or ‘walk on eggshells’ or whatever the cliches are,” Ryan said. “I just try to relax and have fun with it. I have ton of friends there and honestly a lot of the newer talent came into wrestling watching PWG or ROH DVDs and know me from the indies and they come up to me and tell me what big fans they are of mine.
As far as anecdotes go, CM Punk came up to me at the Raw after SummerSlam and told me the boys popped huge for my ‘Home Alone sell’ during the barricade crash. He said he told them that he figured I just don’t give a . anymore. That’s entirely untrue though. I love being a WWE extra and getting to see friends and work with new people and the money I make over three days there isn’t bad either.
And yeah, maybe I did oversell the spot just to pop the boys but I don’t think I was being disrespectful. I don’t think anybody even noticed it unless you knew it was me already. I was just trying to have fun with it. Wrestling is so much better when you’re having fun.”