Joseph Meehan, also known as Joey Ryan, a former professional wrestler and previous Jungle Cruise Cast Member who has been accused by several women of sexual assault and was spotted working at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.
X (formerly known as Twitter) user Tim Ballard posted a photo of Meehan working at Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios Hollywood on September 16, accompanied with the caption, “Horror nights be hiring anyone.” You can see the tweet for yourself below:
Many of the replies to the post expressed shock that Meehan would find himself working at a theme park again. He was briefly employed by Disneyland Resort at Jungle Cruise for three months in 2022 under a “probationary status,” according to the Los Angeles Times, and was dismissed when Disneyland declined to hire him on full-time.
During Meehan’s career as a professional wrestler, he appeared in several matches for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), as well as the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Impact Wrestling, and independent circuits, among other credits.
In June 2020, Meehan was accused by at least 17 women of sexual assault and harassment. After the accusations went public, Meehan shared a lengthy post on his now-deleted X (then twitter) account, apologizing for “not always treat[ing] people with respect” and invading personal space, according to a transcription on SoCalUncensored.com.
As a result of his public statement, many women posted to X sharing their own allegations against Meehan. His employment with Impact Wrestling was terminated as a result, according to Wrestle Zone. Meehan chose to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against three of his accusers for defamation, and won a default judgement against one of them in 2021; however, a judge dismissed the lawsuit involving all three. Meehan eventually dropped some of the lawsuits and stated that the only one he intends to continue with is that against Impact, which he filed in October 2020, per Figure Four Online.
It is important to note that Meehan was never criminally charged as a result of the sexual assault allegations, so a background check from Disney or Universal would presumably not reveal any of his past actions when looking for work.
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