Ryan Martinez

Tall and muscular, with short brown hair. (at the moment, he has almost no hair, owing to losing a haircut match, but it'll grow back eventually) Usually clean shaven, though when focused on a particular match or feud, his tunnel vision tends to lead him to stop shaving. There's a genericness to the way Ryan looks, owing to his relative young age and few years in the ring. He's free of tattoos and scars. He has a muscular, well defined physique, but he's not what someone would call a "monster." He looks young, even a bit younger than he actually is. He's handsome, but again, in a bland, generic way. If you think about what the run of the mill wrestler looks like, you should have a sense of Ryan's overall appearance.

Having a famous father should have made it easy for Ryan Martinez to get into wrestling. But Ryan Martinez has never been someone capable of doing things the easy way. When he told Alex Martinez he wanted to wrestle, Alex told Ryan he could easily get him a job in Canada.

So Ryan flew to Japan instead.

He spent months in a foreign land, not knowing the language, and having almost no money. No one knew him there, and no one cared who he was. Which was just what he wanted.

He spent a lot of time on a street, right outside a training dojo, a place where pro-wrestlers go to get trained. They wouldn't let him in. The teachers and trainees laughed at him, and refused to let him in. So he stayed.

Eventually, he caught the eye of one “Black Dog” Yoshito Katsumara, an old opponent of his father’s and now a trainer of pro wrestlers. Katsumura came out and offered to let him inside. But before he came in, he handed him a mop. And he spent a lot of time mopping up other men's sweat, blood and teeth. He spent a longer time washing wrestler's dirty clothes.

Finally, Katsumura agreed to train him. But what they meant was, Ryan had every joint in his body stretched, and endured countless attempts to break every bone in his body. It was hard, the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life. Unrelenting, daily torture, the worst pain a person could imagine.

He loved it.

Trained, he came to BSW, deciding not to take Alex up on the offer of a job in Phoenix either.

After a few early setbacks, Ryan began to flourish in BSW, even managing to win the tournament that crowned the winner of BSW’s first season.

Two things were established in BSW. The first was Ryan’s commitment to acting honorably and his connection with the fans. The second was his uncanny ability to really anger the people he opposed. There were a lot of wrestlers in the locker room who saw him as self-righteous and preachy. And it’s true that Ryan can be hard headed in his black and white thinking. He’s also possessed of a considerable amount of pride. But with the support of the fans, and his own unflagging belief in the power of his convictions, Ryan was able to win it all.

Having won something on his own, without any help from his father, Ryan struck out on his own, looking to establish himself, and to continue to fight with honor, determined to do things the right way and not take the easy road.

He first landed in a small southern independent group, which folded after a single show. Next, he went to CONQUEST, but that too folded quickly. Ryan found himself splitting his time between brief tours of Tiger Paw Pro in Japan and Fighting Spirit in the states. It was in the latter promotion that Ryan had a match against the legendary Mark Langseth.

And earned himself a spot on the AWA roster.

Divesting himself of other commitments, Ryan entered the AWA’s world title tournament, and was eliminated by Gunnar Gaines. After that, having seemingly earned Gaines’ respect, Ryan and Gunnar formed a tag team that eventually came to be known as RyGunn.

RyGunn was successful beyond anyone’s expectations, as they made it to the finals of the Crockett Cup, though they came up short, as they lost to the Blonde Bombers. RyGunn rebounded, earning the slot as the number one contenders to the tag team titles, but it was not to be. First RyGunn lost their own and only title shot, and then the team imploded as Gunnar and his son Justin turned on Ryan and left him lying in a pool of his own blood.

From fall through the winter, Ryan and Gunnar Gaines embarked on a bitter, bloody feud that saw Ryan losing his hair to Gunnar’s son Justin, among other indignities. At last, Ryan found help in the form of his legendary father, who returned for one (seemingly) final match in the AWA. A match that saw the Martinez family emerge victorious over the Gaines Clan.

Now, Ryan truly stands alone. His sights are set, not only on the AWA world heavyweight title, but also on making the AWA a better place. That means cleaning up the corruption that sits at the heart of the AWA in the form of the so-called Wise Men. Will Ryan succeed? Like his father, his greatest triumphs seem to come when the chips are down and everyone seems to think there is no chance.

Three Strengths:

1. Heavy Hitter – when you get hit by Ryan, you tend to stay down.

2. Fighting Spirit – One thing Ryan doesn’t do is break mentally. He’ll take all the punishment in the world, just for a chance at winning. Heart, spirit, these intangible things are qualities Ryan possess in abundance.

3. Durable – Possessed of a body that can match his spirit. Ryan can take a lot of pain and keep coming back.

Three Weaknesses:

1. Temperament – Ryan is hot headed, stubborn, high minded, and prone to leaping without ever thinking about looking. Ryan’s default mode is to go off half-cocked, especially if his moral sensibilities are offended. That can lead to trouble. There’s also a streak of naiveté in him that means he can be overly trusting, and thus prone to betrayal.

2. Right shoulder – if there’s one weakness in Ryan’s overall durability, it’s his right shoulder. It has been a target almost since day one, and opponents continue to target it.

3. Holes in his game – Ryan is working on this, but there are still some holes in his repertoire. His submission game and his defense against aerial maneuvers are both soft spots in his armor, and though he’s working on improving, he’s not there yet.

Brainbuster — Ryan has taking to delivering it delayed, holding the opponent up for several long excruciating seconds, to add extra impact once they’re dropped.

STF – a submission hold that Ryan is going to start learning to master

Kenta Kobashi, Shinya Hashimoto, Masahiro Chono. Really, take your pick of an All Japan heavyweight from the 90's.

[There is the light tinkling of heavily synthesized music, which begins to grow in intensity, as Thirty Seconds to Mars’ “Vox Populi” blares over the loudspeakers.]

PW: Coming to the ring now, hailing from Los Angeles, California…

[As the song builds, the heavy percussion of drums shakes the arena, the sound replicating the stomping of hundreds of feet.]

PW: Weighing two hundred and fifty five pounds..

[A chorus of singers belts out the opening words of “Vox Populi”]

#This is a call to arms, gather soldiers
Time to go to war#

PW: This is Ryan…

[Once more, the choir of singers unites to repeat the chorus]

#This is a battle song, brothers and sisters
Time to go to war#

PW: MARTINEZ!!!!

[Ryan Martinez emerges at the top of the entrance ramp, wearing a black hoodie, the hood pulled up over his face. He steps down to the center of the entrance ramp and pauses, throwing his head back, to reveal his face. He pauses, looking out over the crowd. As the crowd cheers him wildly, Ryan gives them a single nod, and then races down to the ring, pausing only at the apron, before stepping between the top and middle rope. His hoodie is unzipped and thrown over the turnbuckle in a corner. Ryan wears a pair of short black trunks, black boots with white laces, black knee pads with a white “X” in the center of the knee, and a long, black pad on his right arm that extends from the middle of his forearm to just under his armpit, the elbow portion of it heavily padded. Both wrists are tapped with glossy black tape. Ryan steps to the middle of the ring, bouncing up and down, as he waits for the bell to ring. Just before the bell rings, the chorus of “Vox Populi” the last of his music reverberates through the arena.]

#This is a call to arms, we own the night
This is a battle song, we own the night#

Face

Note – Ryan is near fanatical about acting honorably. He’s very rigid in his beliefs. He thinks everything has to be done the right way. He doesn’t take any short cuts. He won’t cheat to win, and he’s been known to roll an opponent back into the ring, or to stop a referee’s count, preferring to win by pinfall, rather than taking the “easy” count out victory.