“Ruthless” Ryan Davidson discusses his 15-year journey to the ROW Championship

Ahead of his upcoming title defense, we spoke exclusively to ROW Champion Ryan Davidson about his 15-year journey to the top of Reality of Wrestling.

On October 12, 2019, “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson will walk into the World Gym Arena in Texas City, TX for to defend his ROW Championship against Bryan Keith. The challenger brings with him seven years of wrestling experience, which is still less than half the experience of the champion.

Ahead of his upcoming title defense, I got to speak exclusively to the man sometimes called “The Bear From Bellaire” about his 15-year journey from West Texas A&M football player to becoming the face of Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling. Not unlike many others, it was the Attitude Era of WWE that made Davidson a fan.

“When I was a teenager, I had a buddy of mine that was a massive wrestling fan, and it all started in middle school to where kids were literally going around doing the DX ‘suck it’ sign,” Davidson said. “And I had no idea what that was, and I just thought it was so funny and great.”

It was that infamous crotch chop that pulled him into the world of professional wrestling, but Ryan Davidson was drawn to more than D-Generation X.

“It was the height of the Attitude Era and Stone Cold, and everything like that, but my guy was Mick Foley,” he said. “Everybody loves Stone Cold, and Taker, and The Rock, but my two guys were like Mick Foley and Triple H. Mick Foley, I resonated a lot with him because I’ve always been like a chubby kid. I like the guy who’s just crazy and does all this crazy stuff. And Cactus Jack, that’s my favorite Mick Foley entity. And Triple H, that was the guy I always wanted to be.”

Before beginning his wrestling career, Ryan Davidson attended West Texas A&M University. Davidson was far from the first wrestler to attend West Texas A&M (WT), which was known as West Texas State University until 1993. WT alumni include Tully Blanchard, Dick Murdoch, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr., Ted DiBiase, Tito Santana, Barry Windham, Bruiser Brody, and Stan Hansen.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t even Davidson’s intent to end up at what was essentially Wrestler University just outside of Amarillo, Texas. When I asked Ryan Davidson if he’d chosen the school because of that history, he was clear that wasn’t his goal.

“No, honest to God. The only thing that I knew about it was Terry and Dory Funk. Those were the only two wrestlers that I knew going into WT that were wrestlers that went there,” he said. “I got scouted by a bunch of D1 and D2 schools, I was actually gonna make a play to just be a walk-on for either the University of Houston or be a walk-on for Notre Dame, and instead of being a walk-on, WT actually gave me the most amount of scholarship money. So I was all like, screw it, I’ll go to WT.”

“I visited the campus, and at the time I just wanted to get out of the city. So I thought, oh the middle of nowhere right outside of Amarillo, this’ll be perfect,” Davidson said. “Then I found out that Terry Funk is alumni there, and everybody knows about Terry Funk and Dory Funk. So, I was like ‘oh that’s pretty cool,’ but once I got there then I found out about Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Tully Blanchard, Tito Santana, Dusty Rhodes, you know all these guys. I was just like holy crap. I had no idea that I’d just naturally and organically pretty much stumbled across pro wrestler university.”

The additional irony is that you can definitely see shades of Hansen or Brody when “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson steps inside the squared circle, and he explained where some of his own style comes from.

“I always wanted to have a style [where] I could wrestle anyone and have a great match with anyone, but I always wanted to bring the big fight feel for the match,” Davidson said. “If you watch Samoa Joe or Brock Lesnar, or somebody like that, when they’re coming to the ring you’re like ‘oh shit, there’s something about to go down.’ That’s the direction I’m pursuing, so my style pretty much caters to that. And there’s something about the water down here in Texas, man. Texas wrestlers like to fight.”

He’s not wrong. Texas wrestlers do like to fight. Even as Ryan Davidson was playing football for the WT Buffaloes, wrestling was never far away.

“Wrestling just kept bringing itself in front of me. It kept bringing itself in front of me, and I go you know I’m just gonna pursue it. I pretty much realized that my love for football, as far as being an active player in it, was pretty much done,” he said. “I wanted to pursue wrestling, and that’s what I did.”

Davidson began his initial training as early as his freshman year of college, but that came to an abrupt halt when he broke his leg slipping in the snow in February of 2004.

“I was out ‘till like the later summer of 2004, like July or August,” Davidson said. “And ever since then, from like July of 2004 to now, I’ve been doing pro wrestling. Coming up on 15 years of being an active pro wrestler.”

It wasn’t an easy path, and Ryan Davidson had to find a way to keep his lights on while beginning the tough climb in an industry that was very different in 2004 than it is today. He wasn’t picky about his day job.

“It was anything from retail to manual labor. I have a very extensive IT background, believe it or not. So computer repair, and servers, and networking equipment. Things like that,” Davidson said. “When I was pursuing wrestling, it was mainly just any job I could find. Everything was just paying the bills, man.”

“Amarillo, Texas,” was where Davidson said his training began. “That’s where I broke into pro wrestling. Then I moved to Oklahoma in ‘05, and then I lived in Oklahoma ‘till about 2007. I moved back home to Houston because I [was] born and raised in Houston.”

Unfortunately, those early years in Oklahoma have had a terrible side effect. Despite being “The Bear From Bellaire,” Bellaire being a suburb of Houston, there’s been a tendency for people to think Ryan Davidson is actually from Oklahoma.

“It’s funny, everyone thinks I’m born and raised in Oklahoma,” he said. “It’s more so the wrestling community, and a lot of different wrestlers are like ‘hey, Ryan, you’re from Oklahoma, right?’ And I’m like no. I can’t stand Oklahoma. No. I mean I liked Oklahoma, but it’s definitely not Texas. I don’t care what anyone says. It’s not Texas. You can’t even compare it.”

As someone else born and raised near Houston, Texas, Ryan Davidson is absolutely right. Oklahoma is definitely not Texas. You can’t even compare it. However, his few years outside of Texas came for a very specific reason.

“I moved to Oklahoma because of my roommate at the time. His dad was “Mr. Ebony” Tom Jones. Not the singer,” Davidson clarified. “He was like the pioneer for African-American wrestlers in the United States. He’s like the first African-American man to hold a singles wrestling title in the southern states of the United States. And he’s wrestled all the way through like the early ‘60s to the ‘80s and stuff.”

“He’s had feuds with Piper and Flair. Any real old school brother, I mention Tom Jones or TJ, and they go crazy,” Davidson said. “[Tom Jones] passed away a few years ago, but he basically taught me the ground floor of pro wrestling.”