Five shots, five thoughts with photographer Ryan Loco

September 24, 2024 Jack Wannan NEWS
Image Credit: Ryan Loco

For years, Ryan Loco has been an impactful photographer in the world of professional wrestling and combat sports. Whether it be through his years of work with MMA fighters, kickboxers, boxers, deathmatch wrestlers, technical wrestlers, and everything in between, he has left a mark on the many scenes he has worked in.

Recently, however, he has specifically become an increasingly important name in AEW. He has captured moments at some of the promotion’s top events this year – Revolution, All In, All Out – and has also been a regular at their weekly television tapings as well.

Due to his frequent presence at AEW, his camera has caught some of the biggest moments in wrestling this year.

Being responsible for so many different iconic shots, we thought it was a great time to go through a few of our picks with him. In a recent interview with POST Wrestling, Loco described the story behind some of his shots, and the people in them.

 

Loco has done lots of photography work featuring Jon Moxley, including the cover for his book and his recent appearance at Bloodsport Bushido in Japan. The first photo takes us back to the first time he met Moxley, beginning their friendship.

“I was doing some portraits backstage. [Jon Moxley] has a very strong presence, he’s very intense. So I was like, man, I really don’t want to bother him, but I definitely need to get these portraits. [Josh] Barnett’s my buddy, so he’ll facilitate.

And then [Moxley] mentioned, like ‘I want to do a portrait that looks like this kickboxer [Joe Schilling] that I saw.’ And I was like ‘I took that photo.’ Once he found that out, it was sort of like, now we’re connected.

Then it was a completely different Mox. He was totally open and down to do almost anything. And vice versa, like, if he’s like ‘Hey, I want to do this.’ ‘Let’s go man, let’s try it out. He just gets it. He’s one of the easiest people to photograph.

That was what he wanted to recreate backstage. He wanted him smoking a cigarette, post-match showing him tired and everything like that. People just love him, period. That was where it all started. Really grateful how he somehow saw that Joe Schilling photo.”

Loco was ringside for Sting’s last match, where a death-defying spot from Darby Allin stole the night.

“This was Revolution, Sting’s last match. The building was insane. The energy in the arena, I can’t explain how awesome it was. When he started climbing up for this, I was like ‘There’s no way. Not a chance.’

I was on the other side of the arena, the opposite side. What I realized and knew from our crew is that one of our cameramen was going to be on that side. And I was like he is probably gonna be in the shot, blocking it. That’s what he’s supposed to do, it’s not his fault.

So I had to run around the ring, all those people to get over there because I wanted a clean shot of that. And it was one of those moments where: One, I couldn’t believe it was about to happen, like just insane. And two: just going ‘Please don’t miss focus. Like, whatever happens.’ If I didn’t take the photo I would feel better than missing the photo. Like, I would rather not have it on my memory card versus coming back and it’s blurry.

Darby is insane, and also makes my job insanely easy because he just does crazy stuff.”

Loco recalls a time he caught Kazuchika Okada testing out his current unique jacket.

“Oh, my man! So, if you would have told me, told Ryan a few years ago, like ‘You and Okada are going to be hallway buddies,’ I would be like ‘You’re crazy.’

This was shot on a film, on a tiny little Pentax that I brought. It does not have a light meter, so I did not know if this was going to be metered correctly, and I got very, very lucky. I just saw him because he was in his jacket. As the jacket hits the light, it changes colors. He decided to go outside just to test the jacket.

I look over and it’s just Okada all by himself, just standing there. Almost like that Keanu photo, where Keanu’s sitting by himself on the bench. I was like, ‘Oh man.’ So I run over, snap a few photos of this. I just loved it, because the color and the fact that it was on film and the fact that it actually worked out.”

In the third photo shown above, Loco captured a bloodied Adam Copeland looking out at his home fanbase.

“This was Toronto, Adam Copeland versus Christian. They did a whole fight all over the arena and had hockey jerseys on. That was a lot of fun. Working with Adam is a blast, he’s always so easygoing and so easy to work with, and so open for everything.

The crowd was on fire, especially because he put Christian in a Boston Bruins jersey and he came out in the Maple Leafs gear. But yeah, Adam, he’s just cool. And Toronto is just an awesome city, Canadian wrestling fans are top-notch.

While it didn’t happen in the ring, Loco was certainly there. He discusses being at one of the hottest (literally) angles this year for AEW.

“I don’t remember this one, what is this? Yeah, so, Swerve is a good friend of mine. I love him, I’ve known him for years and when Hangman called and said I need to meet him because he was going to do something, truly did not know what was going to happen. Then this went down and it was insane. It was one of the craziest nights of my photographically career. Hangman is a savage. Those flames were no joke and he didn’t budge.

We had one shot with the house. What you see is happening, it’s legit. The internet is the internet, and I love reading the internet telling me what I know is wrong, but I promise: There was no B.S. there.

Absolutely [I could feel the flames]. And I was obviously farther back than Hangman. So the fact that he didn’t budge… And I was ready to be like ‘I’ve gotta move. I can’t sit here anymore.’ He’s a G. He will forever be known to me as one of the gnarliest dudes of all time.”

About Jack Wannan 373 Articles
Jack Wannan is a journalist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He writes and reports on professional wrestling, along with other topics like MMA, boxing, music, local news, and more. He graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He can be reached at [email protected]
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