Matt Hardy believes Arik Cannon’s concerns regarding AJ Styles’ son may have been better handled privately.
Cannon recently criticized Avery Jones, who wrestles as Avery Styles, for allegedly not helping with post-show duties surrounding his GCW appearance during WWE SummerSlam weekend.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast (see video below), Hardy first discussed his previous experiences working with Cannon.
“For the record, too, I know Arik Cannon I have worked with him,” Hardy said. “He has brought me in to do a couple of appearances at his first wrestling stuff. I did one of the things at the mall. Had a great time with him. I like him a lot. And I think he’s a good guy. I think he’s a good dude. Good human being.”
Hardy noted that GCW contacted Jones and covered his travel expenses, with his connection to AJ Styles presumably being one reason the promotion wanted him on the event.
“And the thing about this is apparently GCW, they had reached out or contacted Avery,” he continued. “It seems like they paid to fly him in. They wanted him to come in and I think part of that was because he is AJ Styles’ son. There was some buzz on his name, whatever else. If he would have been there earlier and he would have offered or helped, it is what it is. Even though he didn’t, the fact of the matter is that they reached out to him and the fact that they flew him in and paid him to come in, I don’t think that was part of the deal, so to say.”
While Hardy acknowledged that Jones could have offered to help, he felt Cannon should have addressed the issue with him directly instead of criticizing him publicly.
“And I think it’s more or less one of those things where it would have probably been better if Arik would have just mentioned it to him after his match towards the end of the show when he was there,” he said. “I think you mentioned it there like, ‘Hey, it would probably been a better idea if you would have at least offered to put chairs or the ring. How can I help?’. And there were some promotions I saw when he was at my show. He did offer to help if we need anything, whatever else. I think putting it out on social media was probably not the best way to go about it.”
GCW subsequently clarified that although the promotion likes and respects Cannon, his comments were made in a personal capacity and did not represent GCW’s views.
AJ Styles was among those who responded to Cannon. Cody Rhodes also shared a story about Jones previously helping set up chairs and paying his dues, while WWE NXT Superstar Lexis King offered comments of his own.
