GCW superstar Joey Janela recently appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vilet to discuss his departure from AEW, and what the aftermath was of after an interview he did with Denise Salcedo, when the Bad Boy said that he heard nothing regarding his AEW contract status and assumed he wasn’t going to get renewed, something that angered company president Tony Khan. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he hadn’t heard from anyone about getting his AEW contract renewed, but believes that the chances were good:
“Chances are, I was going to be renewed, whether it be with Ring of Honor, but I just ran my mouth in an interview saying, “I haven’t heard from anyone, what is going on? I guess I’m not getting renewed.”
Says Tony Khan was heated about his comments, but that AEW did improve their communication skills afterwards:
“No, I heard Tony (Khan) was hot about it. It made him look bad, it made their talent relations look bad, but at the same time, it made them improve their communications with talent within that two-week period that I did that, communications were a lot better. I didn’t hear from anyone. I heard people were upset, but talent was hitting me up from the company saying, ‘You’re 100% correct, you spoke up, you’re correct and that was cool to take that risk.'”
Explains the fallout he had with Tony Khan after his interview:
“Denise wanted an interview and I said, ‘Let’s just do it. I’ve had it, I’m stressed out, frustrated.’ It created a lot of good out of it and there is no…I haven’t talk to Tony since. That’s something that kind of irked me because we were so cool and after the AEW shows, when AEW first started, I would go out with him because he knew I would stay up until 7 in the morning with him drinking shots of tequila. I assume he’s still irked by it, but there is no hard feelings on either side. There are no bridges burned between me and AEW. I’m friends with all the talent there. I’m in contact with all the talent. Tony has a hard job. He wears a lot of hats. He’s not booking a traditional wrestling show, he has a huge roster, he’s signed some of the greatest free agents in the world. You have three hours of TV a week. When you’re not booking a traditional wrestling show and you want to book a TV show like a mini-pay-per-view every week, a lot of talent is not going to get time every week. They either have to sit and wait for something, sit out of the rotation, and go to work and be happy or they can try to pitch something, the creative route, or they can wait for stuff to come. Some of the guys there, they feel like they should be given more, which I believe a lot of guys are, but it’s hard to book a wrestling show when you’re booking it like a pay-per-view.”
How fantastic the work environment is in AEW:
“Tony tries to make everyone happy. That work environment is fantastic. It’s a fantastic work environment. Of course, all professional wrestling, especially on a mainstream level, there is going to be huge amount of politics. When you have 25-minute matches every week on the show, it’s hard to fit everyone in. You’re not going to make everyone happy, he tries to make everyone happy.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)