Joey Janela Describes How He Helped AEW’s Backstage Communication

AEW

Former AEW star Joey Janela departed the company at the beginning of this month, when his contract expired and was not renewed by AEW.

Janela explained his decision to leave the company in an interview with Denise Salcedo earlier this year.

Janela recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet, where he explained the reaction to his interview with Denise, and how he believes he wasn’t renewed due to him speaking in the interview.

He said:

“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,’

Speaking about the backstage reaction to the interview, Janela said that he hasn’t heard from Khan since, but members of the AEW roster have praised him for helping the company’s backstage communication.

He explained:

“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.'”

Janela then explained why he took the interview in the first place, saying:

“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.

“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.”

Janela recently made news due to a botched spot at a GCW show, where he set his boot on fire and performed a Superkick.

transcription via Fightful

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• communications
• Joey Janela
• tony khan
• AEW

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