Joey Janela on AEW’s Debut on TNT, Saying Farewell to the Indies & Proving Everyone Wrong

Joey Janela is a master of creating moments. The most famous of the moments have come from the New Jersey native being flung from the roof of a building into a the fire engulfed flatbed of a truck, or leaping off a 12 foot ladder to deliver an elbow drop through a table, getting thumbtacks stuck in his bare feet or countless other acts of sheer eye-popping, physically decimating spectacle.

But if you think “The Bad Boy,” who is currently signed with All Elite Wrestling which debuts October 2 on TNT, is just a super human highlight reel of insane stunts — you’d be so wrong.

Joey Janela is more than just stunts, spots, and GIF-able moments. A self-described “wrestling gypsy” Janela’s someone who has spent half of his life in the wrestling business — working his way from the lowliest of Jersey indies to main eventing All Elite Wrestling’s second show against one of the hottest wrestlers in the world, Jon Moxley . He’s someone, who along with his compatriots in Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) have created one of the most-talked  Wrestlemania weekend traditions — Joey Janela’s Spring Break. He and his crew have also become the tastemakers of pro wrestling; garnering a sterling reputation for discovering, and then propelling talents from virtual obscurity to arena filling wrestling promotions, and big money contracts.

We caught up with the “Bad Boy,” as he gets set to say farewell to the independents tonight in Asbury Park, and then make his national television debut Wednesday October 2 on All Elite Wrestling Dynamite. We talked about why, despite his full-time status in AEW, he’s worked a full schedule this summer. We talk about the aftermath of his infamous scuffle at a Blink-182 concert, and how it ended up working out in AEW’s favor. And most importantly we talk about his love of wrestling, and why he’s excited to prove to a national audience that Joey Janela is one of the best wrestlers in the world today with AEW.

You’re a full time guy in AEW but up until tonight, literally, you’ve been hitting the independents super hard. From PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles to Japan to touring across the United States, and even wrestling in someone’s backyard — you’ve been everywhere. Some guys in AEW have taken time away from the ring, why haven’t you?

Joey Janela: The indies have given me the opportunity to get this big contract with AEW, and get on TV. Right now, I’m giving back. This is my final run on the indies. It’s not like I’m not going to miss the independents. I think a lot of people wanted to take it easy, chill out and enjoy their summer. I did enjoy my summer traveling and wrestling … and fucking up my body (laughs). Okay, I didn’t enjoy that part. Guys are asking me when I’m going to stop doing the indies … and I just don’t feel like it. If I had the opportunity to do the indie stuff while I was on TV, I would. So … eat my shorts.

You have the big farewell show, The Curtain Call, tonight at House of Independents in Asbury Park, New Jersey with GCW. Tonight, you, Jungle Boy, and Marko Stunt say goodbye to GCW, a promotion which you’re the cornerstone of. How you feeling about tonight?

Joey Janela: I’m saying goodbye for now. Let’s see what happens. Let’s get AEW off the ground. Spring Break will happen next year, and I will be wrestling on it. Marko will be wrestling on it. Jungle Boy will be wrestling on it. Once AEW gets off the ground I’m hoping I can wrestle on some more GCW shows. For now it’s a send off for a few months … till I get fired … for getting in a fight in a concert (laughs).

Well, I’m not going to ask you about the fight … but I have to ask about the fallout of the fight which lead to you (Darby Allin and Jimmy Havoc) doing a video with Blink-182 to promote your fight at All Out. Can you talk about how that all came together and how cool was that?

Joey Janela: It was cool. Tony [Khan] told me they were coming to his venue [Daly’s Place] where Fight for the Fallen took place. He said he hadn’t talked to them yet, but he was going to try and shoot the video. Apparently, Blink-182 is one of Tony’s favorite bands. He ambushed the band and asked them to the video. He [told them] I was the guy who got into a fight at their concert which has been tied to the wrestling community for a few weeks. They knew about the fight, and were really cool about it. They were awesome, and afterwords they were cool and posted the video to their social media.

Basically, if I was never was a drunken idiot at a concert we never would have the first major crossover with music in AEW. So kudos to me.

You’re renowned for your crazy moments in the ring. However, I think one of your best gifts as a wrestler is your eye for talent. In the past two years you’ve helped launch Mark Stunt, Jungle Boy, relaunch PCO, and now you have guys like Alex Zayne and Blake Christian who are blowing up and just made it into PWG. How’d you develop this eye for talent?

Joey Janela: Bret Lauderdale, who runs GCW, he booked Blake and Alex [this summer for GCW] and now they’re at BOLA. Marko was a Brett guy and he ended up on All In right after Escape from New York, and then BOLA a month later. PCO is in the Garden one year later after Spring Break 2. Dustin Thomas, who’s a double amputee, is on Double or Nothing a month after Spring Break 3. Jungle Boy had that match in LA [in November 2018] and he blew up. Not only do we have an eye talent, we have guys on the roster who make these guys look like superstars and help them get to the next step. One day they’re on an indie show and the next month they’re in front of 14,000 people at the MGM Grand [in Las Vegas]. It’s bizarre to think about. These guys are talented. Alex Zayne and Blake Christian tore it up last night at PWG. They cemented a run for them here, good for them. You gotta get new guys out there.

You had these proud moments in your career. However, is seeing guys you discovered, or helped discover give you the same sense of pride you would get from one of your own career highlights?

Joey Janela: Yes, of course. Better than my own matches I think. A lot of people throw me the credit, which I deserve a little bit. Most of the credit should go to GCW and Brett. They should be mentioned more amongst the bigger companies. They should get the credit 100% for a lot of these guys and they don’t get enough. I think people get scared off because of the death match stuff, and GCW does it crazier than it has been done in a long time, so it scares people away. I think in the future — 10 to 20 years — people will be giving them their proper due for their show quality and eye for talent.

GCW is definitely a tastemaker wrestling promotion — like Pitchfork is for me music but less pretentious and with more light tubes.

Joey Janela: Yeah. Dave Meltzer [the other] night mentioned GCW for this first time, I think, last night. It’s time now that people are forced to finally recognize GCW for all that they’ve done for the wrestling business. They top themselves with every show.

You were one of the first talents signed to AEW, and in your first singles match for the company you’re main eventing a pay per view against Jon Moxley. Was this a moment of career validation for you, or do you view that as just another day at the office?

Joey Janela: It was a great day. Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks asked if I wanted to do the match. I feel like a lot of people in the company are iffy on me because they aren’t familiar with my entire body of work on the indies. They know the crazy stuff. Of course, I come to AEW and I’m doing the craziness. But, I think when TV starts I’m going to turn a lot of heads. You can put me in any position in the company and I’ll be ready.

Main eventing against Moxley was a great opportunity. I got to show the entire world, next to the hottest guy on the planet, a guy coming off a WWE contract, that I can go up against anybody. You can take that match and put it on any card in the world — Wrestlemania, Wrestle Kingdom, whatever — and it would’ve live up to those standards.

Does that misconception of you, or that “iffy” feeling people may have about you motivate you? Or do you just tune all that out?

Joey Janela: I just want to prove them wrong. It’s like when I came off the top of the building a few years ago at GCW. A lot of people came in wanting to hate on me, and in the years following they ended up changing their minds. They became fans and they bought my t-shirts. I look at this the same way.

I get that I don’t look traditional. I don’t know why these guys they want to see these big muscled dudes give each other shoulder tackles. It’s cool, I used to watch that too. But come on man, wrestling has evolved. It’s like a movie — there’s different characters, they look different. It’s not the ’80s anymore. Everyone’s not in the closets shooting up steroids. We know the dangers of that now, so we don’t do it. Yeah, I could be in better shape. But, my in-ring … I’m better at pacing than anyone in professional wrestling right now. You can ask a lot of guys about that.

On Wednesday October 2 All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite premieres on TNT. You’ve never been a TV guy — is there a learning curve for you with television, or do you feel you’re ready to go?

Joey Janela: It’s fine. I don’t need developmental with six months of getting up at 8 a.m. at a training center to do 800 hip tosses. I don’t need that. I showed that with the Moxley match. You can take that match and put it on any PPV and it will live up to what it was advertised as. I didn’t need developmental training for that. Throughout the years I’ve had different trainers and gone to different camps, but it’s been years of me training myself to get to this point. I’m ready for TV and I haven’t had any trouble translating [my style] for TV.

I was there at House of Independents in Asbury Park, New Jersey when you nuked your knee in a match about Psychosis. Have you changed or adapted your style at all since the knee injury?

Joey Janela: No, I haven’t changed a thing. I think I’m crazier now. Well, no, actually. I’m safer now but you wouldn’t know that by watching me (laughs). I was cautious the first couple of months back from injury [because] I came back a few months earlier than I was supposed to. But since I’ve come back I’ve had my best performances. The knee is good. The rehab was great. I hope it never happens again. That was a year ago, man, woof.

As I mentioned before, you were one of the first guys handpicked to be a part of AEW. Can you talk about the fact you’re going to be a part of a brand new major wrestling company that’s going to be on national television, on the same channel, TNT, that Monday Nitro, a show you watched as a kid, was on?

Joey Janela:  It’s pretty wild. I still have a Nitro baseball cap. I couldn’t have guessed even five years ago that this would’ve happened with AEW, and TNT. I knew about the TNT deal a before a lot of people on the roster did. I can’t wait, it’s primetime television. You know it’s going to be fun. I don’t think there’s any competition. People are looking to watch something different. I think the first episode is going to get big ratings, and really set the bar for professional wrestling heading into 2020. Let’s all have fun, and make money.

The Wednesday Night Wars are what everyone’s talking about. How do you feel about NXT airing the same time as AEW? Does that enter your mind at all or are you just focused on Joey Janela and AEW?

Joey Janela: I have a lot of friends there. They signed a lot of guys from the indies. I watched it [two weeks ago] for the first time in a couple years, and it was there first show on USA. Frankly, I found it a little bit boring — but that’s just my taste. I like a little bit of weirdness in my wrestling. I like a little bit of strange happenings (laughs). I think AEW is going to be something different. They say it’s going to be a war. It’s two prime time wrestling TV companies with a lot of money behind them going head-to-head for the first time since the ’90s. So, why not? Wrestling is only going to get better from here.

My final question is this. You’ve been wrestling since you were a teenager. You have dedicated half your life to this business, and have sacrificed so much, especially physically, because of wrestling. So what is it about wrestling that you love that has inspired you to dedicate so much of yourself to it?

Joey Janela: Wrestling was there for me during the bad times. It’s something I’ve always liked. Before people grew out of pro wrestling every Monday all people could talk about was what happened on WWE and WCW pay per views. It wasn’t just a couple of people, it was everyone. It was all about The Spice Girls, WWF, and WCW during that time of the Monday Night Wars. Once that ended a lot of people stopped liking it, but I never stopped. I snuck my way into it that’s how much I loved the business. My story is such a ride. I rode my way into the business the hard way. There’s one thing to have a trainer and go in every day and learn business. Then there’s another way of basically being a wrestling gypsy and learn everything yourself. 15 years later it’s either — because I don’t have a college education — I become successful at professional wrestling, or I become unsuccessful at life. That’s my thing. I put my mind and heart into it for the last 15 years and it’s finally paid off. 15 years is a long time. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s career was about 15 years. Right now, I’m in the same year of my career as when “Stone Cold” Steve Austin retired, which is kinda crazy. I just hit my first big contract in the business, so we’re going to see what happens, and hopefully everyone makes a lot of money and has a good time.

You know, I’m never going to forget this. Fans won’t forget this. The wrestlers won’t forget this time we’re living in. Some people take it for granted and don’t realize how crazy it is and that’s because they probably just got into the business. I’ve been around for 15 years and I’ve seen how hard was in 2005 to get a deal and the only [indie] guys getting a deal were CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. Samoa Joe didn’t get a WWE deal to the past few years which is insane to think about. Now there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and if you do your thing, go to a training school, and hone your craft you can make money in this business. I think this is going to be a great time, and I look forward to putting a lot of energy into AEW.

Catch Joey Janela every Wednesday night on TNT starting October 2 on All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.