Over the last few months we’ve seen a few stars part ways with All Elite Wrestling, and Joey Janela recently confirmed during an interview with Denise Salcedo that he will not be signing a new AEW contract. During the interview Joey Janela also opened up about injuring Eddie Kingston, and how it hurt his reputation in AEW.
“…I think they had plans for me, Tony kept on saying ‘after this we’re bring you back to TV’ but unfortunately I ink a lot of it has to do with a situation where I worked with Eddie Kingston in Charlotte, and I super kicked him in the face a little bit too hard, came in a little bit too hot, I had been squatting probably 50 more pounds than I am used to be squatting, and doing a hundred pounds more on the leg press and I don’t know, I didn’t realize I had that type of power in my legs and I gave him a super kick and I broke his orbital bone. He was going into a feud with Chris Jericho, and I feel that may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. A lot of guys, maybe some older heads that believed my hype and believed that I was some kind of dangerous professional wrestler. I’ve had times where I’ve injured people of course, everyone has. But once you get that reputation, it’s hard to break that. I’ve had a string of bad luck throughout my AEW career and that may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back but I don’t know because they don’t communicate with me. They did the same thing to Marko Stunt. They just stopped talking to him. But I appreciate them, but if you have talent relations, I know Christopher Daniels would love nothing more than to tell me I am no longer with the company. But it is what it is. I am not sad, I am not mad, I am not mad at anyone, I had a wonderful experience.”
PWInsider is reporting that AEW sources confirmed Janela’s suspicions as there was a lot of heat on him for injuring Eddie Kingston. The injury reportedly forced AEW to change plans for the Chris Jericho feud as Eddie Kingston had to be off TV for several weeks so he could heal.
It’s also being reported that the internal belief was that there were several talents who were injured while working in the ring with Joey Janela, and that worked against him. AEW is not expected to utilize Janela before his deal expires in late April.
