Joey Janela, who was part of the first group of wrestlers signed by All Elite Wrestling when the wrestling company started in 2019, says he won’t re-sign with AEW in a recent interview with Denise Salcedo
This is a change of heart for Janela, who had previously stated that his contract with AEW expired in May of 2022 and was hoping the company would renew it.
“I said in a couple interviews with Sean {Ross Sapp} in September that All Out weekend, I said ‘yes.’ Recently, in an interview with Barstool Sports I said ‘yes’. My contract is up on May 1st {2022}. And I am gonna have to say no now. I am not interested in signing with AEW. Re-signing with them,”
– Joey Janela
Janela continued, saying he was a little scared getting back into the independent wrestling world and making money.
“You take those things for granted, you’re getting a paycheck every two weeks,” Janela said. “A pretty good paycheck. In your head you’re like, ‘shit, when this is over, this is gonna disappear.’”
However, Janela is now looking forward to being a hustler again the business.
“I was scared to get back into that world but now I am no longer scared,” Janela said. “Back in the day before AEW, I was going out to wrestle for basically nothing. I was doing it because I love it, I would do three to four shows a week.”
Janela said he’d rack up small pay days from the promoters, plus his merchandise and he’d be satisfied with his earnings.
“I’d be satisfied and I’d be making a lot of money, But now my price has gone significantly up so I didn’t know if the promoters were gonna welcome me back with open arms.”
– Joey Janela
It will be interesting to see where Joey Janela shows up at in the future after May 1st. He is already a GCW regular and doing very well there.
