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In a new interview with Denise Salcedo, AEW wrestler Joey Janela revealed that his contract expires in early May and he does not plan on signing a new deal with AEW. “I said in a couple interviews with Sean Ross Sapp in September that All Out weekend, I said ‘yes,'” said Janela. 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. I 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. A pretty good paycheck. In your head you’re like ‘shit, when this is over, this is gonna disappear.’ But I was born a hustler in this business. I was scared to get back into that world but now I am no longer scared.”
Janela went on to say that while he’s enjoyed his time in AEW and has learned a lot about the wrestling business, he doesn’t appreciate the company going radio silent on wrestlers that have their contracts coming up. “I am not sad at all,” said Janela in regards to leaving AEW after his contract expires in May. “I did everything I wanted to do there. Within the 6 months I started there, my goal was to wrestle Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, main event TV, main event pay-per-view. Did it all. The only thing I didn’t get was an action figure. So be it. It’s over now and we’re just moving forward. I have no complaints, I thank Tony{Khan}.They’ve been doing this to people, they’ve been radio silent on the people they are letting the contracts expire, that’s why you have talent relations to talk to your talent and tell them what the situation is. If they are gonna have a paycheck coming in or if they are gonna be signed to a per appearance deal, which some of the guys have agreed to. I would never agree on a per appearance deal anywhere. My per appearance deal is gonna be when I am booking myself all over the world, I am booked in 6 different countries coming up. Per appearance on the independent scene, I wanna be my own boss.”
Janela went on to discuss how he thought he was going to get back on TV recentely, but it never happened. He said AEW booker and CEO Tony Khan told him that he was going to bring him onto TV after his feud with Sonny Kiss that took place mostly on AEW’s internet programming, but he accidentally injured Eddie Kingston shortly before he was supposed to feud with Chris Jericho and he thinks that’s what ultimately held him back from getting a push on TV. “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,” said Janela. “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.”
Contact Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @SR_Torch
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