Joey Janela talks match formulas and more.
Often criticized for being an "outlaw mud wrestler," Joey Janela knows he brings more to the table than what fans may have seen in viral social media clips. Janela battled David Starr at Beyond Wrestling's Americanrana 19 in July in a one-hour iron man match that featured everything from mat wrestling to hardcore high spots.
"I don't have a set move set or a formula. A lot of these guys, they get lazy. They develop a formula which they use every match. And it makes their matches lack excitement," Janela told Bleacher Report. "I've always been a good technical wrestler. I'm pretty good at adapting to my opponent. I wrestled a match with Zach Sabre Jr. a couple years ago where we went to a 30-minute time limit draw. Thirty minutes of technical wrestling. That's the kind of match my critics are never going to watch, because they don't want to admit I have that aspect."
Janela continued, "Starr is one of the best wrestlers in the world and easy to wrestle. And that's what happens. The crowd was very involved from the beginning of that match, because we'd built a storyline over three years. They showed us the proper respect and were into the story we were telling. The match was organic. We didn't call it in the back. We just went out there and did it. We talked about the high points, what we were going to hit and the rest was done in the ring organically in the ring. It was one of the finest performances of my wrestling career. Fans were telling me the hour flew by, which is something that's hard to do in a one-hour match. I'm happy with it."
Janela has been part of every AEW event thus far, though he hasn't had much success in terms of win-loss record. He lost a Cracker Barrel Clash triple threat at AEW All Out, getting pinned by Jimmy Havoc in a match that also featured Darby Allin.
"The three way, I think it was good, harmless fun with some craziness in there. We were within the boundaries of a PG-14 environment. And, if we had done it without the staple gun, I think the match could work in a PG environment. For the most part, the craziness was contained," said Janela. "I'm not really big on people taking chairs to the head. I know how bad concussions can be. When I was younger, I did take chair shots to the head. That's a no-no for me now."
Janela is set to begin full-time with AEW when the company premieres on TNT on Oct. 2. He will say goodbye to Game Changer Wrestling, a promotion he helped build with his annual Spring Break shows, on Sept. 30.
