In June 2020, John Skyler suffered a torn ACL on an episode of AEW Dark. Skyler was teaming with Brady Pierce in a bout against The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson) when the injury occurred. Skyler had made multiple appearances on AEW Dark during the pandemic era, including working a singles match against Billy Gunn in May 2020.
He returned from injury on the February 2 episode of AEW Dark when he teamed up with Ray Jaz against The Gunn Club.
Speaking to Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling, Skyler looked back on his time working on AEW Dark.
"That locker room at AEW was fantastic. Tony Khan was very gracious and kind to me when I was out injured, just to make sure that I was brought back on a regular basis, taken care of, even though I couldn’t wrestle. You know, but the locker room was great. It felt like a real team environment and I had a lot of fun matches there too that I really, really enjoyed like wrestling John Silver, wrestling Orange Cassidy which was probably my favorite match that I’ve had in a long time actually and I never thought in 2021, you know, if you would’ve asked me five years ago, I can’t believe I’m saying that right now. But, that match with Orange Cassidy was great. I got to wrestle my buddies, guys like S.C.U., it was just a lot of fun. I hate that a lot of -- I was there for almost a year and eight months of that I spent on the shelf injured but, it was just a great experience overall and I think it really showed the world and opened a lot of people’s eyes on just what I’m capable of doing whether I have three minutes of TV time or 30 minutes of TV time, I think I kind of showed the world exactly what I’m capable of in terms of being a professional wrestler," he said.
In an interview with Inside The Ropes, Cash Wheeler noted that Josh Skyler was going to be AEW's next breakout star.
When asked about Wheeler's comments, Skyler said, "Cash [Wheeler] is pretty much my best friend in the business so for him to say something like that and Dave too, Harwood, for them to -- they’ve gotta be the best tag team in the world whether they’re my buddies or not. I’m trying not to be biased here but to have that kind of high praise come from them and then also have a lot of guys that I grew up watching, mentors, legends that you said earlier, guys like Arn Anderson just shoot me a text saying, ‘Hey man, you’re doing all the right things. Just keep it up.’ I’m like, ‘Woah, where did this come from?’ So, but yeah, it’s a good feeling man and I definitely think the best is yet to come and it doesn’t matter where I end up… it doesn’t matter where I end up, I’m gonna make the most of it, I am gonna be a breakout star, wherever I end up."
Skyler made his debut for IMPACT Wrestling on August 12, defeating Matt Cardona.
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