10 Times The AEW Locker Room Must Have Been VERY Awkward
7. When Joey Janela Met Cash Wheeler
In November 2019, Cash Wheeler, then working as Dash Wilder in WWE, attended UFC 244. AEW's Joey Janela was also present.
The two performers are...not alike. Cash is indebted to and respectful of the old school, where Janela is a transgressive irritant who took a markedly different route to notoriety. He wrestled invisible men, took terrifying and stupid bumps off rooftops, and was involved in a notorious spot in which Lio Rush no-sold a powerbomb off a ladder and through a table. This sort of thing drew the ire of Jim Cornette, naturally, who has reinvented himself as a bad-faith take merchant on the back of whining about it. Cornette adores FTR, and so he was at the centre of the heated exchange; when Twitter user @MichaelLu5132 pointed out to Janela that Wheeler was also there, and that they should "shoot an angle," Janela was snarky in response, asking if Wheeler was the bald one or the one with hair. Janela then said he'd look out for the one with "the booty with the tennis racket imprints on it".
Quite understandably, a pissed Wheeler - per Janela - refused the offer of a bear claw and was "very rude". Janela had already mocked him on Twitter, so what was Cash meant to do?
Accept it?
Fast-forward to 2020, and Wheeler was All Elite. No backstage reports emerged of any kind of confrontation, but you have to imagine it was awkward when they ran into one another. Who got the last laugh?
Janela lived down to his rep with more than one reckless performance, where Wheeler is one of the most over talents in the company.