Paul Wight Offers Angry Take On Avery Styles Drama (WWE News)
AEW's Paul Wight offers his thoughts on the contentious situation involving AJ Styles' son
Paul Wight has weighed in on the Avery Styles drama that recently flared up after the son of the 'Phenomenal One' allegedly showed a lack of respect before and after one of his first independent dates.
It kicked off when Arik Cannon posted on X about Avery Styles not helping with set-up at the GCW event he worked on July 31. This triggered a response from various wrestlers on either side of the debate; most notably Cody Rhodes, Natalya and Styles' own father AJ. His reply in particular magnified the story beyond the usual back-and-forth bubble, and 'No More B.S' has been the latest to share his thoughts.
Speaking to TMZ, the artist formerly known as The Big Show said; “F*ck that bullsh*t. Okay? Paying your dues, to me, is an old timer’s way of intimidating and bullying and f*cking with the younger talent for no goddamn reason. If a talent comes in respectful with a good attitude...Why should someone hold that against you because you didn’t drive for 35 dollars a night, and you didn’t set up some broken torn ass down ring, and you didn’t struggle for all this stuff. Okay. Why punish somebody for that? My thing is when I came in, everyone was so mad at me because my first match was against Hulk Hogan. I was 22 years old, is that my fault? Should I have gone to independents, should I have learned how people lie and manipulate and bullshit in smaller leagues and promotors don’t pay you, all these other stories that these other old timers went through that made them seasoned?
Going on to talk about his own process for helping young talent, he added;
"I don’t like punishing younger talent because that’s not what our business should be about, our business should be about inspiring younger talent, helping them so they don’t make mistakes, helping them avoid pitfalls. Now if they don’t listen, I have a three strike rule. I will tell you something three times, if you don’t listen to it, I’m done. I’m not gonna waste my breath, you can figure it out yourself.”
It remains to be seen if any of this will impact Avery's trajectory, though enough second generation stars have come out in defence of him at this point that he may have made just as many friends as enemies backstage from the entire ordeal.