Why Joey Janela Had Backstage Heat In AEW

Joey Janela dived deep on the matter of his impending All Elite Wrestling departure during his interview with Denise Salcedo stating, amongst other things, that injuring Eddie Kingston may have been the "final straw" for him in the Tony Khan-helmed promotion.

'The Bad Boy' confessed to kicking Kingston in the face "a little bit too hard" when they wrestled on AEW's 8 January Dark tapings. Kingston suffered a broken orbital bone as a result of this, delaying his ongoing feud with Chris Jericho, which eventually culminated at Revolution 2022:-

“…I think they had plans for me, Tony kept on saying ‘after this we’re bring you back to TV’ but unfortunately I ink a lot of it has to do with a situation where I worked with Eddie Kingston in Charlotte, and I super kicked him in the face a little bit too hard, came in a little bit too hot, I had been squatting probably 50 more pounds than I am used to be squatting, and doing a hundred pounds more on the leg press and I don’t know, I didn’t realize I had that type of power in my legs and I gave him a super kick and I broke his orbital bone. He was going into a feud with Chris Jericho, and I feel that may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. A lot of guys, maybe some older heads that believed my hype and believed that I was some kind of dangerous professional wrestler. 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. 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."

Moments later, Janela quipped that AEW Head of Talent Relations Christopher Daniels "would love nothing than to tell me I am no longer with the company," seemingly as a product of the incident described above.

PWInsider's Mike Johnson has since confirmed Janela's suspicions. There was legitimate heat on Joey following the Kingston incident because it meant Eddie had to miss several weeks of television, forcing a change in plans. On top of this, Janela had, indeed, developed the unwanted reputation of being somebody who multiple people had been hurt while wrestling, which was tough to shake off.

Johnson adds that Janela isn't expected to be used by AEW before his contract expires in late April.

Janela was a day one AEW talent, having been introduced at the company's inaugural press conference in January 2019, though he had wrestled exclusively on YouTube since May 2021.