Joey Janela was a recent guest on the Steve Austin Show podcast; you can read a few highlights below:
(Transcription credit to Bill Pritchard for Wrestlezone.com)
Joey Janela comments on getting into wrestling as an untrained talent, how he got around promoters catching on:
[New Jersey] is a real carny place when it comes to professional wrestling, and things are a lot different than when I broke in. I think it was about 2005-2006, and there were a lot of carny wrestling promotions that would use local guys, bring in a name or two, whoever was released or the Tito Santanas or Greg ‘The Hammer’ [Valentine]—things have changed. The promoter was like ‘hey do you want to wrestle? What you have to do is sell a few tickets. Here’s ten tickets.’ Basically they did the same thing that they did with rock bands; sell ten tickets and we’ll put you on the show, and that’s basically how I got my start. I knew enough to get through—I wasn’t good at all—but learning stuff from camps and seminars, that got me through. Camps and seminars with everyone from Gerald Brisco to AJ Styles, from Ultimo Dragon to Matt Hardy, Billy Gunn, Dusty Rhodes, Dean Malenko, the list goes on. I’ve done over 50. That’s really were I grasped—seminars and camps are the best—I’ve always picked one thing out of each seminar and camp and I’ve kept it with me for my run right now.
Joey comments on what his ‘Bad Boy’ persona is based on:
My persona is basically something that evolved throughout the years. It’s kind of based off of who I was as a teen; [I was] rebellious, getting arrested by cops. It’s an extension of me. Some people compare it to an ‘80s prick bad boy in ‘80s movies, and I do a lot of experimenting, but right now it works. There’s no reason to change it. I’m always trying to evolve the character and who I am, I think that’s why in the last couple of years my stock has risen on the independents.
Janela talks about how past indie stars made it easier for today’s wrestlers to make money, what the atmosphere is like with today’s indie talents:
Everyone is pretty cool with each other. Most of the guys I wrestle with now, we’re all pretty successful. All of the guys that are traveling city to city—I see Matt Riddle five times a month, I see Jeff Cobb four times a month, I see Pentagon and [Rey] Fenix every couple of weeks—I feel like we’re all pretty successful in our own right. We’re all making money and there’s a clear light at the end of the tunnel. In the 2000’s there wasn’t because there was none of this. CM Punk and [Bryan] Danielson kind of opened up the door for guys like us. But there was really no light at the end of the tunnel then for indie guys, but [now] it’s like Toy Story when the claw machine is coming and grabbing the aliens and [they’re like] ‘The Claw!’ I feel like every week someone’s getting picked up by the claw and going to WWE or New Japan and making money. It’s just a ridiculous thing that there’s a goal now that we can work towards. It’s not as hard as it was for the guys before me, and I thank them for that. There’s light at the end of the tunnel and I hope it works out.
Janela comments on Jim Cornette being critical of his high spots and bumps:
I don’t think I’m a target for him. My name comes up; there’s people on Twitter where if I do something crazy they’ll send him the clips. ‘Oh, we’re going to send it Cornette and rile him up!’ Someone will hit me up like ‘oh Cornette’s talking bad about you on his podcast [impersonates Cornette] it’s this god damn Janela idiot again! This god damn barnyard wrestler!’ It’s the same thing for guys like the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. He shits on them too; he just does it to boost his audience and that’s what his audience likes. They like to hear Jim Cornette go off on professional wrestling; that’s why they listen to his show. I don’t really hate the guy, and if I’d see the guy, I’d shake his hand and joke around with him if he wanted to, unless he called me some barnyard garbage wrestler. That’s what he likes to do and that’s what his fans want. They want to hear him bash current professional wrestling, and I can’t blame him for that. That’s how he makes his money these days.
