AJ Styles & Arik Cannon’s Social Media Argument Over Claims Avery Styles Did Not Help Out at GCW Event Update – Nattie Says Avery & Cannon’s Conversation Should Have Happened In Private

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles and indies wrestler Arik Cannon were involved in an online incident on social media this past Saturday over an argument revolving around Cannon’s claims that Styles’ son Avery did not help out with the ring setup at an event for Game Changer Wrestling this past July and Styles stating that his son was only paid to wrestle and not do other work. This dispute originated after Cannon had responded to recent comments from Nattie who had praised Avery for being someone who was “paying his dues” for his wrestling career and not just coasting off his famous wrestling father. GCW had issued an official statement stating that Cannon does not speak for the company and only himself for this situation. Besides AJ, Cody Rhodes, Lexis King, and Nic Nemeth have joined in with their own views about the situation with Rhodes and King being in support of Avery and Nemeth feeling AJ and Rhodes’ comments did more to hurt than help Avery.

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured Nattie as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Nattie’s thoughts about the situation and her belief that it should have been handled in private and not publicly.

“First and foremost, everybody is allowed to feel how they want to feel. That’s not just in this situation. Our fans, wrestlers, promoters, people in general all have different on things, and that’s part of life. AJ feels this way, I feel this way, the promoter feels this way. Everybody is allowed to feel how they want to feel. I’m just big on communication. If I have an issue with Nic Nemeth, which I’ve never had, I would probably talk to Nic privately and say, ‘Hey Nic, you weren’t really polite to my cats when you came over.’ Communication is really important. It goes back to us being able to talk like adults. My deepest, darkest, hardest moments of my life; I would never take it to social media and go on a Twitter rant about something because everybody is going to have an opinion. It can get really explosive. I think the most mature way for everybody to handle stuff, especially if you have a problem with them directly, is to talk to them and say, ‘Hey, this is what I feel, and I want to pass this message along to you.’ Everybody is allowed to feel how they want to feel, and communication is key. All I did, and I do feel bad because I didn’t mean to cause this big controversy, all I was trying to do is send out a positive message because I went to GCW and the match that impressed the hell out of me was Marcus vs. Avery.

All I’m going to say, because I don’t want to bring more life to this situation, is that I watched the match, TJ watched the match, and it impressed me so much. It was two young men working on their craft and pouring their heart and soul into the mat.

I remember when I was first coming up in developmental, and I was watching the monitor at a live event, and somebody was really upset that I didn’t give my chair away at the monitor. One of the veterans was upset. I was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I would’ve given my chair away; I just wanted to watch the show and make sure that I watched everybody’s matches because I thought that was the respectful thing to do.’ Later on, I was pulled aside. It was that beginner, ‘If a veteran is here, give your chair to them.’ It wasn’t a big deal, but somebody privately pulled me aside and we talked about it. I didn’t even realize it. I was sitting in the front, and I was that was supposed to be a rule they had where the vets sit at the front. I didn’t know those rules. I just wanted to watch the show. From that day on, I took a different seat because I didn’t want to make anybody upset. I had a private conversation and it was a non-issue. Back then, we didn’t have social media so nobody could say, ‘Nattie is this because she didn’t give up her chair.’ It’s one of those things where you can’t make everybody happy, but I do think communication is key and if you have an issue with someone and it’s upsetting you, talk to them privately and smarten them up.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com