Joey Janela on Him No Longer Working with Orange Crush’s PRODUCE Wrestling & His Recent Issues with PRODUCE Promoter Adam Abdalla

As noted before, Joey Janela announced on Tuesday that he and Megan Bayne have pulled out of their upcoming co-produced Volume 4: Janelasus Rex! event for PRODUCE Wrestling and he will no longer be working for or with PRODUCE going forward due to issues involving PRODUCE promoter Adam Abdalla.

A recent episode of Fightful Overbooked’s In The Weeds podcast featured Janela as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Janela giving more details about his issues with Abdalla that led to their working relationship falling apart.

“Me and Adam, we were really tight the last five years and stuff. Over the last six months, things have gone down south a lot with him and the way he talks to people and whatnot. A lot of people talk to each other in the locker room, I’m kind of the vet guy now on the indies so younger people are coming up to me like, ‘How should I handle this? This guy said this to me and that.’ It’s always been in the back of my mind like, fuck, I’m friends with his guy and he started a new company and stuff. I want it to be successful, but I did what I did yesterday — of course I was pissed off about the way he talked to me about the cancelled flight stuff. I’m not doing it for me, I’m doing it for a younger wrestler that wrestles for him. If he’s talking to me like that, imagine how he’s talking to a younger wrestler. Hopefully he just learns his lesson and doesn’t talk to people like that anymore. It is what it is, it’s wrestling. Wrestling is filled with petty drama and for some reason, I’m a magnet to that stuff. Someone sent me a Reddit thread that said Joey Janela loves to farm drama on social media, which is not true. This guy was my friend. To put it out there publicly, it’s kind of embarrassing but I had to do what I had to do. I missed out on so much money from this show, it was a humongous payday for me. I’m an independent wrestler, I don’t get a paycheck like I did a few years ago, I have to wrestle. I have to do as much shows as possible to make a living. Independent wrestling is not lucrative, it’s a hustle. It’s different than it was five years ago when I got out of AEW and I was selling all of these T-shirts. How many Joey Janela t-shirts does someone want to own now? They want to buy a Marcus Mathers t-shirt, they want to be a Flyin’ Ryan t-shirt, you know what I’m saying? They have 19 Joey Janela t-shirts. So, the hustle of the indies for me at 37 years old, it’s getting way harder. I’ve been around — some of these fans have seen me for the last 15 years straight. So, for me to go online and make a big deal about this, I had to be pissed off because I’m missing out on his humongous payday. Basically, double rent money from one show. So, it was embarrassing. It is what it is. I meant well with what I did. Good luck to PRODUCE, good luck to Adam, but he needs to learn how to speak to people properly.”

Janela also gave his thoughts about his previous friendship with Abdalla and encouraged him to get some help.

“Like I said, this guy was a good friend. He was the nicest guy, I’ve known this guy for years. He was always a joy to be around. Somewhere over the last year, it’s just changed. I don’t know if it’s with me. We used to party a lot of course, especially Atlantic City. We’d have a big suite, we’d have a party. We’d go to Hard Rock and drink after the shows. Wherever we’re at, he’s come to Japan with us and whatnot. He’s done a lot of GCW, we’ve done a lot of him. But, you can’t talk to people like that. It’s not only me. In the middle of the night at 4AM, I’m getting a thread of 45 texts from him with bad wrestling ideas. You wake up, you see this crazy fucking thread of wrestling ideas and you go, ‘Damn, listen, this is not really a good idea.’ This is not just me, it’s a lot of wrestlers that he’ll respond very rudely to like he’s the smartest man in wrestling. We all knew something was up, but he has kids and I wish him well. Maybe he should think about getting some help or something for whatever he’s doing to himself. It’s a shame. It’s one thing when I go online and shit on Bubba Ray Dudley or Nick LoPiccolo or whatever the fuck his name is or JD from New York or Sean Ross Sapp, when I shit on those guys. But, to do that with someone you are friends with, you know what I’m saying? It’s upsetting.”

Janela also gave his thoughts about how Abdalla had a falling out with Jersey Championship Wrestling and Brett Lauderdale.

“The whole thing, he was booking JCW. For years, JCW was like, I guess we just book the card and they’d just go out and do the show. JCW came back and they were doing them at The Mecca. It became a little bit more hands on when it came back. Telling people storylines and stuff, which is fine, it’s his money. Half his money, half is Brett’s money. But, yeah, just over the last year it’s gotten crazy. I think the argument started between Brett and him, the reason he started PRODUCE and left JCW, to Brett,  was over the J-Cup this year and the finish of the show. I think the finals was Billie Starkz and [Charles] Mason. He wanted them to shake hands after the tournament was over. I guess they didn’t want to do it or something, so they went up to Brett and said, ‘We don’t want to do it for character purposes or whatnot.’ Brett was like, ‘Oh, that’s no big deal, you guys don’t have to shake hands. Just have a good match.’ It didn’t sit right with him. It was like one of the biggest meltdowns over the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. That’s what set everything off, over a handshake.”

Janela also gave his thoughts about his decision to go public with his issues with Abdalla was due to him feeling he had a responsibility to set an example for younger talent.

“It’s indie wrestling. If you look at those texts, some of those texts are crazy like he’s setting up or doing a show at Wembley or something. He’s doing a show in an empty warehouse in Brooklyn, you know? What do you have to do at 8AM. Oh, I got a production meeting, this and that. I don’t know. I feel fucking bad. I went to sleep last night going, fuck, did I make a mistake or did I do the right thing? I had this thought in my head, you brought all of this shit to public forum. I went to sleep saying, alright, you did the right thing. He talked to you like that and I know he’s talked to younger wrestlers like that way fucking worse. It’s like, this is my 20th year in the business. I’ve been through it all. I got in the business in 2006. So, I was at the end of that weird 2000s era where wrestlers didn’t give a fuck. The end of that era of locker room bullying, hazing, the really sleazy bullshit that goes on. As a kid, I started when I’m 16, I met all these characters over the years. It’s like, shit, I don’t want people to go through what I went through or even worse. It’s really me looking out for the younger generation. Ever since I sobered up, last week was my two year anniversary of being sober and not drinking. Me and the locker room, I feel like I’ve stepped up to the plate of being more of a veteran, a locker room leader, someone that younger people can look up to. I really enjoy that aspect now of indie wrestling and helping people with their matches and helping people navigate this business until they get a contract somewhere. I just love indie wrestling, that is my drug now. That is my alcohol. Everytime I wrestle.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com