Joey Janela Thinks AEW Will Have Deathmatch Elements, Wants to Face Kenny Omega in Return Match

– Joey Janela spoke with Uproxx for a new interview discussing his signing with AEW and more. Highlights are below:

On if he’ll be doing work on the AEW creative team: “Who knows? I would love that. And it’s just right now, they’re just starting up. You know, it’s like, I don’t even know if they have a TV deal. Like, I definitely want to be there for them, Matt and Nick, Cody, and Tony Khan – I rarely talk to Kenny Omega. I’ve really never talked to him in my life… but these guys are great guys,” said Janela. “These guys have the same mindset that I do for professional wrestling… They want to keep their creativity. They don’t want people to strip them of what makes them great, and that’s the same way I am. And I’ve heard from Cody and the Bucks before that Spring Break, you know, was a huge step in the direction of them running All In. And those guys are awesome and they’re great guys. And I’ve been to Evolve, and I’ve told Gabe Sapolsky, ‘Yes, I want to sign with WWE, that’s my goal.’ Then All In happened and that changed everything,” said Janela. “You know, I went six minutes over my time at that show. If I did that for WWE, I’d be f*cking fired. With those guys, it was “You killed it. You did a good job. Don’t do it again.” They let me keep my creativity. There was no agent to agent my match. I told them what I was doing and that was it. That’s a place I want to be, and, you know, I can’t wait for the future.”

On if his ultimate goal was to sign with WWE after Spring Break II: “Yeah, I think for sure. It’s the ultimate goal. It’s WWE. But there was no All In before that, you know? And no one knew what was going on. That wasn’t there. That wasn’t an option. And, you know, I was like, “Shit, I want to wrestle on WrestleMania. Once I wrestle on WrestleMania I can die happy and that’s it. It can be a f*cking battle royal; it can be whatever.” Then I realized, “Shit, I can do a lot more than this.” I can make a lot more money, and, you know, I can live my dreams, and when I’m forty-one years old, forty years old like AJ Styles, you know, look at my options and sign to WWE when I have kids and a wife and, you know, I want a legacy. I don’t want a f*cking – a couple years ago you could look at me like I want to die in a wrestling ring. I probably did have a death wish, but now it’s like, shit, you know, I can make a lot of money doing this, and shit, maybe even be a millionaire one day. Who knows? And if I’m a millionaire, I’m f**ked.”

On AEW possibly having a deathmatch element: “Yeah, I think so. I mean, you have two of the most famous guys who have participated in death matches, me and Jimmy Havoc, on the same roster, and my goal is to bring that to a big arena and not hold back and not let them tell me, you know, what a deathmatch – I know what a deathmatch is and if you want that type of situation on your wrestling show, I’m going to bring it. Jimmy Havoc’s going to bring it, and, you know, I’m looking forward to working with these guys. These guys are open to a lot of ideas and they’re f*cking great dudes and I can’t wait to work for AEW.”

On why he loves deathmatches: “It’s just like nothing else, like a car crash. And deathmatch wrestling has the best psychology in professional wrestling. I talked to Dick Togo once, who’s a legendary Japanese wrestler, and I asked him what he thought about deathmatch wrestling and he said it’s the best psychology in all of professional wrestling because it actually contains real elements of f*cking death. The object of a deathmatch is not to die. That’s it.”

On who he wants to face in his return match: “Kenny Omega. One hundred percent. You may not see it, but me and Kenny Omega a lot of people have told me that are friends with him, friends with me, say, ‘You guys are very similar people. Very similar people in the ring in the way you think, creativity and improve and the way you do things.’ Kenny Omega is number one right now and that’s one of the main reasons I signed to AEW is to have a match with Kenny Omega and I want to have that match to – there’s still a lot of naysayers who might say “Joey Janela can’t go,” but everyone knows, or my fans know, that I can go with anyone and have a two hour match with anybody, and that’s the way I am. And Kenny Omega is the one I want to wrestle, and I want to have my match with Kenny Omega. I want to have that match, that Okada-Kenny Omega match in the States with that man, and a match that just lives on in history and everyone’s raving about for years to come.”