Joey Styles fired from EVOLVE after making a Trump-related joke

[Prince Bálor]

Former WWE employee Joey Styles was fired by Gabe Sapolsky after making a Donald Trump-related joke during tonight's EVOLVE 72 iPPV. While on commentary, Styles said the following to announcer Joanna Rose but stopped before the sentence:

"Joanna, you look great tonight, and if our next President were here tonight, he'd want to grab you by the..."
Styles then said the word he was going to use is what EVOLVE manager Stokely Hathaway is, indicating he meant to say "p---y."

Below are comments from Sapolsky, the WWN Live VP of Talent Relations:



FloSlam, who was streaming the event, also commented:

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LOL, Styles saying that on air. Come on, dude, that was dumb.

I imagine Joey's reaction after getting fired was: OH MY GOOOOOOD!

Can't really blame Gabe for firing him, though.

 

[Jacob Fox]

Yeah that was pretty dumb to say on the air.

 

[RedDwarfTechy]

Never liked him lol

 

[Jacob Fox]

Never liked him lol

Me neither. He was the only guy in wrestling that I have ever met that was a bigger douche than Shawn Michaels. I'm assuming you meant his commentary, though, which I was also not a fan of.

 

[RedDwarfTechy]

Me neither. He was the only guy in wrestling that I have ever met that was a bigger douche than Shawn Michaels. I'm assuming you meant his commentary, though, which I was also not a fan of.

A bit of both, his commentary was clue enough of him being annoying in person too

 

[Rosie]

Joey Styles messed up?

 

[Solid Snake]

With everything going on in the world, saying stuff like this will only end badly. You'd think he would know better. Freedom of speech yes, but freedom from losing your job over saying something stupid... :

 

[Stopspot]

With everything going on in the world, saying stuff like this will only end badly. You'd think he would know better. Freedom of speech yes, but freedom from losing your job over saying something stupid... :

Joey Styles is a general piece of shit who thinks he can get away with saying shit because he worked ECW.

 

[Roadster]

I was always a fan of his commentary. A lot of people have gone on record saying he's quite the cunt in more intimate settings.

 

[Solid Snake]

Joey Styles is a general piece of shit who thinks he can get away with saying shit because he worked ECW.

The only thing I know about him is that he is annoying and pisses people off all the time. lol

 

[Stopspot]

The only thing I know about him is that he is annoying and pisses people off all the time. lol

He's a prime example of rightwing fuckface. He's one of those guys who tried to have Obama deported.

Granted Gabe is also a bit of a scumbag (tries to downplay/defend Rob Feinstein's pedophilia which almost killed ROH back in the early days). But I do applaud him for standing up and getting rid of Joey for talking like that to one of his employees. Granted this could all turn out to be a fucking tasteless angle which would probably just piss me off.

 

[Solid Snake]

Granted this could all turn out to be a fucking tasteless angle which would probably just piss me off.

If that is the case, shame on them.

 

[Black Wizard]

Love his commentary, but yeah he says some dumb things.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Sooo, Gabe wrote on his Twitter that there was a mandate about not getting into politics on the show. Here's his tweet:

 

[Prince Bálor]

AN OPEN LETTER FROM JOEY STYLES

Friday night, I panicked on camera during the live broadcast of Evolve 72 on FloSlam when I realized that heel manager, Stokely Hathaway and I would be doing our promo at ringside and not in the ring with ring announcer, Joanna Rose as I had anticipated.

I told Joanna before the show that during my promo with her and Stokely in the ring, I was going to ask her about English tailoring so we could compare my suit with Stokely Hathaway's suit.

I had no idea what to say when Stokely Hathaway and I were at ringside about to trade promos and I didn't have Joanna with us to ask about English tailoring.

I panicked and I did exactly what Gabe Sapolsky told me not to do earlier in the week and made a political joke. The joke included a partial quote from the President-Elect that was meant to mock him and then, in-turn, my scripted nemesis, Stokely Hathaway.

I started the joke and stopped quoting the President-Elect without using the offensive word.

Again, I did not utter the offensive word.

I then turned to Stokely Hathaway and said "the word that I will not use, brings me to you."

As the veteran, I should have walked through the promo segment with Stokely Hathaway and Joanna Rose before the event so that there was no possibility of me putting myself in that position.

Gabe was justifiably furious at me and thought that I had endangered his relationship with FloSports.

After the event, I looked Gabe in the eye, apologized to him, and as not as to put him in the awkward position of having to fire someone he has known for 20 years, told him to fire me publicly and then shook his hand.

I apologized to Joanna who said she said she wasn't upset because she knew it was a joke about the President-Elect. It didn't matter if she was upset or not, therefore I apologized to her again, repeatedly.

I apologized to Jeremy Botter, the representative from FloSlam who was at the event, and he wasn't upset. It didn't matter if he was upset or not, therefore I apologized to him again, repeatedly. I also told him that Gabe and EVOLVE had no knowledge of what I was going to say and my actions should not be held against EVOLVE.

I apologized to the locker room and the wrestlers weren't upset. It didn't matter if they were upset, therefore I apologized to the wrestlers again, repeatedly.

While apologizing to the wrestlers, I saw that Timothy Thatcher obviously had a very serious concussion.

Timothy Thatcher's main event opponent, Drew Gulak also recognized that it was a very serious concussion and said that Timothy needed to go to the hospital.

I went to the hospital with Timothy and Larry Dallas. Gabe arrived at the hospital shorty after we did. We were cordial to each other, because I had already apologized to him and he had already fired me publicly. All that we were rightly concerned about by that point was Timothy Thatcher's condition.

Larry and I stayed at the hospital with Timothy until he was released at 1:30 AM into Larry's care to recover at Larry's home in NY until he is well enough to fly home to California.

While at the hospital watching Timothy struggle to regain his memory of what happened and even remember my name, I made the decision to stay quiet about EVOLVE 72 until today so as not to take attention away from EVOLVE on FloSlam on Sunday night.

In summary, I panicked on a live broadcast, ad-libbed by telling bad joke, apologized to Gabe, told him to publicly fire me to protect himself and then apologized sincerely and repeatedly to everybody involved including Joanna Rose, Jeremy Botter from FloSlam and the wrestlers in the EVOLVE locker room.

In conclusion, I'd like to thank FloSlam for editing out the segment from the EVOLVE 72 replay on FloSlam so fans can enjoy the historic event forever without it being marred.

Joey Styles

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