Booker T has branded the latest fiery stunt by former AEW star Joey Janela the “stupidest thing he’s ever seen.”
At Game Changer Wrestling’s Maniac event on May 21st, Joey Janela was defeated by Drew Parker in a chaotic Death Match.
During the bout, Janela set his foot on fire and delivered a Superkick to his opponent. However, after the spot, Janela was unable to put out the flames as they began to spread across the ring canvas. There appeared to be no fire extinguishers on hand, with officials pouring bottles of water on Janela and the ring, in an effort to control the quickly-spreading blaze.
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T held nothing back when discussing the dangerous spot, describing it as stupid.
“I am always willing to say in somebody’s face what I am willing to say on this show,” Booker said. “Joey Janela, that was the stupidest thing I ever seen in my career. I’m serious”
“He didn’t have on like a boot where it could actually fend off the flames for a minute,” Booker continued. “He had a kick pad on and a tennis shoe. And he put so much damn lighter fluid on his foot, I mean it probably soaked all the way through to his foot. And the thing is, I don’t know how many seconds it was … in flame, but it was more than 20 seconds. And fire can get hot in about 20 seconds.”
With his own days as a full-time performer behind him, the former World Champion now runs his own wrestling school alongside his own promotion, Reality of Wrestling. One of Booker’s former students is Roxanne Perez (formerly know as Rok-C) who is currently making waves in NXT 2.0.
Expanding further, the WWE Hall of Famer admitted that he advises his students to steer clear of Death Match promotions, as there is limited money to be made.
“Hey, if this the route you want to go, that’s on you,” he said. “But plan on working that scene forever, because this is not stuff that they do in the major leagues … It just makes zero sense, and that’s what I to try and teach my wrestlers. ‘Hey, stay away from that, don’t go that route, because at the end of the day you’re not going to make a whole lot of money doing it and you can screw something up permanently doing something like that.’”
“I know there’s a market out there for it,” Booker T said. “But it was probably 150 people, maybe 200, in that hall where they were doing this, and there couldn’t have been that much money in that little hall. Couldn’t have been.
Joey Janela left AEW on May 1st after his contract expired. The star was one of the promotion’s first signings following their launch in January 2019.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.