EVOLVE Wrestling fires Joey Styles for on-air remark

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Josh Nason | @joshnason | Nov 12, 2016 7:44 pm
Joey Styles

Joey Styles will forever be known as the voice of Extreme Championship Wrestling, but what he said on air Saturday during EVOLVE 72 was just too extreme for them.

Before the night's main event featuring Timothy Thatcher and Drew Gulak, Styles said on air toward ring announcer Joanna Rose, “Joanna, you look great tonight. And if our next President were here tonight, he’d want to grab you by the..."

The reference is, of course, related to President-elect Donald Trump's infamous comment made on a tour bus in 2005 that was picked up by a hot microphone he was unaware was on.

Styles had said on-air that he was told to not get too political on air, essentially setting up the comment.

EVOLVE head Gabe Sapolsky was not thrilled with Styles' choice of words.

I deeply apologize for Joey Styles' comments and am furious

— Gabe Sapolsky (@BookItGabe) November 13, 2016

And then 30 minutes later, Sapolsky delivered some news shortly after the show had wrapped up:

We've parted ways with Joey Styles and that's my final comment on this. Thank you for your support.

— Gabe Sapolsky (@BookItGabe) November 13, 2016

Streaming partner FloSlam tweeted that they support EVOLVE's decision, and that the replay will be delayed due to editing.

Styles is a longtime conservative voice who has gone after President Barack Obama on Twitter frequently through the years. As of this writing, he has yet to comment on the firing.

After being released by WWE in August, Styles had become a voice for several indie groups including EVOLVE, Beyond Wrestling, and CHIKARA.

[Big Red Machine]

Stupid Joey.


Well... hopefully he'll come to ROH and not say anything like that.

[XIV]

Stupid Joey.


Well... hopefully he'll come to ROH and not say anything like that.

Couple months, ROH will have him back. I'd like to think Styles is smart enough to realise his mistake.

Do you know where he will be next? WCPW I'd think.

[Big Red Machine]

Stupid Joey.


Well... hopefully he'll come to ROH and not say anything like that.

Couple months, ROH will have him back. I'd like to think Styles is smart enough to realise his mistake.

Do you know where he will be next? WCPW I'd think.

Who is WCPW?

[cero2k]

Stupid Joey.


Well... hopefully he'll come to ROH and not say anything like that.

Couple months, ROH will have him back. I'd like to think Styles is smart enough to realise his mistake.

Do you know where he will be next? WCPW I'd think.

Who is WCPW?

the What Culture promotion, they have tons of money somehow.

He's doing Beyond Wrestling, who is also part of FlowSports, so hopefully Gabe doesn't blacklist him with them

[XIV]

Stupid Joey.


Well... hopefully he'll come to ROH and not say anything like that.

Couple months, ROH will have him back. I'd like to think Styles is smart enough to realise his mistake.

Do you know where he will be next? WCPW I'd think.

Who is WCPW?

You really need to start watching WhatCulture WWE videos on YouTube. King Ross's WTF Moments are brilliant and he's rarely wrong.

WCPW is the promotion which currently has Del Rio, Angle & Rhodes bouncing around it along with some British talent. They're making Bwrestling accessible in Britain again.

[cero2k]

You really need to start watching WhatCulture WWE videos on YouTube. King Ross's WTF Moments are brilliant and he's rarely wrong.

WCPW is the promotion which currently has Del Rio, Angle & Rhodes bouncing around it along with some British talent. They're making Bwrestling accessible in Britain again.

actually Red, you should review the "How WWE should have done..." videos, i think you'd have some good comments on them

[Big Red Machine]

Couple months, ROH will have him back. I'd like to think Styles is smart enough to realise his mistake.

Do you know where he will be next? WCPW I'd think.

Who is WCPW?

You really need to start watching WhatCulture WWE videos on YouTube. King Ross's WTF Moments are brilliant and he's rarely wrong.

WCPW is the promotion which currently has Del Rio, Angle & Rhodes bouncing around it along with some British talent. They're making Bwrestling accessible in Britain again.

I despise them. Too many continuity errors. The one that drive me nuts is called something like "things WWE wants you to forget" and says that Triple H date-rated Steph, which is the impression you would get if you watched the wedding segment, but not any of the follow-up after Armageddon where Hunter & Steph admitted it was an evil plan all along and Steph was just acting in the drive-through seen (and so was her friend in the scene where her friend drugs her drink).
It's the same sort of reason I go nuts every time people say it is ridiculous that "Hunter was just handed the World Heavyweight Title in 2002: Because everyone seems to forget that at the time Hunter was the #1 contender but then Brock signed exclusively to SD, so giving the belt to Hunter as essentially the #1 contender winning the match by forfeit but they need a new belt because they know they're never going to get the old one (basically what Verne did to spin the AWA belt off of the NWA belt).

[Big Red Machine]

You really need to start watching WhatCulture WWE videos on YouTube. King Ross's WTF Moments are brilliant and he's rarely wrong.

WCPW is the promotion which currently has Del Rio, Angle & Rhodes bouncing around it along with some British talent. They're making Bwrestling accessible in Britain again.

actually Red, you should review the "How WWE should have done..." videos, i think you'd have some good comments on them

Maybe I'll check them out.

[XIV]

You really need to start watching WhatCulture WWE videos on YouTube. King Ross's WTF Moments are brilliant and he's rarely wrong.

WCPW is the promotion which currently has Del Rio, Angle & Rhodes bouncing around it along with some British talent. They're making Bwrestling accessible in Britain again.

actually Red, you should review the "How WWE should have done..." videos, i think you'd have some good comments on them

Maybe I'll check them out.

The "Wants you to forget" videos are annoying, but the WTF moments and some of Adam Blampied's "how WWE should have done" videos are actually quite good.