Joey Styles has issued an open letter addressing his departure from Evolve due to an explicit violation of the company’s request to avoid any political references during this weekend’s Evolve 72 show, the first iPPV broadcast on the new FloSlam streaming network. During the show, Styles was doing a segment with ring announcer Joanna Rose and said, “Joanna you look great, if our next President were here he’d want to grab you by the …” He did did not use the “offensive word” used by the President-Elect in the infamous Access Hollywood tape that leaked during the Presidential election, but admits he should have handled himself better.
Gabe Sapolsky and FloSlam wasted no time publicly denouncing the politically-charged remark.
https://twitter.com/BookItGabe/status/797610704861822976
We do not support or condone Joey Styles' remarks tonight in any manner, and we support this decision 100%. https://t.co/ZHszatdXjl
— FloSlam (@FloSlam) November 13, 2016
In an open letter published by PWInsider, Styles said he “panicked on camera” during the live broadcast and was caught off guard when he found out he’d be doing a promo with heel manager Stokely Hathaway at ringside and not in the ring with ring announcer Joanna Rose, as he had anticipated.
“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.”
“Gabe was justifiably furious at me and thought that I had endangered his relationship with FloSports,” Styles said. “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.”
He also apologized to Joanna Rose, FloSlam’s Jeremy Botter and the entire locker room. He says nobody was upset about his political reference, but “it didn’t matter if they were upset” because he defied an edict from his boss, plain and simple.
