JBL does not think Avery Styles did anything wrong by not setting up chairs at a GCW show, thinks the person who came out of the row best is Brian Pillman Jr., and thinks somebody is leaving money on the table by not booking the whole thing.
The argument has run for a week. Natalya praised the 19-year-old on social media after watching him at a GCW event in Minneapolis, saying he wanted to earn it rather than be coddled as AJ Styles’ son. Arik Cannon, a long-standing independent wrestler who runs F1RST Wrestling in Minnesota and co-promoted the shows with GCW that weekend, disputed it, writing that he had watched the kid skirt away from helping with a single thing at that very show. He later said Avery had been asked twice to help with chairs and hid in the locker room instead.
AJ Styles replied that his son had been paid to wrestle, not to set up and take down a ring, and called Cannon a jealous douche. GCW told Dave Meltzer that while they respect Cannon, he speaks only for himself. Promoter Brett Lauderdale said he respects both men and that Avery deserves the grace any teenager would get. Cody Rhodes weighed in too, saying Avery is 19 and his father was paying dues throughout that young man’s youth, so he has already set up the chairs.
Asked where he stood on Something To Wrestle, JBL began by backing AJ.
“First of all, I want to say AJ Styles is being a good father. He’s sticking up for his son, and I don’t blame him. I love AJ. I always have. I’ve always got the utmost respect for him.”
He then spent some time establishing his own standing to answer, which is considerable.
“I paid my dues. I don’t think anybody’s going to argue that. I broke in the territories, one of the last generation to break in the territories, and I had a thousand matches before I got to WWE. We worked 300 nights a year. I’ve set up rings in arenas. I’ve set up chairs in arenas. I’ve run my own shows with James Beard.”
He added that this is not a character question at all.
“It’s all about communication. When I go to an arena, if I’m sitting in the back and I’m expecting to go to a match, and all of a sudden a promoter says, hey, I need you to set up the chairs, I’d probably tell them where to go. That’s not what I’m there for.”
“And if the promoter had said before, hey guys, listen, we need you to come to the show, I don’t have any help, I need you guys to help me set up the ring, I’ve set up a lot of freaking rings. I’d have no issue with that. Or if I did, I wouldn’t go.”
“I would have an issue with somebody if all of a sudden I get there and go, oh, by the way, need you to go out there right now and set up the chairs. Screw you. And this is coming from a guy who broke in in the territories.”
The part he was most emphatic about was where the argument took place. Brian Pillman Jr., himself a second-generation wrestler, had made the point that none of it belonged online.
“What Pillman’s son wrote on the internet, I think, is the most valuable piece out there. Don’t do this on the internet. Why in the world are you taking the chance of burying this kid? He’s a teenager, freaking getting started in the business, and you’re taking the chance of burying this guy this young in his career by putting this out on the internet.”
Having said that, his other view is that a week of free attention is being wasted.
“Bring AJ in. They’ve got so much stuff you can do with this. I’d make a storyline out of it. Hell yeah, make a storyline out of it. You need interesting stuff out there.”
His point is straightforward.
“Let this guy be the heel in this whole thing. Let him make AJ’s kid the babyface in this whole thing. Figure out some way for the old guys to jump AJ’s kid. Bring in AJ Styles, whatever you can.”
“I think there’s money you can make with this. There’s no sense in just letting this go to waste. They got the whole wrestling community buzzing with this. So do something with it. Make some money out of it. Have some fun with it.”
He was careful to say he has no personal stake in the casting, having never met Cannon.
The pieces are more available than they might look. AJ Styles retired in January after losing to GUNTHER at the Royal Rumble and was announced for the Hall of Fame class of 2026 the following month, but he has been clear that a return is not out of the question. He said on his own podcast this month that the one thing that would bring him back is a chance to tag with his sons, though it would have to be on a major show rather than an independent date, and that it depends entirely on how quickly they progress.
“What father wouldn’t want to come back and tag with his sons?” he said, while admitting that getting back into ring shape is the part that worries him.
He is also under a WWE contract and has been working at the Performance Center, covering for a coach recovering from knee surgery, so any involvement would need the company’s agreement.
Avery, meanwhile, has fewer than ten matches. He debuted on June 26 for Squared Circle Action in Georgia with his father in his corner, beat Alexander Lev in his GCW debut in Omaha on July 31, and lost to Marcus Mathers in Minneapolis the following night. That Minneapolis show is the one at the center of the argument.
Whether GCW would want to build around it is another matter. Lauderdale has spent the week trying to lower the temperature rather than raise it, saying Avery will be held to a higher standard than other rookies because of his surname. He has also pushed back hard on a separate claim that GCW has a formal relationship with WWE, pointing out the promotion ran a show with six active AEW talents on it days earlier.
JBL’s broader point was that the business is short of things to talk about at the moment.
“There’s no real news cycle right now. The news in the world is all just white noise. And there’s not really anything in wrestling that’s entertaining right now, so I think when you hear something like this, people want to latch onto it and have some fun and debate it, and call people names on the internet.”
