Former ECW and WWE announcer Joey Styles issued the following open letter to PWInsider.com on Monday addressing comments he made during the EVOLVE 72 iPPV broadcast this past weekend, which led to his departure from the promotion.
“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.”
The full open letter can viewed over on PWInsider.com.