This past week Fox News decided to part ways with its highly-popular and controversial late-night news host, Tucker Carlson. While some celebrated the news, others lamented it and, in the case of Joey Janela, there were those that decided to jump into action. Dawning his now signature khaki pants, flannel button-down shirt, and “Property of Florida” hat, Janela transformed himself from GCW star to Florida Man and headed to Hulk Hogan’s Beach Shop in Clearwater, FL.
As Florida Man, Janela has created noise in the past. Shortly after Drake Wuertz’s release from WWE, the former referee began making appearances at school board meetings to protest mask and vaccine use during the pandemic. Janela, as Florida Man, decided to crash one of Wuertz’s appearances and was roundly expelled by police when he yelled “LIAR!” at the doctor explaining the benefits of mask use during a pandemic.
Janela’s latest Florida Man prank saw him protest Carlson’s release at the aforementioned Hulk Hogan’s Beach Shop in Clearwater, FL. In an exclusive Haus of Wrestling interview, now available on the Haus of Wrestling podcast feed, Janela addressed whether his antics are politically motivated or purely for self-pleasure.
“I just find it funny,” he said. “I’m not a hard-left guy. I’m not a hard-right guy. I think all politicians, I think all politics are kind of bullsh-t, just like the politics of professional wrestling. So I find it just funny just to f-ck with these people. Especially the, you know, these hard-right people, some of the theories they throw out there are just absolutely insane, especially when QANON on was running rampant at that time.”
Janela went on to discuss how his latest Florida Man stunt came about. Noting that he had spoken with a friend who attended a Hulk Hogan Beach Shop karaoke night not long ago where a “Let’s Go Brandon!” chant broke out. The friend relayed to Janela that Hogan appeared to be into the chant and went so far as to do his classic cupped hand motion around his ear when it broke out, egging the bar patrons on. This description of events is what got Janela’s gears going and a plan began to be formed.
“I wanted to do scrubs by TLC,” he recalled. “But it was, ‘I don’t want the vaccine. The vaccine is poisonous to me. Everyone screaming me, f-ck Dr. Faci.’ It never, the song never came together. You know, I had the chorus but I didn’t have the in-between. So I kind of just like, I was gonna bring a Dr. Fauci cutout.
“I was gonna give it the big boot, the leg drop, and, hopefully, I wanted Hogan to play along and maybe hype me up and beat up the Fauci cutout and maybe get it on TMZ or something. I’d say Hulk Hogan goes on an anti-vaccine rant and beats up a Dr. Fauci cutout with a karaoke patron.”
Janela was quick to point out that he does not hate Hogan, who he claims was a huge influence on him and his career. With that said, The Bad Boy could not pass up what he saw as a golden opportunity to cause chaos. Flanked by fellow GCW stars Tony Deppen and Jimmy Lloyd, whose parents drove them to Hogan’s Beach Shop, Janela stepped out of the family car fully emersed as Florida Man, taking the role to Joaquin Phoenix-type levels of commitment.
After arriving, Janela was forced to wait for Hogan to take his seat on stage to watch karaoke performers belt their songs. Hogan’s good friend, Brian Knobs arrived early, but once Hogan was on stage, Janela was ready for what he described as his “five minutes of wonder.”
“He [Hogan] had, during one of the breaks in the song, he had two giant dishes of fish,” he described. “One was blackened salmon, and I look at him in his eyes and I point to the plate, and I said, ‘Can I have a little bit?’ And he goes, and he points to the blackened salmon. I grab a nice little chunk of that salmon, start chewing it, and I go back, right back into the song”
Finally getting his moment on stage, Janela soaked in the energy of the room which, from his perspective, changed only moments into his performance.
“Someone during this song definitely informed them that, ‘Oh yeah, that’s Joey Janela, and he’s definitely here to f-ck with you guys,’ so, oh, bummer. At one point, Nick Hogan was like, ‘this motherf-cker,’ I thought he was gonna punch me in the face. I wasn’t doing anything illegal, and there was by the stage, there was like four police officers. I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was like, ‘Oh sh-t. Am I gonna walk off the stage?
“And the cops are gonna be like, ‘Hey, what? What’s the situation here?’ I didn’t do anything wrong, you know? And, I had the closer, I know we all have seen, most of us seen Brian Knobs’ a–hole before.”
That final comment resulted in a frank conversation about Brian Knobs’ rear-end that has to be listened to in order to be believed, we will not transcribe it here.
For those hoping to see Florida Man step into the ring to drop fools with gator rolls, we’ve got some bad news for you. At this time, Janela does not see Florida Man as a personality that he plans to bring to life inside the ropes. Rather, he teased that we could see Florida Man pop up once a year “like Halloween,” without a specific date, of course.
If you use any quotes from this article please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling for the transcription and link back.
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