Joey Janela

Joey Janela (born July 3rd, 1989) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE as a member of their SmackDown brand. Before signing with WWE, Janela wrestled over twelve years as a free agent across various wrestling territories.

Early Career
Janela has stated on record that he was never formally trained in professional wrestling. He also later admitted he secured his earliest bookings by claiming he had formal training. Janela debuted as early as November 2006 in the New Jersey-based promotion National Wrestling Superstars (NWS). During his early career, Janela appeared in home state promotions including Pro Wrestling Unplugged (PWU), United Wrestling Coalition (UWC) and Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU), between the years 2006 to 2010.

By 2011, Janela branched out to appear in promotions throughout the United States including Premiere Wrestling Xperience (PWX), Beyond Wrestling, Monster Factory Pro Wrestling (MFPW), House Of Glory (HOG), Pro Wrestling Syndicate (PWS), World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW), Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) and many others as his career progressed through the 2010s.

Pro Wrestling Syndicate (2012–2016)
Debuting under the ring name Starman, his first match was on June 1, 2012 during the first night of PWS Five Year Anniversary Weekend event, teaming with Koko B. Ware, Mike Dennis & Taka Suzuki in a tag match defeating Apollyon, George South, QT Marshall & The Almighty Sheik. He wrestled his first PWS title match on October 12 at House Party 5, challenging the reigning champion Anthony Nese for the PWS Suicidal Six Way Championship but did not succeed in winning the title. At this event, he also challenged the reigning champion Kevin Matthews for the PWS Heavyweight Championship, but also did not succeed in winning the title. On November 9 at The Show Must Go On, Starman won the Tri State Championship, after defeating Alex Reynolds and the reigning champion Anthony Nese in a three-way match. On February 9, 2013 at Thank You Jerry, Starman lost the Tri State title to Alex Reynolds. On April 4 during the opening night of the 2013 PWS Super Card event, Starman defeated Alex Reynolds to win the Tri State Championship for the second time. On March 22, 2014 at PWS Belleville Bedlam, Starman returned to compete in a six-way match against the reigning champion The Drunken Swashbuckler for the PWS Tri State Title. He ended his year at the 2014 PWS Fightmare Before Christmas event on December 20, winning the 18-Man Battle Royal.

During 2015, Starman competed in numerous championship matches for titles including the PWS Television and Suicidal Six-Way titles. He finished the year on December 19 at Fightmare Before X-Mas, competing against Bonesaw, CPA, Jessicka Havok, Sonjay Dutt and reigning champion The Drunken Swashbuckler for the Suicidal Six Way title in a six-way title match. Starman returned on June 11, 2016 for the Supercard Show during which he teamed with Shockwave The Robot in a tag match against Dr. Cube's Evil Posse (Dareno & Erebus).

Game Changer Wrestling (2014–2018)
During the final year of the promotion's operations under the brand name Jersey Championship Wrestling (JCW), Janela debuted at a show on January 25, 2014 in a three-way match against Steve Scott and reigning champion Bandido Jr. for the JCW Extreme Title, but neither Janela nor Scott succeeded in winning the championship. On March 28 at the 2014 JCW J-Cup Tournament, Janela won his first championship when he and Rhett Titus defeated Aaron Epic & Chris Dickinson to become the new JCW Tag Team Championship. Before the end of his debut year, Janela won his first singles title on November 21 after defeating QT Marshall and Rhett Titus in a three-way match to become the GCW Heavyweight Champion.

On April 10, 2015, Janela competed during the Jersey J-Cup Tag Team Tournament, in a title versus title match, defending the Heavyweight Championship against JCW Extreme Champion Pinkie Sanchez. Although he won the match, Janela's victory was by disqualification thus saving Sanchez's title reign. On May 8 Janela teamed with WWE alumus X-Pac in defeating the reigning champions The Playaz Club (Damien Darling & Erik Andretti) to win the GCW Tag Team titles, marking Janela's second reign. They later lost the Tag Team Championship eight days later on May 16 at the Skate And Surf Festival, to the challenger team EYFBO (Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik). The following month, on June 13 at the Six Flags Event, Janela lost the Heavyweight title to Tama Tonga. On March 11, 2016, a year after the promotion had been rebranded as Game Changer Wrestling, Janela competed in the GCW Championship Tournament. After advancing in the first round with a victory over WCW alumnus Shane Douglas, he returned the following day in a four-way match against Kyle The Beast, Joe Gacy and Pinkie Sanchez.

Beginning the following year on February 25, 2017, Janela competed in eight singles matches over the course of the year, wrestling against opponents including Travis Gordon, Marty Jannetty, Penta el 0M and Teddy Hart. His last match of the year was on October 28 at Worst Behavior, won his final singles match defeating Darby Allin.

Janela returned on January 26, 2018 at the Nick Gage Fight Club 2: After Hours event, during which he lost a singles match against Ciclope. He wrestled his final match of the year on September 21 at Live Fast Die Young, during which he defeated WCW/WWE alumnus Psicosis.

Combat Zone Wrestling (2014–2018)
Debuting during the September 24 edition of CZW Dojo Wars, Janela lost a Best-Out-Of-Three-Falls match against Dave McCall. He finished his debut year during the December 31 CZW Dojo Wars, teaming with Rex Lawless in a tag match defeating Ben Ortiz & Blake Morris.

Returning the following year during the January 14 CZW Dojo Wars, Janela challenged reigning champion Joe Gacy for the CZW Wired title but did not succeed in winning the title. On October 10 at Tangled Web 8, Janela challenged and defeated the reigning champion Tim Donst for the CZW Wired title to win the championship. He retained the title until December 12 at Cage Of Death XVII, where he lost the CZW Wired Championship to Lio Rush. Returning the following year, Janela's next title match was on October 14, 2017 at The Wolf Of Wrestling, where he defeated the reigning champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman to win the CZW Wired title for the second time. Two months later on December 9 at Cage Of Death 19, Janela lost the Wired Championship to Maxwell Jacob Friedman in a title rematch.

Janela returned on February 10, 2018 at CZW Nineteen, competing in a World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contendership 30-Man Rumble match. He wrestled his final CZW match on April 14 at Best Of The Best 17 in the first round of the Best Of The Best 17 tournament against Joe Gacy, Brandon Kirk and future WWE superstar Rich Swann.

In wrestling

 * Finishing moves
 * Diving elbow drop
 * Package piledriver
 * Superkick


 * Signature moves
 * Air Raid Crash Neckbreaker
 * Blockbuster
 * Blue Thunder Bomb
 * Death Valley Driver
 * Diving Foot Stomp
 * German Suplex
 * Package Sidewalk Slam
 * Samoan Driver
 * Shotgun Dropkick
 * Single Leg Dropkick
 * Swanton Bomb
 * Tombstone piledriver
 * Tree of Woe Foot Stomp
 * Managed by
 * Penelope Ford


 * Nicknames
 * "The Bad Boy"
 * "The Body Guy"


 * Entrance themes