AJ Styles called independent wrestling veteran Arik Cannon a “jealous douche” on Saturday, escalating a public argument over whether his 19-year-old son should have been helping put up and tear down the ring at a GCW show.
The exchange started as praise. Natalya, speaking to The Wrestling Classic during a SummerSlam media junket, said she watched Avery Styles and Hart Dungeon student Marcus Mathers work GCW and came away impressed enough to invite Avery to train with her.
What sold her was that Avery lost. She said the loss showed her he was willing to earn it rather than arrive in the business as AJ Styles’ son “that has to be pampered and coddled.”
Cannon, who owns and runs Minneapolis promotion F1RST Wrestling, quote-tweeted that praise and wrote that he’d watched Avery “skirt away from helping with a single thing at this very show,” closing with a mocking laugh.
Styles answered directly. He said Avery was paid to wrestle at GCW, not to set up and break down the ring, told Cannon that sounded like his job, and called him a jealous douche.
Cannon’s follow-up was calmer. He said he respects Styles and understands a father defending his son, then framed it as a choice: Avery can stay “AJ’s kid” and skirt responsibility, or earn his peers’ respect and stand on his own.
Styles closed with an analogy about hosting, saying you don’t invite someone to dinner and then have them do the dishes. He added that a veteran would have raised the issue professionally, or at least face to face.
The Show At The Center Of It
The card in question was GCW Rude Awakening on August 1 at First Avenue in Minneapolis, a 1 p.m. show that ran opposite WWE’s two-night SummerSlam at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mathers beat Avery in 18:32, then took the microphone to say he never got to face AJ Styles but it was an honor to work with his son.
That weekend was a F1RST Wrestling operation. Cannon’s crew produced six shows in four days across First Avenue, the Uptown VFW and the Mall of America rotunda, and Cannon told Racket beforehand that he’d be setting up shows every morning and handling set breakdowns on Sunday night. The show he says Avery skipped out on was one his own company had hands in.
A Fast Start And An Old Argument
Avery debuted June 26 for Squared Circle Action in Georgia with his father in his corner, filed to trademark his ring name days later, and won his GCW debut in Omaha on July 31 with the Spiral Tap. AJ, who retired after losing to GUNTHER at the Royal Rumble in January and now works behind the scenes for WWE on scouting and the ID program, has spoken about coaching his son to wrestle differently than he did.
The ring crew question is one indie wrestling has argued over for decades. One camp holds that young talent helps with the ring regardless of what they’re paid, as a matter of respect. The other holds that a booking is a booking, and that a locker room correction belongs in the locker room.
