Lexis King has thrown his weight behind Avery Styles, arguing the 19-year-old is being blamed for how independent promoters treated him rather than for anything he actually did.
The WWE Speed Champion and leader of NXT’s BirthRight faction posted a lengthy response on X on Sunday, wading into the weekend argument between AJ Styles and Minneapolis veteran Arik Cannon over whether Avery should have helped with ring and chair setup at a GCW show.
King Says The Blame Is Misplaced
King, the son of the late Brian Pillman, built his case around his own early run on the independents. He said promoters routinely handled him differently because of his last name, flying him in and telling him to sit at the hotel until call time, by which point the ring was already up.
“To put it plainly, people treat you differently when you are one of us and it’s not his fault,” King wrote. “There’s a different type of baggage this boy carries, an expectation to live up to his father’s greatness that most will never understand.”
He said he never set up or tore down a ring until he reached NXT, where leadership treated him like everyone else, and that he was grateful for it because it taught him what goes into the job. His argument is that the responsibility sits with the promoters, not the rookie nobody has shown the custom to yet.
“He’s putting his body on the line and drawing extra eyes for your show at a young age and you wanna blast him on the internet instead of talking to him in person,” King wrote. “Well guess what Arik? Your tweet didn’t sell any more tickets for the next show but I bet Avery Styles being on the card will… Because it’s his BIRTHRIGHT.”
The Weekend That Set It Off
Cannon, who owns Minneapolis promotion F1RST Wrestling, responded to Natalya praising Avery in a Wrestling Classic interview by saying he watched the teenager avoid helping with anything at GCW Rude Awakening on August 1. He later specified that a veteran and promoter asked Avery to help with chairs twice, and that Avery stayed in the locker room until the work was finished.
AJ Styles called Cannon a “jealous douche” and said his son was paid to wrestle, not to build the ring. Cannon’s counter was that excusing Avery from the work does him no favors.
Avery debuted June 26 for Squared Circle Action in Georgia and won his GCW debut in Omaha on July 31 before losing to Marcus Mathers at Rude Awakening. His father, who has coached him to build his own style, entered the WWE Hall of Fame over WrestleMania 42 weekend.
