Joey Styles wants to be the ‘voice of the indies’

When he left WWE in August, it didn’t sound like Joey Styles would be doing much beyond meet & greets and signings. But then a couple weeks later he was calling an EVOLVE show, and a few weeks after that Gabe Sapolsky announced he’d have an authority figure-type role for the promotion along with working the announce table on occasion.

Then he showed up for Chikara’s King of Trios tournament over the Labor Day weekend and, well, he’s suddenly doing more commentary than he’s done in years.

According to an interview he gave to The Two-Man Power Trip of Wrestling, that’s all part of the plan to become as synonymous with today’s independent wrestling as he once was with a certain Philadelphia-based promotion in the 1990s:

I started my career as the “voice of ECW” and now going forward I would like to be the “voice of the indies”.

Dreamer talked about the relationship he and Sapolsky have going back to ECW, and how Chikara converted him from a skeptic to a believer in their brand of family-friendly pro graps. Those two (among the most well-established promotions on today’s scene) will be his base, and he has plans to work with more companies from that base. His criteria for who to work with seems sound:

...going forward, I will be working with Evolve, I will be working with CHIKARA, I’m talking to Beyond Wrestling in New England.

Indies that I feel are special or have a good buzz or are people I know and that are Tommy Dreamer approved.

Styles has his fans, and like everyone else in this wacky business, his detractors.

Will the chance to hear the occasional “OH MY GOD!” while villains try to lift a frog’s Hammer of Truth, or during a Matt Riddle goes for a Bromission, make you more or less likely to check out a show?